After our time in Detroit putting together our second issue, we left the city as diehard Tigers fans, Valentine Vodka sippers, Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas listeners, big car driving Detroit lovers. We didn’t expect to be so taken with a city that is seen around the world as all but dead. But we fell for it.

Now, 6 months and another issue of Boat Magazine later, we are still drawn in by every headline that has Detroit in it. We can’t help but shake our heads when the media insists on portraying it as the archetypal urban victim of economic and real-estate collapse. Nor can we help but cheer at every article we read which celebrates its slow, but undoubted resurrection by the dedicated, creative, entrepreneurial, hard-working people of Detroit.

Here are a couple articles which we’ve loved every word of. Call us hopeless optimists if you like, even annoying hipsters. We don’t mind. In fact, we dare you to spend a few weeks in Detroit (actually in Detroit) and not leave with the Motor City bug.

Don’t Call It ‘Ruin Porn’: Why Millennials Are Moving to Detroit
By Rachel Signer via GOOD

“There may be some “creative class” boosterism going on in Detroit, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t also authentic, sophisticated projects in motion… Many are starting up social enterprises while others are working in creative sectors like advertising. And while they do appreciate the low rent and cost of living in the Motor City, these new, young Detroiters are far from self-absorbed hipsters. In fact, their work is having a meaningful impact on the city’s economy and culture.”

She goes on to talk about Detroit Soup a project which we learned about from Jessica Hernandez when we met with her for a feature we ran in our Detroit Issue.

Rust Belt chic: Declining Midwest Cities Make a Comeback
By Will Doig via Salon.com

“Richey Piiparinen believes the shift [to rust belt cities] could last, as more and more people find themselves not just priced out, but burnt out by increasingly tidy, boutiquey cities like New York and Seattle. “The country in the 2000s, it became about growth, glamour, living beyond your means,” he says. “It was all aspiration. Now we’re comparing the foreclosed glass condo tower to the old brick building that’s stood for a hundred years.””

By Erin Spens
Photo by Jonathan Cherry