Motor City makeover

07-24-2005

Two weeks ago, my son Ben and I drove to Detroit, a city I have visited many times in the past 30 years. A longtime baseball fan, I wanted to preview the Major League Baseball All Star Game and see what we might expect next summer, when the classic will be held in Pittsburgh.

		On the Internet For more information, visit www.visitdetroit.com or call 1-800-338-7648.

While much of our time and attention was devoted to the hoopla in and around Comerica Park, the 40,000-seat ball yard that opened in 2000, we also sampled the city's other tourist attractions and amenities.

There are many similarities between Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Both cities are undergoing a transition or Renaissance. Both have been industrial and commercial powerhouses, legacies that, as time has passed, have left them with something of a handicap. Both have suffered in recent decades, as residents moved out of town for the suburbs and the Sun Belt.

Although more cars and trucks are still manufactured in and around Detroit than steel is made in this area, Pittsburgh's blight was less severe, or at least it was more dispersed. As building after building in Detroit was left abandoned, entire blocks of downtown were razed, destroying neighborhoods and creating acres of urban desolation that gave rise to RoboCop images of destruction and despair and headlines about a dying city.

Pittsburgh's Renaissance began sooner, but slowly, Detroit is reversing its downward slide.

Ostensibly, the turnaround started in 1974 with the construction of the 72-story Renaissance Center, which overlooks the Detroit River and across to Windsor, Ontario. It's said to be the only urban point in the United States where you can look south to Canada. But that effort languished for 22 years, until General Motors purchased the entire complex as its world headquarters and it became known more familiarly as the Ren Cen.

Since then, many billions of dollars of new construction and loving restoration have transformed downtown Detroit. Just north of the Ren Cen, several blocks of refurbished buildings have been demarcated as Greektown, a dining and clubby entertainment area centered around a new casino (one of three in Detroit).

North on Woodward Avenue, the Foxtown entertainment district. Comerica Park and Ford Field, the new 66,000-seat indoor home of the Detroit Lions (site of Super Bowl XL next Feb. 5) are the central attractions, but venerable theaters have been refurbished. The gilded Fox Theater is the grandest, but State and City theaters are also impressive, as are the Detroit Opera House and Music Hall Center for Performing Arts. The Gem Theater, a stately century-old brick and stone structure, which was actually moved several blocks, is most appropriately named.

All of these attractions (as well as the Cobo Convention Center and Arena and Joe Louis Arena) are linked by the Detroit People Mover, an elevated skybus transit system that traces a three-mile, 13-stop loop around the downtown core, actually passing through several buildings along the way.

Farther north along Woodward Avenue, near Wayne State University, is the venerable Detroit Institute of Arts, the Historical Museum, the new Science Center, the Museum of African American History, the Children's Museum and the Motown Historical Museum.

Also similar to Pittsburgh is a Riverfront initiative, a multi-participant project that is creating a four-mile recreational trail along the Detroit River, from the Ambassador Bridge to the 984-acre Belle Isle park, with boat slip marinas and pocket gardens. The first half of the project was recently opened.

All of this public building boom is also spawning residential initiatives around the central core, as entire blocks of old residential buildings are being salvaged and new upscale townhouses are being erected, both with public money and private developers.

While these developments aim to revive Detroit's center, giving local people reasons to work, play and live downtown, a secondary purpose is to overcome broader negative perceptions and again attract out-of-town visitors to a place once known as "America's Most Beautiful City."

The scheduling of a series of festivals and high-profile events is a key component of that strategy, and in that regard Detroit is on a roll. In addition to the All-Star Game and NFL Super Bowl (and the last two NBA Championships that were earned rather than scheduled), the Detroit area has lined up NCAA Regional Championships in 2007, the PGA in 2008 and in 2009 the NCAA Final Four.

While these onetime blockbuster attractions generate attention, they tend to overwhelm visitors, exposing them to uncharacteristic hordes, hype, hassles and expense. Local residents can feel justifiably proud of the panoply and attention, but too frequently visitors come and go, expending lots of money and energy but enjoying relatively little of the city's more normal assets and attractions.

Although our All-Star experience was intense and momentarily captivating, when all was said and done, it was somehow less than satisfying, more show than substance. This is not a criticism of the city, which went all out to stage a big event with style and class, but an observation of the nature of the event itself.

That's something of a shame, because in the case of Detroit -- and Pittsburgh -- there's much to recommend without having to resort to all the hoopla.

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