According to the story:
Despite problems with poverty, crime and abandoned structures, Detroit has signs of revitalization.
The city last year announced an effort to raze or rehab 141 vacant buildings before the Super Bowl; redevelopment has begun at 86.
"It's not just a brick-and-mortar change," says George Jackson, head of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., a quasi-public agency that guides development and investment in the city. "There is a spirit here now, and you can feel it."
The city is on the "cusp of the biggest turnaround in American history," says Kilpatrick, who faces a tough election Tuesday in a bid for a second four-year term.
Civic leaders are mostly optimistic, if not defiant, about Detroit's future.
They point to more than 60 new businesses — at least 23 of them restaurants — and more than 800 lofts and condominiums that have opened downtown since 2003. In 2004, 924 new housing permits were issued, up from about 200 in 2001, says Walter Watkins, the city's chief development officer.
New streetscapes were built and cement silos are being razed along the historically industrial waterfront on the Detroit River to pave the way for a 5-mile walkway, a new state park, housing and retail space. Cranes and scaffolding dot downtown.
The approaching Super Bowl has spurred some investment. But revitalization and the Super Bowl "are kind of coincidental," Watkins says. Boyle calls it a "blip," one that has served as a rallying point for the city.
Major companies, including General Motors and Compuware, have invested heavily in downtown.
GM invested $500 million to buy and upgrade the 713-foot-tall Renaissance Center, the city's tallest structure, where it employs 6,000. Compuware spent $400 million on a headquarters for its 4,000 workers.
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