[rmason]

I grew up in Detroit and get back at least monthly. For the past five years all I've been hearing is that all the money is going into downtown and nothing is happening in the neighborhoods.

Well now things are beginning to happen in the neighborhoods. Huge amount of activity in Midtown (Cass corridor) with the new Red Wings/Pistons arena and the entertainment district being built around it. Lots of buildings also going up on Wayne State campus.

Now lots of buildings are also getting restored in the New Center area. The neighborhood around Marygrove College is being rebuilt. There's also a development of a neighborhood being re-imagined on 7 mile.

It took over forty years to decline and now people want it all rebuilt in less than ten years.

[dbnoch]

I can agree with this sentiment too.

Im having a tough time picking between: "Any development is good development and we should be happy and supportive" vs. "Dude just put a measly amount of money compared to the hundreds of millions required for a full restoration of the building". Not to mention that THAT particular neighborhood around the Packard has an extremely long way to go.

So while we can be happy that development is actually taking place, we also want to be conscious that there are many factors contributing to Detroit being "back".

[bilbo0s]

I think the material point is that Rome wasn't built in a day. So why would any other city be built in a day?

I think it is unreasonable for people to expect a city to be built in a decade. Not only is that sort of building not sustainable, it also leads to flat out bad long term planning with respect to infrastructure and logistics.