Why Isn't Downtown Detroit More Interesting?

Yesterday we were watching Home Hunters and there was a mixed couple that was looking to purchase real estate in Detroit. They ended up settling for a nice condominium in a high rise downtown. I didn't think much of it until my wife asked me how the downtown area looked so nice as she thought that there was nothing in Detroit but slums. My response was that it depends on what neighborhood you're in, but my knowledge is that the true heart and soul of the city is not in the downtown area, but in the actual neighborhoods. I didn't think much of it until today and I had to wonder why you do not hear more about downtown Detroit, and why it isn't much of a destination.

One can purchase a nice condominium in a high rise for $400,000 and get a beautiful view of the city. Detroit has bigger high-rise condominiums, apartments, and office space that this metropolitan area does, is "more urban", and gives you a better skyline than what you can find in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, or Newport News. There are more tall buildings in general, in fact the Emporis website lists 173 tall buildings in Detroit, which is far more than the 37 you will find in Norfolk. Detroit has already been where a lot of cities in the Midwest would like to be at, and is definitely in a better spot than even the most dense city in my own state of Ohio, as Cincinnati has 124 buildings.

I could only wish to that Norfolk, which is two thirds the size of Cincinnati, had that cities high-rise construction, but I digress. The South simply is not known for high-rise construction outside of Atlanta and Miami. But my point is that to the uninitiated one would simply assume that a city with the type of downtown that Detroit has would be "off the hook" both for tourists and locals and that it would welcome you in. Instead downtown Detroit is an area that you can conveniently bypass on your way to Chicago, which has over 1,000 high rise buildings.

It isn't a difficult decision to make, but it is one that I wish that individuals were not forced to make. Detroit should have everything going for it that Chicago does, but instead it serves as a bleak reminder of what happens when all of the wrong decisions are made by city leadership. It depressing, sobering to think that anything else is the case for someone who was born and raised in the Midwest. Then of course we have our own cautionary tales here in this region, in particular Baltimore, which has the density that Norfolk is looking for, but the problems it would like to steer away from.