“Mogadishu is the worst place I’ve ever been,” said Simon, 72. “Not the worst place in terms of danger, but the worst place in terms of what it looks like.”
Veteran CBS correspondent Bob Simon said he was struck by the contrast between Detroit’s ailing neighborhoods and a revitalizing downtown during his recent visit for a “60 Minutes” TV segment set to air Sunday.
Simon, who interviewed a half-dozen residents, civic and business leaders for the news program’s segment on Detroit, said that from downtown it was hard to tell he was in a bankrupt city “until you get in the car and drive for 5 minutes.”
Yet once he toured through the city’s vast neighborhoods, he was surprised by the extent of the decay and number of burnt-out buildings.
Speaking by phone Friday, Simon said that of all the places he has visited in more than four decades of reporting, much of it as a foreign correspondent, Detroit reminds him most of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
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