Over the past few decades, Grand Rapids has seen an exciting boom of sorts. While the magnitude of a Detroit turnaround will require much more, I believe the Motor City can learn a thing or two from our neighbor city in West Michigan as it continues to capitalize on recent successes.

I want Detroit to be the magical place I believe it is for everyone. So I live here, I pay taxes here, I tell everyone it is a magical place.

As Detroiters, we are daily seeing progress being made but I know I have wondered at times, what is the vision behind it all? Thankfully for today's Detroit, those on the front lines are visionaries that have bought into a common vision.

DETROIT — An ace pitcher and some of the game's best sluggers are the winning combination that has put the Detroit Tigers in the World Series fo...

Detroiters have come accustom to the talk of deficits, low cash flow and payless paydays during the past several years. The reality is that the City of Detroit still faces a fiscal crisis that will continue if implementation of reforms is not moved forward.

Detroit is unique in many ways, of course, but in the context of solving globally applicable problems, this city's current state combined with an ever-growing influx of creative thinkers are creating a one-of-a-kind platform for innovation.

An efficient City of Detroit government will create the environment to thrive. This is the vision I encourage us all to share.

While the rebounding downtown and Midtown districts fit the usual pattern of urban progress-established institutions and developers guiding most of the changes -- other parts of town are following a different playbook for revitalization.

The question should not be what a state elected official can do for Detroit, but what Detroit can do for the rest of the world.

Most of those driving the discussions about economic progress, urban gardening, land use issues, and governmental policy in Detroit are relative newcomers who do not necessarily understand or appreciate the challenges that the "old Detroit" has faced.

As a native Detroiter, being back in the city for the summer reminds me that the city is entering a peculiar era as a new group of Detroiters move in while many lifelong city dwellers seek lives elsewhere, oftentimes due to uncontrollable situations.

Instead of taking sides or placing blame, reach out and help a fellow metro Detroiter with a job, a hand up, or a meal. Rebuild Detroit the sustainable way -- build and connect the people. Unite.

These are just a couple of the buildings that I love in the city of Detroit. I'm not an architect or engineer -- just a student, who has dreams to see this city live and breathe again.

A lot has been said about Chrysler's Super Bowl ad, featuring Clint Eastwood and Detroit. While the pundits talk about whether or not it was a campaign commercial, let me tell you what Detroiters really think about it.

As a filmmaker, I was rooting for Detropia to weave a story of hope and promise and not dredge up the same old ghosts of ruin and despair. Alas, it seems like the blight temptress has claimed her latest victims.

Detroit must take advantage of being in the limelight right now to align all of its stakeholders to be positive forces in the process of change.

Instead of working for a progress we can only access in the cinema of our imaginations, "a fantasy of more," we should embrace our station as a struggling city and exert ourselves towards making it better.

We have the ability to change Detroit by simply changing the way we speak about it. You never know who you're speaking to.

Detroit is a city that is all about division. Today's obvious divides -- rich and poor, black and white, downtown and neighborhoods -- are nothing new. We've always loved to find (or invent) ways to separate ourselves.

With the authentic desire to build community and solve problems, it's the local people who have the greatest handle on the solutions our communities seek.

I have been to Paris and Pakistan, Istanbul and Bosnia. But I have never seen anything quite like this: Detroit is a state-of-the-art, urban frontier. My tattered hometown has, somehow, become "revisionist cool."

We are not writing to argue over who is a 'real' Detroiter and who is not, nor who is and is not going to save Detroit. We are more interested in unpacking our region's history with a critical eye.

Imagine a day where 1.3 million people from around the world visit Detroit en masse to recreate and experience the high-water mark of a full and thriving Motor City. Maybe a few of them will even fall in love and stick around.

Lemonade: Detroit is a documentary about the reinvention of a city that no longer has a single industry to identify with. Detroit is the perfect mix of grit and talent and risk that breeds innovation.

It's time to end this fighting about ownership of Detroit and its future. The more we fight amongst ourselves, the more ownership we all have in the negative image of the city.