DETROIT , the birthplace of the mass-production car industry and the Motown sound, has long had an image problem. It boasts a billion-dollar downtown development, ultramodern motor-manufacturing plants, some excellent museums and one of the nation's biggest art galleries. But since the 1960s, media attention has dwelt instead on its huge tracts of urban wasteland, where for block after block there's nothing but the occasional heavily fortified loan shop or food store. Although cities like Atlanta, Newark and Washington, DC post much worse crime statistics, the press has seemed intent on painting Detroit as some kind of war zone.

Such views incur the wrath of many Detroiters, who claim that the press has magnified the city's problems because blacks run Detroit and account for 75 percent of its population. That assertion certainly carries weight, but Detroit - which has lost nearly half its citizens, almost a million people, in forty years - has unarguably suffered. However, following the resurgence of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other Rust Belt cities, Detroit, under the leadership of Mayor Dennis Archer, showed signs of turning the corner. The Detroit Tigers opened Comerica Park, and Ford Field was opened in August 2002 for the pro football Lions. Three big-time casinos opened and plans are afoot to enhance the waterfront. While these developments won't wipe out the city's problems in one fell swoop, they're an exciting start.

Founded in 1701 by Antoine de Mothe Cadillac , as a trading post for the French to do business with the Chippewa, Detroit was no more than a medium-sized port two hundred years later. Then FordOlds , the Chevrolets and the Dodge brothers began to build their automobile empires. Thanks to the introduction of the mass assembly line, Detroit sped into high gear in the 1920s, expanding into the countryside and booming like a mining town - fast, compulsive and indifferent to the needs of its population. The auto barons sponsored the construction of segregated neighborhoods and unceremoniously dispensed with workers during times of low demand. Such policies created huge ghettos, and the city came to a boil in July 1967 in the bloodiest riot in the USA for fifty years. More than forty people died and 1300 buildings were destroyed. Nothing was solved, and little even improved. The inner city was left to fend for itself, and the all-important motor industry was rocked by the oil crises and Japanese competition.

No visitor to Detroit could fail to be disturbed by the divisions between rich and poor, and the fact that other industrial towns have been hit equally hard by the recession is little consolation. However, while heavily scarred and bruised, Detroit is not the apocalyptic mess some would have it. New businesses and theaters have already opened downtown, and suburban residents have started to return to its festivals, theaters, clubs and restaurants. However, it makes more sense to think of Detroit as a region rather than a European-style city and, so long as you plan your time and don't mind driving, it holds plenty to see and do. For the moment, downtown is not so much the heart of the giant as just another segment. Other segments include the huge Cultural Center , freewheeling Royal Oak , posh Birmingham , the Ford-town of Dearborn and even nearby Windsor, Ontario , and Ann Arbor , a short drive west.