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I was born in Detroit in 1981. It's a complicated place with a dark past. I was just a twinkle in my father's eyes during the infamous race riots of 1967. He stills tells me stories of how awful it was, seeing the National Guard lock down the entire city, the mass looting, violence, white flight.
He tells me this new generation just doesn't understand the history. You'd really have to live through it to be able to do so. In many ways, that's a good thing. Detroit desperately needs more optimism. What is happening now will in many ways mirror Chicago. There will be segregated, gentrified areas detached where creatives will flock to. As much as it pisses people off, the truth is they'll mostly be white. There are a lot of black business owners right now who feel they are being pushed out by this new influx.
It shouldn't worry New York too much. What is happening is a slow and modest movement. The crime in vast stretches of the city still runs wild. It's no place to raise a family. The literacy rate overall hovers at 50%. I personally think it's nice that those priced out of NY have another option where there is more freedom for creativity. But those that make that venture need to know exactly what they're getting into. If they think they can just wander about the urban prairie they are clueless. They'll be confined to small areas, especially compared to NY. Limited options. The D has made progress but there's no way I'd move back anytime soon.
Nobody hates Detroit although I can come pretty close to hating the companies that destroyed the city.
I would certainly hate LIVING there but that is a different issue. I would hate living MANY places, like anywhere in TX., AL., MI., GA., AK, TN, KY...or Scranton.
Why those entire states in particular? lol, just curious. Every state has amazing people, culture and areas, no matter their reputation or hear-say, you know?
Detroit can have NYC hipsters. Detroit needs it. Subcultures have been being priced out of prime areas for years. Gentrification of East Village and LES lead many counter culture types to move to Brooklyn. These counter culture types created a utopia for themselves in Brooklyn and real estate market chased that. Those folks moved further out into Brooklyn touching Bushwick, Fort Green, Greenpoint and Bedstuy, and now you see hipsters move out of Brooklyn to LIC, Harlem and the South Bronx nabe of Mott Haven, hell even North Shore Staten Island. Either way NYC is getting to expensive and way out of hand for the counter culture hipster and artists to survive and thrive. It is best for these folks to go to cheaper places like Detroit or Cleveland.
Artist=code word for unemployed and Detroit can have them. Actual artists who make money often have sideline careers. These people are not going to Detroit.
Nor are the current NYC hipsters. This isn't the early 90s where someone could move to the East Village or Williamsburg straight out of high school or college and establish themselves. The people doing well in these neighborhoods have advanced degrees and solid careers-even the writers, musicians, and actors among them.
So all Detroit will get is the disposable rifff raff from NYC. Of course these transplants came to NYC without a plan, couldn't hack it out and now will head off to whatever place is a supposed cheap haven. Bye Felicia!
Why those entire states in particular? lol, just curious. Every state has amazing people, culture and areas, no matter their reputation or hear-say, you know?
I am a cultured snob. All my trips down South have reinforced that I could never live among too many troglodytes. The furthest South I could manage was 6 months in North Delaware...I nearly lost my mind.
Artist=code word for unemployed and Detroit can have them. Actual artists who make money often have sideline careers. These people are not going to Detroit.
Nor are the current NYC hipsters. This isn't the early 90s where someone could move to the East Village or Williamsburg straight out of high school or college and establish themselves. The people doing well in these neighborhoods have advanced degrees and solid careers-even the writers, musicians, and actors among them.
So all Detroit will get is the disposable rifff raff from NYC. Of course these transplants came to NYC without a plan, couldn't hack it out and now will head off to whatever place is a supposed cheap haven. Bye Felicia!
I mostly agree here.
The Detroit "artists" are there because it's super cheap, and they can live off 10-15k a year, doing art and having a side gig here and there. That's no longer doable in New York City.
If you are a true "hipster", you are going to want to be where most of the action is--either in New York, San Fran or Los Angeles. Every other city (maybe with exception, Portland, Oregon--some hipster cred there) in the US is full of hipsters that are several years behind....and the true hipster nature is to be a step ahead and surrounded by the priciest, edgiest stuff, while appearing to be a down and out artist.
So yeah, Detroit is cool and cheap, but not hipster yet. It needs to gentrify and go through that cycle first, then the hipsters may come in....maybe...
I am a cultured snob. All my trips down South have reinforced that I could never live among too many troglodytes. The furthest South I could manage was 6 months in North Delaware...I nearly lost my mind.
Ahh. Gotcha! Well, yeah, the east and west coasts are pretty much your sweet spot, then.
No gotcha involved. I freely admitted my reasons for disliking the South. Being a gay atheist plays in as well. I'd rather not be beaten by rampaging Christians out for gay blood.
I know very well why I hate the South and why I would never consider living South of New Jersey. No hidden motives at all.
Even though some Hipsters are moving to Detroit, I don't see a big migration from parts of Bushwick anytime soon. NYC is still way more "hip" than Detroit. Though, I am hoping for a revitalization of Detroit as much as I would like to see Mott Haven, East New York, and Jamaica get revitalized as well. Time will tell.
Detroit is affordable, now. Detroit will not be affordable 20 years from now. Taking over the impoverished, under served neighborhoods of Detroit, which will take anyone because no one in their right mind wants to be there, is not impressive to me.
What happens when those same areas are prosperous in the future. Will the same progressive hipsters that reinvented the city in the 2020s become bigoted and racist in the 2040s? Will wealthy residents start to move in, because it is safe and clean?
Detroit is easy because the status quo left Detroit for suburbia back in the eighties. When Hipsters try to move in NYC, they meet resistance, because the old timers are still there talking about what NYC was like in the seventies and eighties. When they try to move in Detroit, there are no old timers talking about what Detroit was like in the seventies and eighties, because they all moved to Dearborn or Ann Arbor or some other city, or they may have moved to Atlanta or Charlotte, or wherever. As ironic as being as Hipster is supposed to be, the irony of hipsters moving to Detroit is one lost on the media.
There is a certain contingent of artists who need big cheap space, and are creative and handy enough to deal with run down properties. Back in the 60's and '70's these were the people who colonized the then post industrial wastelands of Soho and Tribeca. But now, there are no go run down post-industrial areas left in NYC, that haven't gone to gentrification, so someplace like Detroit sort of makes sense.
There is a problem though. While NYC had these areas they could colonize, it always had the core of the financial industry that had a large number of rich people who served as a market for the artists. I don't know if, and am skeptical, that there is anything like this left in Detroit. I don't know if the upper end of the car business that's left there can provide a market fo them. Then again, maybe with the internet, they don't need the market to be as local now.
Detroit has money, just not as easy to find and not running over into the streets like it was in Detroit. Not sure if the people that have that money will finance these artists projects though. They may have to work a lot harder than New Yorkers did 30 or 40 years ago to sell their wares. A lot of the sales might come from outside of Detroit. But you would be surprised.
I think anywhere between (from west to east) Mexicantown - Indian Village and from (south to north) Downtown to New Center has a lot of potential. All Detroit needs is a handful of industries who will attract new comers there by the mass. The D is cheap at the moment.
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