Past and Future

In response to Christine's photo from the Russell Industrial Center:

It looks like an old factory building. I could be wrong. You can see the wires and pipes but no people. It's easy to imagine them though. Like at the train station - standing on the main floor I could picture and feel the hustle and bustle that occurred there. I probably imagine it as grander than it was. What will it take for Detroit to be there again? Is that what we should even dream of? There's something about the uniqueness of this city that makes it so appealing - at least to me. Life seems slower here - there were so many people in Toronto and I don't think that made me like the city more.

What is this place? There is so much that it could have been or could be now - how does its history effect its future? How can you even know? There are stories in those walls and in the ground - stories that have been shared and stories that are lost forever. Those are the interesting ones to me - in how many ways and how many people did this room...building...neighborhood...city effect? How important is that to moving forward? How tightly should you hold onto the past in order to move forward - without being burdened and without entirely ignoring what came before?