Thanks Nadia. In my opinion, one of the most important things is that the city it getting positive attention, which starts to build some momentum to actually go downtown in the first place – quite a feat given the negative press the city garnered a few years ago.

To-date, there's a few key initiatives that have gained some steam in terms of the number of people they touch. For example, Wayne State University has done more collaborative research initiatives with other state schools and in turn has drawn more people to the city from an academic perspective. Quicken Loans has moved their offices downtown and brought thousands of people to the city. And of course, the revival of the Lions is undoubtedly helpful too ;)

In the end, like many other cities, the tipping point likely still requires one big organizational success. The encouraging part is that this doesn't have to be limited to just the auto industry given the different tax incentives that draw different kinds of businesses to leverage the city's infrastructure and resources, many of which are leftovers from abandoned auto factories.

I believe that these all are genuine efforts that are different than the past in that they're more collaborative in nature. What we have yet to see is how these different efforts will swell such that they overlap and create a more cohesively inviting city to spend time in, rather than a place with a few pockets to visit.

Hi, Seth. Sorry for my late response! And thanks for the info. The progress in your city is encouraging, but at the same time, it seems that a major challenge is making all these collaborative efforts more cohesive (and, perhaps, getting more people involved to reach a critical mass?)

There are so many good ideas on openIDEO in the inspiration stage as well as in the conception projects posted so far. But I'm left wondering as to how to bring it all together.

Good point Nadia. I'm eager to see how the refinement and evaluation stages unfold, as I believe it's here where we'll see real progress and ideas turning into action.