Can Detroit’s Business Kings Save the City?

While the rest of the country remains focused on Detroit’s
bankruptcy travails, the big story in the city itself is the group
of private investors who are attempting an ambitious urban
turnaround, I note in Bloomberg today. Led by Dan Gilbert, owner
of Quicken Loans Inc., they are trying to rebuild everything —
retail, housing, start-ups, transit and even street life — in
the seven-square-mile downtown area.

There intentions are good, no doubt. But whether they’ll save
the city or smother it will depend on how much mullah they extract
from their friendly local politicos to enact their grand revival
plans.

“The challenge for the new mayor, Mike Duggan, will be to let
this grand experiment in private social engineering proceed without
shortchanging the rest of the city.”

Go
here to read the whole thing.