Advice from all sides for Detroit

Lots of interesting articles today in the Free Press and News with help or advice for Detroit. Some highlights:

• Toni Griffin, a renowned urban planner, has been hired by the Kresge Foundation to help the city plan for and deal with downsizing: http://detnews.com/article/20100318/METRO01/3180406/Noted-urban-planner-coming-to-Detroit
• A study called "Global Detroit" lays out a plan to help revitalize the city through immigration; instead of downsizing, we should be attracting all the people who want to come to America - let them come to Detroit; this article discusses how immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurial and have some of the skills we need in the City - http://detnews.com/article/20100318/OPINION03/3180422/ - instead of letting immigrants bypass the city straight for the suburbs, we should do more to attract them to the core...
• On the flip side, another article points out that attracting people and businesses to the city without overall regional growth is a zero sum game - cannibalism: http://detnews.com/article/20100318/OPINION03/3180338/1008/Without-growth--regionalism-is-cannibalism
• There was an interesting (private) discussion about the story of Detroit and how to better portray the city to help with the turnaround - http://ourdetroitstory.com/2010/03/03/taking-charge-of-our-story/ - it was webcast, so maybe a video is available
• Not surprisingly, Detroit Renaissance/MBL has come out with updated figures showing Michigan is last in economic growth; we are behind in 90% of economic sectors; Michigan still has competitive advantages, but we need to sell ourselves better: http://detnews.com/article/20100318/BIZ/3180365/1001/Study--Mich.-last-in-economic-performance
• Lastly, some interesting insights from a Wall Street guru - he thinks the real problem we are facing is the overborrowing and captivation with fake growth that came at the expense of our base, manufacturing like Detroit: http://detnews.com/article/20100318/METRO08/3180405/1439/METRO08/Wall-Street-guru-H.-Rodgin-Cohen-has-words-for-Detroit