Missed this story (registration required; dailykos/dailykos should work) in Sunday's NYT. It's about Tiger Stadium sitting empty, neither torn down nor in use. Pessimists might see that as a metaphor for the entire city.
Alan Trammell, the Tigers' manager and the former star shortstop for the team, took visitors inside as recently as last year. When Trammell tried to do so again this year, he could not find a guard to let him in. "It's just falling apart," Trammell said. "You see some of the wood that hangs from the upper deck. The press box was on top, and there's a big panel falling off. All the padding around the outfield has been gone for years; you can see the paint that's chipped off it. I went in our dugout to go into the home clubhouse. You go down a couple of steps and you make a left, and it was dark down there and I stepped in some water, because I couldn't see. And they had a gate closed so you couldn't go all the way up the tunnel. But I'm sure if I would have, the clubhouse would have been locked."
I don't want to get too maudlin, though, so I'll second these sentiments:
"It would have been so cool if they could have the home run derby there," said C. J. Nitkowski, a former Tigers pitcher who started the last night game at Tiger Stadium. "It would have been so much more fun. Guys would be launching balls out of the stadium. That would have been a great idea."