Quote Originally Posted by nain rouge View Post

I had a unique opportunity earlier in the year where I got to live in Midtown for 4 months before leaving the state [[long story). Short of it is, while Greater Downtown is definitely the most intriguing and urban area to live in Metro Detroit, it still didn't feel like a true, functioning big city. For one, the lower part of Midtown/Cass Corridor earns the Zombieland tag on that old Park Avenue apartment building. Infill is lacking, and there are still way too many abandoned buildings. Economic activity is largely service oriented outside of Quicken Loans. Watching the continuing decline of Mexicantown was dispiriting and alarming.

I think some of us want to keep things in perspective, so people don't start patting themselves on the back too soon. Detroit has A LOT of hard work ahead of it. The total remaining urban area is very small for a metro of 4 million people. It's not always easy to see that as a local, but its obvious to outsiders. That's why, rather than be wowed by Corktown or whatever, Anthony Bourdain was more or less shocked by the immediate devastation.
Those are some very good points. There's little debate about Downtown and Midtown being on the road to recovery, with numerous renovations of long abandoned buildings and some degree of new construction. But whenever I look up some address on Google and see an aerial map, I'm struck by the astounding amount of vacant land in "booming" Midtown. It really brings home how deep the hole is into which the city has sunk.