4 ms·

Detroit fits the bill on the whole lots of old buildings that were once built when the city was rich but then turned poor. You can buy a 6 bedroom placial estat

Detroit fits the bill on the whole lots of old buildings that were once built when the city was rich but then turned poor. You can buy a 6 bedroom placial estate in Indian Village for $350,000 and live next to estates once owned by the Fords and the Dodges, etc. It's near a world class University (UMich) and has an abundance of office space, mostly owned by Dan Gilbert. The challenge is that it's just not that safe of a place once you venture outside of the protected downtown bubble and public transit is dismal. It's becoming a refuge for artists and free thinkers priced out of Brooklyn, seeking space that still retains it's edginess and grit. The problem is what they're bringing is aimed at the new Detroit urbanites and don't really help solve problems for all of the other normal working class folks in Detroit. Disclaimer: I live in the Bay but spent a lot of time in Detroit over the last few years when my SO was doing a residency in Clinton Township in the Detroit suburbs. She would vehemently disagree with me on my assessment and sees a frontier spirit emerging there.

netman21 11y ago
Long time SE Michigan resident here. You are spot on. Gilbert may be actually be making a change though. Starting to feel different downtown.
- ssharp 11y ago
  Gilbert seems to have seen the trend of midwesterners embracing their central cores well ahead of everyone else. What he's done in Cleveland has been pretty smart. He started by purchasing the Cavaliers and becoming a relatively vocal owner (at least compared to the previous owner). That won him a lot of favor with public. He opened up a Quicken Loans office in the city, providing jobs. He then was able to put a deal through public election granting him a casino monopoly in the city. He leased (and later bought) a mostly empty old department store building to house the casino that conveniently connected to the Cavs' arena. He later bought the Ritz hotel that also connects to the casino and arena and just recently purchased the shopping mall / train station that is the connecting piece to all of those. There are definitely some negatives to be seen from what he's doing, but I think in the end it will be an impressive improvement for that part of downtown, which was already in the upswing.
drumdance 11y ago
I thought about moving to Detroit but decided I would hate the weather. I lived in Chicago for 12 years. Loved the city and tolerated the weather. Then I moved to Boulder thinking I would go back to Chicago after two years. But after a year I knew I could never go back to that weather.
rmason 11y ago
There is most definitely a frontier spirit emerging there. I actually thought of Detroit when I was reading PG's essay. The food scene is really exploding with new restaurants opening all the time. http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant-of-the-year/2016/04/05/best-restaurants-year-detroit/82259644/ http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant-o... Even month to month when I visit I see the changes. There's getting to be a real cluster of tech people living and working near Grand Circus park.
- mooreds 11y ago
  Anecdata: I have a friend who is from Detroit. A techie, lived in the East coast and works for a company on the west coast. Visits Detroit to see family. He says that the Detroit "rejuvenation" is a complete scam. That all the articles in the press reference the same three or four restaurants. That, yes, there is a nice area in Detroit around what he calls "the green zone" (not sure if that is the accepted term or just a reference to the protected area in Iraq) but once you leave that square mile it is a wasteland. Again, I have never been. But my friend gets annoyed at all the "Detroit is the next big thing" talk for these reasons.
  - calbear81 11y ago
    There's definitely more restaurants opening up than just the original few and many of them are opening up outside of the downtown core near other blighted areas. There is a positive, optimistic energy and that sometimes comes across as being a little less critical than they should be of new restaurants. For example, they opened up a ramen/noodle joint and the ramen is just terrible but if you read the reviews from locals, you would think that someone took a noodle joint out of Tokyo and plopped it down in the middle of Corktown. The Vietnamese and Middle Eastern food is good though on account of large local communities of those folks.

netman21 11y ago

Long time SE Michigan resident here. You are spot on. Gilbert may be actually be making a change though. Starting to feel different downtown.

ssharp 11y ago
Gilbert seems to have seen the trend of midwesterners embracing their central cores well ahead of everyone else. What he's done in Cleveland has been pretty smart. He started by purchasing the Cavaliers and becoming a relatively vocal owner (at least compared to the previous owner). That won him a lot of favor with public. He opened up a Quicken Loans office in the city, providing jobs. He then was able to put a deal through public election granting him a casino monopoly in the city. He leased (and later bought) a mostly empty old department store building to house the casino that conveniently connected to the Cavs' arena. He later bought the Ritz hotel that also connects to the casino and arena and just recently purchased the shopping mall / train station that is the connecting piece to all of those. There are definitely some negatives to be seen from what he's doing, but I think in the end it will be an impressive improvement for that part of downtown, which was already in the upswing.

drumdance 11y ago

I thought about moving to Detroit but decided I would hate the weather. I lived in Chicago for 12 years. Loved the city and tolerated the weather. Then I moved to Boulder thinking I would go back to Chicago after two years. But after a year I knew I could never go back to that weather.

rmason 11y ago

There is most definitely a frontier spirit emerging there. I actually thought of Detroit when I was reading PG's essay. The food scene is really exploding with new restaurants opening all the time. http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant-of-the-year/2016/04/05/best-restaurants-year-detroit/82259644/ http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant-o... Even month to month when I visit I see the changes. There's getting to be a real cluster of tech people living and working near Grand Circus park.

mooreds 11y ago
Anecdata: I have a friend who is from Detroit. A techie, lived in the East coast and works for a company on the west coast. Visits Detroit to see family. He says that the Detroit "rejuvenation" is a complete scam. That all the articles in the press reference the same three or four restaurants. That, yes, there is a nice area in Detroit around what he calls "the green zone" (not sure if that is the accepted term or just a reference to the protected area in Iraq) but once you leave that square mile it is a wasteland. Again, I have never been. But my friend gets annoyed at all the "Detroit is the next big thing" talk for these reasons.
- calbear81 11y ago
  There's definitely more restaurants opening up than just the original few and many of them are opening up outside of the downtown core near other blighted areas. There is a positive, optimistic energy and that sometimes comes across as being a little less critical than they should be of new restaurants. For example, they opened up a ramen/noodle joint and the ramen is just terrible but if you read the reviews from locals, you would think that someone took a noodle joint out of Tokyo and plopped it down in the middle of Corktown. The Vietnamese and Middle Eastern food is good though on account of large local communities of those folks.