Daily Detroit News Byte

Today's show is a long-form conversation with author Conrad Kickert. He's a retail and planning expert and professor at the University of Cincinnati. His most recent book caught my eye, "Dream City: Creation, Destruction, and Reinvention in Downtown Detroit." Backed up by research and global experience, he busts some myths about downtown Detroit and its history. He adds perspective from his career from world-class cities and working on making urban design and retail planning that actually works. He is very frank about the possibilities for the future. That there are real opportunities. But doing things as we did before isn't a path forward. Here are some highlights: Why Conrad got interested in Detroit and downtown Detroit. Because of shifting market forces that are beyond what's happening locally, you probably won't be able to buy a pepper grinder at a store unless it has an "authentic" "story" behind it. Why? Regular transactions are all moving online, and retail is transitioning to becoming 3D advertiseme