I grew up in metro Detroit. I used to work summers as a programmer in one of the factories in the Rochester area near where he works.

The lack of public transit is one of the reasons I left the state. As the article alludes to - the cause is intentional. By removing public transit, rich suburbs can keep out the people from the city. An ambituous plan to add light rail down the iconic stretch of Woodward Ave extending out from the city to the suburbs was scrapped mostly because of this discrimination. It has turned detroit into a modern ghetto.

The only hope is that the downtown revitalization going on in Detroit breaks down this type of balkanization by encouraging traffic in the opposite direction (from the suburbs to the cities).