Amazon is looking for a new HQ, and Detroit's in the running if we badger our representatives enough (Flint: houses, employment)

[bunding761031]

Michigan would have a chance if Ann Arbor was on the list

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

I know someone in his late-30s who has no skills and works a string of low-wage jobs. He's STILL holding out hope that he'll get on the line at GM. He thinks he's going to get that Michibilly golden ticket and all his problems will be solved.

I'm sure we could each tell a dozen stories like this. It is literally unbelievable to me.

I don't know anybody who didn't go to college because they thought that they could get a job on the assembly line. None of my cousins in Detroit, Inkster, and Flint think this. None of my high school friends/teammates/casual associates. None of the young people I went to my church with. All of us initially went to college, a few the military. This a dwindling attitude.

[brodie734]

I might suggest that it's an attitude that exists more in Blue Collar style middle class suburbs to the west and south of the city. Pretty much everyone I knew growing up to work for or assumed that they would work for one of the big three... some of them eventually got over that and went to college or joined the military or made something of themselves another way, but I also know people in their mid-to-late thirties still holding out for that UAW card which will ostensibly make everything worthwhile.

These are the kind of people who identify as third generation GM men and the like, the ones with bumper stickers saying "out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign".

[Nattering Heights]

Amazon is one of the worst corporate employers, with low wages and abusive working conditions. It doesn't have a future without cheap fuel. We need mass transit, but we don't need another megacorp. We can and eventually will rebuild our own economy, after we stop hoping someone else will do it for us.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by brodie734

I might suggest that it's an attitude that exists more in Blue Collar style middle class suburbs to the west and south of the city. Pretty much everyone I knew growing up to work for or assumed that they would work for one of the big three... some of them eventually got over that and went to college or joined the military or made something of themselves another way, but I also know people in their mid-to-late thirties still holding out for that UAW card which will ostensibly make everything worthwhile.

These are the kind of people who identify as third generation GM men and the like, the ones with bumper stickers saying "out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign".

The Big 3 example is an extreme one. I just think there's a general anti-education attitude in large pockets of the region. And, yes, it's typically in the blue collar areas. There are a lot of people who believe college is just a scam and do not see any value in it. This attitude does have its roots in the UAW mentality that permeated the region for so many years.

[Coldjensens]

I think they should choose Pontiac. It does to meet most of their qualifications, but they can easily buy the entire city, rename it Amazon City and rebuild it any way they like.

[djmilf]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

I think they should choose Pontiac. It does to meet most of their qualifications, but they can easily buy the entire city, rename it Amazon City and rebuild it any way they like.

Pontiac doesn't have the mass transit nor the concentration of educated office workers required.

It does have the possibility of a city core / night life scene. There might be enough land, as the Pontiac Silverdome is being torn down and the parcel of land it used to occupy (including the parking lots) will become the single biggest piece of commericial real estate in Oakland County, if not the entire Metro Detroit area.

[jaynarie]

Originally Posted by djmilf

Pontiac doesn't have the mass transit nor the concentration of educated office workers required.

It does have the possibility of a city core / night life scene. There might be enough land, as the Pontiac Silverdome is being torn down and the parcel of land it used to occupy (including the parking lots) will become the single biggest piece of commericial real estate in Oakland County, if not the entire Metro Detroit area.

Detroit doesn't have the mass transit, either. Unless you are really heavily counting the People Mover and the QLine, Pontiac isn't much worse off.

The majority of the 'educated office workers' working downtown, or in Troy, Southfield, etc... commute. Why can't they commute to Pontiac? Honestly, many would be closer, and those who aren't would have a less congested commute.

Actually, Pontiac is good because it can attract the underemployed educated people living/working in Flint and Lapeer.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by jaynarie

Detroit doesn't have the mass transit, either. Unless you are really heavily counting the People Mover and the QLine, Pontiac isn't much worse off.

The majority of the 'educated office workers' working downtown, or in Troy, Southfield, etc... commute. Why can't they commute to Pontiac? Honestly, many would be closer, and those who aren't would have a less congested commute.

Actually, Pontiac is good because it can attract the underemployed educated people living/working in Flint and Lapeer.

Are there any underemployed educated people living in Lapeer or Flint?

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by bunding761031

Michigan would have a chance if Ann Arbor was on the list

In pages 3 through 5 of the Amazon HQ2 thread in the Chicago Forum, Detroit and Ann Arbor are brought up a number of times. There are even a few posters on there that proposed Ann Arbor alone could vie for the Amazon HQ2.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chica...listen-up.html