While Australia is not the true antipodes of the United States, relocating from Detroit to Melbourne feels like an exercise in opposites. Beyond the extreme differences in climate and landscape, the cities themselves are shifting along opposite trajectories: Detroit is suffering economic downsizing while Melbourne experiences 'affluenza'; Detroit's population is decreasing and migrating centrifugally outward while Melbourne's is growing and moving back into the city; Detroit is decommissioning infrastructure and services while Melbourne hastens to provide more of both. There is, however, a shared territory between them. Interestingly, it seems to have more to do with the things which move through them than what they are or will become. Detroit, for example, is the busiest international border crossing in North America, where more than 25 per cent of all trade between the USA and Canada crosses. Over 10,000 trucks and US$400 million are exchanged daily between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, especially within the automotive industry.
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