After the Second World War, city halls and local business communities cooperated to forestall urban decline in the face of population, industry, and retail loss to the suburbs and the Sunbelt. Before the U.S. Congress passed laws that established national housing programs, pro-growth coalitions in threatened cities launched programs designed to revitalize central business districts and lobbied in state capitals for legislation authorizing redevelopment efforts. In some notable cases, path-breaking measures crafted at the local and state levels served as models for the national initiatives that followed. Believing in the centrality of improved automobile access to their downtown redevelopment efforts, city leaders and business interests followed the same path in transportation as they had in housing. The case of Detroit illustrates how the drive for downtown renewal began before the federal government assumed the primary role with the passage of the 1956 Interstate Highway Act.