An interesting article by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley at The New Republic looks at how Detroit might recover from decades of decline; this includes looking at how Detroit might be re-industrialized (the re-industrial path is an even more fascinating proposition than the well-tread path to post-industrial health, though there’s nothing mutually exclusive about the two), the role of government in encouraging the development of new manufacturing which leverages old knowledge and institutions, Bilbao as an object lesson in the construction of infrastructure for revitalization (importantly highlighting that Gehry’s Guggenheim was a small piece in a much larger physical regeneration, which also included a new metro system, a waterfront tram line, modernization of airports, ports, and regional trains, and “a new water-sanitation system to keep untreated household and industrial waste out of the river”; the success of Bilbao’s regeneration being far more dependent on these infrastructures than on the draw of starchitecture), and why even a revitalized Detroit would require shrinkage.

(Yes, that’s all one sentence.  I think I need an editor.)