Wayne County, Michigan Gets Former Pittsburgh ED Director

Wayne County's new economic development chief cut his teeth in Pittsburgh, where he helped turn slag heaps into clusters of upscale housing. Officials wait to see if Mulugetta Birru can work the same magic in Detroit.

Mulugetta Birru has a record of other successes in Pittsburgh. He converted an abandoned steel mill into 123 acres of lofts, stores and offices. And he took a blighted industrial island in the Allegheny River and helped develop it into market-rate housing.

Birru, 57, says he loves abandoned buildings. That will be helpful in Wayne County, which is bigger than and easily as troubled as the Steel City, which has lost tens of thousands of steel jobs in recent decades and is facing severe financial problems.

More here.