Comparisons of Detroit to Beirut are not new, however this article is quite interesting because it goes into depth describing the deterioration of the Motor City:

Raking leaves on his front lawn with his children, [Dewayne] Hurling says his new neighborhood reminds him of the well-kept, close-knit Detroit neighborhood he grew up in, and which he says now has deteriorated so badly that “it looks like Beirut,” pocked with empty lots and damaged by crime.

And it gets better. So how bad is Detroit at the moment:

Large swaths of this city look like a ghost town. Blight, resulting from abandoned homes and shuttered factories, is everywhere. Dead zones detach rather than connect neighborhoods from each other, creating a patchwork that the city says makes it too expensive to service.

Clearly Dewayne Hurling is a candidate for a “Looks Like Beirut” Certificate.

From The Christian Science Monitor: Tow truck driver Dewayne Hurling rakes leaves in front of his Detroit home – a six-bedroom mansion he bought for less than $200,000.