Belle Isle: Detroit's Game Changer

“Rod Lockwood has written an amazing book. Belle Isle champions freedom and opportunity, the powers that attracted so many adventurous souls to America over the years. In Belle Isle, he helps us rediscover the roots that built this great nation and suggests that these great powers might once again work their magic, this time for Detroit, for Michigan, and perhaps even once again for the country we love.”

—Hal Sperlich, former president, Chrysler Corporation, and member of the Automotive Hall of Fame

Belle Isle is a work of fiction set twenty-nine years in the future. It is a blueprint to transform Detroit from a stalled city to a “Midwest Tiger,” rivaling Singapore, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. In the process, the principles for success reach far beyond Detroit and could apply to all Western democracies.

In 2025, Belle Isle, a 982-acre island in the Detroit River, is sold by the City of Detroit for $1 billion to a visionary group of investors, with the island receiving relief from USA and Michigan taxation and regulations. They form an American Free City, with innovative systems of government, taxation, and money, transforming Belle Isle from an uninhabited park to a thriving metropolis of 35,000 people, with room for more. The city’s dynamism is rooted in its principles of providing transparent governance that provides value, promotes freedom and beauty, and respects each of its residents.

Belle Isle has no cars but does have a racetrack for Formula 1 and other events integrated into the downtown. It is a walkable community, served by a monorail connecting it to Detroit. Resembling an old-world European city, aesthetics and fine architecture are respected values, along with freedom, opportunity, and limited government.

The main character, Darin Fraser, a gifted architect, shows his visiting friend Joe Sharif how Belle Isle has become a model of prosperity, rivaling the great economic miracles of modern history. In the process, Detroit itself has transformed beyond its former glory as a world-class city and shows the way for America as well.