Detroit: Canada's Tijuana

My first impression of Detroit was made coming off a bridge from Canada and driving over and through a run down neighbourhood of brick buildings. It was a fleeting impression, and a few minutes later we were bootin' down the Interstate away from there. Then I worked in Detroit at a Verizon Wireless site near Lahser and 8 Mile Road last spring and again last fall. The Popeye's Chicken near work had a bulletproof glass enclosed counter. That makes for a very nervous meal, and even though I loves my Popeyes I only ate there once.
One other note, almost a third of the cell sites required armed security escorts to visit - luckily I'm a switch guy not a cell site guy and I didn't have to deal with that part of it. Reminds me of when I worked in Brasil, and would stay up all night practising my Portuguese with the guard at the site, his gun & holster sitting on the table.

Detroit is also reminiscent of the culture shock between beautiful San Diego and Tijuana. I remember going to Tijuana and walking through what felt like a demiliterized zone, with one way gates (like at the TTC stations in TO) and then a long walk down a cement bridge lined with crippled women, mothers with children and babies, and finally at the foot of the pedestrian bridge the eager hustlers. They yelled to come to this or that restaurant, we ignored them and they yelled "I know you can hear me, you in the blue jeans and white shirt! Come on".

This article sums up a lot of the situation in Detroit.

Now, faced with thousands more layoffs from Ford, how is anything going to improve?
Michigan is Michael Moore country - third world USA, that like New Orleans is simply ignored by the media as an issue. Ignore it, but it won't go away.