Henry Holt: Metropolitan Books, 2012.
Review published Jan 2017.
This book began as a feature article for Rolling Stone magazine. The author grew up in Detroit, and knows the city right down to the stones in the sidewalks (or, rather, the stones that fall out of the crumbling buildings and land on the sidewalks -- where they are not removed until somebody figures out how to make money from doing it.) For visitors like us, the immediate shock of seeing Detroit is seeing vast expanses of empty lots where houses used to be, but for people like the author, the view also includes the gardens growing in those lots, the little businesses and artistic efforts to be found in unlikely places, the stubborn energy of the remaining Detroit residents to survive in a city with few services and little hope.
He discusses crime and criminals, education, business, always including anecdotes from his vast network of Detroit folks, including his own family.
The reader comes away thinking not only, Maybe Detroit WILL come back, but also, other cities can do some of the same things, too.