This lengthy essay, illustrated with images he snapped here, went up on Byrne's personal site last week -- and is flagged [[not flatteringly) today at a certain local blog, which led me to it.

The singer-songwriter-actor, in town for filming of Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, is exploring by bicycle -- as he used to do while touring with Talking Heads. So far, so good.
This gives me a week in Detroit, with some free time to look around. A lot has been and continues to be written about Detroit, a handy living symbol of America’s industrial decline.
Here's part of what Byrne's eyes, mind and camera record:
As I ride around town on this trip I pass mile after mile of residential neighborhoods in which most, or at least half, of the houses are simply gone, while others are boarded up, burnt out and one or two are still inhabited. This isn’t in the suburbs or rural countryside—this is close to downtown . . . Pity the poor mail carriers, who often only have one or two houses per block. . . .
Wealthy whites used to live in town, in areas like Indian Village, with streets of still beautiful houses, once worth millions, that now go for 100-200K. You can get some for less, if they’re in serious need of repair or burned out. . . . We biked on. Almost all the folks on the streets were black, and most seemed to be wandering, alone, stunned. . . .

In another universe these empty apartments would be offered to the destitute and the homeless as cheap housing. But in a city where more than half the population has left, maybe there just aren’t enough bodies to fill these things anymore.

In one neighborhood I came across a flock of pheasants, calmly grazing on seeds in the fields between houses.
You get the idea, and are right if you assume he writes about scrappers, Packard, MCD [["you can see right through it!") and other stations of the star-crossed city.

Oh sure, deep into his will-it-ever-end narrative we get a teensy bit of balabce:
On the plus side — and there is one — folks here are now open to a re-think, and to new approaches and ideas, wherever they come from. There is maybe less red tape, as everyone wants things to improve. There’s unity on that at least.
And brief shouts go to Heidelberg, Avalon Baker, John King, D'Mongo's, Eastern Mkt., Polish Yacht Club.

But basically, it's yet another entry in the seemingly endless anthology of Ruin Porn, Celebrity Chapter.

Skim it if you have [[lots of) time. Tell me if I'm too harsh.