Michigan

Office buildings now stand where parking lots lay for decades. Apartments enliven the upper floors of once vacant warehouses; below them are restaurants and saloons. There are new parks and recreation and exhibition centers. The city now shows its best face to the Grand River instead of using it as a sewer. And while it still has much work to do, especially with its neighborhoods and public schools, few American cities its size have done nearly as well as Grand Rapids has to recover from the familiar cycle of urban decay and despair.