It wasn't all that long ago that a good number of the buildings downtown were empty, near-empty or at least in dire need of renovation. There has been a tremendous amount of "new" space brought online as work has concluded on these properties. We had to dig out of a pretty major hole here. The progress downtown has been nothing short of incredible. Had things not gotten so bad in the 80's and 90's, I think you'd see a much different type of development over the last 10 years.

Chicago has issues with population loss, crime and corrupt government. So I don't think you can point to those issues as the reason we don't see the same kind of development.

Michigan and Metro Detroit are no longer losing population, by the way. We just aren't growing as fast as other regions.