Throughout Detroit's long decline, city planners and ordinary people have launched countless plans to revive the city 鈥� casinos, downtown development, urban farms, artist hubs. One city neighborhood is thinking small, and it's starting to pay off big.

The domestic auto industry has been making a strong comeback, but that recovery hasn't necessarily benefited beleaguered Detroit. There's only one auto plant still doing high-volume production inside the city limits, and much of the Big Three's manufacturing has shifted away from Michigan.

Kevyn Orr tells All Things Considered the crisis was the city's own making, but it doesn't help anyone to look for blame in the past.

Pit bulls dominate the population. But smaller, aggressive dogs are problems as well. "It's like Chihuahuaville," one mail carrier tells Bloomberg News of a neighborhood on her route.