Makeover for a Motor City Gem

摘要

When you get off the freeway and head toward the Detroit Institute of Arts, you first notice the streets of boarded-up houses, cracked sidewalks and vacant lots sprouting weeds. But just a few blocks farther, you're cruising into an urban oasis of wide avenues, handsome buildings and the neoclassical museum itself, built in 1927, at the height of the city's prosperity. Detroit is really two cities. One is a shrunken metropolis with a battered economy and a big image problem—a controversial new report issued by a division of the Congressional Quarterly calls it the most dangerous city in the United States.