Paul Harris, a U.S. correspondent for The Guardian newspaper based in London, spreads upbeat news from a recent visit to Detroit -- though he can't resist also describing "abandoned factories," "burned-out homes," "dilapidated storefronts," "prairie grasses" and "ruin porn."

Harris writes that Woodward Avenue residential projects, office building upgrades and tech industry activities seem stronger than "many previous attempts to rejuvenate downtown Detroit." 

Paul Harris, The GuardianIt appears as though a wacky slice of California's Silicon Valley has landed smack in the middle of a city now just as famous for catastrophic urban blight as for being the spiritual home of America's car industry. . . .

This is no mirage. . . . Over the last few years, a flood of hi-tech firms have sprung up in downtown Detroit, sparking talk of an urban renaissance in an area laid waste by poverty and abandonment.

The M@dison building has just been named one of the world's coolest offices by business monthly magazine Inc. The building is not alone. Around the M@dison a cluster of tech firms, design boutiques and other web-savvy projects have emerged. In their wake have come bars, restaurants, spas and, that ultimate accolade of hip urban youth in America, an upmarket table tennis club.   

That said, the British journalist trots out an inevitable three-letter word -- but -- to begin a summary of Detroit's flip side.

2013 01 14 081212But in Detroit optimism should always be tempered by the brutal realities of half a century of terrifying decline. On "Webward" Avenue, dilapidated storefronts and cheap liquor stores still far outnumber swanky new firms. The homeless and drug-addicted mingle on the same streets as the new entrepreneurs. 

And as you travel out along the famous old boulevards, with the evocative names of Grand River and Gratiot, you enter the horror show of much of the rest of the city. Vast tracts are marked by burned-out homes and empty lots on which prairie grasses and trees grow. Abandoned factories and schools loom in empty shattered hulks over the sort of landscape that is usually the product of war or pestilence. The decay is so prevalent that Detroit has become a photographers' paradise for "ruin porn." . . .

The startling decline of the city has made it a symbol of America's industrial fall.   

The Guardian's overview ends on a brighter note with a former auto worker's reflections on "a very optimistic time for the city."