I, for example, grew up in Las Vegas and am endlessly fascinated by the Fontainebleu building (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau_Resort_Las_Vegas). It's a 68 story resort that just ran out of money after they constructed the outer structure. So this 735ft tall neon blue building just sits there in the middle of the strip waiting to be dealt with (most believe it will never be finished at this point).

But my fascination with it isn't that I think the Vegas strip is dying its just that I'd never seen something like that fail to be completed before.

http://andrewlerner.blogspot.com/2010/05/eyesore-of-i-4_07.h...

There are many Detroit cheerleaders in and around the city who would dismiss this as "ruin porn" and then bash whatever media outlet published the articles. Detroit has perpetually been in a state of self-declared "renaissance" dating all the way back to the founding of the city and the motto on the city flag that translates to something along the lines of "out of the ashes rises the phoenix."

I love Detroit, and loved my time living downtown. For me, the ruins were a part of that and what I loved. It's also ultimately what led me to move as there wasn't much happening in the city. On the occasions when things did happen, they happened with banners and streamers and proclamations about how this is a testament to the cities viability.

Detroiters need to learn to love what's unique about their city. Embrace the history. Rome celebrates it's ruins, why can't we? In celebrating the ruins, maybe we can't stop being so sensitive to it and start drawing attention to the rampant corruption that has left this city in this state. Maybe if we stop ignoring the past, and its affect on the present we can shape the future.

Surely there's some interesting things to celebrate, but a 50 year old crackhouse that's still occupied by crack addicts probably isn't one of them.

What makes Rome's 'ruins' great is - well, probably a bunch of things - but certainly the longetivity is one of them. There's nothing impressive about rotting crack houses.

Celebrate the beauty that exists (Michigan Central was actually what I was thinking of with the Rome comment) and take advantage of the rest. Do you know how cheap it is to live in the city? Yes: there are acres of abandoned rotting land, but what's keeping Detroit from turning it's warehouses into startups? Imagine SOMA on a city scale.

What's missing is the things start-up employee type of people are looking for in a city: density, diversity, transit, food, Asian girls...

The thing that people miss when comparing Pittsburg and other cities to Detroit is that it is square MILES upon miles of complete ruin. The "ruins porn" is good for the city because it raises awareness of what destruction can take place when you remove the underlying economic structure from a community.

In terms of "startups", you are free to do -- there are city taxes, but it's probably doable in some areas, but keep in mind the lack of city services and that it is still a very, very dangerous city.

EDIT: This isn't linked to your post at all, just wondering.

http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47

  > How would you feel about an unending stream of
  > tourists arriving daily in your hometown to pick
  > over the carcasses of your ruined neighborhoods,
  > taking pictures of devastation to show their friends,
  > stealing souvenirs to hang on their walls at home,
  > and leaving without making even the slightest effort
  > to understand or improve the condition of your city?

Also a great comment here: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14

This graphic from Forbes is pretty telling: http://goo.gl/4uBr

Even 8 years go it was bad. I worked downtown and could regularly hear gunshots from my office during the day.

If graduates do stay in Michigan, it's to continue working or studying in the Ann Arbor area. Only a handful do find jobs in the metro Detroit area (mainly engineers and consultants), but that's a trickle opposed to the flood.

Detroit's premier college is Wayne State University, and I can not speak for its graduates.

One of them sold for under $600,000 a couple years ago!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverdome#Sale

Comerica Park, Ford Field, and Joe Louis Arena are actually in Detroit and they're all great facilities. Comerica Park and Ford Field are across the street from each other and both are state of the art. The area surrounding those 2 stadiums is one of the nicest parts of Detroit. Joe Louis is located on the water, a couple miles south of Comerica and Ford Field, and while it might be old, it still has a great atmosphere and is probably my favorite out of the 3.