Quote Originally Posted by Bham1982 View Post
Seriously? In the U.S., how about "almost all". It would actually be easier to list cities with a strong core that are destinations and globally relevant, because there are far fewer.

San Jose- tech capitol of the world
LA- entertainment capitol of the world and second largest first world city in the Western world
Houston- energy capitol of the world
Dallas- diversified economy and will eclipse Chicago in population and economy within 20 years
South Florida- gateway to Latin America and 6 million+ residents
Atlanta- capitol of the South
Charlotte- #2 city of the South
Raleigh Durham, Nashville, hell, any major Southern city excepting New Orleans
San Diego, Phoenix, hell, any major Western city excepting SF, and arguably Seattle and Portland
Austin- fastest growing U.S. metro and tech/hipster center

All of these cities are ultra-sprawly and have a tiny proportion of regional jobs in their CBDs.

Detroit, BTW has not been "working on it for 50 years". The opposite is true. Detroit has spent vast sums trying to build up the core over the last 50 years, to little avail.
I'm not quite sure what you mean. While I can agree most of these cities are globally relevent in their own way, pertaining to many of their local economies [[oil, tech, entertainment, and culture), most of these are not destinations for your run of the mill European or Asian tourist. Charlotte? San Jose? Raleigh? REALLY?!

I would say that Detroit has marketed itself as the Car Capitol of the World, which is basically true and nice except most of the world's tourists don't want to drive. It's expensive, gets tiring real fast, and you don't know the lay of the land. Many tourists come here, expecting to hop on a train to a car museum and go home. But none of these exists. And our fantastic museums and sights are so spread out you do need a car or train to get around. But there's only one choice and it's expensive.

I actually do think Detroit has bottomed out in that there's no way things can get worse unless there's a full on riot/civil war in the streets. I think we know our problems, we are trying to address these problems and aren't afraid to talk about them any more.