What's the best that Detroit can become?

[canuck]

Detroit will have started the uphill climb toward sustained growth when it no longer has to use the "revitalization" spin to draw in young, effective talent. When Gilbert's empire can candidly say "look, Detroit is in a really shitty place right now, and while we're doing a lot of great work here, we're not heroes nor are we ignorant to the challenges this city faces", then I'd feel more comfortable coming back to Detroit. I'd imagine a lot of other people in the same position as me would do the same.

The whole PR spin on it all still just seems a little bit artificial to me. Hopefully it converges toward something more realistic and palatable.

The thing is you know, that there are hundreds of towns and cities using some kind of P.R. for their respective places. Revitalization is not so much a spin when you witness actual change in certain quarters of course, but my point is that it is incremental and that you cant expect everything to fall in Detroit's lap all at once.

There are a lot of points about my city that are negative like the awful state of infrastructure. If I move closer to downtown, I can expect major demolition and reconstruction of a massive interchange that may last 7 or 8 years. The streets in older neighborhoods are like a moonscape. The crime is nothing to worry about much though, and so people are moving from the suburbs to the city core in droves. I guess the city of Detroit requires an act or a leap of faith on the part of its would be citizens...