--- title: Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit | TIME description: Betty Corley's house is the only one left on a block where there were once 26 homes. As Detroit downsizes, holdouts like Betty may have city services cut to prioritize denser neighoborhoods canonical: https://time.com/video/jG1zM43t/ og:title: Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit og:description: Betty Corley's house is the only one left on a block where there were once 26 homes. As Detroit downsizes, holdouts like Betty may have city services cut to prioritize denser neighoborhoods og:url: https://time.com/video/jG1zM43t/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jG1zM43t/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit twitter:description: Betty Corley's house is the only one left on a block where there were once 26 homes. As Detroit downsizes, holdouts like Betty may have city services cut to prioritize denser neighoborhoods twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jG1zM43t/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit [Watch (HLS stream): Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jG1zM43t.m3u8) (5:34)  _Published 2010-11-11. Betty Corley's house is the only one left on a block where there were once 26 homes. As Detroit downsizes, holdouts like Betty may have city services cut to prioritize denser neighoborhoods_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Shinola and Detroit's New Renaissance](/video/cbyF4TMq/) ### Shinola and Detroit's New Renaissance [Why Detroit Filed For Bankcruptcy](/video/ggk9yJ59/) ### Why Detroit Filed For Bankcruptcy [Dream Cruise: Nostalgia for When Cars \(and Detroit\) Were Grander](/video/EgzHxk1R/) ### Dream Cruise: Nostalgia for When Cars (and Detroit) Were Grander --- ## Transcript >> Betty Corley and her sister Claudette Sanders lived two miles from downtown Detroit in a neighborhood that has no name. But they've called it home for more than 60 years. >> I was raised here. My children were raised here. >> This is home. We tried to do the best we can. To do alone, as we, you know, 'cause I'm retired and, we do alone every time. >> In the side yard, they've made a little urban oasis, a fountain, a garden, a clothes line. >> No. Wait now-- you create one for me. You create and so what now? >> Claudette holds court on the sidewalk, putting the neighbors' grandkids to work picking up sticks. He got an inkling of what life must have been like when they were growing up here. >> We moved here in the late 40's. A well- maintained houses, lawn well- kept, a lot of children. >> Back then, the neighborhood streets were in line with the stores and trees fronting about 26 homes. Now, beyond their fence and yard are desolate blocks inverted fields in quite except for the occasion of car and human. It's like an urban prairie. >> When the houses were torn down, people stop taking care of their houses. People moving in houses being dilapidated. People moving out. Houses happened to be turned down as some things changed. >> In the city of Detroit is debating whether those who remained here should move. >> The Motor City stands in 140 square miles enough to stuff Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco inside with room to spare. Detroit's population has been more than half from the 1950's peak of about two million. Neighborhoods like this one shows the decline. The result, Detroit has too much land and too few people to support collapsing network of public services. >> As the city prospers, it expands, where once it had population centers, it now has population rings spreading-- >> The post- World War II auto industry boom helped middle- class families particular whites by larger homes in the suburbs. >> Into the concentric circles of booming suburbs. >> Then came at 1960's riots. The remaining empty buildings deteriorated were burned. Now they're just one home in Corley's block, her sturdy two- story house. In this neighborhood and across Detroit, residence can no longer expect government provide services that taxes have historically supported that's because Detroit's middle case tax base barely exists. The city's police force has been cut by 25 percent in recent years and the Mayor has flatly told residence sparsely populated neighborhoods that he can't guarantee regular police and fire protection. That's why Detroit's last middle class neighborhoods are hiring private security patrols and that's also why Sanders and her sister pay a local guy about $ 80 to know the 6 slots around their house. >> This is not our property but we keep it, you know, we went on the city. You will never get tired. -[ unk ] got my nose. >> But hiring private security isn't an option here. -[ unk ] here we tried to stick together now 'cause we've gotta watch everybody's house 'cause you don't know what's gonna happen. >> Cynthia Soshoka whose family has long owned this house, a block from Betty and Claudette worries about her grandchildren. >> Right now, these-- the poor- loved children here are the only children in the neighborhood. >> The only one. >> Only ones. >> A couple months ago, Betty Corley found the man's burned torso across the street from her house, not far from appearance where Cynthia's grandchildren were playing. >> Right across the street and we're not gonna go in to that. Looks like-- >> Yeah. >> That's the worst thing at all these years. >> The city has already announced an ambitious plan to demolish about 10, 000 buildings in the coming years. But there's no telling it that will have to materialize. Concern for the safety of her family and the expensive upkeep on her house, Cynthia is ready to hand their property over to the city. >> And with everything's got repelled really the hard thing is that we needed to be prepared in here with furnaces and the windows, I ain't got a tuck of money to get to repair that. >> These sisters, however, are committed to the neighborhood and insist they wouldn't accept money to leave. >> I look at my age. I'm 65 years from now. And I'm not gonna be around a hundred year from now. If the city were to give me some money, what can I do for that little money? I'm blessed that it takes me five minutes to get to work. I have a car where I can go to the store, go wherever I wanna go and nobody never bothered us since we've been here and that's what keeps me here. >> Two key questions remained. What would this neighborhood look like in 15 or 20 years? And should residence here effectively be forced out. >> And when you get into a certain age, you look at-- being comfortable and I'm comfortable here. >> For Time video in Detroit, I'm Steven Gray. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Staying Put in Downsizing Detroit","description":"Betty Corley's house is the only one left on a block where there were once 26 homes. As Detroit downsizes, holdouts like Betty may have city services cut to prioritize denser neighoborhoods","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jG1zM43t/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-11-11T18:03:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jG1zM43t.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/jG1zM43t/","duration":"PT5M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/jG1zM43t/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```