Friends and family looked at me dumbfounded and slack-jawed when I told them I was moving to Detroit. “No one moves to Detroit, people move away from Detroit.” But not too long ago people were arriving to the Motor City in droves. What happened, what went wrong, where are the jobs? My guess is that it wasn’t just one thing.

Detroit isn’t the first city I have called home that most people would consider ‘depressed’. In the last 15 years I have called Buffalo, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and now Detroit home. Each city is unique and deserves to be visited, enjoyed, and respected. And each city has taught me that you cannot judge them based on first impressions, it takes time to find the gems or a guide. And maybe after a weekend you won’t think it is that crazy to move to Detroit.

In 2012, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Asheville, North Carolina tied in a nationwide vote as Beer City, USA. The Grand Rapids consolidated metropolitan area has no less than 19 craft breweries dotting its scenic West Michigan landscape and at least one more set to open soon.  According to experiencegr.com these include:
·         B.O.B.’s Brewery
·         Brewery Vivant
·         Founders Brewing Co.
·         Harmony Brewing Co.
·         The Hideout Brewing Co.
·         HopCat
·         Grand  Rapids Brewing Co.
·         Jaden James Brewery
·         Michigan Beer Cellar (Sparta)
·         The Mitten Brewing Co.
·         New Holland Brewing Co. (Holland)
·         Old Boys’ Brewhouse (Spring Lake)
·         …

By: Jeff La Noue of Comeback City

Baltimore–Charm City, Mobtown, Monument City, Birdland, Crabalot, Land of Pleasant Living–is a town:

whose people repelled a British invasion by land and sea just days after these royal forces left our nation’s capital smoldering in glowing embers

whose rise came from the trade made possible by the US National Road and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad that linked its port with rustbelt partners in the Midwest

BUST OUT THE VIOLINS — So you’re visiting St. Louis? Let’s get the difficult part out of the way first.

Nearly all native St. Louisans feel a compulsion to eulogize the city’s former life, as the 4th largest city in the country, host of the 1904 World’s Fair, and yes, recipient of the nation’s tallest, most beautiful, and most iconic monument, the Gateway Arch. Not that all St. Louisans are statisticians or demographers, but somehow we all seem to know our numbers when it comes to our horrific population drop: 857,000 in 1950 at our peak to 319,000 in 2010 (the nation’s steepest decline in that time period, including Detroit! Yikes). Downtown St. Louis, a once proud progenitor of the great metropolis built around it, was mercilessly hacked away by interstates and corporate citizens who were all too happy to trade urban character for lifeless plazas, parking garages, and stubby post-modern mid-rises.

St. Louis should suck. Suck hard. All the signs point to it. There should be Prozac dispensers at each street corner to help us cope with our own defeat.