The History Channel will premier the documentary Detroit: Comeback City Sunday night at 9. It shows how Detroit grew to become the 4th largest city and fell with the 1967 riots, the decline of the auto industry and the city’s bankruptcy.
One of the people attending a screening this morning is Rebecca Salminen Witt of the Detroit Historical Society. She tells Action News, “I found it to be emotional the characterization of Detroit’s consistent boom and bust cycle.”
It took only four months to make this documentary clearly started as Ford was buying the Michigan Central Station. Ford is not saying how much will be spent on this huge gamble. It is featured as the centerpiece of Detroit’s comeback. The History Channel Resident Historian Steve Gillon was at the screening and says, “This is a risky project for Ford. This where Ford began and if Ford is going to be competitive this is where it needs to innovate.”
Ford will transform Corktown and the Station as the center for development of self driving and plug in cars of the cuture. What’s been called the next Silicon Valley.
“It’s not about trying to remake the past or reclaim the past. It’s about reimagining what Detroit can be in the 21st century,” Gillon says. “If Ford doesn’t provide the capstone of hope this production doesn’t happen. And further I think people are still left wondering if the comeback is real.” Salminen Witt adds.
