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Ellen Creager

city guides

by Ellen Creager
April 2006


Turbocharge your stay

Created for and published in Executive Travel magazine

From Motown to the first Model T, Detroit offers a nostalgic blast from the past.


Most business in Detroit is conducted in the north and west suburbs, those vast, beige swaths of subdivisions and malls in Southfield, Novi and Auburn Hills. Yet executive travelers seeking something more creative and distinctive should head to downtown Motown—because Detroit is looking pretty good these days.

The nation’s 11th largest city (and 10th largest metropolitan area, with 4.5 million residents) played host to both Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in July 2005 and Super Bowl XL in February 2006. The streets are newly paved. Main thoroughfares have been spruced up. The People Mover, an elevated monorail system that loops 2.9 miles through downtown, is back in action after a long construction-related closure. From a railing along the wide, blue strip of the Detroit River, you can see the skyline of Windsor, Ontario, the only spot in the U.S. where you can look south and see Canada.

Still, the best parts of Detroit are hidden. But if you know where to look, you will feel the new vibrancy pulsing beneath an aging exterior, particularly in the city’s intriguing new restaurants and nightlife. You will also find the cultural gems that automotive riches have built.

The city’s character

Detroit skyline at night

Detroit, as everyone knows, is most famous for three things: cars, sports and music. It has been home to everyone from Henry Ford to Ty Cobb, Aretha Franklin and Eminem. It’s where modern manufacturing was invented. Founded in 1701 by the French explorer Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, it has been the destination of millions of hopeful immigrants—French, Polish, Irish, German, Italian, Mexican, and more recently, many from the Middle East. Snugged up next to Canada, Detroit still has an international feel to it. Predominantly African-American, the city has developed a gritty strength of character that has survived the worst and keeps hoping for the best.

Although Detroit is the poorest big city in America, its downtown is very safe. (One survey showed that downtown Detroit had 26 percent less crime than the average U.S. city.) It also has a glitzy mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, who narrowly survived a reelection battle in fall 2005.

Many travelers come and see what is not beautiful in Detroit. But look more closely, and you’ll discover that many aspects of the city are gracious, fine, funky and fun. This town is like a layer cake: Cut through one layer, and you find another.


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Created for and published in Executive Travel magazine

ellen creager is a travel writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email Ellen at editor@executivetravelmag.com.


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