I think that Detroit is finally getting to a place where it can begin to recover. It's the young white kids from the burbs who are going to do it. These kids have already rescued a few of the older blue-collar suburbs that were quickly going the way of Detroit. These kids don't have the racial hatred that drove the white-flight in my parents generation, nor do they have a lingering fear of the city characterized by my generation. They see the city as an adventure.

The only thing holding the city back now is the auto industry. This is putting a huge drain on the entire population of Southeast Michigan as folks (young folks in particular) try to escape from the grinding 15-25% unemployment rate.

BTW, Slows BBQ is fabulous! If you ever come to the city, make it a point to visit.

Thanks for posting this - I love to see the more hopeful side of things for the city. This, to me, is 'real Detroit' - the one I see every week that is full of life and hope. The typical media version of Detroit has been far too skewed, IMO.

And AllenS - Slows is fantastic - but definitely check out D'Mongo's! They are only open Friday for dinner, but it is totally worth the trip. $10, choice of two entrees (chicken or ribs). Live music, great ambiance.

AllenS, given how the blacks handled the running of Detroit after the whites left, I'm not sure some of what you refer to as racial hatred wasn't justified. Most people like to live in a place which is safe and secure, where tax dollars aren't squandered or embezzled, and where services are delivered in a timely fashion and at a reasonable cost. Detroit, after the whites left, could do none of those things, thus exacerbating the decline. I suspect the tipping point was the riots in the mid-to-late 60's; I know that had I been there I would have left. Blacks have proven, in city after city around the country, to have difficulty operating the complex machinery of government.
Birmingham.....Camden....St Louis...Detroit....Washington D.C.

I wish I had a ready answer for why this seems to be the case, but I don't.

You know without major improvemnets in desalinzation, a sudden end to the 30yr drought in the southwest, or bottled water becoming cheaper then air the pheonix metro are will probably become americas largest ghost town

I can see both sides of this argument, but the photographers of ruins aren't picking and choosing as much as photographing the things that interest them.

It's because there is a concentration of ruins in one place when this sort of thing happens to a city, extrememly true in Detroit. There arent that many place that have been ALLOWED to disintegrat in that way. Most places, such buildings would be knocked down for safety, OR never such grandiose and well built buildings to begin with. I have shot many abandoned structures in the west, but they are mostly made of wood, and were never on such a huge scale.

As to what is reported? ...nobody loves you when you're down... and I think a lot of people like to portray the falling down of American manufacturing might. It fits the narrative that the US is past it's zenith. It DOES also point out the downside to lack of diversity in manufacturing and commerce. When those things move elsewhere, there is a void. I did notice that none of the people interviewed were makers of hard goods, or manufacturing. I wonder what all them young kids will do when they start having families, and need real jobs. Detroit needs an engine to run, not just a heart.

Jonny's car mad me really nostalgic for my '68 Coupe DeVille... though his is a '69 Coupe convertible. er, maybe the 10mpg would bum me out though...

If the middle/upper class would have held their ground and not fled the city enmasse, then Detroit would still be a good city.

Yes, I realize that the likes of Colman Young and Kwame Kilpatrick had a devestating effect on the city. But again, if anyone who had values, white, black or hispanic would have stayed in the city and stood up to these criminals they either wouldn't have been elected or quickly thrown out of office. And BTW, the two most honest and hard working mayors that Detoit has EVER had are Dennis Archer and Dave Bing ... two black men.

As to where the jobs come from, they get made by the ambitous residents who live there. Some famous past examples are Henry Ford, Ransome E Olds, the Dodge brothers, etc. All poor farm boys who moved to the city with ideas. A current example is Peter Karmanos who grew up dirt poor in the city and started Compuware with a $200 tax return, or Dan Gilbert who founded Quicken Loans.