Excerpts from the article:
It's a parallel world Detroiters have all been living in the past week.
At times, it felt like we were stepping into the past, maybe a
lively street scene from the roaring '20s, or a hot club scene in the
'40s or '50s, with people jamming the sidewalks and spilling out of
restaurants.
At other times, it was as if we'd been airlifted via the "Twilight
Zone" to some better, future Detroit. The city's beautiful buildings,
the largest collection of Depression-era architecture in North America,
were clean, renovated into upscale party space and beautifully lit.
It took thousands of people being plopped down in Detroit, along
with Diddy, Jessica Alba and John Travolta, for us to see the city as
it was, and as it could be.
"It's been a wonderful week," says Frank Taylor, co-owner of Seldom
Blues in the Ren Cen, which was hopping with parties all week. "I'm
really proud of how things went. On the nights when we weren't sold
out, we got a lot of local people who hadn't been downtown for years,
to come down.
"Then you have people from around the country who are going to look
at Detroit and say, wow, this is a great place to have a convention or
book a show.
"I think the momentum is definitely there."
There are already some future business plans being discussed.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says he's been talking to the hero of
the week, retiring Pittsburgh running back Jerome Bettis, about
investing in the city, and Magic Johnson said he's planning a downtown
Detroit theater, and another Starbucks for the city.
And to see venues like the venerable old Fine Arts, the 1914 C.
Howard Crane-designed Woodward Avenue theater, full and hopping with
party-goers after years of being vacant was almost worth being stood up
by a rapper or abused by a self-important party bouncer.
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