"Welcome Back To The Motor City"

It's rare that Detroit makes the news over in the UK - and when it does it's usually for negative reasons - so I was delighted when Super Bowl XL came here this February, as it meant that the British media paid a little attention to the Motor City. Most of these stories (for example here) stressed how the city had been revitalised by the event, which was drawing much-needed investment into Downtown.

Reading all this I was very sceptical, as Detroit seems to be perpetually on the brink of a Renaissance, while sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. Even so, one of the reasons I was looking forward to this trip was to see what truth, if any, there was. And I must admit that I was surprised. There were new buildings in Downtown, which is remarkable considering that this time last year it just seemed to be a collection of crumbling ruins. Even more remarkable is that the construction work is carrying on, over two months after the Super Bowl. Buildings that I thought were on the brink of collapse twelve months ago are now surrounded by cranes and there seem to be signs advertising apartments everywhere.

I mustn't overstate this - Detroit's problems are still firmly written into its landscape (something I'll probably write about in more detail later in this trip), and I've only seen the changes to Downtown so far. But even if this is only a relatively small step forward from the last time I was here, it's still far more than I expected. And, perhaps more important, there is a sense of civic pride that was completely absent twelve months ago. As one Pontiac ad put it, Welcome Back To The Motor City.