I heard this story, incidentally, while driving on US 23 in Michigan. The parts about finding “legendary” real estate deals and the opportunities that are prohibitively expensive in other places struck me. The reporters also hit on the sorry state of the public school system in Detroit, which I am confident is the top reason many families don’t consider the Motor City. It is inspiring, though, to hear the voices of people migrating back to the city.

I also listened to that story on Detroit and I had mixed feelings about it. First, I guess I feel kind of sorry for Detroit. The area of town they were talking about down by the old Tiger Stadium (which they just tore down) is really kind of sad. Imagine if you were to demolish all of over the rhine except for maybe two or 3 blocks of one street. That’s about all they have left of their old neighborhoods. The buildings there are just like those in OTR. Also, as mentioned in the story, it sits just across from the magnificent old train station that has sat vacant and rotting for close to 30 years now. This train station competes with Grand Central Terminal or Union Terminal in terms of its architecture and huge size and they have allowed it to become a complete wreck. Its not even salvageable now.
My 2nd feeling is a sense of urgency for Cincinnati. Because if we don’t get our act together and invest more heavily in our historic neighborhoods they are going to end up just like that. Bringing rail transit back to the city is one of the most sure fire ways to accomplish this. We must vote down the COAST charter amendment!

I am moving back to the D as soon as I can. I have lived in Auburn Hills for 5 years it is clean, quiet, and many conviences that are afforded to the suburbs. Detroit has history, personality, culture and most of all the people have heart. I love the possibilities of the D, I love the grit of the D, the mixture of different cultures. I can go to Greektown gamble and eat, Mexican Town grat food and specialty markets, Eastern Market fresh veggies and fruit, all the concerts and plays come to the D. Musuems, WSU, and the architicture is unsupassed. I can go to Belle Isle and fish, swim and picnic. To all of the naysayers that get off on knocking down Detroit I say do your research and compare it to other cites in relationship to taxes and crime not that big of a difference. Detroit is a diamond in the rough.

I think Detroit is in a perfect position to become one of the trendiest/most exciting cities of the 21st century. The city is unique for many reasons. First, detroit has a rich cultural heritage. This is evidenced though the cities dramatic influence on the evolution for music. To my knowledge, detroit is the only american city to have a genre of music named after it (motown). Furthermore, detroit has an internation reputation as the rock city. The song “detroit rock city” by kiss has been covered over 30 times, by a variety of renowned artists. Also, detroit has been influencial in the development of hip hop through the likes of J dilla, Slum Village, and eminem. Finally, detroit is recognized internationally as the home of electronic music and hosts the Detroit electronic musical festival on an annual basis.