National Geographic Traveler visits Detroit, calls it 'America's surprise comeback city'

[Bozita]

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/02/national_geographic_traveler_d.html

National Geographic Traveler visits Detroit, calls it 'America's surprise comeback city'
Published: Thursday, February 09, 2012, 12:10 PM Updated: Thursday, February 09, 2012, 12:50 PM
By Jonathan Oosting | [e-mail]



Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com
Inside the Guardian Building in downtown Detroit. More photos >>


Detroit is "America's surprise comeback city," according to a tease on the cover of the March/April issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine.

Inside, reporter Andrew Nelson describes how he spent several days in Detroit, beginning at the Michigan Central Station, migrating to Slows Bar B Q, talking to members of the Muslim community in Dearborn, going on an architecture tour with Dan Austin, hanging out at Café d'Mongo's and so on.

As he told a fire captain outside the train station: "I'm here because I hear Detroit is coming back."

Normally, we might blog about this feature story as part of our Detroit Cliche Watchdog series. Because after all, the Detroit comeback narrative ignores the city's current fiscal crisis and other significant problems.

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And here's the link to the NatGeo Traveler piece along with a snippet...
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/city-guides/detroit-traveler/

-snip-

To visitors, Detroit’s attractions verged on the desperate: Three new casinos corralled gamblers inside windowless rooms; a desultory monorail circled downtown. The city’s collapse actually created a new business in “ruin porn,” as locals escorted tourists eager to experience the postapocalyptic atmosphere of decaying factories and abandoned offices.

But Detroit has been down so long, any change would be up. And “up” is why I’ve returned. Something’s happening in Michigan’s southeast corner. Call it a rising, a revival, a new dawn—there’s undeniable energy emanating from Detroit. America noticed it first at the 2011 Super Bowl. Chrysler debuted a TV commercial with rapper Eminem, star of the film 8 Mile (named after the road that serves as Detroit’s northern border). The ad crystallized the city’s spiky, muscular pride and won an Emmy, but Detroit was the real winner.

“This is the Motor City,” Eminem declared, “and this is what we do.” And, increasingly, Detroiters are doing: Working-class Latinos in Southwest, recent college grads in Midtown and New Center, and African-American professionals in Boston Edison are improving their neighborhoods. An expanding Detroit RiverWalk edges downtown, where corporations like DTE Energy, Quicken Loans, and Blue Cross Blue Shield have moved in thousands of workers. A favorite 1960s-era restaurant, the London Chop House, has announced its reopening. And that badge of gentrification, Whole Foods, plans to build a store in the inner city.

Even outsiders have started arriving, drawn by a sense of adventure. A new resident had told me: “If you visit Detroit, you’re an explorer. Be prepared for a rich, very soulful experience.”

-snip-

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[russspeakeasy]

1. Someone from Detroit needs to comment on this. We spent 5 days in

and around Detroit, about 6 months ago. It looked like a short step from death.

[SCantiGOP]

2. downtown is very bad

but there are some very nice areas in the suburbs and surrounding small towns that are doing extremely well. Michigan still leads the nation in automotive research.

[Lefty48197]

3. Detroit has been making a comeback for over twenty years now.

I've lived near Detroit for most of my 48 years. I watched the city bottom out during the 70's and into the mid 1980's. Detroit endured an economic disaster that crushed the city when our auto industry wasn't able to adjust to the volatile oil prices and produce more efficient vehicles. The market shares of our auto manufacturers dropped dramatically as the Japanese automakers filled the void. Many of the jobs lost to the Japanese automakers were lost by Detroiters. Many other jobs were lost by residents of other Michigan cities.
That can happen when a city and a region are so completely dependent upon one industry. It's hard to overestimate just how far Detroit fell. From our rich and gaudy days as the "Paris of the Midwest", we fell far and we fell hard. There's no doubt about that.
As Detroit bottomed out economically, we were left with nowhere else to go but up. It was probably about 1985 when Detroit "officially" got on the comeback trail.
It took the vision of many people with lots of money, lots of vision, lots of friends, and an unbounded energy for fixing up the city they loved so much.
First among them was former Mayor Coleman Young who envisioned projects such as the Renaissance Center and the People Mover. Both projects were derided as money pits in run down areas, but today the areas around the RC and the PM are the center of Detroit's own renaissance.
Others such as the Illitch family have done more than their share with the rehabilitation of the FOX Theater and the construction of the "new" baseball stadium.
The re-development along the riverfront has also been an amazing sight to behold. The site of cement factories and all sorts of grubby industrial developments was pretty much a mess. Some special people envisioned the redevelopment of the riverfront. It really started with Joe Louis Arena, Hart Plaza, and the Renaissance Center back in the Coleman Young Days. Today the parks along the riverfront are still being completed. The riverwalk is amazing, and that huge redevelopment project is nearing completion.
I've enjoyed watching Detroit rebuild over all these years. The good times come and go as the national economy dishes out occasional beatings to our local economy. When the good times return, the rebuilding continues.
People that don't know Detroit saw or heard what Detroit was like in 1975 or 1980 and think the city is still like that today. They couldn't be farther from the truth. Yes, there are still MANY areas in Detroit that still need help. The city went from 2 million residents to about 800,000 and that left a lot of vacant homes and businesses. It's not difficult to see signs of Detroit's economic hard times.
If you have an open mind and open eyes, it's also easy to see the comeback that Detroit is undergoing.
I encourage all of you to believe that, yes, Detroit is the comeback city. I've been watching it comeback for over 20 years.
We've come a long way and we still have a long way to go. Detroiters have the heart and Detroiters have the spirit to see that the city continues to improve.

[ellisonz]

4. Thank you for posting.

Here's to Detroit:

&ob=av2e

[JNelson6563]

6. Great stuff Lefty!

I grew up in the area after leaving as a child after the riots. We lived in the east side suburbs as my dad worked downtown at the GM building. Friends and I went downtown to party all the time in the 80's never really leaving the riverfront/Greektown area.

Moved up north, raised the family & all of that. Started going to Dem conventions at Cobo Hall in 2004 and have been absolutely delighted to see the city making a splendid comeback! I believe this is just the beginning of many great things to come.

Julie

[Odin2005]

5. YAY, Motown!