Read the original National Geographic piece here. Kenneth Morgan, a Gulf War veteran, returned to Detroit four years ago after 30 years away. He left when he was nine years old, traveling the world with his military father, but chose to settle his family in Detroit because, he says, “it’s home. There’s no place like home.” Morgan, his wife, Robin, and their children, Gary Effler and Kenneth D. and Korey Morgan, are renovating a duplex they bought on the East Side for $1,800 plus back taxes. “I figure if I can fight for my country, I can definitely fight for my city.” © Wayne Lawrence/National Geographic (The above image appears in the May issue of National Geographic magazine.)

Detroit is one of 26 Knight communities, places where the Knight brothers once owned newspapers. The following is excerpted from the May issue of National Geographic magazine. Read the full story on the National Geographic website.

“ONCE DETROIT WAS the Paris of the Midwest, with its broad river, grand boulevards, and historically significant architecture. It became the Motor City, assembling most of the world’s automobiles, and the Arsenal of Democracy, manufacturing World War II armaments. Steady work and union wages meant an autoworker could own a home, plus a boat, maybe even a cottage. Some say America’s middle class was born in Detroit, but Motown most certainly was.

New freeways lured some Detroiters to the suburbs in the late 1950s, but devastating race riots in 1967 scared away tens of thousands, mostly white families. Detroit has been predicting rebirth ever since, starting a year later, when the Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

I remember, because I cut out articles about the riots and the baseball games, gluing them into scrapbooks. I lived in suburbia, where my parents moved in 1957 when I was three, at the edge of a slow wave that would sweep away more than half the city’s population. But my heart lived in Detroit, where Grandpa Zielinski grew roses and garlic, and Grandma walked with me to Polish bakeries for pumpernickel bread. I sang along with the Supremes. I shared my Christmas wishes with Santa at J. L. Hudson’s, a department store that filled a city block and was then the world’s tallest at 25 stories.

Rebirth looked promising again when, in the 1970s, the grandson of Henry Ford erected the majestic towers of the Renaissance Center, dubbed the RenCen. Built like a fortress, it repelled visitors. A 2.9-mile elevated People Mover, inaugurated in 1987, was going to revitalize downtown; hardly anyone rode it. Three casinos opened in 1999 and 2000; they weren’t the answer. Hosting the 2006 Super Bowl was supposed to be a tipping point. It wasn’t.

The gusts that finally collapsed the sagging city were the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler, and the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008. Abandoned houses and schools attracted looters, drug dealers, and delinquents giddy for fire. What had been a tidy quilt of neighborhoods, with single-family homes and hardware stores, finally fell into scraps.

Nobody is talking about rebuilding the whole 139-square-mile city, huge enough to fit Manhattan, Boston, and San Francisco. But like a fading migraine, the mood of the city has lifted. In its mere solvency, Detroit feels flush.”

Michigan State University is launching a complementary photography exhibit that will run April 17-May 10 at the First National Bank Building in Detroit. Here are the details.