Hope Is a Traffic Jam as Detroit Shakes Off Record Bankruptcy
- Downtown thrives as vast expanses remain poor and unpeopled
- `A good comeback story,' but its ending remains unwritten
Downtown Detroit.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Progress in Detroit is a bumper-to-bumper jumble of cars and buses inching through downtown.
Ten months after emerging from a record $18 billion municipal bankruptcy, Detroit is functioning in ways unseen for months and even years -- street lights are on, parks get mowed, municipal debt is sold on the public market and the police are training civilians to manage traffic at clogged intersections.