Detroit has a vast supply of decayed and vacant buildings, many of them architectural treasures. Even if MCD is somehow restored, it will be one of only a handful saved, while so many others will languish for some time. Many, like the Lafayette Building, may become so damaged that they have to be torn down.
What if instead of spending a huge amount of money to try to save one building, the city found a little bit of money to do basic maintenance to preserve the structural integrity of many buildings – and create a safe path through parts of them that tourists could walk through similar to how ancient ruins are displayed in Europe. Heck, don’t even clean the buildings up. That saves money and makes them even more impressive to visitors. This could preserve more structures for the long haul, and create a tourist attraction. The structures can always been renovated later when demand warrants.
Actually, the tourists are already coming whether it is authorized or not. Thirty folks a day at MCD is pretty impressive

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Detroit: Embracing the Ruins

I find this idea both really obvious (and as mentioned, currently occurring) and also interesting in that it challenges popular ideas about what kind of ‘ruins’ are meaningful/educational/valuable/historical.

Tourism depends on the circulation of a desired image of the Caribbean as untouched yet within reach; the [all inclusive] resort, the ultimate fragmentation of the environment, allows for the untouched to be curated and fortified…Any random contact, or open ensemble, admits the risk that consumer satisfaction may be confronted by uncertainty…Once again the situation is paradoxical in that it is only though the erection of barriers that the world can be offered as being without frontiers for those privileged enough to take the journey.

— Gavan Titley qouted by Mimi Sheller, Consuming the Caribbean. [via)