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Jennifer Bain: "You'll find a city full of passionate people." (LinkedIn photo)
Jennifer Bain, travel editor at the Toronto Star, gushes -- and we mean gushes -- in a weekend feature headlined: "Detroit is America’s great comeback story:"
Something remarkable is happening here. The city is exploding with art and food and activity. Creative types are coming from all over to be part of the transformation.
Stop being scared of Detroit.
The story here is no longer automobile industry collapse, decline, decay and blight. It’s about a glorious city that birthed the Model T and Motown, that’s coming back better, stronger, artier.
Bain notes, for transparency, that she "was hosted by Travel Michigan, which didn’t review or approve this story." Travel Michigan is the state's tourism office.
Michelle Grinnell, spokesperson for Travel Michigan, tells Deadline Detroit that Bain was part of a group that the state agency hosted and paid travel and lodging.
While Bain notes that the national narrative is no longer about blight and decay, there is still plenty around the city that she likely didn't see -- or see much of.
She observes about Corktown and Grand River:
Culturally cool Corktown is fully hipster and home to the Detroit Institute of Bagels, Batch Brewing (the city’s first nano brewery), music destinations, such as the UFO Factory and Hostel Detroit, with its free walking tours.
Nearby, along Grand River Ave., it’s all about the street art and graffiti murals.
