I am a native Detroiter. I watched the city decline for over fifty years after the 1967 riots. It hurt me because I remembered a time as a kid when it was a totally different city. They hit rock bottom during the bankruptcy.
Dan Gilbert then made a multi-billion dollar bet by buying twenty buildings downtown. Slowly things began to turn around. Looking back it really started to turn when the chief criticism was sure downtown is fine but the neighborhoods are not. Then the city began investments in a number of neighborhoods and it was harder for critics to make that blanket statement.
COVID hit Detroit harder than any other city in America except for New York. Progress came to a complete halt and the city lost a number of its senior leaders. But now it has begun again. I am certain the folks that attended the Super Bowl there will be shocked when they're at the NFL draft how much has changed.
Now it is Ford's turn to make a big bet. I remember the old depot and it was simply magnificent. Bill Ford says it is better than before and I will withhold judgement until I get inside this summer.
I urge you to make a visit. Detroit doesn't have homeless living in tents and RV's on the street. No open air drug markets. A large number of the abandoned factories, retail outlets and houses have been torn down or rehabbed. But the city lacks much mass transit and the schools are still horrible.
Dan Gilbert then made a multi-billion dollar bet by buying twenty buildings downtown. Slowly things began to turn around. Looking back it really started to turn when the chief criticism was sure downtown is fine but the neighborhoods are not. Then the city began investments in a number of neighborhoods and it was harder for critics to make that blanket statement.
COVID hit Detroit harder than any other city in America except for New York. Progress came to a complete halt and the city lost a number of its senior leaders. But now it has begun again. I am certain the folks that attended the Super Bowl there will be shocked when they're at the NFL draft how much has changed.
Now it is Ford's turn to make a big bet. I remember the old depot and it was simply magnificent. Bill Ford says it is better than before and I will withhold judgement until I get inside this summer.
I urge you to make a visit. Detroit doesn't have homeless living in tents and RV's on the street. No open air drug markets. A large number of the abandoned factories, retail outlets and houses have been torn down or rehabbed. But the city lacks much mass transit and the schools are still horrible.