I lead an urban planning tour of Detroit yesterday for some of my fellor planning classmates.
And one overriding theme I kept catching myself saying was "10 years ago this place was vacant, etc".

While I have been watching downtown transform for the past 10 years as that was the time I started making regular visits to Detroit. It really was on this tour yesterday that it showed just how much downtown has come.

While there is plenty of work to be done still and downtown still is not what it can be. I think we should all be proud and happy of the great transformation that is happening.

Looking back at pictures I took 10 years ago, it is sometimes hard to believe it is the same downtown.
Once grungy streets devoid of life now have amazing landscaping and more people. A ride on the people mover which once was nothing but a ride past vacant buildings, now is a ride past much restoration, etc.

Yes there have been some setbacks like the city taking down vacant buildings that could be resused, and the recent economic issues.
But overall I think we can say that the transformation of downtown Detroit over the past 10 years is one of the urban success stories in recent history.