Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis
For much of the twentieth century, Detroit, dubbed the Motor City, was a proud symbol of the American entrepreneurial spirit and industrial primacy. In recent decades, it has become a symbol of urban decay characterized by a ravaged manufacturing base, middle-class flight, and whole neighborhoods plagued by soaring drug use and crime rates. But Binelli, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, sees signs of renewal and hope amid the supposedly barren landscape of his native city. After providing a primer in Detroit history, from French settlement in the eighteenth century to the growth and decline of the auto industry, Binelli describes what he hopes will be the seeds of renaissance. There will be no reincarnation of Henry Ford to spark a revived manufacturing center. Rather, drawn by the opportunity of starting from scratch, Detroit is attracting an eclectic mix of small-scale risk-takers, including urban planners, creative environmentalists, and various speculators, sensing opportunities for experimentation. This is an engaging and hopeful glimpse of a city struggling to reinvent itself. --Jay Freeman