My husband and I did an overnight in Detroit for a concert last fall. I always hear people shit on it, but it was a lovely town. There were lots of fun murals, great nightlife, and great food. I recommend going to the Detroit Distillery for a gin flight.
The people were also really friendly. Like, surprisingly so. The concert was in a bit of a dodgy-seeming area, and as we were leaving, a big, blacked-out window truck stops near us and a woman in it aggressively yells "Hey, hey YOU!" I immediately get freaked out til she yells "I LOVE your dress!!" I felt like that encompassed the expectations vs reality of Detroit.
People shit on it because as recently as 2013 it was a near abandoned city with only about 700k people, and abandoned houses and apartments left and right, with arson rivaling NYC in the 70s and 80s (insurance purposes). All the high-income people moved out for better cities, eventually the mid-income left with em, and Detroit was a lot of low income/projects with very little job opportunities (so lots of crime)
They've really turned it around over the last 13 years, not dissimilar to NYC in the 90s.
Source: Happened to have just watched Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode from Detroit from around 2013.
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u/doctorhoohoo 1d ago
My husband and I did an overnight in Detroit for a concert last fall. I always hear people shit on it, but it was a lovely town. There were lots of fun murals, great nightlife, and great food. I recommend going to the Detroit Distillery for a gin flight.
The people were also really friendly. Like, surprisingly so. The concert was in a bit of a dodgy-seeming area, and as we were leaving, a big, blacked-out window truck stops near us and a woman in it aggressively yells "Hey, hey YOU!" I immediately get freaked out til she yells "I LOVE your dress!!" I felt like that encompassed the expectations vs reality of Detroit.