Category: City Hall
Posted by Laura Berman (The Detroit News) on Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 5:22 PMJewel of Detroit has wet diapers
Looking back on the history of the Cobo Center un-deal, Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. sounds like a stock advisor gazing backward: If only he'd sold his stocks for cash, and sent pink roses every day to Monica Conyers.
He imagined she'd fall into line, a presumption that instead inspired her to protect Cobo, one of the city's crown "jewels," from outsiders.
In real life, Cobo isn't glittering: It's more blight than bright. During a tour of the heart of Cobo earlier this week, a longtime Cobo tenant walked me through convention halls whose ceiling drips are caught by plastic "diapers" -- tarps stretched across the leaky areas. Two giant doors, garage-style, facing the river, have been patched with wood, in the style of a vandalized, foreclosed home repair. Except for a new patch near the Kwame-built, appealing cafe, The Vu, the carpeting is dingy. In places, walls are crumbling. Remember the South Terminal of Detroit Metropolitan Airport before the new terminal? It's deja vu all over again.
Attracting conventions is becoming more difficult, my guide confided in a pained voice, because "they don't want to come back." Indianapolis? Cleveland? "We can't compete with them."
Head on down there and take a look around. You don't need perfect vision, or even an experienced guide, to see there's no jewel -- just Depends for the ceilings.
