Ruins and empty streets are the major factors that freak out drop-in visitors but it's silly. People are just afraid of the emptiness and loneliness and for some reason equate it to crime while ignoring the fact that you can get shot on the street in a place like New York and people might just step over you instead of helping.

Is it really silly for visitors to be to be put off by the abandonment and dishevelment of Detroit? I think the city's facade can be jarring -- even to longtime area residents who love the city -- for more reasons than just the suggestion of crime. Seeing Detroit for the first time has to raise all kinds of questions in any thinking person, starting with, How did this happen?

And Detroit should wish it had New York's crime rate these days.