[jtmckinley]

Well, I live in the Detroit suburbs so you'd think I'd actually know something about this, but I hardly ever get downtown unless there's a music event I want to see down there (went to the Hoedown once to see some friends play there, but that's all I've been to) or family comes in and wants to go to "Greek Town" (which is a joke IMHO compared to say the ethnic "towns" of Chicago or SF or whatever, Greek town is 2 blocks long and across the street from a casino) so I've not been down there much. Fact is, downtown Detroit doesn't have all that much to offer (compared to say Chicago where I used to live) IMHO.

I didn't grow up in the Detroit area though, so there may still be a lot that I'm not aware of in this area (it *is* MOTOWN after all, the birthplace of all those great R&B recordings, and there's still an active music scene, not prog that I'm aware of, but techno is the current claim to fame that I'm aware of), but one feature of Detroit is the exodus of gainfully employed people away from the city Detroit over the years. The Detroit area has a series of "rings" as people migrated away from the city (I live in a 3rd ring suburb and live < 1 mile from where I work) and apparently many businesses also moved/built their headquarters outside the city. The end result is that Detroit proper is really struggling since there isn't a sufficient tax base to even provide proper essential services such as water and sewage treatment, or so I've heard. The 1st "ring" is also in trouble from what I've heard due to declining property values.

Actually, the whole area is having trouble right now with Ford and GM (the two largest employers IIRC) having major difficulties right now; many of my friends/colleagues have seen the values of their homes decrease even out in the third "ring". Fortunately I live in an old (circa 1950-1960) neighborhood that is still desirable, but even so, my property values have only gone up about 1% in my first year here and it is relatively expensive to buy a house out here in the third ring, not as bad as say Silicon Valley where some friends live, but about twice what it costs in the St. Louis, MO suburbs where I grew up.

As far as the building referenced above being destroyed, I've not heard anything about it, and although there is an effort to revitalize downtown Detroit, I doubt the city has the money to demolish the building, so maybe it's safe LOL. Of course if some developer comes along with some cash and wants that site I wouldn't be surprised to see them get it and what they'd do with it is anybody's guess, but it wouldn't surprise me if they razed it in order to build a mall or another casino or whatever, which would be a shame, but I don't have any additional information regarding it's fate, sorry...