From my hotel room in Windsor, Canada, the skyline of downtown Detroit actually looked pretty: the skyscrapers—old and new (Philip Johnson's neo-Gothic Comerica Tower is in the center)—the broad Detroit River, a cruise ship moored at a waterfront park, and an elevated train,* the People Mover, periodically tootling through the scene. An orderly, neat thriving city, one might say. One would be wrong.

Correction, April 16, 2009: The piece originally stated incorrectly that the People Mover is a monorail.