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The city, which has gone from 2 million inhabitants to 700,000, is in the process of being reinvested.
The city of Detroit (Michigan), the cradle of the American automobile industry, became in July 2013 the largest American city to declare bankruptcy. But at the beginning of 2014, the city is already recovering.
The inhabitants of the city seek to get rid of this image of a dilapidated city. So some destroy to better rebuild. The abandoned houses were sold for a symbolic dollar by the municipality. An association buys them and shaves them with the means at hand, with sledgehammers. “It should be pretty, clean, safe and live well there. Like before”, says a young resident. Objective of the association: plant trees and even remove entire housing estates to make the city breathe.
For his part, Dan Gilbert, a billionaire native of the city who made his fortune in finance, became the ambassador of relocation to Detroit. He brought to the city his 12,000 employees and all his subsidiaries hitherto scattered throughout the country. It also seeks to attract start-ups, to help the city regain its former dynamism.