The other side of Detroit [and Pittsburgh] featured in Spacing magazine tours

[This post has been updated] So popular was its first group tour to Detroit last year (it was a sell out) that Spacing magazine has a series planned this year. The tours are the outcome of a discussion by a group of Windsor architects with Windsor native Shawn Micalleff, a co-owner of the urban affairs magazine. They wanted to give Detroit a positive spin and tell about the good news about the city. 

This year, there will be bus tours April 12 and 13, June 28 and 29 and another in September. Sights on the tour include Eastern Market, The Heidelberg Project and neighbourhoods of Corktown, Midtown and New Center.

Quoted in a post on The Urbanite, Matthew Blackett, the publisher and creative director said of last year's tour that people from Toronto were ecstatic to witness what Detroit has to offer.

"The reaction was really good. What we found really interesting was that the women with our group always wanted to go to Detroit but never felt safe, so going in a group made it ideal for them. The trip made them want to explore the city in ways they wanted to without the fear at the back of their minds....

“The American tour-guides keep on saying, ‘Across the river there is Canada.’ Canada to them is not foreign unlike for many other Americans. Lots of people live in Windsor and work in Detroit. It is a unique urban experience to be honest. There are no other border cities like this.”

[In addition to the Detroit trips, Spacing is offering tours to Pittsburgh too -- May 9 - 11 and July 11 - 13.]