In many municipalities in the US, a project will not receive a Certificate of Occupancy if the building materials do not comply with what was approved at the Design Review Committee.
I would disagree with the statement. Here in Phoenix we have many sites in the down area that have sat empty (not even generating income as parking lots) because the owners of those lands refuse to lower their price and the city refuses to increase densities to make any potential purchase...
While I don't disagree with jetsbackincanada's comments, as someone who grew up in Windsor at the time of the 68 riots I can also agree with ladyscraper's comments that those riots did contribute to the white exodus from Detroit.
I think that can be contributed to the contractor who I had the past pleasure of working with on a number of projects in the Montreal and Ottawa areas.
However, it appears that this article in today's New York Times is quite favourable - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/movies/18toronto.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
City Hall Lights
This is likely not the cause of lights being out but I found this recent article in the Phoenix paper regarding Nuit Blanche display for city hall.
http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/email.php/8952021