A Motor City Miracle

Detroit is on the way up. To understand the significance of that, you must know that for decades, Detroit was a byword for American urban decline. It was the major American city that people pointed to as the exemplar of intractable urban problems. A local in nearby Cleveland made a viral humorous fake tourism video for his city that ended with the tag line, “At least we’re not Detroit.” Critics in cities like Chicago that are facing challenges will invoke, usually speciously, the specter of Detroit as a possible future for their city if bad decisions are made.