5 ms·

All of this development makes me wonder if Detroit could eventually rival Chicago as the tech hub in the Midwest

by curiouscat321 9y ago

Avshalom 9y ago
It'll have to fight Pittsburg for that title.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jtraffic 9y ago
  I think most people from Pittsburg consider themselves part of the Northeastern states, not the Midwest. See this article, for e.g.: https://matadornetwork.com/life/piss-someone-pittsburgh/ https://matadornetwork.com/life/piss-someone-pittsburgh/
  - tcbawo 9y ago
    Western Pennsylvania, Northeast Ohio, and Western NY (Buffalo) have a lot in common. They share a rust belt identity and cultural institutions. And, they're fiercely loyal to their roots.
sillysaurus3 9y ago
The thing you need for a tech hub is an influx of young people. It seems more likely that they're moving away from Detroit than to it, but is there a way to look at the data?
- phkahler 9y ago
  I have seen signs that the influx is starting, but no hard data yet.
- ikeyany 9y ago
  Don't worry--they're all getting priced out of Seattle/SF/DC/Denver/Portland/Texas. Give it 15 years.
  - Apocryphon 9y ago
    Not all of Texas, surely?
    - jessaustin 9y ago
      Some people probably think Uber got run "out of Texas..."
    - amyjess 9y ago
      It's starting to get that way with the populated parts. Dallas used to be dirt cheap not even ten years ago, but it's rapidly changing. Personal anecdote: I remember signing my first lease on my townhouse in 2007, and I was paying $1050/month for a ~1500 sq. ft. place in a decent neighborhood in Far North Dallas. It steadily goes up every year, but this year was the biggest leap ever: my lease went up to $1334/month from $1270/month last year. Why is everything going up? Because as our economy grows and large companies from out of state relocate their offices to Dallas, people are moving here in droves, putting a strain on available housing. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is now the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the US. What's more is that when the housing bubble burst in 2008, housing prices in Dallas didn't go down but construction ground to a halt. During the Great Recession, housing prices stagnated instead of going down, and now that the recession's over and jobs are up, housing prices are going way up, and construction is still slow. And it's not just Dallas; Austin has recently become very expensive, and it's probably worse there than it is here. Not sure about Houston or San Antonio, but I wouldn't be surprised if they start getting expensive soon if they aren't already. Are there other parts of Texas you can move to? Sure, if you want to be in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing to do, especially if you're used to a major metropolitan area, and very little likelihood of meeting people who share your interests. The cities in Texas are also blue islands in a sea of red, so if you're LGBT you may find yourself unwelcome in small towns, and unless you're extremely conservative you are unlikely to find people you have anything in common with. And of course you're not likely to find a job in the tech industry; I guess you'd be OK if you work remotely, but you better hope you don't ever lose your job. If you're curious, here are some news articles on the rising housing prices in Dallas caused by the population explosion. Be warned that dallasnews.com has an easily-bypassed paywall, so you'll want to open an incognito tab for it. http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/05/15/housing-market-stretches http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/05/15/housing-market... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/05/12/not-enough-houses-as-toyota-moves-to-plano https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/05/12/n... https://qz.com/978602/the-main-reason-americans-are-ditching-ny-and-flocking-to-the-land-of-the-cowboys/ https://qz.com/978602/the-main-reason-americans-are-ditching... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/toyota/2017/05/09/plano-readies-roads-first-wave-toyota-employees-traffic-comes https://www.dallasnews.com/business/toyota/2017/05/09/plano-... (this is more about the impending traffic apocalypse than rising housing prices, but it's still worth a read) https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/05/the-whole-city-needs-to-be-paying-attention-to-what-is-happening-in-west-dallas/ https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/05/the-whole-city... And that's just what I've seen posted to /r/Dallas in the last week. I remember finding a graph of housing prices in the last 20 years or so comparing Dallas to other major cities, showing that Dallas was the only one that didn't take a huge hit in 2008, and I wish I could find it again.
bluedino 9y ago
Chicago has a pretty good head start. LinkeIn, Groupon, GoGo, CareerBuilder, SalesForce, Orbitz, BrainTree...all based in or have a presence in Chicago. There's even a few game companies. Detroit has...Compuware (mainframe software - zzz), a couple small studios building stuff for the big three automakers, and some consulting companies also doing managed IT for them.
rmason 9y ago
It has already started, lots of startups downtown right now. Dan Gilbert launched the Madison building (on Broadway by the Opera House) which is chock full of startups. The whole area South of Grand Circus park has so many startups that they call that stretch of Woodward Avenue (Detroit's major artery) Webward Avenue ;<). There's a second Madison building that hosts Bamboo, a co-working center.

All of this development makes me wonder if Detroit could eventually rival Chicago as the tech hub in the Midwest

Avshalom 9y ago

It'll have to fight Pittsburg for that title.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jtraffic 9y ago
I think most people from Pittsburg consider themselves part of the Northeastern states, not the Midwest. See this article, for e.g.: https://matadornetwork.com/life/piss-someone-pittsburgh/ https://matadornetwork.com/life/piss-someone-pittsburgh/
- tcbawo 9y ago
  Western Pennsylvania, Northeast Ohio, and Western NY (Buffalo) have a lot in common. They share a rust belt identity and cultural institutions. And, they're fiercely loyal to their roots.

sillysaurus3 9y ago

The thing you need for a tech hub is an influx of young people. It seems more likely that they're moving away from Detroit than to it, but is there a way to look at the data?

phkahler 9y ago
I have seen signs that the influx is starting, but no hard data yet.
ikeyany 9y ago
Don't worry--they're all getting priced out of Seattle/SF/DC/Denver/Portland/Texas. Give it 15 years.
- Apocryphon 9y ago
  Not all of Texas, surely?
  - jessaustin 9y ago
    Some people probably think Uber got run "out of Texas..."
  - amyjess 9y ago
    It's starting to get that way with the populated parts. Dallas used to be dirt cheap not even ten years ago, but it's rapidly changing. Personal anecdote: I remember signing my first lease on my townhouse in 2007, and I was paying $1050/month for a ~1500 sq. ft. place in a decent neighborhood in Far North Dallas. It steadily goes up every year, but this year was the biggest leap ever: my lease went up to $1334/month from $1270/month last year. Why is everything going up? Because as our economy grows and large companies from out of state relocate their offices to Dallas, people are moving here in droves, putting a strain on available housing. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is now the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the US. What's more is that when the housing bubble burst in 2008, housing prices in Dallas didn't go down but construction ground to a halt. During the Great Recession, housing prices stagnated instead of going down, and now that the recession's over and jobs are up, housing prices are going way up, and construction is still slow. And it's not just Dallas; Austin has recently become very expensive, and it's probably worse there than it is here. Not sure about Houston or San Antonio, but I wouldn't be surprised if they start getting expensive soon if they aren't already. Are there other parts of Texas you can move to? Sure, if you want to be in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing to do, especially if you're used to a major metropolitan area, and very little likelihood of meeting people who share your interests. The cities in Texas are also blue islands in a sea of red, so if you're LGBT you may find yourself unwelcome in small towns, and unless you're extremely conservative you are unlikely to find people you have anything in common with. And of course you're not likely to find a job in the tech industry; I guess you'd be OK if you work remotely, but you better hope you don't ever lose your job. If you're curious, here are some news articles on the rising housing prices in Dallas caused by the population explosion. Be warned that dallasnews.com has an easily-bypassed paywall, so you'll want to open an incognito tab for it. http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/05/15/housing-market-stretches http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/05/15/housing-market... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/05/12/not-enough-houses-as-toyota-moves-to-plano https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/05/12/n... https://qz.com/978602/the-main-reason-americans-are-ditching-ny-and-flocking-to-the-land-of-the-cowboys/ https://qz.com/978602/the-main-reason-americans-are-ditching... https://www.dallasnews.com/business/toyota/2017/05/09/plano-readies-roads-first-wave-toyota-employees-traffic-comes https://www.dallasnews.com/business/toyota/2017/05/09/plano-... (this is more about the impending traffic apocalypse than rising housing prices, but it's still worth a read) https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/05/the-whole-city-needs-to-be-paying-attention-to-what-is-happening-in-west-dallas/ https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/05/the-whole-city... And that's just what I've seen posted to /r/Dallas in the last week. I remember finding a graph of housing prices in the last 20 years or so comparing Dallas to other major cities, showing that Dallas was the only one that didn't take a huge hit in 2008, and I wish I could find it again.

bluedino 9y ago

Chicago has a pretty good head start. LinkeIn, Groupon, GoGo, CareerBuilder, SalesForce, Orbitz, BrainTree...all based in or have a presence in Chicago. There's even a few game companies. Detroit has...Compuware (mainframe software - zzz), a couple small studios building stuff for the big three automakers, and some consulting companies also doing managed IT for them.

rmason 9y ago

It has already started, lots of startups downtown right now. Dan Gilbert launched the Madison building (on Broadway by the Opera House) which is chock full of startups. The whole area South of Grand Circus park has so many startups that they call that stretch of Woodward Avenue (Detroit's major artery) Webward Avenue ;<). There's a second Madison building that hosts Bamboo, a co-working center.