I believe that most people with any conscience know that all people are equals and deserve equal treatment and opportunity. But I think that the stuggling auto industry and lingering racial tension have been a double whammy for Detroit — not to mention our new Recession. I do think the attraction of people interested in the arts and historic buildings, including gays, would be helpful. In Columbus, the mayor just renovated the old Lincoln Theatre near downtown which was once the seat of “negro” performance/culture. Many African American and white people alike are excited about this wonderful venue and it is a testimony to how race relations should be. I’m a volunteer usher so I witness it. In my usher orientation class there was an African American woman slighter older than I am. It was embarassing when she said that she used to attend the theatre at Columbus’ Great Southern Hotel as a child, but that she was only allowed to sit in the balcony. That was not THAT long ago.

I was honestly pretty surprised how much I agreed with some this piece, given Frum’s conservative credentials (fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, former Bush administration official, etc.)

His points about race relations and lack of strong cultural institutions are good ones, but I also agree with your assertion that the sudden loss of a major industry is a serious blow no matter what – and that putting Detroit up against Chicago and New York isn’t really a valid comparison.

As for the lack universities and other cultural institutions hurting a city, I think one only has to compare Pittsburgh with some of the smaller Mon Valley mill towns that had no large hospitals, universities, etc. to see the impact of those institutions.

I liked that he ended the story with a glimmer of hope:

“Detroit confirms the lessons taught by Jane Jacobs and Russell Kirk. Preservation is as vital to urban health as renovation. Indeed, they are inseparable. The preservation of the old incubates the new.

It’s a lesson with application not only to Detroit’s past, but its future. The great factory complexes along the Detroit River have shuttered. America no longer manufactures here. Some will want to rip the factories down. Leave them be — leave them for now as monuments and memorials of the achievements of the past; leave them for the future, when somebody will want them. Want them for what? Who can say? Who in 1950 could ever have imagined London’s Docklands converted into condominiums? Who would have guessed that New York’s emptied toolshops would provide some of the city’s most coveted office space? The 22nd century will put the artifacts of the 20th to equally unsurmisable uses, if only we permit it. Cities can molder for a century or more, and then reawaken to a new era that rediscovers something of value in the detritus of an earlier time. Brooklyn did. So did Miami Beach. Ditto Boston and Charleston — and even more spectacularly, Dublin and Prague. The promise of renaissance may yet come true, even for the ghost city of Detroit.”