A few years back, when the United States was sinking from the Lehman bankruptcy / sub-prime mortgage crisis, a classic human-interest story was the collapse of Detroit. Already teetering on the edge due to the protracted failure of the American auto industry, the “Great Recession” pushed Detroit beyond respectability. In September 2009 Time Magazine embarked in “Assignment Detroit”, a year-long blog reporting project that chronicled the challenges and prospects of the once-great American city. Perhaps it was the first article, “Assignment Detroit: Why Time Inc. Is in Motown“, that fueled my fantasy of moving to Detroit, becoming an urban trailblazer, and 30 years later looking back at how far we had come, knowing I had been part of the re-birth. This never happened.

A few days ago I drove through Detroit for the first time. Coming off the highway from Windsor, Canada I was deposited into Downtown, a…