DREAM CITY: Creation, Destruction, and Reinvention in Downtown Detroit: By Conrad Kickert. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2019; 456 pp.; ills., notes, index. $49.95 (hardcover), isbn 9780262039345.

Why did Detroit skip the downtown office building boom other cities experienced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and how does that explanation help in understanding the forces behind other cities' downtown fortunes as well? The auto companies located their offices outside downtown and purchased business services in New York, generating little demand for space downtown. Despite this narrative of downtown decline, Kickert sees hope in the activities of private actors who have now become dominant property owners in segments of downtown and have de facto control of planning there. [Extracted from the article]