in real life, the city's just emerging from bankruptcy. Downtown is considered on a rebound, but most residential neighborhoods are economically suffering. Local politicians face scandals regularly. Talented engineers (Hobie) are desired by automotive-based companies and local tech-based startup operations. New-transplant entrepreneurs and college-educated professionals occasionally come into conflict with longtime residents. Local newspapers frequently discuss class divisions, racial relations, job trends conflict (white collar= trending up, blue collar= trending down)
I'd like to see Hobie (and his wife) relocate with the intent of starting fresh in a new city with lots of "new opportunities".. Only he runs into problems with the local criminal element including maybe a previously C-list villain who decided to set up shop in Detroit after getting beat up/captured in NYC too often. The lack of an indigenous superhero population has made the city vulnerable to ambitious C-list supervillains.
House/business scrapping is a major problem in the city- vacant homes and vacant civic & commercial properties being ransacked of anything that's sellable (e.g., metal plumbing and other metal fixtures, copper electrical wiring, aluminum siding, porcelain fixtures, glass, wood carvings, marble countertops, etc.). The culprits range from haphazard individuals to fairly organized teams with sophisticated equipment (blowtorches, etc.) the materials are frequently either sold on the black market or openly to scrapyard managers willing to look the other way.
Consequently, "ruin p0rn" has become an "alternative tourism" in the city, particularly for long-abandoned commercial structures in the city.
I'd like to see a storyline start off where Hobie, out of his own curiosity, decides to go exploring an abandoned factory, when, unbeknownst to him, two teenagers are also there, lurking around and taking photographs; at the same time, a crew of scrappers is cutting through support beams (this has been done before) to retrieve large volumes of metal, which aside from causing a catastrophic crash, a fire gets started, trapping the kids. The Prowler saves them, but the scrappers make an escape, and Hobie figures it's up to him to find the culprits.
side note- a conversation with a firefighter reveals that some firehouses have outdated notification systems-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGowJP3paeI
(which also inspires Hobie to try and design something more helpful)..