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I see cities such as Denver and Seattle, both of which were once sleepers and barely relevant on a national level, are now 21st century boomtowns despite having overall less potential than Detroit (bordering one of the country's largest trading partners, the world class museums / theatres, already having a huge / modern / international airport, relatively safe from natural disasters, ample fresh water, etc.). So you would think there's hope for Detroit too.
Yet, I'm not really seeing the progress in real time to suggest Detroit is going to be this "next best thing." It's not really building the tech startup ecosystem that happened in Denver or Seattle, and a lot of Detroit's problems are still so severe (some beyond repair, like the school system) that the city's not really seeing a flood of transplants that are simply attracted to the city's quirky culture or in search of cheaper real estate
Yet, then again, there is the progress being made with autonomous vehicles. You never know how big that will blow up, and it could help to usher in a new economic renaissance for the city. People will move almost anywhere if there are plenty of high-paying jobs. After all, it was home grown Microsoft and its innovative Windows software that helped to get the ball rolling for Seattle, even before Amazon.
But what say you? Where do you see Detroit 10, 20 or 30 years from now?
Denver and Seattle both suffered from explosive growth (Denver still is). Their planning and infrastructure could not keep up with the growth, so they ended up with a bland milquetoast city with much of what made it cool to begin with destroyed. They also have massive problems with traffic, crowding, housing etc. While both remain great cities, I believe their future is not bright. When a City grows too fast it is doomed to mediocrity in the long term. Even Ann Arbor is suffering from this problem. (Ann Arbor is still a great city, but it is not what it was thirty years ago, and its spiral into mediocrity seems unstoppable).
The comparatively slow growth of Detroit, while not deemed desirable right now may well be extremely good for it in the long term. For a time, Detroit ran afoul of the "throw up anything and make i work" idea, but now there is a little more planning going on. The City seems to have finally realized that we have assets that few or n other cities have even if much of what we had has been wiped out. Still Detroit was once the most beautiful city in America and some of that remains. This allows Detroit to plan for growth in the long term.
Thus, while Denver, Seattle, Austin, and other flash growth cities are doomed to become LA or Orange County - places with no soul and too many problems with insufficient resources to deal with, Detroit has the opportunity to grow slowly and steadily and become one of the long term great cities along the lines of Boston or Charleston.
I recently realized that without my noticing, Detroit has become a foodie heaven. My wife asked me for a list of really good fancy restaurants in the City, and I came up with 25 that are good enough you would bring out of state guests to them to show off our fine cuisine. Not just "this is decent food" places, but WOW! kinds of places. Alas, the prices that go with such places have come to town as well (last weekend we had a meal that was probably $600 including tip for four people, but holy cow wow.
I have eaten at many of the best restaurants in the country and never has such good steak).
So we have:
The second or third largest theater district in the USA.
A major research university (which is currently making a huge push to climb the rankings by heavily recruiting better performing students). And all the cultural things that go with it.
A foodie paradise.
A top ten or so art museum.
Nearby world class destination (Henry Ford/Greenfield village).
Reasonably good symphony.
An adequate supply (for now) of awesome B & Bs and hotels. (Check out the In on Ferry Street btw).
A great assortment of pubs, taverns and especially music venues.
A source of development funds (Gilbert and Illich).
Internationally recognized festivals (Jazz; Movement; Freedom; C & W)
Three, soon to be four major league sports teams right in the City.
Some of the best and most plentiful early 20th century architecture to be found anywhere.
No crowds (for now).
Some great history and reputation (Motown music headquarters, civil rights movement, underground railroad, French and then English trading fort, birth of the auto industry, etc).
A lot of highly creative people and lots of affordable opportunities for them to test their ideas.
Some Cities have some of these things. I am pretty sure no city has all of these things in one place.
Although most of our local population seems blind to Detroit's assets and potential, more and more people from elsewhere are beginning to take notice. If Detroit can avoid becoming the next Austin/Seattle, etc, and suffering from flash in the pan explosive growth, it has the potential to return to the ranks of America's coolest cities.
There is still a lot of improvement needed. Much of it is underway. We need a better transit system. Scooters are only a temporary fix. We are also missing retail, but retail is dying out anyway. We may actually be at an advantage because we will not be negatively impacted by the eventual death of retail. Kind of like so many less developed countries have better infrastructure than we do because they got it more recently (electrical wires in the ground for example, or cell systems rather than telephone lines).
We need to fix the neighborhoods and hopefully that will not mean replace them with McMansion subdivisions or just hastily tossed together cheapo, bland conforming (but pricey) housing for the masses. This is most of what has destroyed so many cities when they become the popular place to be.
For me, right now, it is the perfect City. It offers everything I want in a City (except retail - which I do not care a lot about), but without the crowds which I cannot stand.
Detroit has more opportunity for people and more opportunity to become a great City once again than any place I can think of. Whether it will go the remains to be seen, but it is definitely ont he right track (mostly).
Denver and Seattle both suffered from explosive growth (Denver still is). Their planning and infrastructure could not keep up with the growth, so they ended up with a bland milquetoast city with much of what made it cool to begin with destroyed. They also have massive problems with traffic, crowding, housing etc. While both remain great cities, I believe their future is not bright. When a City grows too fast it is doomed to mediocrity in the long term. Even Ann Arbor is suffering from this problem. (Ann Arbor is still a great city, but it is not what it was thirty years ago, and its spiral into mediocrity seems unstoppable).
The comparatively slow growth of Detroit, while not deemed desirable right now may well be extremely good for it in the long term. For a time, Detroit ran afoul of the "throw up anything and make i work" idea, but now there is a little more planning going on. The City seems to have finally realized that we have assets that few or n other cities have even if much of what we had has been wiped out. Still Detroit was once the most beautiful city in America and some of that remains. This allows Detroit to plan for growth in the long term.
Thus, while Denver, Seattle, Austin, and other flash growth cities are doomed to become LA or Orange County - places with no soul and too many problems with insufficient resources to deal with, Detroit has the opportunity to grow slowly and steadily and become one of the long term great cities along the lines of Boston or Charleston.
I recently realized that without my noticing, Detroit has become a foodie heaven. My wife asked me for a list of really good fancy restaurants in the City, and I came up with 25 that are good enough you would bring out of state guests to them to show off our fine cuisine. Not just "this is decent food" places, but WOW! kinds of places. Alas, the prices that go with such places have come to town as well (last weekend we had a meal that was probably $600 including tip for four people, but holy cow wow.
I have eaten at many of the best restaurants in the country and never has such good steak).
So we have:
The second or third largest theater district in the USA.
A major research university (which is currently making a huge push to climb the rankings by heavily recruiting better performing students). And all the cultural things that go with it.
A foodie paradise.
A top ten or so art museum.
Nearby world class destination (Henry Ford/Greenfield village).
Reasonably good symphony.
An adequate supply (for now) of awesome B & Bs and hotels. (Check out the In on Ferry Street btw).
A great assortment of pubs, taverns and especially music venues.
A source of development funds (Gilbert and Illich).
Internationally recognized festivals (Jazz; Movement; Freedom; C & W)
Three, soon to be four major league sports teams right in the City.
Some of the best and most plentiful early 20th century architecture to be found anywhere.
No crowds (for now).
Some great history and reputation (Motown music headquarters, civil rights movement, underground railroad, French and then English trading fort, birth of the auto industry, etc).
A lot of highly creative people and lots of affordable opportunities for them to test their ideas.
Some Cities have some of these things. I am pretty sure no city has all of these things in one place.
Although most of our local population seems blind to Detroit's assets and potential, more and more people from elsewhere are beginning to take notice. If Detroit can avoid becoming the next Austin/Seattle, etc, and suffering from flash in the pan explosive growth, it has the potential to return to the ranks of America's coolest cities.
There is still a lot of improvement needed. Much of it is underway. We need a better transit system. Scooters are only a temporary fix. We are also missing retail, but retail is dying out anyway. We may actually be at an advantage because we will not be negatively impacted by the eventual death of retail. Kind of like so many less developed countries have better infrastructure than we do because they got it more recently (electrical wires in the ground for example, or cell systems rather than telephone lines).
We need to fix the neighborhoods and hopefully that will not mean replace them with McMansion subdivisions or just hastily tossed together cheapo, bland conforming (but pricey) housing for the masses. This is most of what has destroyed so many cities when they become the popular place to be.
For me, right now, it is the perfect City. It offers everything I want in a City (except retail - which I do not care a lot about), but without the crowds which I cannot stand.
Detroit has more opportunity for people and more opportunity to become a great City once again than any place I can think of. Whether it will go the remains to be seen, but it is definitely ont he right track (mostly).
Thanks for your post.
What you project can be a good thing in a way if you don't want Detroit to lose its grittiness and are concerned about long-time natives being driven out, but it also accepting that the recovery is going to be extremely slow and hard without some type of prosperity bomb. People who want to stick around to see Detroit's comeback must be willing to hang in there, for better or worse, for the long haul.
As far as retail, while it may be limited in the city proper, you only have to go a few miles outside the border in any direction to find all of the national chains you need / can think of. So it's not like you're really deprived of anything, even if somewhat underserved.
Part of Detroit's success is relative to other cities that won't exist anymore. Many will be under water, drought wasteland, burned away in fires, etc. Just existing while others don't is drawing waves of refugees, starting with Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, all metropolises will lose population back to small farms and farm towns that need craftsmen and laborers, since there won't be much oil to run farm machinery or global commerce. Detroit's position on the St. Lawrence Seaway provides freshwater, transportation without road maintenance, and hydropower, which could be used for electricity or directly as mechanical energy to turn mills.
Part of Detroit's success is relative to other cities that won't exist anymore. Many will be under water, drought wasteland, burned away in fires, etc. Just existing while others don't is drawing waves of refugees, starting with Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, all metropolises will lose population back to small farms and farm towns that need craftsmen and laborers, since there won't be much oil to run farm machinery or global commerce. Detroit's position on the St. Lawrence Seaway provides freshwater, transportation without road maintenance, and hydropower, which could be used for electricity or directly as mechanical energy to turn mills.
What about the volcanoes popping up all over the State. They can provide power. Not sure the St Lawrence seaway will still be there after the earthquakes.
I know coldbunsens, what is this guy talking about anyway?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
What about the volcanoes popping up all over the State. They can provide power. Not sure the St Lawrence seaway will still be there after the earthquakes.
Part of Detroit's success is relative to other cities that won't exist anymore. Many will be under water, drought wasteland, burned away in fires, etc. Just existing while others don't is drawing waves of refugees, starting with Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, all metropolises will lose population back to small farms and farm towns that need craftsmen and laborers, since there won't be much oil to run farm machinery or global commerce. Detroit's position on the St. Lawrence Seaway provides freshwater, transportation without road maintenance, and hydropower, which could be used for electricity or directly as mechanical energy to turn mills.
We shouldn't be pinning our hopes on natural disasters to re-populate our city.
We need to be attractive to prospective employers and citizens by providing good government services, providing fiscally prudent government services and reduce substantially government waste, provide good infrastructure and robust transportation options (including rapid transit), leverage to the maximum, the (few) assets we have in the region (mainly the water bodies and international location), reducing violent crime to acceptable levels, and providing good public school system.
It's a question of how many people can live on the local food supply. Decades of industrial pollution, salted roads, and other acts of recklessness have decreased that capacity. The shipping traffic can bring some food, but in trade. We can't make enough of anything for that much food. Everywhere else will also have people to feed. Without oil, Detroit is just a river town.
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