Motor City lube job

DETROIT — Less than two months before it hosts the Super Bowl, Detroit is getting ready for its big moment like a self-conscious teenager — anxiously trying to cover up blemishes and hoping to impress the cool kids.

For a city widely associated with riots, murder and lousy weather, officials are hoping the Feb. 5 game at Ford Field will be their chance to impress a new image upon the influx of influential out-of-towners.

In recent months, the city's Super Bowl host committee has been talking up the city to national media and recruited local celebrities to join the ovation. But behind the upbeat talk of new restaurants and trendy loft developments, a gnawing insecurity lurks: What are they going to say about us this time?

Once a booming metropolis with nearly 2 million people, Detroit's population has fallen dramatically since the 1950s. The lure of suburbia, combined with high crime and racial tension, drove people out of the Motor City, a process that was accelerated by the 1967 riots. Today, fewer than 900,000 people call Detroit home.

Outsiders "think it's a bad place, but it's not really," said 42-year-old Tony Rice, who works as a painter in Detroit. "In every city there are negative spots."

Even some of the city's biggest boosters acknowledge that Detroit's reputation precedes it.

Detroit native Mike Ilitch, founder of the Little Caesars pizza chain, said when he's away from home and people ask where he's from, he sometimes hesitates — and then says, "Bloomfield Hills," the name of the affluent suburb where he lives today.

"And they'll say, 'Where's Bloomfield Hills?' and I say, 'Well, just outside of Detroit — we have beautiful suburbs," ' said Ilitch, 76. "I say, 'Our suburbs'll stand up against any in the country.' "

But Ilitch, who owns hockey's Detroit Red Wings and baseball's Detroit Tigers, says that despite the image, he believes the city is regaining much of its former luster thanks to recent development downtown. He and his wife have invested more than $350 million in Detroit since 1982 and expect to invest another $275 million over the next two years.

"That's why I think we're so excited (about the Super Bowl) — that they can see it's definitely not what they perceived in the way we host the game," he said.