2010 year in review: Revival and change

Remember the saying, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times?" For Metro Detroit, the year 2010 was neither.

Thankfully.

It was a year of recovery and change as the region took the first steps to dig out from a decade of job loss, economic decline and corruption. After a brutal industrywide restructuring, our carmakers began to find their footing — and profits. City Hall started cleaning up as Bing replaced bling. Unemployment dropped from the nation's worst. And the gridlock in Lansing, for better or worse, seemed set to end.

Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. continued to recover from federally backed bankruptcies, with GM going public in November. Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. earned $6.37billion, making it the most profitable carmaker in the world.

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Detroit Mayor Dave Bing moved ahead with plans to consolidate neighborhoods in a city that has shrunk from nearly 2 million to less than 900,000. But the prison population threatened to swell as racketeering indictments were issued against convicted ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father and cronies.

Voters swept incumbents, especially Democrats, out of Lansing, installing Republican Gov.-elect Rick Snyder and a Republican-controlled Legislature in hopes of breaking years of political paralysis. The state economy bottomed out and began bouncing back, with unemployment dropping 2.2 percentage points from a worst-in-the-nation 14.6 percent last Dec. 31.

In sports, the Wolverines and Tigers faltered and the Pistons went to the auction block — maybe to a new downtown stadium. We ended the year without Ernie Harwell and Sparky Anderson. And just to prove anything can happen if we wait long enough, the hapless Lions ended 2010 with three straight wins.

We gave up smoking in bars but got to buy booze on Sundays. We tuned in "Detroit 1-8-7," cheered Eminem's new hit, missed the striking Detroit Symphony and prayed for Aretha.

In short, 2010 was a year that inspires only the briefest New Year's toast: "Better days." And while that's a wish for tomorrow, it's also a weary sigh that the worst seems to be behind us.

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