from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

So you arrive in Detroit — a.k.a. Murder City, a.k.a. Pottersville, a.k.a Bankruptcy USA — and you expect to see desolation and decay and decline, a city in chaos.

Except it isn’t that way at all.

Well, it wasn’t on Monday night, when a pleasant (if frigid) walk back from Comerica Park to the Renaissance Centre on the Detroit River, interrupted by a lovely dinner at a seafood spot with live music, took a couple of media folks through about 10 blocks of what seemed to be anything but a dead downtown.

There were Christmas lights, lots of them, and a variety of evening spots lit up for the evening. Nothing threatening, no sign of trouble. It was a walk you might not have recommended 15 or 20 years ago, but now felt more than safe.

In other words, anything but a bankrupt city hurtling downhill.

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