9 ms·

Detroit: Bankrupt city turned corporate luxury brand

74 points by drjohnson 12y ago

justintocci 12y ago
there seems to be an attitude that what happened to detroit was not related to policies and politics. i respectfully submit that significant lasting change in any system requires change in the environment.
- pyre 12y ago
  It was definitely racially motivated. That's where the schism began; back at the height of Detroit when poor blacks from the South were encouraged to come to Detroit to work the assembly lines. Also in the disruption of the Big 3 when faced with foreign competition (thought IIRC, this is related to policies and politics because the Big 3 were protected by import controls for a while).
  - grimgrin 12y ago
    I've saved a very informational Reddit comment giving a nice summary of The Fall of Detroit: https://gist.github.com/shmup/11354626 https://gist.github.com/shmup/11354626
- bluthru 12y ago
  Especially in the physical sense. The home of the big three tore down buildings, inserted parking lots, created large arteries to the suburbs, and that allowed white flight to take place. Live by the car, die by the car.
personZ 12y ago
Detroit has bounced off the bottom. While we might exult in the ruin-porn of Detroit, it is a city on the mend, and is really an interesting city full of significant potential. I say that as a Canadian who travels to Detroit from the Toronto area, never feeling a moment of fear but enjoying some great restaurants, entertainment, and sports. Go Lions!
- camus2 12y ago
  I guess we didnt visit the same place... Detroit is a dump and nobody wants to pick up the tab.
  - personZ 12y ago
    The downtown is resurgent, and is certainly not a dump. Many of the suburbs are very affluent. There is a large area that is in very dire shape (which is, of course, the area that people focus on when they seek their ruin porn), but is no worse than it was 20 years ago, and in most cases is significantly better. Detroit had been in decline for many, many decades. It hit bottom and is getting better.
    - olmucky 12y ago
      "There is a large area that is in very dire shape... but is no worse than it was 20 years ago" This is absolutely untrue. I live in Detroit and work with its property data on a daily basis. The physical state of the city has deteriorated significantly since the financial crisis of 2008-9. The downtown that is resurgent encompasses 7.2 of 139 square miles. Most of the city has not bottomed out. People continue to leave, properties continue to burn, and the news of Detroit's resurgence remains greatly overstated. Take a look here to see how Detroit has fared since 2008: http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/ http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/
      - sp332 12y ago
        If you're having trouble relating to the numbers, here's a great episode of Parts Unknown that shows how bad Detroit is now, hosted by a guy who really likes Detroit. http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-2/detroit/index.html http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknow... (not so much the videos, but the text below.)
      - antidaily 12y ago
        You work in property data -- tell us more. Are you buying? Selling? Neither?
antidaily 12y ago
No matter what you have to say about Detroit, good or bad: It's not that simple.
brohoolio 12y ago
It's bouncing back big time. It's going to take 10 or more years for the whole city, but it will be unrecognizable in the central city in the next few years. I say this because when I go riding my bike in Detroit on Monday nights 2,000 people ride with me. That's the kind of thing that makes people move in. Hole in the wall restaurants have an hour wait. Big name restaurants take reservations weeks in advance. Minor minor minor minor league soccer teams draw like 2,500 people. The brand is strong. People are going to use it. There is a ton of energy down here and a shit ton of people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right, and they are becoming right for the hipsters and college kids.
- bilbo0s 12y ago
  "...people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right..." Probably not... because once the "conditions" are right... the price DEFINITELY will not be. But Detroit will probably draw more and more of the high end of the creative class. I won't argue that.
  - michaelfdeberry 12y ago
    This can already be seen, housing is going to be a huge problem without some major investment in that area as well. Nowhere beside Downtown, and maybe one other neighborhood, is worth living in right now, and the rent in those areas are starting to sky rocket. Living in Cleveland I sometimes get contact by companies in Detroit looking for developers. I recently considered taking a position, but the housing situation made me reconsider. It was either pay 3X the rent for an apartment Downtown, compared to my apartment in Cleveland, or have a 45-60 commute every day. Even with the increase in salary it wasn't worth the move.
    - brohoolio 12y ago
      Definitely a problem right now too much demand not enough housing but the market has a way of fixing that.
    - maxmem 12y ago
cschmidt 12y ago
Shinola is using leather from the Chicago tannery Horween, that was discussed on HN last week... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7705512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7705512 http://www.shinola.com/journal/what-horween-leather http://www.shinola.com/journal/what-horween-leather
Dwolb 12y ago
I'm so torn by all these comments about whether Detroit has 'bounced back' or not. On one hand, it certainly seems like salaries, wages, rents, and prices are rising in the Detroit metro area, on the other hand parts of the city are in really bad shape. My own perspective is to not focus on how to classify Detroit's status in relation to other cities and metrics, but to focus on what Detroit is. It's an eclectic area where poverty, middle class, and affluence collide. There are creative communities that butt right up against dangerous areas. It's a great area to bike since certain times of day cars are few and far between, and there is an upbeat sense of happiness in some communities. There's not much more to it other than it's the people's town and the behavior of individuals will have a lot to do with how Detroit fares in the coming years.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
blueskin_ 12y ago
I don't see how this would work, unless there are some nice suburbs/towns just outside Detroit, or companies allow a lot of remote work. Otherwise, you'd be hiring, have interested people up until you say the word "Detroit", then never hear from them again. Personally, I'd rather live somewhere I'm not likely to be mugged walking around the corner to the shops.

74 points by drjohnson 12y ago

there seems to be an attitude that what happened to detroit was not related to policies and politics. i respectfully submit that significant lasting change in any system requires change in the environment.

pyre 12y ago
It was definitely racially motivated. That's where the schism began; back at the height of Detroit when poor blacks from the South were encouraged to come to Detroit to work the assembly lines. Also in the disruption of the Big 3 when faced with foreign competition (thought IIRC, this is related to policies and politics because the Big 3 were protected by import controls for a while).
- grimgrin 12y ago
  I've saved a very informational Reddit comment giving a nice summary of The Fall of Detroit: https://gist.github.com/shmup/11354626 https://gist.github.com/shmup/11354626
bluthru 12y ago
Especially in the physical sense. The home of the big three tore down buildings, inserted parking lots, created large arteries to the suburbs, and that allowed white flight to take place. Live by the car, die by the car.

personZ 12y ago

Detroit has bounced off the bottom. While we might exult in the ruin-porn of Detroit, it is a city on the mend, and is really an interesting city full of significant potential. I say that as a Canadian who travels to Detroit from the Toronto area, never feeling a moment of fear but enjoying some great restaurants, entertainment, and sports. Go Lions!

camus2 12y ago
I guess we didnt visit the same place... Detroit is a dump and nobody wants to pick up the tab.
- personZ 12y ago
  The downtown is resurgent, and is certainly not a dump. Many of the suburbs are very affluent. There is a large area that is in very dire shape (which is, of course, the area that people focus on when they seek their ruin porn), but is no worse than it was 20 years ago, and in most cases is significantly better. Detroit had been in decline for many, many decades. It hit bottom and is getting better.
  - olmucky 12y ago
    "There is a large area that is in very dire shape... but is no worse than it was 20 years ago" This is absolutely untrue. I live in Detroit and work with its property data on a daily basis. The physical state of the city has deteriorated significantly since the financial crisis of 2008-9. The downtown that is resurgent encompasses 7.2 of 139 square miles. Most of the city has not bottomed out. People continue to leave, properties continue to burn, and the news of Detroit's resurgence remains greatly overstated. Take a look here to see how Detroit has fared since 2008: http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/ http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/
    - sp332 12y ago
      If you're having trouble relating to the numbers, here's a great episode of Parts Unknown that shows how bad Detroit is now, hosted by a guy who really likes Detroit. http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown/season-2/detroit/index.html http://www.cnn.com/video/shows/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknow... (not so much the videos, but the text below.)
    - antidaily 12y ago
      You work in property data -- tell us more. Are you buying? Selling? Neither?

antidaily 12y ago

No matter what you have to say about Detroit, good or bad: It's not that simple.

brohoolio 12y ago

It's bouncing back big time. It's going to take 10 or more years for the whole city, but it will be unrecognizable in the central city in the next few years. I say this because when I go riding my bike in Detroit on Monday nights 2,000 people ride with me. That's the kind of thing that makes people move in. Hole in the wall restaurants have an hour wait. Big name restaurants take reservations weeks in advance. Minor minor minor minor league soccer teams draw like 2,500 people. The brand is strong. People are going to use it. There is a ton of energy down here and a shit ton of people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right, and they are becoming right for the hipsters and college kids.

bilbo0s 12y ago
"...people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right..." Probably not... because once the "conditions" are right... the price DEFINITELY will not be. But Detroit will probably draw more and more of the high end of the creative class. I won't argue that.
- michaelfdeberry 12y ago
  This can already be seen, housing is going to be a huge problem without some major investment in that area as well. Nowhere beside Downtown, and maybe one other neighborhood, is worth living in right now, and the rent in those areas are starting to sky rocket. Living in Cleveland I sometimes get contact by companies in Detroit looking for developers. I recently considered taking a position, but the housing situation made me reconsider. It was either pay 3X the rent for an apartment Downtown, compared to my apartment in Cleveland, or have a 45-60 commute every day. Even with the increase in salary it wasn't worth the move.
  - brohoolio 12y ago
    Definitely a problem right now too much demand not enough housing but the market has a way of fixing that.
  - maxmem 12y ago

cschmidt 12y ago

Shinola is using leather from the Chicago tannery Horween, that was discussed on HN last week... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7705512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7705512 http://www.shinola.com/journal/what-horween-leather http://www.shinola.com/journal/what-horween-leather

Dwolb 12y ago

I'm so torn by all these comments about whether Detroit has 'bounced back' or not. On one hand, it certainly seems like salaries, wages, rents, and prices are rising in the Detroit metro area, on the other hand parts of the city are in really bad shape. My own perspective is to not focus on how to classify Detroit's status in relation to other cities and metrics, but to focus on what Detroit is. It's an eclectic area where poverty, middle class, and affluence collide. There are creative communities that butt right up against dangerous areas. It's a great area to bike since certain times of day cars are few and far between, and there is an upbeat sense of happiness in some communities. There's not much more to it other than it's the people's town and the behavior of individuals will have a lot to do with how Detroit fares in the coming years.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

blueskin_ 12y ago

I don't see how this would work, unless there are some nice suburbs/towns just outside Detroit, or companies allow a lot of remote work. Otherwise, you'd be hiring, have interested people up until you say the word "Detroit", then never hear from them again. Personally, I'd rather live somewhere I'm not likely to be mugged walking around the corner to the shops.