“America’s Surprise Comeback City” read the headline tucked into a tight corner of a magazine cover. I was connecting at the Los Angeles airport in late March after a long flight, ready to board a red-eye flight back to the Midwest, and thought I’d do a quick browse of the newsstand. It was the current edition of the National Geographic Traveler that caught my eye.
It had a Cuba story emblazoned on its cover. That was enough to make me reach for my wallet, thinking back to the people and places I visited in Havana a decade ago. But when I picked up the magazine, curious about the comeback story, I was – well, the tag line was “surprise comeback” – at least mildly amazed that a mainstream travel magazine would be among the first to pick up the changing narrative about Detroit.
What’s not surprising is discovering this article came from someone with Detroit roots, Andrew Nelson. Nelson grew up in Detroit and remembers how, in the mid-1960s, the city was fifth on the charts of the largest American cities and at the “top of its game.”
Nelson’s lived in New Orleans for the past three years, and finds it easy to point out that both cities have French beginnings. Most people from elsewhere don’t know that Detroit’s founder, going back all the way to 1701, is – get ready for longer names than we see today – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac.
No airbrushing for Nelson about Detroit’s troubles. Acknowledging the iconic symbol that the ruined Michigan Central Station (a favorite for photographers) poses for the city, he cheerfully migrates to what’s starting to work in the city. He notes that “ . . Detroit has been down so long, any change would be up.” He finds Phil Cooley and samples Slows BarBQ. He finds architectural historian Dan Austin and indulges in gawking at the over-the-top atrium of the Guardian Building, with its two million tangerine-colored imbedded bricks. He bikes Belle Isle, to witness the wonders of its Olmstead design and the challenges of its upkeep. He goes to Dearborn and sees the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S. He even ventures just northeast of Detroit into Grosse Pointe, where stereotypical suburban life can be found right on Detroit’s shoulders.
He notes how Corktown seems sturdier now, with its appealing stock of Victorian housing and plentiful vacant lots for vegetable gardens attracting young people. I remember getting lost looking for a particular address in Corktown once last fall, but not minding it much, as there were so many sights and signs of re-investment. Nelson also salutes what’s happening in Midtown, as it attracts more educated professionals and artists, resulting in what’s now becoming a housing shortage. A real Detroit surprise.
Nelson doesn’t get into the differences between New Orleans and Detroit – the former hit by a calamitous hurricane, the latter dragged down over decades by delusion and decline in its economic advantage. Instead, he concludes his visit by joining a “crowd of hipsters, artists, and night crawlers” at the Café D’Mongo.
What’s most surprising about Detroit now are the emerging stories that go beyond the stereotypes everyone knows too well. That’s what National Geographic Traveler captures in this article, which makes sense since the magazine prides itself on chronicling authentic travel. And Detroit today—in both its old problems and its newfound successes— is about as authentic as you can get.
As we talked with these fellows, we quickly concluded we needed to find out what motivated the employers to participate and how it’s working out. Certainly, Kresge support was a plus. But digging underneath the usual lure of a supporting grant produced a notable pattern of responses.Despite this dominant narrative, there’s a lot of high-potential activity under way, just not as well known. Kresge suggested we look first at the 
