Detroit Facts

Los Angeles may have perfected urban sprawl, but Detroit invented it. Although the landscape is mostly flat, recreational opportunities abound, most of them centered around water. To the northeast of the city sprawls Lake St. Clair, a shallow but broad lake popular for boating and fishing. The Detroit River is a resource that the city has never fully exploited though a system of parks and greenways is now gradually taking shape.

Downtown The old downtown of grand movie houses and department stores is all but vanished, but lively areas have sprung up around the perimeter of the aging banking-and-commerce center. The north end of downtown is the latest hot spot. Comerica Park, a new baseball...

...the "Motor City" for nothing. The American automobile made Detroit what it is, and the city's modern attractions still revolve around cars: The Henry Ford Museum; factory tours at Ford's Rouge Plant; historic mansions owned by the Ford family; and the annual August automotive pageant, the Woodward Dream Cruise. But Detroiters take special pride in all that's new in their hometown, from the open-air concerts at Campus Martius Park to the recently renovated Detroit Institute of Arts and the city's plethora of new downtown restaurants, casinos, and sports arenas.