1/3 of Michigan residents optimistic about Detroit's future (Hudson: real estate market, 2013)

[magellan]

The silver lining in this poll is that, despite the major issues that Detroit is facing, 29% of Michigan residents think it will be a vibrant city again, even as early as 5 years from now. Only 9% think it will never come back.

Poll: Detroit's economy will take at least 6 years to recover | The Detroit News

56% of those polled also believed that Michigan is headed in the right direction. I think that's a decade high.

[Retroit]

Or 2/3 of Michigan residents pessimistic about Detroit's future

Could be spun either way. Would like to know what the other options were (aside from the "never" option). They should always provide a link to the actual survey. Wording makes a big difference in how people respond.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by magellan

The silver lining in this poll is that, despite the major issues that Detroit is facing, 29% of Michigan residents think it will be a vibrant city again, even as early as 5 years from now. Only 9% think it will never come back.

Poll: Detroit's economy will take at least 6 years to recover | The Detroit News

56% of those polled also believed that Michigan is headed in the right direction. I think that's a decade high.

That is all contingent upon how the national economy does. I think TRENDS definitely point to a Detroit comeback. Nationally, young people are trending towards urban living as opposed to suburban living. Empty nesters are trending similar. Americas future is trending urban and Detroit is the states largest urban area and it has to get Detroit together to attract the type of young people that many of Southeastern Michigan businesses covet. Detroit's future and Michigans future go hand and hand. I think also that there is a symbiotic relationship between the US auto industry, which is called "Detroit" and the city of Detroit itself. Thus, if the city of Detroit has a negative image I think the US auto industry, by association, image is damaged. I think also if the auto industry booms again, the image of Detroit proper will benefit as well. So I think the big three (if that is still applicable) is likely putting pressure on the state to do something about Detroit proper.....lest one of the big three HQ relocate to another state, so its image is not dragged down by its association with Detroit.

I am not that confident about Americas economic future, however. The economy is structurally unsound and current means of keeping it afloat are untenable and actually makes the situation worse in the long run. Essentially what the country produces is way out of line of what it consumes....and the difference is being supported by debt and money printing. If the country was to immediately seek to create equilibrium between production and consumption, it would create a massive depression. Thus, it has to be done via gradualism, but that gradualism still amounts to a reduction of the overall standard of living in the nation..but slow enough not to create panic and the paradox of thrift. That having been said, that gradualism is not taking place, which means that the pressures are building up for an explosion, because there is no political will to ramp things down. True, the opposition party is advocating such because they know that the pain that it will cause will likely make them the incumbents the next time around....but they will not do it when they are the incumbents either because the pain it causes will lead to them being voted out as well.

[Retroit]

Slightly veering off topic...

I think Americans have accepted the fact that we will never have the prosperity we did when production met/exceeded consumption. The very people that have lost good paying manufacturing jobs are the ones that go shopping at Walmart to buy Made In China products.

I'm not so sure that creating equilibrium would lead to a depression. In fact, I think it would lead to a huge bubble if not tempered with moderation. I am a huge fan of import taxes (tariffs). I don't believe the "it will cause a trade war" claims.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Slightly veering off topic...

I think Americans have accepted the fact that we will never have the prosperity we did when production met/exceeded consumption. The very people that have lost good paying manufacturing jobs are the ones that go shopping at Walmart to buy Made In China products.

I'm not so sure that creating equilibrium would lead to a depression. In fact, I think it would lead to a huge bubble if not tempered with moderation. I am a huge fan of import taxes (tariffs). I don't believe the "it will cause a trade war" claims.

Equilibrium could be created by increasing our production and decreasing our imports/consumption (of foreign goods). This would produce wide spread inflation (unless we are willing to produce things at the same wage rate as they are produced in China).

You cannot have a high wage nation produce low cost goods. We have low cost goods because we import them from low wage nations. If we consume our own goods, at the higher labor cost, that cost will be passed down to the consumer which in turn will reduce the purchasing power of the dollars earned.

That having been noted I think we have reached the point where the need for human labor is diminishing from technology. Automation has eliminated more jobs than off shoring. Right now, if we fully leveraged technology, thousands of jobs could and would be lost. For example, fiber optics and throughput increases are such that most office workers could work from home (telecommute). You can video conference for meetings and have the same workstation that you have at work. if this was done on a massive scale the commercial real estate market for office buildings would soon collapse....oil companies would see a major reduction in revenues as gas spent in cars commuting to brick and mortar offices radically decline.

The goal of most companies is productivity gains. Getting more done with the same (or less) input. That has people elimination written all over it.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Or 2/3 of Michigan residents pessimistic about Detroit's future

Could be spun either way. Would like to know what the other options were (aside from the "never" option). They should always provide a link to the actual survey. Wording makes a big difference in how people respond.

That's why I said the "silver lining" in the poll is the 29%. With bankruptcy going on, I'm surprised anyone would be optimistic. I don't know that if they did this poll 8 - 10 years ago that they would get that kind of response.

[Tekkie]

I was downtown on Saturday night. I decided to have dinner down there and have some drinks while watching the Wings' game. I was amazed at how many people were down there. There were actually long waits at several of the restaurants down there.

I ended up going to the new Bagger Dave's (highly recommended) near Greektown. Ever since coming back here, I've been optimistic about the developments I've seen around town. It is definitely coming along.

[belleislerunner]

How could you not be optimistic about Detroit?

Breaking ground/completion within the next 12-24 months

1) New Starwood hotel opening next year/Whitney
2) New biomedical building at WSU
3) New 9 story apartments/hotel in Midtown
4) Architects/developers announced for Hudson site
5) Meridan Health building new skyscraper across from Campus Martius
6) New residential/retail at site of National Theatre

This doesn't even include the arena district and many more plans.

Defintely past the inflection point for downtown/midtown development.

[Retroit]

^True, but not all of Detroit is downtown/midtown.

Probably the 29% who were optimistic were thinking of downtown/midtown and the 71% who were "other" were thinking of the rest of the city.

[Tekkie]

Originally Posted by Retroit

^True, but not all of Detroit is downtown/midtown.

Probably the 29% who were optimistic were thinking of downtown/midtown and the 71% who were "other" were thinking of the rest of the city.

This is probably true. But any reasonable person should realize that this isn't going to be an overnight recovery. I've seen more progress downtown in the last five years or so than I have over all 28 years of my life. It seems to really be picking up steam. Hopefully the surrounding neighborhoods will be gentrified.