12 ms·

Detroit Is Going Bankrupt, But Its Tech Community Is Going Strong

50 points by bradbenvenuti 13y ago

sneak 13y ago
Anyone who lives or works there is a fool. I grew up there, and lived downtown for years before wising up. Have a medical emergency and call 911? You're lucky if an ambulance shows up within an hour, if at all. I've been robbed at gunpoint enough times for one lifetime. I'm tired of having to pick up my .45 as the first thing I do after landing at the airport and getting my rental car. Tell me how cheap rent has to be to make it worth it? No thanks. My family is there, I know tons and tons of people there, and know the city itself as well as the rest of the metro area like the back of my hand. You couldn't pay me to live there. There's a very good reason people run away from that place as if their lives depended on it. It's because they do.
- zenocon 13y ago
  FUD. This is total nonsense. I've lived in and around Detroit for the greater part of my life. I've even lived in the Bay Area for a couple years. There have been tremendous strides to turn this city around even in the last 5 years. I don't live in the city now, but I do work downtown every day in the Ren Cen. Even in the last year alone, I've noticed things pick up in the downtown area. I'm glad you took your cranky hatred elsewhere.
  - danso 13y ago
    FWIW, government officials admit to the hour-long 911 waits: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-shocked-by-tolerance-for-detroit-mismanagement/ http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-sho... > [Gov.] Snyder said it’s been a long period of decline in Detroit, and now is the time to do something about it. With “unacceptable” 58-minute emergency response times, he said the 700,000 residents of Detroit deserve better. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409 http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409 (2010) > Most shocking, perhaps, occurred when a building collapsed on six firefighters, half of whom were taken to the hospital in squad cars and fire trucks because there were no ambulances on the scene. If that is how people in uniform are treated, imagine what it is like for the average citizen in the dark of night. >> Mack made a claim to Fox 2 News a few weeks ago that the average response time in Detroit for an ambulance to arrive on a 911 call is 12 minutes -- even while admitting that often there are no units available to get to calls. According to that 2004 audit, the two-year average at that time was about 12 minutes. And that was before the city cut its paramedics and emergency medical technicians by nearly 40 percent. As a comparison, the city of Grosse Pointe reports its average ambulance response is five minutes. Dearborn's is four minutes. Warren's is 5:35. In 2005, there were 303 paramedics and EMTs working the streets and the EMS division of the Fire Department had a budget of nearly $25 million. Today there are just 188 paramedics with a budget of nearly $23 million. With that many fewer paramedics, what happened to their estimated $11.5 million in salaries and benefits?
  - rmason 13y ago
    Agree with you, the city is turning around. There's a spirit that wasn't there eighteen months ago. There's a vibrant and growing tech community. If you're not there its easy to miss it with the constant bombardment by the national media of what's called locally 'ruin porn'. A group of us is having a civic hackathon this fall at the M@dison Oct 4-5 to celebrate the state's release of open API's for five themes: jobs, tourism, safety, veterans and foster kids. If you want to see the real Detroit please join us: http://www.codemichigan.com http://www.codemichigan.com
    - zenocon 13y ago
      This guy gets it.
  - sneak 13y ago
    The five square blocks around the rencen and the casino don't count, though you can't get emergency services there either. It's not nonsense, you just don't use emergency services like police, EMS, or fire every day. That doesn't make it any less stupid to live somewhere they aren't available, though. Enjoy unplowed streets and no street lights while things "pick up", though. Oh, wait, the rencen has a parking garage. Nevermind. PS: obviously this "pick[ing] up" hasn't been reflected in tax revenues, eh?
    - zenocon 13y ago
      Listen, I'm really just fucking tired of people slagging Detroit. The people that are doing it always seem to fit the profile of this guy here, "I used to live there...I have relatives there...I visited there once..." -- quite frankly, fuck all y'all. We're doing fine in Detroit, we're making it better...slowly but surely.
      - semiprivate 13y ago
        we're making it better...slowly but surely That's a feeling not a measurement. Clearly economically it's getting worse. And emergency services seem to be getting worse. What exactly is getting better? All I'm saying is that, especially in crisis, the truth and measurement are far better than emotion. What exactly is getting better?
      - sneak 13y ago
        I lived there for 23 years. I am back for a week at least once a year. If you're tired of people slagging on your town, maybe your town should be one that doesn't suck?
  - cobrausn 13y ago
    You know, saying someone recounting his personal experience of being robbed at gunpoint several times is 'spreading FUD' because you haven't (yet) seems... myopic.
- ams6110 13y ago
  I've only been in Detroit proper a few times, but this all comports with the general impression of a complete hellhole. Hard to image a tech community "thriving" when basic city services and personal safety are so lacking.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    >Hard to image a tech community "thriving" when basic city services and personal safety are so lacking. when you're young, your hormones is off the chart, you have several people like you around - you're thriving and you don't need basic city services like police coming to quiet down your party, and "personal safety" is for old, like 30ish - 40ish folks.
    - cinquemb 13y ago
      Its kinda funny when "personal safety" seems to be equated to having a police force at your beck and call. In my neighborhood growing up it was a mac 11 (or that's what kids wished for…) and some paranoia of everyone… including the police. :P
- temphn 13y ago
  No one can "fix" Detroit because no one can even discuss the reasons why Detroit is Detroit. It's not Democrats (Seattle and the Bay Area are fine). It's not big companies (there do happen to be auto plants in other areas). It has to do with the great unmentionable taboos of modern American society. To state why Detroit is Detroit is like saying that "Stalin was a dictator" in 1970s Russia[1]. It doesn't matter that the leaders[2] of the society acknowledged that as fact, or even that everyone knew that it was true on some level. You yourself can't state the truth about why Detroit is Detroit. Like in the 1970s USSR, you won't be shot, you will just probably lose your job and/or be forced into a public apology. [1] http://www.volokh.com/2010/04/30/on-a-bus-in-kiev/ http://www.volokh.com/2010/04/30/on-a-bus-in-kiev/ I remember very little about my childhood in the Soviet Union; I was only seven when I left. But one memory I have is being on a bus with one of my parents, and asking something about a conversation we had had at home, in which Stalin and possibly Lenin were mentioned as examples of dictators. My parent took me off the bus at the next stop, even though it wasn’t the place we were originally going... What’s more, this is so even though most people, including most Communists, knew that Stalin was of course a dictator. The government itself had acknowledged as much. Even Lenin was widely understood to have been a dictator in the sense of someone who didn’t govern through democratic means. But it’s not the sort of thing that you’d want to say in public, or even to your friends in private. Sssh! — people might hear! Those who hear might draw deeper inferences about what else you might believe. This might get back to the place you work. You might be fired, or blacklisted. By the 1970s, you probably didn’t have to worry much about being shot, or being sent to Siberia; these were not the 1930s. But lost jobs, ruined careers — sure. And a forced public apology: well, of course, that might help a bit. [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-full-transcript/2013/07/19/5e33ebea-f09a-11e2-a1f9-ea873b7e0424_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-rema... Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African- American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain. I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.
danso 13y ago
There's not a lot of substance in the OP to back the claim "its Tech Community Is Going Strong"...and a lot of the individual assumptions/assertions made by the OP are kind of strange... > By some estimates, the city owes as much as $20 billion. But the news is unlikely to halt the growth of Detroit's burgeoning tech scene, according to some of its entrepreneurs. "according to some of its entrepreneurs"....if this is in the lede, I think it's safe to assume that the reporter isn't going to look at the big picture (i.e. the relative size of the tech startup boom compared to Detroit's job sector in general)... > "We are the Facebook or the Twitter of the area," Gierak says. "We can get unbelievably good people who are extremely talented and think we're the coolest job in town, as opposed to being the 550th coolest job in town back in San Francisco." I haven't been in the SF job market...but is the allure of being "Employee #single-digit" enough to outweigh a higher-paying job in a more amenable city? > Neverthless, the tech scene in Detroit does face challenges. The most recent Census data shows Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree, compared to Chicago's 250,000. Michigan is one of four states that had fewer young professionals in 2011 than it did in 2006. "...does face challenges"...that's quite the buried understatement. Detroit has a relatively tiny pool of young professionals...at the same time, tech jobs seem to still be in hot demand in nearby Chicago. It's definitely possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago? This is not to counter the actual achievements of the Stik team, but it's unlikely the tech scene -- especially with startups focused on online remote services -- will have much factor at all in reversing Detroit's deterioration. Not through any fault of their own, but because of the sheer size of local revitalization needed.
- ams6110 13y ago
  I lived in Chicago area for almost a decade and was happy to leave. But I'd live there again in a heartbeat compared to Detroit.
- bluedino 13y ago
  >> It's definitely possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago? Forget about Chicago - why would anyone pick Detroit over, nearby Ann Arbor?
vermontdevil 13y ago
NYC almost went bankrupt back in the 70's. It took a long time and a strong leadership to bring it back to where it stands now. Granted Detroit does not have the population size of NYC but with strong leadership they can rebound. Well see if it happens. My bro in law lives near there and sells RE for a living. Said he feels optimistic that if Detroit cuts down on the city boundaries and focuses on areas of growth and potential they'll pull through.
- pyre 13y ago
  Detroit hasn't had 'strong leadership' for a while though. Mostly people that care about using public funds to prop up their friends/family with jobs.
- rayiner 13y ago
  NYC always had the finance industry, which conveniently happened to boom like crazy from the 1980's-2000's.
- _delirium 13y ago
  They also had some of the problems with slow or non-existent emergency services, even much later than the '70s. As one cultural outgrowth of that, Public Enemy's "911 Is A Joke" was written in 1990 about poor emergency response.
krakensden 13y ago
It's hard to square these quotes: > SILICON VALLEY IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE IF YOU'RE IN THE 1% OF TECH STARTUPS. BUT IF YOU'RE IN THE OTHER 99%, YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME TRYING TO FIND TALENT, AND NOT ENOUGH BUILDING A BUSINESS > Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree Or is it "once we convince people to move here and work with us, they're trapped"?
- rmason 13y ago
  You're making a common mistake. Detroit has 700,000 people. Metro Detroit has an additional 3.5 million. I don't have the stats but there's a much larger number of young professionals within easy commuting distance of downtown Detroit.
toyg 13y ago
I'd like to say the good people of Manchester (UK) got through something very similar in the XX century, and have been on the up ever since 1992, when the IRA demolished half the rotting city centre and unwittingly kickstarted a ground-zero regeneration campaign that's been wildly successful. Maybe Detroit needs a similar "let's get our shit together" turning point; maybe it's already happened and we just don't know yet. It's clear that local geeks have produced positive media coverage for quite some time now (I'm sure I've seen quite a few features on this "Detroit rebirth" in the last 24 months).
- homosaur 13y ago
  Manchester has improved dramatically since the Thatcher years but they still have a ton of cash issues.
harryzhang 13y ago
Some of the comments are grossly exaggerated and don't really apply to the epicenter of Detroit where alot of the innovation/change is occurring. I grew up and lived around the Detroit area for 20+ years and I wholeheartedly agree with the article discussing the growing tech community in downtown Detroit. I now live in the Bay Area and the two definitely can't compare, but to make widely exaggerated statements about the living situation there just goes to show how different perception is from reality. Over the past few years, private investors have begun trying to make big changes in Detroit. These are big name guys like Dan Gilbert (Detroit Venture Partners) and Bill Ford (Fontinalis). Each have started VCs that have made heavy investments to help Detroit's tech community grow. The Madison building as discussed in the article only popped up in the recent years, supported by DVP. To be clear, I'm not talking about the entire Detroit metro/city area. The area that is on the up and coming is the area from Grand Circus Park up through Woodward right up to the Quicken Loans building. In the recent few years, Dan Gilbert along with other private investors has been buying up properties and renovating buildings. Practically every building in this 1 mile stretch is now owned by Dan Gilbert and is in the processed of being renovated and used by companies. For example, right next to the Madison Building, Detroit Labs has moved in. You can see some of the vision for the future of Detroit right here: http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-lays-out-vision-for-downtown-detroit/ http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-la... Not only that but there is a stronger young professional population in this area. In the past 2 years, huge buildings like the Broderick Tower (http://brodericktower.com/ http://brodericktower.com/) have been completely redone and turned into apartment buildings. These buildings are FULLY booked and are filled with young professionals. From a security and safety perspective, Detroit isn't the safest city but isn't as bad as some people may suggest. The stretch down Woodward is actually VERY safe. In the past two years, there has been outdoor security cameras installed EVERY single block all the way up to Quicken Loans building. Dan Gilbert has hired private security contractors who monitor these cameras 24/7. In fact, I'd argue that strip of downtown is safer then MANY cities. As a whole, the outskirts and further away from Downtown is a different story (near Wayne State, etc.). This article is focused on the change happening downtown, not the entire city. It's going to be a many years coming to but for someone having grown up close to Detroit, it's crazy to see the level of change happening in the past 2-3 years compared to the previous 10 years...and it's all starting in this 4-6 block section in Downtown. While Detroit isn't going to be the next SV or even NYC tech scene, to deny that there's change happening would just be ignorant. Even though Detroit as a city is going bankrupt, I cheer on the people who are there and working hard to make it a city they would be proud to call home. I encourage you guys just to check it out if you have the time. If you go to that section between Woodward and Grand Circus Park, you'll see that that lunch hours are PACKED with people and over the weekends when events are happening the city is bustling with life and energy. Don't like the FUD get to you and get out to see the real picture!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

50 points by bradbenvenuti 13y ago

sneak 13y ago

Anyone who lives or works there is a fool. I grew up there, and lived downtown for years before wising up. Have a medical emergency and call 911? You're lucky if an ambulance shows up within an hour, if at all. I've been robbed at gunpoint enough times for one lifetime. I'm tired of having to pick up my .45 as the first thing I do after landing at the airport and getting my rental car. Tell me how cheap rent has to be to make it worth it? No thanks. My family is there, I know tons and tons of people there, and know the city itself as well as the rest of the metro area like the back of my hand. You couldn't pay me to live there. There's a very good reason people run away from that place as if their lives depended on it. It's because they do.

zenocon 13y ago
FUD. This is total nonsense. I've lived in and around Detroit for the greater part of my life. I've even lived in the Bay Area for a couple years. There have been tremendous strides to turn this city around even in the last 5 years. I don't live in the city now, but I do work downtown every day in the Ren Cen. Even in the last year alone, I've noticed things pick up in the downtown area. I'm glad you took your cranky hatred elsewhere.
- danso 13y ago
  FWIW, government officials admit to the hour-long 911 waits: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-shocked-by-tolerance-for-detroit-mismanagement/ http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-sho... > [Gov.] Snyder said it’s been a long period of decline in Detroit, and now is the time to do something about it. With “unacceptable” 58-minute emergency response times, he said the 700,000 residents of Detroit deserve better. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409 http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409 (2010) > Most shocking, perhaps, occurred when a building collapsed on six firefighters, half of whom were taken to the hospital in squad cars and fire trucks because there were no ambulances on the scene. If that is how people in uniform are treated, imagine what it is like for the average citizen in the dark of night. >> Mack made a claim to Fox 2 News a few weeks ago that the average response time in Detroit for an ambulance to arrive on a 911 call is 12 minutes -- even while admitting that often there are no units available to get to calls. According to that 2004 audit, the two-year average at that time was about 12 minutes. And that was before the city cut its paramedics and emergency medical technicians by nearly 40 percent. As a comparison, the city of Grosse Pointe reports its average ambulance response is five minutes. Dearborn's is four minutes. Warren's is 5:35. In 2005, there were 303 paramedics and EMTs working the streets and the EMS division of the Fire Department had a budget of nearly $25 million. Today there are just 188 paramedics with a budget of nearly $23 million. With that many fewer paramedics, what happened to their estimated $11.5 million in salaries and benefits?
- rmason 13y ago
  Agree with you, the city is turning around. There's a spirit that wasn't there eighteen months ago. There's a vibrant and growing tech community. If you're not there its easy to miss it with the constant bombardment by the national media of what's called locally 'ruin porn'. A group of us is having a civic hackathon this fall at the M@dison Oct 4-5 to celebrate the state's release of open API's for five themes: jobs, tourism, safety, veterans and foster kids. If you want to see the real Detroit please join us: http://www.codemichigan.com http://www.codemichigan.com
  - zenocon 13y ago
    This guy gets it.
- sneak 13y ago
  The five square blocks around the rencen and the casino don't count, though you can't get emergency services there either. It's not nonsense, you just don't use emergency services like police, EMS, or fire every day. That doesn't make it any less stupid to live somewhere they aren't available, though. Enjoy unplowed streets and no street lights while things "pick up", though. Oh, wait, the rencen has a parking garage. Nevermind. PS: obviously this "pick[ing] up" hasn't been reflected in tax revenues, eh?
  - zenocon 13y ago
    Listen, I'm really just fucking tired of people slagging Detroit. The people that are doing it always seem to fit the profile of this guy here, "I used to live there...I have relatives there...I visited there once..." -- quite frankly, fuck all y'all. We're doing fine in Detroit, we're making it better...slowly but surely.
    - semiprivate 13y ago
      we're making it better...slowly but surely That's a feeling not a measurement. Clearly economically it's getting worse. And emergency services seem to be getting worse. What exactly is getting better? All I'm saying is that, especially in crisis, the truth and measurement are far better than emotion. What exactly is getting better?
    - sneak 13y ago
      I lived there for 23 years. I am back for a week at least once a year. If you're tired of people slagging on your town, maybe your town should be one that doesn't suck?
- cobrausn 13y ago
  You know, saying someone recounting his personal experience of being robbed at gunpoint several times is 'spreading FUD' because you haven't (yet) seems... myopic.
ams6110 13y ago
I've only been in Detroit proper a few times, but this all comports with the general impression of a complete hellhole. Hard to image a tech community "thriving" when basic city services and personal safety are so lacking.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >Hard to image a tech community "thriving" when basic city services and personal safety are so lacking. when you're young, your hormones is off the chart, you have several people like you around - you're thriving and you don't need basic city services like police coming to quiet down your party, and "personal safety" is for old, like 30ish - 40ish folks.
  - cinquemb 13y ago
    Its kinda funny when "personal safety" seems to be equated to having a police force at your beck and call. In my neighborhood growing up it was a mac 11 (or that's what kids wished for…) and some paranoia of everyone… including the police. :P
temphn 13y ago
No one can "fix" Detroit because no one can even discuss the reasons why Detroit is Detroit. It's not Democrats (Seattle and the Bay Area are fine). It's not big companies (there do happen to be auto plants in other areas). It has to do with the great unmentionable taboos of modern American society. To state why Detroit is Detroit is like saying that "Stalin was a dictator" in 1970s Russia[1]. It doesn't matter that the leaders[2] of the society acknowledged that as fact, or even that everyone knew that it was true on some level. You yourself can't state the truth about why Detroit is Detroit. Like in the 1970s USSR, you won't be shot, you will just probably lose your job and/or be forced into a public apology. [1] http://www.volokh.com/2010/04/30/on-a-bus-in-kiev/ http://www.volokh.com/2010/04/30/on-a-bus-in-kiev/ I remember very little about my childhood in the Soviet Union; I was only seven when I left. But one memory I have is being on a bus with one of my parents, and asking something about a conversation we had had at home, in which Stalin and possibly Lenin were mentioned as examples of dictators. My parent took me off the bus at the next stop, even though it wasn’t the place we were originally going... What’s more, this is so even though most people, including most Communists, knew that Stalin was of course a dictator. The government itself had acknowledged as much. Even Lenin was widely understood to have been a dictator in the sense of someone who didn’t govern through democratic means. But it’s not the sort of thing that you’d want to say in public, or even to your friends in private. Sssh! — people might hear! Those who hear might draw deeper inferences about what else you might believe. This might get back to the place you work. You might be fired, or blacklisted. By the 1970s, you probably didn’t have to worry much about being shot, or being sent to Siberia; these were not the 1930s. But lost jobs, ruined careers — sure. And a forced public apology: well, of course, that might help a bit. [2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-full-transcript/2013/07/19/5e33ebea-f09a-11e2-a1f9-ea873b7e0424_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obamas-rema... Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African- American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain. I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.

danso 13y ago

There's not a lot of substance in the OP to back the claim "its Tech Community Is Going Strong"...and a lot of the individual assumptions/assertions made by the OP are kind of strange... > By some estimates, the city owes as much as $20 billion. But the news is unlikely to halt the growth of Detroit's burgeoning tech scene, according to some of its entrepreneurs. "according to some of its entrepreneurs"....if this is in the lede, I think it's safe to assume that the reporter isn't going to look at the big picture (i.e. the relative size of the tech startup boom compared to Detroit's job sector in general)... > "We are the Facebook or the Twitter of the area," Gierak says. "We can get unbelievably good people who are extremely talented and think we're the coolest job in town, as opposed to being the 550th coolest job in town back in San Francisco." I haven't been in the SF job market...but is the allure of being "Employee #single-digit" enough to outweigh a higher-paying job in a more amenable city? > Neverthless, the tech scene in Detroit does face challenges. The most recent Census data shows Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree, compared to Chicago's 250,000. Michigan is one of four states that had fewer young professionals in 2011 than it did in 2006. "...does face challenges"...that's quite the buried understatement. Detroit has a relatively tiny pool of young professionals...at the same time, tech jobs seem to still be in hot demand in nearby Chicago. It's definitely possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago? This is not to counter the actual achievements of the Stik team, but it's unlikely the tech scene -- especially with startups focused on online remote services -- will have much factor at all in reversing Detroit's deterioration. Not through any fault of their own, but because of the sheer size of local revitalization needed.

ams6110 13y ago
I lived in Chicago area for almost a decade and was happy to leave. But I'd live there again in a heartbeat compared to Detroit.
bluedino 13y ago
>> It's definitely possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago? Forget about Chicago - why would anyone pick Detroit over, nearby Ann Arbor?

vermontdevil 13y ago

NYC almost went bankrupt back in the 70's. It took a long time and a strong leadership to bring it back to where it stands now. Granted Detroit does not have the population size of NYC but with strong leadership they can rebound. Well see if it happens. My bro in law lives near there and sells RE for a living. Said he feels optimistic that if Detroit cuts down on the city boundaries and focuses on areas of growth and potential they'll pull through.

pyre 13y ago
Detroit hasn't had 'strong leadership' for a while though. Mostly people that care about using public funds to prop up their friends/family with jobs.
rayiner 13y ago
NYC always had the finance industry, which conveniently happened to boom like crazy from the 1980's-2000's.
_delirium 13y ago
They also had some of the problems with slow or non-existent emergency services, even much later than the '70s. As one cultural outgrowth of that, Public Enemy's "911 Is A Joke" was written in 1990 about poor emergency response.

krakensden 13y ago

It's hard to square these quotes: > SILICON VALLEY IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE IF YOU'RE IN THE 1% OF TECH STARTUPS. BUT IF YOU'RE IN THE OTHER 99%, YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME TRYING TO FIND TALENT, AND NOT ENOUGH BUILDING A BUSINESS > Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree Or is it "once we convince people to move here and work with us, they're trapped"?

rmason 13y ago
You're making a common mistake. Detroit has 700,000 people. Metro Detroit has an additional 3.5 million. I don't have the stats but there's a much larger number of young professionals within easy commuting distance of downtown Detroit.

toyg 13y ago

I'd like to say the good people of Manchester (UK) got through something very similar in the XX century, and have been on the up ever since 1992, when the IRA demolished half the rotting city centre and unwittingly kickstarted a ground-zero regeneration campaign that's been wildly successful. Maybe Detroit needs a similar "let's get our shit together" turning point; maybe it's already happened and we just don't know yet. It's clear that local geeks have produced positive media coverage for quite some time now (I'm sure I've seen quite a few features on this "Detroit rebirth" in the last 24 months).

homosaur 13y ago
Manchester has improved dramatically since the Thatcher years but they still have a ton of cash issues.

harryzhang 13y ago

Some of the comments are grossly exaggerated and don't really apply to the epicenter of Detroit where alot of the innovation/change is occurring. I grew up and lived around the Detroit area for 20+ years and I wholeheartedly agree with the article discussing the growing tech community in downtown Detroit. I now live in the Bay Area and the two definitely can't compare, but to make widely exaggerated statements about the living situation there just goes to show how different perception is from reality. Over the past few years, private investors have begun trying to make big changes in Detroit. These are big name guys like Dan Gilbert (Detroit Venture Partners) and Bill Ford (Fontinalis). Each have started VCs that have made heavy investments to help Detroit's tech community grow. The Madison building as discussed in the article only popped up in the recent years, supported by DVP. To be clear, I'm not talking about the entire Detroit metro/city area. The area that is on the up and coming is the area from Grand Circus Park up through Woodward right up to the Quicken Loans building. In the recent few years, Dan Gilbert along with other private investors has been buying up properties and renovating buildings. Practically every building in this 1 mile stretch is now owned by Dan Gilbert and is in the processed of being renovated and used by companies. For example, right next to the Madison Building, Detroit Labs has moved in. You can see some of the vision for the future of Detroit right here: http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-lays-out-vision-for-downtown-detroit/ http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-la... Not only that but there is a stronger young professional population in this area. In the past 2 years, huge buildings like the Broderick Tower (http://brodericktower.com/ http://brodericktower.com/) have been completely redone and turned into apartment buildings. These buildings are FULLY booked and are filled with young professionals. From a security and safety perspective, Detroit isn't the safest city but isn't as bad as some people may suggest. The stretch down Woodward is actually VERY safe. In the past two years, there has been outdoor security cameras installed EVERY single block all the way up to Quicken Loans building. Dan Gilbert has hired private security contractors who monitor these cameras 24/7. In fact, I'd argue that strip of downtown is safer then MANY cities. As a whole, the outskirts and further away from Downtown is a different story (near Wayne State, etc.). This article is focused on the change happening downtown, not the entire city. It's going to be a many years coming to but for someone having grown up close to Detroit, it's crazy to see the level of change happening in the past 2-3 years compared to the previous 10 years...and it's all starting in this 4-6 block section in Downtown. While Detroit isn't going to be the next SV or even NYC tech scene, to deny that there's change happening would just be ignorant. Even though Detroit as a city is going bankrupt, I cheer on the people who are there and working hard to make it a city they would be proud to call home. I encourage you guys just to check it out if you have the time. If you go to that section between Woodward and Grand Circus Park, you'll see that that lunch hours are PACKED with people and over the weekends when events are happening the city is bustling with life and energy. Don't like the FUD get to you and get out to see the real picture!

deleted 13y ago

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