Detroit City Is the Place to Be

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Mark Binelli has no solution for Detroit. Yet, in this sharply observed, insightful work of love and fury, he suggests that the story of his hometown has lessons for the rest of us. These lessons are particularly salient when some cities are sputtering back to life, while others are considering bulldozing the shells of former neighborhoods. The federal government has little if any urban policy, let alone funds to help, and state government in this case, Michigans can take over city management with mixed, sometimes punitive results.

Detroit used to be flush with people, money, power and drive; now, much of it is a ghost town. Walk out of the Renaissance Center that …