Recently NPR has had a series featured on Morning Edition and All Things Considered called Remaking Michigan, Retooling Detroit. On the way to work this morning I heard part of Architect, Rehabber Find Riches In Detroit Ruins.

Take a gander at the diverse content offered by NPR, and the take provided by those directly affected by the current situation engulfing Detroit.

Day 16 — It is supposed to be raining later today in Beijing. It is supposed to be raining in Vancouver when I arrive there later today. It is supposed to be raining in Chicago tonight when I arrive there. It is supposed to be raining in DC when I get there slightly after midnight tonight. So why am I in such a sunny mood? It's been a great trip, a good show for AMT members and now its time to go home. Three flights in one day — you know there will be stories to come.

Day 15 — The move-out of the CIMT show is now completed. With the last machines successfully loaded onto trucks, another show is now history. What started two-plus weeks ago in the cold ended on a nice warm day with a blizzard of Beijing cottonwood, so much in the air that most people are either wearing masks or holding their hands over their mouths. A funny moment from today occurred as we were finishing up one truck and discovered we needed another crate label. We called our Chinese freight manager and he did not answer, which was strange as he has always been available 24/7. A few minutes later, the phone rang and it was him, with this great line: "I am so sorry I could not answer, I was at the toilet, it was top urgent." So it goes.

Day 14 — It is amazing how fast we humans adapt to almost any situation. I have not yet blogged at all about the traffic in Beijing but after two weeks, I barely notice the number of near-collisions, life-threatening close calls and actual contact between our vehicles and the others on the road (and that's just describing the first block from the hotel). So here is a typical day count for a one-way trip from the hotel to the convention center: pedestrians nearly run down: 27; bicycles cut off: 31; brakes slammed to avoid other vehicles: 17 (does not count previous 2 categories); cut off by other vehicles: 29; we cut off other vehicles: 44; horn honked: 65 or 0, depending on cab driver personality. Then we arrive at the hall, where we generally try to run down a security guard to be allowed onto the property to work move-out, where currently the floor is covered with a thin oil film that has claimed several people falling or at least sliding around. Oh, and if you fail cab driver school here they give you another job … fork lift driver.

Day 13 — A sure sign of spring greeted us on Easter Sunday morning in Beijing: snow. Not the snow from clouds, but the snow from the millions of cottonwood trees here in the city. We hadn't seen a single one of the tiny tufts of cottony seeds until today. Now within the next several days the air will be completely filled with them. This will be accompanied by the sounds of sneezing and coughing, as it seems most everyone has some level of intolerence to breathing in these things, but it is almost as traditional as the DC cherry blossoms, so most people just suffer with minimal complaints. In just one day, about 50 percent of the CIMT Show has been moved out. Two more days of packing and shipping and we'll be done.