The so-called new economy has pretty much frozen young people, musicians, artists, theatre people and other creatives out of NYC, San Francisco, Seattle - and now Portland, formerly the last affordable city on the west coast.
A lot of people are talking about Detroit. Let them run with it and watch the hip young (and not-so-young) people bring Detroit back to life.
A lot of people are talking about Detroit. Let them run with it and watch the hip young (and not-so-young) people bring Detroit back to life.
14
I keep hearing about the racism. People can make this better, one relationship or encounter at a time. The day MLK was assassinated, my Mom was in DT Detroit, having accompanied my dad on a business trip from CA. When she saw all the black people crying she knew something was terribly wrong. She finally asked a stranger and he told her the bad news. Mom hugged him, cried along with him, and wished all of us-- not just black people-- good luck in getting through this awful event. When they parted, they each felt better for the effort they had made to bond. We all bleed red, after all.
6
"If we can rebuild Detroit, we can rebuild anything" wouldn't make a good bumper sticker. There's no "we" here. Dan Gilbert isn't waiting for one and he isn't including you in his plans unless you decide to participate with your money, which is all the "we" capitalism requires.
2
You have got to be kidding? The Wall street crash demolished neighborhoods and specialty decimated African American neighborhoods. Banks have refused to invest in or grant loans to African American without exorbitant rates. If you mean Detroit will look like New Orleans looks today, a white more Republican city, you are probably right.
3
As one who was born and raised in Detroit, I look at the Detroit vs. Everybody t-shirts in quite a different light. Rather than a symbol of resilience and strength, I see the same old self -defeating message being broadcast: We are "victims" and "someone else" has done this to us. Unless and until Detroiters can look in the mirror and accept some measure of responsibility for it's last 50 years, all the hipster pie shops in the world will not cure it's ills.
9
Great - So the Detroit cheerleader poster story is a childless white couple who moved to Detroit and did fine.
Since they didn't have children they didn't have to endure decrepit, crime infested schools, and only one of them got shot - not bad, right?
Detroit was a great city. But the 2/3 of the hardworking population who built it has left. The 1/3 left behind is a cesspool of disfunction.
Yes, Detroit can be fixed. As soon as the new hipsters and pioneer businesses start to move in and the black population (that remaining 1/3) cleared out, it will come back.
In the meantime, the poster child for moving to Detroit is "Come on over, it is not bad, only one of us was shot, and it was only in the knee, not so bad".
Since they didn't have children they didn't have to endure decrepit, crime infested schools, and only one of them got shot - not bad, right?
Detroit was a great city. But the 2/3 of the hardworking population who built it has left. The 1/3 left behind is a cesspool of disfunction.
Yes, Detroit can be fixed. As soon as the new hipsters and pioneer businesses start to move in and the black population (that remaining 1/3) cleared out, it will come back.
In the meantime, the poster child for moving to Detroit is "Come on over, it is not bad, only one of us was shot, and it was only in the knee, not so bad".
15
The cities that have recovered from bad times did so when they gave up the goal of solving every problem of their citizens. Instead they made their streets safer and allowed people to get to their jobs without fear of being hurt. Then they used younger bolder people to take a page of the Jane Jacobs playbook. Streets are made lively and busy. Those cities that attempt to keep industries at their heart when those industries have died are doomed to failure. Recognition of what is driving today's economy in a safe environment is crucial.
6
Since the car industry more or less deserted Detroit, Detroit should as a community and a municipality return the favor and minimize car usage. Cars are a curse in all modern cities. Bicycles are the cure. Detroit is pancake flat. Driving a car there seems to be unnecessary in most cases. As it turns out cycling in Detroit is growing at a powerful pace. 5000 riders tour alternating parts of the city EVERY WEEK (DFP- "Motor City is fast becoming Cyclist
City").
Besides the obvious benefits of a mass switch to cycling from cars. Detroit can take the opportunity inherent in its vast vacant acreage to become the world's largest producer of urban organic produce. Growing fruits and vegetables is one of the most enjoyable, enriching and satisfying endeavors
at our disposal. When I look at all Detroit's vacant land on Google Earth I see tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, cherries, watermelons. Go for it Detroiters.
City").
Besides the obvious benefits of a mass switch to cycling from cars. Detroit can take the opportunity inherent in its vast vacant acreage to become the world's largest producer of urban organic produce. Growing fruits and vegetables is one of the most enjoyable, enriching and satisfying endeavors
at our disposal. When I look at all Detroit's vacant land on Google Earth I see tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, leeks, cherries, watermelons. Go for it Detroiters.
7
Frank, a nice upbeat column with not much substance to support why you are upbeat. It will take more than optimism and a few visionaries to bring it back from the dead.
7
Detroit has a great future, especially if the water front is used in a more efficiently manner.
1
Detroit has been run by Democrats (who held a huge majority) for what feels like a century.
The long-term ineptitude of its government played a large part in its fate - I hope it can come back and agree that promoting immigrants to come live there would be an excellent step. Imagine what would happen if 10,000 newly arrived Asian families bought houses and established small businesses while actively participating in the school system (both parents and children).
The long-term ineptitude of its government played a large part in its fate - I hope it can come back and agree that promoting immigrants to come live there would be an excellent step. Imagine what would happen if 10,000 newly arrived Asian families bought houses and established small businesses while actively participating in the school system (both parents and children).
3
My home town Left it over 50 years agp . Never liked it. Never missed it.
but I respect its eternal scruffiness. and I can't help but wish it well.
but I respect its eternal scruffiness. and I can't help but wish it well.
2
As someone born and raised in the Detroit area, I've lived through several cycles of "Detroit is coming back". I no longer believe a few hipster bars and restaurants qualifies as "back". Detroit will be back when people move into the city and stay there, raising families. Detroit will be back when it doesn't take 60 minutes for emergency responders to arrive (if they arrive at all). Detroit will be back when students can go to school in all parts of the city without having their lives threatened. Then I'll believe Detroit is back. Until then, Dan Gilbert stockpiling abandoned buildings and a new vegan cafe does not indicate anything.
19
Maybe Detroit should be recruiting Syrian refugees to move there. Syrian refugees are mostly middle class and many are professionals and small business owners. Many cities have benefited from the "little" communities that have grown organically from immigrant communities. In California, Fremont has "little Kabul" , little Korea in LA, and Westminster has an official "little Saigon" exit off the San Diego Freeway. Toledo, Ohio is rebuilding by encouraging immigrants to move there and set down roots. Then there is San Francisco, Silicon Valley and surrounding cities with many Immigrants from India, China, and Pakistan who not only work in high tech, but are an integral part of the start-up economy.
Not all immigrant communities have flourished. But the Syrian refugees with their middle class values seem to me to be an opportunity to rebuild rust belt cities like Detroit.
Not all immigrant communities have flourished. But the Syrian refugees with their middle class values seem to me to be an opportunity to rebuild rust belt cities like Detroit.
11
Detroit's number one problem is that it has 47% illiteracy.
Yes, I know what you're thinking. I didn't believe that figure either, so I looked it up. That is the official number from organizations such as the ProLiteracy Detroit Foundation and ReadToRise:Detroit.
Worker wages are based upon skills and productivity. As the world gets more complex and workers do increasingly complex jobs, how will illiterate workers fare? As the world gets more interconnected, why would a business place low-skill jobs in high-wage Detroit rather than India or Malaysia or Botswana?
Specifically, why would a large business locate in Detroit? What advantage does it have?
Detroit workers were sold out by their own city government, the auto industry, and the auto unions. Small-minded "leaders" made short-term decisions for their own short-term gains. Detroit citizens chose to take the easy route and skip education and skills. It saddens me that Detroit will need a generation or two of dedicated self-advancement before it can pull even with the rest of the country.
Yes, I know what you're thinking. I didn't believe that figure either, so I looked it up. That is the official number from organizations such as the ProLiteracy Detroit Foundation and ReadToRise:Detroit.
Worker wages are based upon skills and productivity. As the world gets more complex and workers do increasingly complex jobs, how will illiterate workers fare? As the world gets more interconnected, why would a business place low-skill jobs in high-wage Detroit rather than India or Malaysia or Botswana?
Specifically, why would a large business locate in Detroit? What advantage does it have?
Detroit workers were sold out by their own city government, the auto industry, and the auto unions. Small-minded "leaders" made short-term decisions for their own short-term gains. Detroit citizens chose to take the easy route and skip education and skills. It saddens me that Detroit will need a generation or two of dedicated self-advancement before it can pull even with the rest of the country.
7
Some of us are rooting for Detroit. I don't see any indication that Governor Snyder or the state legislature is, however. Snyder's bankruptcy was conducted in such a way that out-of-town creditors were taken care of while the workers and retirees that drive the local economy were less important, and what the state has done to Detroit Public Schools (the state has controlled them for most of the last sixteen years, and has split off a number of schools as an "Educational Achievement Authority" that's a dismal failure) is going to make it very unlikely that any parent will willingly stay in Detroit unless he or she is wealthy enough to pay for private school. I wouldn't want my kids in a school run by Snyder's policies.
You can find young, hip out-of-towners in Detroit in greater numbers than you could ten years ago. But there are still major policy problems. For the city to really come back, it's going to need support from the state. Right now, the Republicans in control of Michigan are acting like vampires feeding on the corpse of the city, not like responsible politicians positioning it for rebirth.
You can find young, hip out-of-towners in Detroit in greater numbers than you could ten years ago. But there are still major policy problems. For the city to really come back, it's going to need support from the state. Right now, the Republicans in control of Michigan are acting like vampires feeding on the corpse of the city, not like responsible politicians positioning it for rebirth.
5
"Responsible politicians"???? Now --that's-- an oxymoron if ever there was.
4
Detroit is the heart of America.
It is the place where it was proved that increased production increases demand, and vice versa, which together bring prosperity. It is also the place where it has been proved that policies and practices towards maximizing corporate profits, which basically means outsourcing production to slaves, is the ruin of mankind. (As if we needed proof.)
Of course, Detroit has to come back. Without Detroit, there is no America.
It is the place where it was proved that increased production increases demand, and vice versa, which together bring prosperity. It is also the place where it has been proved that policies and practices towards maximizing corporate profits, which basically means outsourcing production to slaves, is the ruin of mankind. (As if we needed proof.)
Of course, Detroit has to come back. Without Detroit, there is no America.
5
Detroit died because :
1) It was not sustainable to pay someone $80K year to put hubcaps on a car.
2) The cars were of such poor quality that the hub cap would fall off the car....a triumph of poor engineering combined with poor manufacturing and labor.
1) It was not sustainable to pay someone $80K year to put hubcaps on a car.
2) The cars were of such poor quality that the hub cap would fall off the car....a triumph of poor engineering combined with poor manufacturing and labor.
7
THE OLD UNDULATING REAL ESTATE MARKET . . .
What is occurring in Detroit is a pattern that is quite ubiquitous. A city of area goes down and is wisely bought by smart real estate interests. Now one wants to live there, but the rent is cheap ... and then a few "artist types" move in ... and then more.
Then as more desirable people move in the rents become too high for the artists. And the ... the neuvo rich gain access ... and, the old decrepit neighborhood or city gets status and added value.
And, one doesn't have to go outside New York City ... just look at the lower parts of Manhattan ... then the new Brooklyn ... Followed by Queens and then the South Bronx (which used to be called just the Bronx)
One can change the name (e.g., from "Lower East Side" to " the West Village."
In 20 or so years expect a Bloomingdales to be located at about Third Avenue and 149th Street ... yes, in the "New Bronx."
What is occurring in Detroit is a pattern that is quite ubiquitous. A city of area goes down and is wisely bought by smart real estate interests. Now one wants to live there, but the rent is cheap ... and then a few "artist types" move in ... and then more.
Then as more desirable people move in the rents become too high for the artists. And the ... the neuvo rich gain access ... and, the old decrepit neighborhood or city gets status and added value.
And, one doesn't have to go outside New York City ... just look at the lower parts of Manhattan ... then the new Brooklyn ... Followed by Queens and then the South Bronx (which used to be called just the Bronx)
One can change the name (e.g., from "Lower East Side" to " the West Village."
In 20 or so years expect a Bloomingdales to be located at about Third Avenue and 149th Street ... yes, in the "New Bronx."
5
I learned to love Detroit when I was student at the University of Detroit-Mercy. Like Bruni and others, I'm rooting for it. Last time I was back, a friend and I had drinks in Campus Martius Park, in the middle of a revitalized downtown. The area was packed with workers and visitors. The city has a long way to go. But I've never seen it looking so good.
6
Before the Auto Boom there was Prohibition in the 1920's which made Detroit a Boom Town.
Maybe this time instead of prohibiting alcohol we could make sugar illegal. Then, bakers could open BakeEasy's to sell illegal cakes and cookies.
Welcome back BoomTown Detroit!
Maybe this time instead of prohibiting alcohol we could make sugar illegal. Then, bakers could open BakeEasy's to sell illegal cakes and cookies.
Welcome back BoomTown Detroit!
1
Thanks for the column.
It has prompted me to contact the DEGC, Detroit Economic Growth Corp, with the thought of opening a business in the city.
Whether or not they can help or even think my idea has value is up to them, but your column provided the incentive.
It has prompted me to contact the DEGC, Detroit Economic Growth Corp, with the thought of opening a business in the city.
Whether or not they can help or even think my idea has value is up to them, but your column provided the incentive.
2
How about a t-shirt that says "Detroit IS Everybody"?
4
I honestly don't get the point of this. Without lynchpin industries - Detroit will mostly remain as is. Hipsters opening bake shops and restaurants do not make an economy. They are only service pieces which feed off what is there. It's good to dream - but reality needs to be attached. Show me the industries that can anchor a New Detroit and I will believe. Frankly - Baltimore stands a better chance because of its location.
14
Exceuse me, Detroit has a great location too. It could be a real transportation hub.
1
As enticed as I might be by the scones of Sister Pie Mr. Bruni and other commentators persist in writing the same recipe when it comes to the so-called "rebirth" of major cities such as Detroit and New Orleans. All too often this examination begins in some enterprise that caters to the artisnal cheese crowd who cannot get enough cold-pressed juice before they buy beard wax or the latest hipster affectation. All of these might be essentials for that crowd but we barely hear anything other than a passing glance of abandoned properties and a hint of a racial divide. The alarming reality is that these "comebacks" have little or absolutely nothing to do with the African American communities that are still plagued by crime, violence, lack of opportunities and political indifference that is on occasion tended to by a touching photo-op. These neighborhoods do not even have supermarkets or decent bus routes' And their schools?? Do you actually believe these consumers of the absolutely unnecessary would send their kids to a school in a troubled part of town despite their pioneering gentrification???
As I will be castigated by all those wearing fedoras and porkpie hats with an iPhone in one hand and a frappucino in the other, I will continue to believe that nothing constructive is being done to create a tide that will raise all ships in these "comeback" cities. Of course I am skeptical but I am more concerned about an ever increasing racial divide.
As I will be castigated by all those wearing fedoras and porkpie hats with an iPhone in one hand and a frappucino in the other, I will continue to believe that nothing constructive is being done to create a tide that will raise all ships in these "comeback" cities. Of course I am skeptical but I am more concerned about an ever increasing racial divide.
7
If I were a young artist, entrepreneur, sociologist, even a farmer I would be considering Detroit as a place perhaps to seek out my potential right now. This vast American urban wasteland crackles with possibility and the promise that it will redefine urban America eventually, may lead that necessary evolution into this young century. Sounds overly poetic and grandiose I know, but this is an exciting place for those who know and love cities and their possibilities.
13
I agree with you. Born in MI, I am a Californian since age 6 and it was always a place of infinite possibility, besides great beauty and weather. Now, I see it as an impossible place for young people-- the housing is too expensive, we have complete gridlock, only a few jobs in high tech afford the incomes needed to thrive. I think some of these midwest cities should be the go-to destination for scores of our young people.
1
Detroit, as I knew it-
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/detroit.htm
1
As long as Detroit and Michigan residents remain feisty, scrappy, unflappable, and determined, there is no reason why that once great city cannot be great again. Hope is a powerful and effective instrument to have in one's urban renewal tool box. There are many friends and supporters in the Midwest who are rooting for the revival of Detroit - keep fighting the good fight! Now - if we could get zero in on a unique music sound like there was with Motown . . . How I miss the music and long for the return of something that stirs the soul!
5
Spring follows fall; there's a reason the seasons are named as they are. In the fall, the flowers die back, only to bloom forth again in the spring. Detroit is now in its "spring" season. Fall, the season of decline, is in the rearview mirror of all those Cadillacs, Chevvys and Fords that poured out in the past. Now it's time for cookies.
1
If you want to peek into Detroit's likely future, go to Buffalo NY which went nearly bust 30 years ago. It a beautiful city that still has its problems, but by most metrics has stabilized and begun to grow again. One thing for sure is that it has a much lower population, less economic might and a much higher level of poverty than it once did. It's a very affordable city for those that can rely on their own skills. It'll never be what it once was, but for many people it's more than they could get almost any place else.
10
This column is the epitome of bourgeois nonsense. Frank Bruni travels to Detroit, eats a fancy cookie, and discovers all is right with the world. After all, they're just like us (Brooklynites),right? Any place where someone is selling gourmet cookies must be AOK.
Far be it for Frank, former White House correspondent for the NYT, to examine the deeper issues--the decades of industrial and labor policy, initiated under St. Ronnie and exacerbated by Clinton, Obama, and the Bushes, that's all but destroyed the blue-collar middle-class in America.
So what if Detroit has lost nearly all of its manufacturing jobs and more than a million residents (two-thirds of its population) over the past 60 years? Frank Bruni ate a fancy cookie. And all is right with the world.
Far be it for Frank, former White House correspondent for the NYT, to examine the deeper issues--the decades of industrial and labor policy, initiated under St. Ronnie and exacerbated by Clinton, Obama, and the Bushes, that's all but destroyed the blue-collar middle-class in America.
So what if Detroit has lost nearly all of its manufacturing jobs and more than a million residents (two-thirds of its population) over the past 60 years? Frank Bruni ate a fancy cookie. And all is right with the world.
16
The person was not even a real Brooklynite. She lived there for 6 years. Probably moved to NY and realized "oh it's more expensive than I thought - what's a cheap big city? Detroit it is."
1
I really enjoyed Mr. Bruni's spin on Detroit, but honestly, I can not stop laughing out loud at your comments Margarets Dad from Bay Ridge. No disrespect intended to Frank Bruni. I'm still laughing.
2
Detroit is where you move to when you are tired of the really high crime rates in Birmingham and Little Rock.
3
Patti Smith suggested young and struggling artists go to Detroit in an interview in the Observer in 2010: “New York has closed itself off to the young and struggling,” Ms. Smith said. “New York City has been taken away from you … So my advice is: Find a new city.”
Hopefully, the artists will find their way there and it won't be another Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
I have an affection for Detroit, too. As a teenager I accidentally drove in the heart of Detroit when I was supposed to visit a friend and his family who lived in a suburb. I was driving from Columbus, Ohio. I loved the grittiness. That was in 1980.
Hopefully, the artists will find their way there and it won't be another Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
I have an affection for Detroit, too. As a teenager I accidentally drove in the heart of Detroit when I was supposed to visit a friend and his family who lived in a suburb. I was driving from Columbus, Ohio. I loved the grittiness. That was in 1980.
This is a well written piece. My wife & I are traveling to Detroit this weekend and as always we look forward to our visit. We are both from the area, graduated from EMU & MSU and we always root for not only our teams, but the city & state as well.
3
This piece made my day and put a hop in my step. God speed to you Detroit and Frank Bruni.
1
Well written, yet not a word about the causes of such a failure and the means to avoid it for good.
If you went to FreeFreeMarkets.com, you would get a different opinion on the "Grand Bargain." The author points out the shrotcomings and misdirection of the money by city officials -- something to think about.
"the shooting doesn’t, and shouldn’t, define Detroit. Right after it happened, Sevier pointedly told The Detroit Free Press: “This is not a reason to hate Detroit.”
No, but it is a reason to buy a gun.
And quick query, if the timing of these two op-eds is coincidental.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/opinion/whose-neighborhood-is-it.html?...
No, but it is a reason to buy a gun.
And quick query, if the timing of these two op-eds is coincidental.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/opinion/whose-neighborhood-is-it.html?...
1
When we give 600 billion to fat and profitable industries we call it the free market. They need those subsidies because.......to maintain their monopolies.
When someone suggests using government largess to build our citizens up or rebuild our once thriving cities.....oh! no! That's socialism.
We are a curious people.
Doomed, but curious.
When someone suggests using government largess to build our citizens up or rebuild our once thriving cities.....oh! no! That's socialism.
We are a curious people.
Doomed, but curious.
13
Just the other day the NY Times profiled a superb photo essay featuring young inner city Detroit high schooler showing a before and after contrast. I was personally moved by how bright and articulate the teenagers were as well as how filled with hope and optimism for their own future in face of adversity. Indeed in Mr. Bruni's column, the same determination and grit is displayed by individuals like US District Judge Berg and his wife who were determined to show their support for Detroit by living in the city instead of the comfortable and safe suburbs. For this display of courage he should receive the red badge of courage as well as the hipster entrepreneurs who start up businesses that attract tourists and suburbanites into downtown Detroit. It would be wonderful if these same businesses would team up with inner city schools to hire smart and industrious students like the young man who lost his mother to a shooting or the young girl who didn't want to grow up too fast as this could be a ticket to their way out of generational poverty that some seem to be stuck in due to no fault of their own. Even if adults could lend a ride to and from work, it would be another red bade of courage that would allow people to feel as if they pitched in to make Detroit great again. Much the same as the concept of finding a star fish washed up on the shore and tossing it back to sea again to give it another chance at life.
5
"It would be wonderful if these same [downtown] businesses would team up with inner city schools to hire smart and industrious students..."
Interesting to note that Wirt Rowland, the architect of some of the beautiful 1920s Art Deco skyscrapers that grace downtown Detroit, was also the architect of several Detroit high schools, including Denby High School, where the students in that NYT video essay attended.
Interesting to note that Wirt Rowland, the architect of some of the beautiful 1920s Art Deco skyscrapers that grace downtown Detroit, was also the architect of several Detroit high schools, including Denby High School, where the students in that NYT video essay attended.
2
Native New Yorker here in Detroit for...holy crud...eight years. When I moved here in 2007, the city was already a wreck and it was well on the way to going straight to hell. But anyone who lived through the revitalization of Times Square--remember that place in 1983--could recognize the enormous potential for a dramatic recovery. It was so depressed that it felt like a pulled-back rubber band ready to snap back. All it took was for something--anything--to start going right.
Though there is still a lot more recovering that needs to happen and, let me tell you, race relations on both sides are abysmal, Detroit is a fish-in-the-barrel of investment opportunity. In a few short years, Dan Gilbert is going be looking like a civic-minded real estate genius (even more than now). If I have to pick from real estate tycoons for President, give me a Dan Gilbert over the Donald any day.
One thing that holds this city back is atrocious education outcomes. The city barely knows how many of its students earn a HS diploma. Start to fix that, Detroit, and glory days will be ahead instead of fifty years past. But my optimism doesn't go far enough to hold any hope for the Detroit Lions.
Though there is still a lot more recovering that needs to happen and, let me tell you, race relations on both sides are abysmal, Detroit is a fish-in-the-barrel of investment opportunity. In a few short years, Dan Gilbert is going be looking like a civic-minded real estate genius (even more than now). If I have to pick from real estate tycoons for President, give me a Dan Gilbert over the Donald any day.
One thing that holds this city back is atrocious education outcomes. The city barely knows how many of its students earn a HS diploma. Start to fix that, Detroit, and glory days will be ahead instead of fifty years past. But my optimism doesn't go far enough to hold any hope for the Detroit Lions.
8
Detroit should, as a community, sponsor 2000 Syrian families and move them into the abandoned houses. That would be an infusion of entrepreneurial spirit.
3
I don't understand why the mayor or Gov. Snyder hasn't been clamoring to bring some of the refugees fleeing Syria to Detroit. I know these are desperate people who would initially strain our limited public resources, but I think there are reasons to believe they would assimilate quickly, be highly entrepreneurial and help revitalize neighborhoods. I think Detroit has a pretty good track record with its recent immigrant groups in this way.
4
And they already have a high percentage of Middle Eastern people, starting with Lebanese a long time ago, Saudis more recently. Great idea.
1
Detroit is coming back! The revitalization is visible and palpable there.
5
Detroit will continue to flourish in the coming years...unlike other devastated rust-belt cities, Detroit sits on a beautiful river across from our Canadian neighbors; is near to the beautiful Great Lakes (1/5 of the world's fresh groundwater); has a history embedded in the national consciousness - the auto industry and Motown; and possesses a style and élan all it's own. I lived and worked there in the early 70's right out of college and have attended the Jazz Festival the last three years...the fabric of Detroit, it's people, are a wonderful mosaic!
7
I sport a "Detroit vs. Everybody" tee shirt, mostly at home in Ann Arbor, that my daughter gave me for my birthday this summer.
But no matter where I wear it, I have never worn anything that so many people commented on so positively, all ages, races, backgrounds.
People want the city to thrive.
But no matter where I wear it, I have never worn anything that so many people commented on so positively, all ages, races, backgrounds.
People want the city to thrive.
31
"Detroit is a gauge of our soul." Please speak for yourself, Mr. Bruni. Not long ago you couldn't drive through Detroit on the interstate without fear of a brick tossed from an overpass crashing through you windshield. Its politicians, nearly all black, were incompetent thieves who liked to deflect attention from themselves by blaming Detroit's problems on others, like Mr Archer does here. And forget about racial prejudice -- anyone with some money moved away. Eventually, the state had to force Detroit into a turn-around mode.
I wish the city well, and a bright new cookie shop in the middle of a dirty slum is hopeful. But Detroit is still a gauge of our failures, not our soul.
I wish the city well, and a bright new cookie shop in the middle of a dirty slum is hopeful. But Detroit is still a gauge of our failures, not our soul.
10
Nice article Frank. I noticed you started your essay with the first person singular and ended with the first person plural. Detroit does that to you - makes you want to belong. One special thing about the current Detroit is that the collective does not want Detroit to be what it once was. Who wants 22 million people living there. In this 21st century we are looking for creative and livable spaces - green spaces - walkable spaces - a smaller, cleaner, more manageable, humane city.
6
Great point Susan. Places evolve. That's OK. My mom never truly enjoyed an ear of corn after we moved to CA-- the michigan corn was better she thought, because it had to struggle more. A city of mixed use, including urban farms-- might just be the next big deal.
1
The automobile manufacturer's "bailout" of 2009, orchestrated by the Obama Administration over the opposition of almost all Republicans, saved Detroit. It saved the entire state of Michigan. It saved Ohio. It saved Indiana. The jobs retained and created and the resulting tax collections will be many, many multiples of any final cost of that successful policy, not to mention the savings from the inevitable huge social costs that would have been incurred if Republicans had their way.
Republicans are ALWAYS wrong on economics. ALWAYS.
Republicans are ALWAYS wrong on economics. ALWAYS.
12
It is best for American cities to have over half of all parts used in assembling the cars sold in America made by people who live in foreign cities. For clothing, toys, sporting-goods, electrical fixtures, tools, etc. etc. you can make that figure 100%.
Isn't it?
Isn't it?
4
Capitalism and racism are what cause Detroit its problems. See: "The Origins Of The Urban Crisis:Race And Inequality In Post War Detroit";Princeton University Press, by Thomas J Sugrue. Mr. Bruni's woefully lacking anecdotal evidence, though quite popular today, is hogwash. A cookie and a talk with a shop owner ignores the institutional racism and capitalistic savaging Detroit has experienced. And other U.S. cities have been so battered but not as hard, Detroit lost more than 1,000,000 people beginning in 1956.
23
It is indeed a hopeful sign that a 1,000,000 people from Detroit were smart enough to escape institutional racism, capitalistic savaging, inequality and battered urban crisis. Others remained on the trash pile that is Detroit plugging sophomoric books.
1
Detroit will come back with a roar. As a former Michigander who will be again soon after a 25 year hiatus, Detroit sits at the nexus of great transportation network and has an abundance that all the southwest doesn't have, fresh water. The new Detroit will be better then the old one ever was. Just wait and see.
8
Deindustrialization has left many cities behind ... not just Detroit. The people who are left behind, the people who have been thrown away much like the physical plant -- the factories they worked in -- as well as their unfunded pension plans have more to teach us than we can teach them. They will politely smile and encourage the ever-rotating troupes of saviors who ride in with high hopes only to leave when they realize that what took a couple of decades of greed to destroy will take several generations of commitment to rebuild.
MIT anthropologist Christine Walley and her husband Chris Boebel have produced a documentary that looks at the human cost of deindustrialization and what, it anything, are we doing to prevent such human tragedies from happening again: http://www.exitzeroproject.org
MIT anthropologist Christine Walley and her husband Chris Boebel have produced a documentary that looks at the human cost of deindustrialization and what, it anything, are we doing to prevent such human tragedies from happening again: http://www.exitzeroproject.org
3
There are serious problems in the neighborhoods of Detroit that need to be addressed; no businesses to supply jobs for the thousands who need a job, hundreds of non working fire hydrants, a dysfunctional Fire Department Administration, no reliable transportation for the thousands without an automobile, the list is long. If you want to read about what is really going on in the city: http://motorcitymuckraker.com/ they write what the Detroit News and Free Press won't.
4
We spent 30 to 40 billion on New Orleans post Katrina, what did Detroit get? Give me a few billion and I would put all the unemployed youth in Detroit to work. Remove the blight, rebuild our infrastructure then watch out. We have something that many cities have shortages with now and in the future, fresh water.
5
The promise of Detroit is not very promising for the poor African Americans who have lived there through the city's decline. As the city becomes gentrified the irrefutable laws of housing segregation will kick in and poor blacks will not participate in the Renaissance. (See Brooklyn, NY).
2
Detroit was my home most of the time between 1957 and 1967. Those were some of my best years. It was a prosperous city when I arrived for college in 1957. Then came a recession and car lots along Livernois closed and never reopened. I don't remember much of a recovery, but still considered Detroit my home. I lived for a while on 12rh street, where the riotis started. Hung around U of D and Wayne State campuses, checked out prices in the poorest Black neighborhoods. Absurdly high. Watched ballgames from the Briggs Stadium bleachers. Loved the place. During the riots they burned homes on streets on three sides of mne and would have burned on the other side, but my home by then abutted the John Lodge expressway, which wasn't flammable. A few months later I lost my job and moved on. Last visited Detroit in 1981. The place was scary. I miss what it was, but it won't be that way agian. It will be something else, something I don't know. I wish the people there the best, but it will never be my home again.
16
I wish this article had at least mentioned some of the racial injustice that comes along with entrepreneur-driven renewal. As a longtime resident put it to me when I was there last month (I have been visiting yearly since 1994): I've seen middle-aged black women make community gardens in abandoned lots, and turn empty homes into safe houses for people, and nobody gave a damn. Then some white kid from Brooklyn comes along and it gets called 'creative placemaking', they get labeled 'entrepreneurs, and they get a grant or a loan those women had no hope of obtaining.
On the face of it, some of the changes currently underway in Detroit cannot be bad, but at what cost? People have been keeping the city moving forward despite a lack of investment, and despite the immense political dysfunction. Now that there is a little momentum, let's not lay so much credit at the people moving in or making money. Let's give it up for the folks that have always been getting along, keeping it vibrant, and who stand to lose the most from the profiteers.
On the face of it, some of the changes currently underway in Detroit cannot be bad, but at what cost? People have been keeping the city moving forward despite a lack of investment, and despite the immense political dysfunction. Now that there is a little momentum, let's not lay so much credit at the people moving in or making money. Let's give it up for the folks that have always been getting along, keeping it vibrant, and who stand to lose the most from the profiteers.
4
America has destroyed its manufacturing base and has hurt the engineering community. Cookies are nice, but only go so far. Zero percent interest rates have helped keep us from hitting bottom, but they are not a freebee- they hurt savers, especially retirees. Their effects don't last forever. At this juncture, I see our nation slowly drifting towards a Detroit status.
The future of America may lie with distributive manufacturing, much of which is based on 3-D printing and new materials.
The future of America may lie with distributive manufacturing, much of which is based on 3-D printing and new materials.
8
"Detroiter" is a badge of honor that means tough beyond reason. It is living and going about your business with some loss of the normal trappings of civilization; your car might not be there, your belongings may be missing, you may hear gunfire or be the victim of a crime. But, it is irrational to a Detroiter, to dwell on these possibilities when there is a fantastic meal to be had (culinary scene is bangin') techno whiz Derrick May playing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or flower day at Eastern Market. We take being a "Detroiter" very seriously; we have been arguing over who is and isn't one for generations (and I am not even going to touch the topic of race, not enough space). So give us your hipsters, because we are still loosing population and hey, they have brought in some good restaurants. Maybe they will be Detroiters one day too.
3
A romantic view of Detroit; but I don't begrudge it, as Detroit needs all the help it can get.
We see good things happening sporadically in Detroit, green shoots appearing in an abandoned lot. But let's not kid ourselves. Detroit, that has so much to offer all of America and the world in the arts, teetered for a long time on the very edge of chaos, propelled there by an atmosphere of dependency and the cynical manipulation of that dependency for votes to keep incompetent scoundrels in office. Then, it fell into the chaos.
Dan Gilbert alone, even with Sister Pie's help, isn't going to make Detroit strategically viable again unless it purges itself of enough of that dependency and dreadful governance to keep from choking off the green shoots. What is Detroit doing to replace its bureaucracy and elected interests with governance less focused on fostering dependency? What is it doing about renegotiating public sector contracts, particularly those for retirees, to reflect reality? What is it doing to redefine itself as more compact city? What is it doing to attract more manufacturing jobs to the city, which saw the loss of 90% of such sustaining jobs? What is it doing to curb the violence that still plagues it (Detroit still has the highest murder rate and violent crime rate of any U.S. city with a population of over 100,000, according to the FBI)?
Almost all of us cheer the green shoots. But that and $2.75 buys us one ride on a NYC subway.
We see good things happening sporadically in Detroit, green shoots appearing in an abandoned lot. But let's not kid ourselves. Detroit, that has so much to offer all of America and the world in the arts, teetered for a long time on the very edge of chaos, propelled there by an atmosphere of dependency and the cynical manipulation of that dependency for votes to keep incompetent scoundrels in office. Then, it fell into the chaos.
Dan Gilbert alone, even with Sister Pie's help, isn't going to make Detroit strategically viable again unless it purges itself of enough of that dependency and dreadful governance to keep from choking off the green shoots. What is Detroit doing to replace its bureaucracy and elected interests with governance less focused on fostering dependency? What is it doing about renegotiating public sector contracts, particularly those for retirees, to reflect reality? What is it doing to redefine itself as more compact city? What is it doing to attract more manufacturing jobs to the city, which saw the loss of 90% of such sustaining jobs? What is it doing to curb the violence that still plagues it (Detroit still has the highest murder rate and violent crime rate of any U.S. city with a population of over 100,000, according to the FBI)?
Almost all of us cheer the green shoots. But that and $2.75 buys us one ride on a NYC subway.
4
I have my doubts about a Detroit comeback, not that parts of the community will not return to economic viability, but the entire geographic/demographic area is built on an economic model that no longer exists.
5
This may not be a popular thought but one thing that must be mentioned is Detroit has had Democratic mayors since the early 1960's and is rated as one of the highest poverty rates in the country. For a city that has a rich history watching the financial meltdown of 2011-2012 was very difficult for it's residents to endure and to watch as a nation. To see the descend into bankruptcy because of mismanagement was tough. Detroit had $13 billion in unfunded liabilities which resulted in unions making wage and pension concessions.
It's time to see neighborhood's bulldozed because of neglect and decay. It's time to see reinvestment and for people to take a risk on it's resurgence. Financial incentives must be developed which will encourage reinvestment and a sense of community pride.
I flew into Detroit's airport several years ago. I was struck by how old, dirty, antiquated it was. I was stunned that a major airport of a major metropolitan city could be in such poor condition. It gives a person an initial impression that is not good. But I hope that for the city and it's people they can create a resurgence based on long term, sensible planning, a strong sense of community and a willingness to work for a goal with people who may not be the same politically, by race or sexual orientation but who share the same sense of pride and community and who will work together and not against each other. Money must not only be pumped in but a change of the heart must happen to
It's time to see neighborhood's bulldozed because of neglect and decay. It's time to see reinvestment and for people to take a risk on it's resurgence. Financial incentives must be developed which will encourage reinvestment and a sense of community pride.
I flew into Detroit's airport several years ago. I was struck by how old, dirty, antiquated it was. I was stunned that a major airport of a major metropolitan city could be in such poor condition. It gives a person an initial impression that is not good. But I hope that for the city and it's people they can create a resurgence based on long term, sensible planning, a strong sense of community and a willingness to work for a goal with people who may not be the same politically, by race or sexual orientation but who share the same sense of pride and community and who will work together and not against each other. Money must not only be pumped in but a change of the heart must happen to
1
Have you flown into Metro Airport recently or even googled it lately? If you did, you would see what many call the best airport in America. Detroit is slowly rebuilding and I am cheering it on. Because of my interest in the auto industry, I read the Detroit papers online almost daily. Doing so, gives a more rounded view of what is going on in Detroit.
2
Frank you nailed it! John Bryant Hope recently said, "The whole country needs a win in Detroit." The failed school system, structural unemployment, and massive poverty refract problems facing many other large American cities. What is uniquely Detroit is this pervasive indefatigable, ground zero, underdog us versus everybody spirit permeating the city's revival.
I grew up in Detroit and we returned here 4 years ago to redefine our post kid rearing midlife. What we find is a palpable energy kinetically charging our encounters with new neighbors and total strangers alike. Just yesterday I met Eric Perry, a talented commercial photographer who was gifted a lease on a choice pop up space by Gilbert's organization. Why? Someone on Gilbert's team saw Eric's pics of Detroit's cognoscenti interspersed with gritty Detroiters. Nowadays Eric randomly hauls in interesting passersby for a free photo shoot. The result?
"Forward Detroit," a gallery of Eric's best. After 25 years of successful photography, Eric needed to branch out artistically. He has an eye for capturing unscripted authenticity. Where will this lead? He's not sure. "I just know it will be good." Why the confidence based on nothing more than good vibes? Maybe because a continuous wave of goodwill and positive energy has to lead somewhere better. We all need this to be true. Otherwise Detroit's busted bubble is simply our own.
So we look to better days, undefined any further than by looking to each other.
I grew up in Detroit and we returned here 4 years ago to redefine our post kid rearing midlife. What we find is a palpable energy kinetically charging our encounters with new neighbors and total strangers alike. Just yesterday I met Eric Perry, a talented commercial photographer who was gifted a lease on a choice pop up space by Gilbert's organization. Why? Someone on Gilbert's team saw Eric's pics of Detroit's cognoscenti interspersed with gritty Detroiters. Nowadays Eric randomly hauls in interesting passersby for a free photo shoot. The result?
"Forward Detroit," a gallery of Eric's best. After 25 years of successful photography, Eric needed to branch out artistically. He has an eye for capturing unscripted authenticity. Where will this lead? He's not sure. "I just know it will be good." Why the confidence based on nothing more than good vibes? Maybe because a continuous wave of goodwill and positive energy has to lead somewhere better. We all need this to be true. Otherwise Detroit's busted bubble is simply our own.
So we look to better days, undefined any further than by looking to each other.
4
There's lots of fresh water in Detroit. In the past people realized that lots of sun tended to go together with not much rain and not much fresh water and chose the latter so long as the soil was good and the growing season long enough. Perhaps they will have the wit to do so again.
4
Crime causes poverty. Until the neighborhoods buy in to a crime free, murder free community, it will remain a small downtown oasis of hipsters and empty nesters pretending they're in Manhattan.
It's so easy to see what lowering the crime rate can quickly achieve. Just look at NYC or LA after they got the murder under control.
Why won't any columnists focus on this? It is the real reason things are so bad. Not trade policy, not FHA loans, not blissfully ignorant suburbanites. It is the constant murder, property crime and fraud that keeps capital away. Capital is risk averse, especially when the risk is one's life.
It's so easy to see what lowering the crime rate can quickly achieve. Just look at NYC or LA after they got the murder under control.
Why won't any columnists focus on this? It is the real reason things are so bad. Not trade policy, not FHA loans, not blissfully ignorant suburbanites. It is the constant murder, property crime and fraud that keeps capital away. Capital is risk averse, especially when the risk is one's life.
2
Mr. Bruni's optimism, his feeling of hope and energy in seeing the possibilities of Detroit's continual albeit slow struggle to keep moving forward is most compelling and infectious.
However, I have only one question - where does the owner of the Sister Pie Bakery and Dan Gilbert live? If they live in Detroit vs. one of the suburbs, then I would say they are putting their money where their mouth is. If not, then they are merely capitalizing on a depressed area where they can obtain land cheap. I do not write this as a bad thing, because ANY business in Detroit is a productive and wonderful thing. Just please don't paint this idyllic picture of a rebirth of Detroit if business owners do not take up residence in the city.
2
Detroit is another example of the rise and fall of capitalism and the effects it has on the people. Great wealth is created and then is destroyed. That is the nature of capitalism.
Maybe we need to take a long term look at how we invest the wealth we create. Less of the high life today and more investment for the inevitable downturns would serve us well. But, we humans are rarely able to forgo the fun today to protect against the troubles of tomorrow.
Maybe we need to take a long term look at how we invest the wealth we create. Less of the high life today and more investment for the inevitable downturns would serve us well. But, we humans are rarely able to forgo the fun today to protect against the troubles of tomorrow.
3
The story of Detroit and similar cities is too often told using coffee shops and restaurants as the seminal indicator of urban rebirth. While readers of the NYT (myself included) may most relate to food establishments as a symbol of vibrant urban living, I doubt that hipster businesses have the same meaning to those Detroiters still living among burned out homes. I wish I could identify a more meaningful symbol as a replacement. Perhaps Mr. Bruni's next trip to Detroit will delve into the rougher parts of the city for an answer.
7
I grew up in Detroit in the 1950's and 1960's only to watch it begin it decline in the 1970's, Political corruption and a stagnant auto industry run by old rich white guys and the Wall Street analysts whose focus went from the long term to only next quarters profits slowly did it in.
If Detroit is to resurrect itself it will be a result of the efforts of young people and the Sister Pie's of the business world.
If Detroit is to resurrect itself it will be a result of the efforts of young people and the Sister Pie's of the business world.
13
Kroger's who has a virtual grocery monopoly in the Detroit area does not have ONE store in the city, that's 143 square miles. Only recently one Meijer's opened on 8 mile which is right on the border and one Whole Foods in the Wayne State area.
Most of the money that goes into Detroit goes downtown, by the way can we please get rid of the half finished abandoned jail?
Most of the money that goes into Detroit goes downtown, by the way can we please get rid of the half finished abandoned jail?
8
Frank:
You wrote a nice column, but you seem to short change your readers on the full Detroit "renaissance" that is taking place.
From your article, the reader does not know the full impact of the Detroit "renaissance" on the residents of the city. What is the employment situation for blue collar/low-skill workers? Who is getting government support during this "revitalization" effort (e.g., corporations, individuals, neighborhoods, non-profit organizations, etc.)? What is Detroit doing about housing for the citizens?
If the Detroit "renaissance" is only serving the Uber (taxi service) society, then it is not a renaissance. Follow the money to determine who benefits and who is shortchanged.
You wrote a nice column, but you seem to short change your readers on the full Detroit "renaissance" that is taking place.
From your article, the reader does not know the full impact of the Detroit "renaissance" on the residents of the city. What is the employment situation for blue collar/low-skill workers? Who is getting government support during this "revitalization" effort (e.g., corporations, individuals, neighborhoods, non-profit organizations, etc.)? What is Detroit doing about housing for the citizens?
If the Detroit "renaissance" is only serving the Uber (taxi service) society, then it is not a renaissance. Follow the money to determine who benefits and who is shortchanged.
9
What a great balancing of reality and hope...if only more journalism could express such balance instead of its usual either/or positioning, the press might actually help us find a creative way through our social problems. Well done Frank, as usual.
8
I've made several business trip to Detroit (killer airport terminals!) and I always marvel at the city it once was. I don't think you can fully understand the grip the automobile industry once had on America until you visit Detroit and see the wealth it once generated.
So that's one reason I know Detroit will never again be as it once was.
The other reason is the plethora of Michigan automobile tags I see in my area.
It seems Detroiters and Michiganders are still voting with their wheels.
So that's one reason I know Detroit will never again be as it once was.
The other reason is the plethora of Michigan automobile tags I see in my area.
It seems Detroiters and Michiganders are still voting with their wheels.
4
You're missing the point. The goal isn't to make it what it once was - those were different times. The goal is to continue on a path to strength and greatness and finally we seem on our way. Thanks for the article Frank.
23
I'm not missing the point of this or any other hopeful article that I've read about Detroit and its future over the last 5-6 years.
I hope Detroit can find a way forward. A failed US city, particularly one so large and iconic is in no one's best interest and I wish you all the best.
But hipsters, pies and cookies will never, ever replace a General Motors and its wealth-creating supply chain or support the DIA.
I hope Detroit can find a way forward. A failed US city, particularly one so large and iconic is in no one's best interest and I wish you all the best.
But hipsters, pies and cookies will never, ever replace a General Motors and its wealth-creating supply chain or support the DIA.
1
Thanks Frank for your insightful article on my hometown Detroit. I remember reading you in the Freep. www.motownsavvy.com
1
Thanks to people like Dan Gilbert, and Dennis Archer Jr. young entrepreneurs like Jason Pearsall and his associates have opportunities to start and develop their dream companies.
Detroit needs people. 22 million or so refugees looking for homes. Is there a fit here?
17
What happened to Detroit was a slow motion man made disaster that should have surprised no one. Just like what happened to New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina missed New Orleans but the city's defective levees broke anyway exposing the underlying concentrated human misery. The collapse of the American auto industry and political corruption were slow flowing viscous destructive dangerous lava like events. Both cities fates while seemingly inexorable, were not inevitable.
Both cities problems are deeply rooted in America's socioeconomic political educational historical colored black and white racial divide. A failure to finally and completely resolve the inherent contradiction of a nation proclaiming the virtuous universal ideal that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while enslaving black African human beings and colonizing brown Native persons. Denying their humanity as persons led to denial of their equality as Americans.
Changing laws and attitudes have without a doubt moved the nation forward. Progress is of exceptional comfort and a source of pride to some. Despite all of the hope and change embodied in the political "Yes we can! there is the reality of "No we have not!". In spite of the civic sense of "the spirit and promise" of today the tomorrows keep turning into yesterday. This is all about race as in biologically evolutionary DNA genetic human. Not color.
Both cities problems are deeply rooted in America's socioeconomic political educational historical colored black and white racial divide. A failure to finally and completely resolve the inherent contradiction of a nation proclaiming the virtuous universal ideal that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while enslaving black African human beings and colonizing brown Native persons. Denying their humanity as persons led to denial of their equality as Americans.
Changing laws and attitudes have without a doubt moved the nation forward. Progress is of exceptional comfort and a source of pride to some. Despite all of the hope and change embodied in the political "Yes we can! there is the reality of "No we have not!". In spite of the civic sense of "the spirit and promise" of today the tomorrows keep turning into yesterday. This is all about race as in biologically evolutionary DNA genetic human. Not color.
4
I'm afraid whydetroit8 is the one saying the real things here. I grew up there, in the 50's and 60's, and what most strikes me when I return to visit family is the 'nostalgia narrative'—that it used to be a great city. I'm afraid Mr Henry Ford ensured that it would never be, with his insistence on sprawl as opposed to density, his founding of two suburbs for his workers (one white, one black, of course!) outside the city, depriving the city of its tax base. Detroit never had street life of any quality, never had decent public transport (all those separate houses), was always one of the most appallingly segregated places on earth (and still is—how many of those hip young people have an authentic friendship with someone of colour?). Detroit has some of the kindest, warmest, most authentic people anywhere—in the city centre, and some of the most willfully, blissfully unaware—in its white suburbs. All those shiny new shops and restaurants, the Whole Foods market, all this art—how many of the people living within the city limits have been touched by this, if not to once again have their noses rubbed in the two solitudes of Detroit?
9
Cauliflower Scones may be the name of my next band, but Coney Island chili dogs are a better symbol of Old Detroit's persistence in the face of disaster. Blacks, whites, cops and gangstas alike have bellied up to the counter at Lafayette Coney for generations, long before the Gilberts, from Roman Gribbs to Kwame Twerktastic and beyond. Hold the paprika on my oatmeal raisin and make mine "ONE UP, HEAVY CHILI!" Godspeed to Sister Pie, but may Lafayette live forever!
25
I've been to Detroit several times. Can any one tell me how hot dogs sold there got the name of Coney Island (from my beloved hometown of NYC)?
This story is encouraging the gentrification that Detroit is currently undergoing; the removal of predominantly, and historically, black populations by removing them from their land and homes/property that has been occupied for generations. What people mean then they say they want to restore Detroit to it's "greatness" again is that they want Detroit to be run by wealthy white people (hence, replace Ford with Dan Gilbert). They want Detroit to be governed by white people once again. They don't want so many black people in the city. The motives of making Detroit "great again" are extremely racially charged. Frank, I really thought you would understand this. I am disappointed in this piece.
11
Check your facts about which party has run Detroit since 1949 Democrats so it's not white people. Do the names Coleman Goung and Dave Bing ring a bell? They were black mayors who did nothing but exacerbate the problem
And correct me if I am wrong but didn't Detroit have the largest municipal bankruptcy in our nation's history? Under Democrats? Whole neighborhoods have been bulldozed because of decay and neglect.
They don't want blacks living there? That's an opinion not based on fact but an inherent lack of common sense. Try printing facts next time instead of this nonsense
And correct me if I am wrong but didn't Detroit have the largest municipal bankruptcy in our nation's history? Under Democrats? Whole neighborhoods have been bulldozed because of decay and neglect.
They don't want blacks living there? That's an opinion not based on fact but an inherent lack of common sense. Try printing facts next time instead of this nonsense
2
I disagree with you completely. You want competence. From Mayor Coleman Young through Kwame Kilpatrick, there was a huge drop in the ability to serve the interests of the citizens of Detroit. Detroit failed. The article is not racially charged, you are looking through your own lens with your own bias.
1
"and the racial prejudice that contributed to the city’s population decline." Sorry, but preferring to live in a place where you won't get shot on your front porch is not racial prejudice. It's common sense.
49
There is indeed irony that the very same people who shriek at the injustice of 'white flight' - people who left a deteriorating neighbourhood in the face of creeping poverty and rampant crime, rather than stay and try to improve and reform it - will turn around and defend Mexicans and Central and South Americans who sneak across the border to the US, citing the very same reason, namely, that Mexico is a cesspool of crime and violence. Yet the motive is exactly the same; people don't want to get shot on their front porch. (Let's not even discuss the racism implicit in the pseudoliberal assumption that a majority-black community, even a poor one, must inevitably be crime-ridden and that integrating a place with white folks is automatically an improvement.)
1
Renisha McBride was tragically shot in Dearborn Heights, not Detroit.
Get your facts straight, Steve.
Get your facts straight, Steve.
1
Then you must be an advocate for strict gun controls.
2
The city motto inspired by a previous physical catastrophe is
“Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus”
“We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes”
I was raised in this sprawling city. It has a unique spirit - grit and wry humor combined. Its challenges are also unique, and apparently its citizens understand that ( Detroit vs Everybody indeed !) .
Thanks for this hopeful piece.
“Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus”
“We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes”
I was raised in this sprawling city. It has a unique spirit - grit and wry humor combined. Its challenges are also unique, and apparently its citizens understand that ( Detroit vs Everybody indeed !) .
Thanks for this hopeful piece.
9
Maybe someday we could "wage peace" on our fellow Americans instead of "waging war" and trying to change the behavior of societies that think we are Devils.
5
Thank you for letting people see what we optimists here see every day. I have noticed that the majority of the people who don't even live in MI have lots of negative things to say based the national press, or someone who lived here years ago and moved away. Detroit is a burgeoning city with lots of prospect and even more chutzpah. I myself worked on the Eastern Market for years, my family working there a combined 165 years. This rebirth is a long time coming, and people should spend a few days in the Downtown, Midtown and surrounding areas. We have national investors, chefs and many others not only investing their money in our city, but their time, sweat and effort as well. If you haven't been to Detroit recently, please visit and I promise you will leave with a new respect, love and longing for our city. We are the heart of America. Detroit Strong!
11
You can attract, retain and bedazzle as many white hipsters as you can, sell trainloads of cookies and Danny Gilbert can invest billions, but until the Detroit Public Schools are where the people moving and opening businesses in Detroit will send their kids, Detroit will remain a patient on very expensive life support. The image of abandoned factories and burned houses is the image that is evoked over and over in articles about Detroit and its comeback. I've not yet read an article in the national media about the city's burned out and abandoned school buildings or its corrupt public school administration. The truth is when those hipsters marry they will raise their kids in the suburbs, not in Detroit.
The Dequindre Cut, Belle Isle and the Riverwalk are amazing destinations. While in the city one Friday, we'd meant to find Sister Pies but stumbled upon the marvelous Dangerously Delicious Pies, in the Third Street Bar. We talk about moving to Detroit along with our business, but would never do it until our kids are done with school.
The Dequindre Cut, Belle Isle and the Riverwalk are amazing destinations. While in the city one Friday, we'd meant to find Sister Pies but stumbled upon the marvelous Dangerously Delicious Pies, in the Third Street Bar. We talk about moving to Detroit along with our business, but would never do it until our kids are done with school.
109
I agree -- until Detroit's schools are improved, no family will choose to live there. A tough problem to solve without money and commitment. The return of small businesses to serve young single people is great but won't save the city. Detroit has always found investors willing to take a chance on the downtown (like Mr. Gilbert) but schools and neighborhoods still go neglected.
3
Anyone honest who has been involved in public education will tell you that successful communities have successful schools - NOT the other way around. People who make a living wage and have access to health care have time to spend with their children by reading to them and teaching them to ride a bike, throw a ball or bake a cookie. It is those children who succeed. Good teaching can augment the success of children but only very rarely bring it about. Even exceptional teachers can rarely duplicate successful student outcomes on a sustained level in very poor ares without significant outside help. You want better schools? Then raise the minimum wage, bring in well paying infrastructure building jobs, provide universal pre-K, and universal health care. Otherwise people crying about the schools might as well keep on crying...
4
I grew up and lived in Detroit 50's to mid 70's. I love the city and still consider it my home. I have to echo Patricia's comment about the role the decline of the Detroit school system played in the flight to the suburbs. My parents moved us to the suburbs almost exclusively becauseof the better school system. My Dad still worked in Detroit; we still spent much of our time on Belle Isle and downtown ( Mr. Bruni and many of the commentators never saw Hudson's in its prime so they can't understand the pull it had to bring us downtown); I went to Wayne and took the train home from college to the beloved and much maligned Michigan Central. I wish nothing but the best for my hometown but have some of the Detroiter's deep-bred cynicism for a "true" recovery.
11
Organic pies and Quicken billionaires. Really? I don't think so. How does the comparison with Brooklyn fit? Brooklyn's upsurge was manly driven by property values which were driven by an over amped demand not evenly closely met by the supply. NYC has an insatiable demand for overpriced property.You could probably buy what remains of Detroit for a fraction of the value of Brooklyn.
6
NYT: please throw a bone to Cleveland. We could use the bump.
5
You are so right. Cleveland is a smaller version of Detroit.
To quote Elvis, Bruni, you are nuttin but a hound dawg! In reality the name sister got you, you thought this Pie sister is the sister you've been looking for!
1
Well said; cities are the engines of progress and wealth. Conservatives and Republicans MUST keep up the meme that cities are evil pits of sin and Democrats. Thriving cities are diverse. Any quick review of the current contenders for the Republican nomination (walls and all), cannot tolerate this diversity which strikes fear in the very heart of their base. Yet, without strong cities, the nation struggles. If we must; we shall fix them ourselves.
11
You walked alone through Detroit? Or did you have much security paid for by yourself or the TimesCorp?
If the former. Wow. I mean, wow.
If the former. Wow. I mean, wow.
5
How confident are you Mr. Bruni that Detroit won't be burned down again after it is rebuilt?
8
@Dallas
A dream crusher
A dream crusher
My kids are fifth generation Detroiters. I am still here in a stable and safe middle class neighborhood. The disinvestment in Detroit has devastated the city, but there are many areas of survival and recovery, and, above all, the beginnings of a renewal that is redefining Detroit. On any weekend, the downtown streets are alive with young adults - perhaps many of them the grand children of all those white folks who fled to the suburbs.
For the 36th year, I spent Labor Day weekend at Hart Plaza on the river front for Detroit's annual Jazz Festival. It is the largest free jazz festival in the country, with five stages, featuring Detroit's own as well a musicians from across the country. Among the thousands there, I spotted the "Detroit-Vs-Everybody" T-shirt. I was proudly wearing my "Detroit Snob" Tee.
For the 36th year, I spent Labor Day weekend at Hart Plaza on the river front for Detroit's annual Jazz Festival. It is the largest free jazz festival in the country, with five stages, featuring Detroit's own as well a musicians from across the country. Among the thousands there, I spotted the "Detroit-Vs-Everybody" T-shirt. I was proudly wearing my "Detroit Snob" Tee.
47
DETROIT is bouncing back. I'm from Philly, where in the late 60s and early 70s the city experienced a revival. Some houses in the city's most historic zone, Olde City, were selling for a pittance. Flippers were buying them, rehabbing them and rolling them over quickly. Since that time, downtown Philly has been on a building binge. Though I dislike at least half of the new tall buildings, because they block the statue of William Penn on City Hall from many angles, the town is bustling. Philly is still a city where one can live affordably, with lots of cultural resources and hidden treasures, prime among them being Fairmount Park, which is the largest cultivated park within a city in the world. We had extreme job loss due to manufacturers moving out of the city, causing what was once described as the Workshop of the World to lay idle for many years now. But other business flourished in their place. No doubt Detroit is in for the long haul, but from what I've seen it's got some great "bones." Launching an exploration of the city on a jog with some goodies from the bake shop is a happy way to support a bright spot of Detroit's rebirth.
36
Philly thriving? See Patricia from Ann Arbor's comment about the importance of schools, and then note this: http://www.thenation.com/article/how-destroy-public-school-system/
Philadelphia is a place that has a per capita homicide rate that usually exceeds that of Chicago.
http://guncrisis.org/2014/01/15/philadelphia-still-suffering-higher-homi...
http://guncrisis.org/2014/07/09/philadelphia-stays-ahead-of-chicagos-hom...
But it's mostly black folk that are getting killed, and that's not an issue unless a white cop does the killing, so...back to Fairmount Park (but not after dark)!
http://guncrisis.org/2014/01/15/philadelphia-still-suffering-higher-homi...
http://guncrisis.org/2014/07/09/philadelphia-stays-ahead-of-chicagos-hom...
But it's mostly black folk that are getting killed, and that's not an issue unless a white cop does the killing, so...back to Fairmount Park (but not after dark)!
1
Wonder-full column about the "spirit and promise" of Detroit. Thank you, Frank! Remember Motor City in the 1950s when American carmakers were kings and Motown meant music? From Sister Pie's bakeshop in the wasteland that is still Detroit, to the bustle of Cadillac Square, signs of new growth, of green and vibrant shoots rising from the ashes of Detroit are thrilling. T shirts vaunting "Detroit Vs. Everbody" says it all. Congratulations to Quicken Loan's Chairman Dan Gilbert for biting off a chunk of downtown Detroit and rehabilitating it. Civic spirit is so alive and well in that great city of American cities. "America's Great Comeback City". As you predict, if we can rebuild Detroit, we can rebuild anything. Wondering why we don't see the large stampede of Republican wannabe POTUS candidates, and the Democratic and Independent candidates for The Presidency next year visiting Detroit? How seemly and beautiful for them to make a stand for the revitalization of Detroit (and America) in Cadillac Square, munching Sister Pie's eats, scarfing down treats at Central Kitchen + Bar. Seeing our candidates spending time in Detroit (instead of eating corn dogs and pork chops on a stick in Iowa and bounding through the wilds of New Hampshire bragging about their viability to be our President) would go a long way to reassuring Americans of all political stripes that if we can make it in Detroit, we can make it anywhere in the USA.
29
"Detroit is a gauge of our soul."
Barry Gordy wouldn't disagree.
Barry Gordy wouldn't disagree.
2
I think you mean Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records. Worth remembering that it was a vibrant local culture that originally produced the classic Motown sound. Great music, especially though not exclusively pop music, always has roots and a sense of place to it, whether the sound is from New Orleans, or Philadelphia, or San Francisco, or New York City - or, of course, Detroit.
Somehow, over the past several years, I have happened to meet half a dozen folks who were either from Detroit--or lived there for a period of time. And one of the endearing positives of the city is the affection people feel for the place--despite all of the blight-- in its politics, culture and real estate.
And although civic pride and community spirit will go a ways toward reinvigorating Detroit, it's going to take a lot more to turn things around than a bake shop or two--or winning sports franchises.
The story of Detroit reminds me of what an old friend once said about visiting Paris--that she'd love to return, if only the Parisians would leave for a week. You see, Detroit's main disadvantage is that no matter how hard they try--or how much is invested, the sins visited upon the city by Liberalism are still there. Their politicians are still anti-capitalist and redistributionist. The public unions are still greedy. The schools are some of the worst in the country--despite the sky-high salaries paid to teachers. Crime is rampant and city services are sparse, despite the high tax burden.
In other words, the conditions which lead to Detroit's decline still exist--and stand in the way of its recovery. The city needs a tax base--and with a political class and an electorate that is staunchly anti-business, even having a cool bakery on every street corner won't change anything.
And although civic pride and community spirit will go a ways toward reinvigorating Detroit, it's going to take a lot more to turn things around than a bake shop or two--or winning sports franchises.
The story of Detroit reminds me of what an old friend once said about visiting Paris--that she'd love to return, if only the Parisians would leave for a week. You see, Detroit's main disadvantage is that no matter how hard they try--or how much is invested, the sins visited upon the city by Liberalism are still there. Their politicians are still anti-capitalist and redistributionist. The public unions are still greedy. The schools are some of the worst in the country--despite the sky-high salaries paid to teachers. Crime is rampant and city services are sparse, despite the high tax burden.
In other words, the conditions which lead to Detroit's decline still exist--and stand in the way of its recovery. The city needs a tax base--and with a political class and an electorate that is staunchly anti-business, even having a cool bakery on every street corner won't change anything.
9
"If we can rebuild Detroit, we can rebuild anything."
I'm not optimistic. If it were so, we would have done something with my hometown of Gary, Indiana. If not for racism and a vacuous state legislature who ignores the possibilities of prime real estate on the southern shores of Lake Michigan (30 minutes from the Chicago loop), something would have been done since 1972.
I'm not optimistic. If it were so, we would have done something with my hometown of Gary, Indiana. If not for racism and a vacuous state legislature who ignores the possibilities of prime real estate on the southern shores of Lake Michigan (30 minutes from the Chicago loop), something would have been done since 1972.
4
Detroit can make it. New York City effectively went bankrupt and came back. Pittsburgh survived the decline of the Steel Industry and is a better city for it.
3
Detroit is remarkable for its resilience and that of its new trailblazing inhabitants. Now, imagine how much better things could be if the Federal government (i.e. Congress) could get off its backside in support of an infrastructure "moon shot" effort to rebuild Detroit and all of crumbling America. Individuals and businesses can rebuild shops, buildings and even districts, but they cannot rebuild roads, bridges, rail lines, airports and all the other big projects which provide the needed lifeblood of the larger economy. These are not "make work" projects--they make a country work.
21
There are three Detroits: downtown, the suburbs, and the doughnut of destruction that lies in ruins between the two.
The auto industries' demise is often cited in the fall of Detroit, but the suburbs are just as dependent on cars as the city. The suburbs (where I have spent my life) have survived or even thrived through the recession. The demise of the auto industry is overstated. Building a movie studio drove the suburb of Allen Park to an emergency manager, not the lack of property tax income from Ford.
Downtown is experiencing what is best described as a re-birth. Thank you Dan Gilbert - you are a savior. The city was always a place you avoided. Jury duty or getting a marriage license involved a dreaded trip into the city. I never imagined a city that you would WANT to spend time in. Walking to a meeting downtown last month I was AMAZED. World-class river-front urban living on a beer budget? Detroit is your answer.
But there is still the other Detroit. The burned-out blocks of abandoned houses and dumping grounds. A zombie apocalypse would be an improvement in too many neighborhoods.
Nolan Finley, the Detroit News columnist received some heat for his column "Where are the black people?" in Dec. 2014. To say Detroit is a segregated city isn't a raciest comment, it is a demographic fact. Downtown is now 80% white. The neighborhoods are 80% black.
We can't truly recover until we desegregate the city. We still have a lot of work to make Detroit healthy again.
The auto industries' demise is often cited in the fall of Detroit, but the suburbs are just as dependent on cars as the city. The suburbs (where I have spent my life) have survived or even thrived through the recession. The demise of the auto industry is overstated. Building a movie studio drove the suburb of Allen Park to an emergency manager, not the lack of property tax income from Ford.
Downtown is experiencing what is best described as a re-birth. Thank you Dan Gilbert - you are a savior. The city was always a place you avoided. Jury duty or getting a marriage license involved a dreaded trip into the city. I never imagined a city that you would WANT to spend time in. Walking to a meeting downtown last month I was AMAZED. World-class river-front urban living on a beer budget? Detroit is your answer.
But there is still the other Detroit. The burned-out blocks of abandoned houses and dumping grounds. A zombie apocalypse would be an improvement in too many neighborhoods.
Nolan Finley, the Detroit News columnist received some heat for his column "Where are the black people?" in Dec. 2014. To say Detroit is a segregated city isn't a raciest comment, it is a demographic fact. Downtown is now 80% white. The neighborhoods are 80% black.
We can't truly recover until we desegregate the city. We still have a lot of work to make Detroit healthy again.
24
"We can't truly recover until we desegregate the city."
Don't people have the right to live wherever they want?
Don't people have the right to live wherever they want?
3
Sure, people can live where they want, but I doubt poor people want to live in derelict neighborhoods with high crime and no economic opportunity.
The only way to eliminate poor, high crime neighborhoods is through economic opportunity, and integration is the only way to achieve that. We either accept that there are two Detroits - one you don't want to even drive through - or we have to create a Detroit that works for everyone.
People blame the auto industry for Detroit's failure. The race riots in the 60's, white flight, and city vs the suburb segregation and battle over power has had a larger impact on the fall of Detroit. A segregated Detroit has served no-one.
The only way to eliminate poor, high crime neighborhoods is through economic opportunity, and integration is the only way to achieve that. We either accept that there are two Detroits - one you don't want to even drive through - or we have to create a Detroit that works for everyone.
People blame the auto industry for Detroit's failure. The race riots in the 60's, white flight, and city vs the suburb segregation and battle over power has had a larger impact on the fall of Detroit. A segregated Detroit has served no-one.
2
Detroit was driven into bankruptcy by the UAW and corrupt city officials.
6
No, it wasn't.
It was driven into bankruptcy by the deliberate policy of the Republican state government, which cut off its revenue.
In our state tax system, the state government has the only access to most of the money, to all of the money for depressed areas. The state simply cut it off.
If you live here, you'd know why -- half pure racism, and half pure partisan politics.
What is emerging now is white and Republican owned, bought out for next to nothing with money not available to those who lived there.
The black people who lived there are no included, and not recovering. They are instead seen as "the problem." A rich white guy can get money to rehab a fine old building he got for nothing more than part of the back taxes. The blacks who lived there are just evicted.
Someone above mentioned the donut, the ring of destruction between recovering Detroit and the suburbs. It is becoming something from the movie "Escape from New York." That is where those evicted must go.
It was driven into bankruptcy by the deliberate policy of the Republican state government, which cut off its revenue.
In our state tax system, the state government has the only access to most of the money, to all of the money for depressed areas. The state simply cut it off.
If you live here, you'd know why -- half pure racism, and half pure partisan politics.
What is emerging now is white and Republican owned, bought out for next to nothing with money not available to those who lived there.
The black people who lived there are no included, and not recovering. They are instead seen as "the problem." A rich white guy can get money to rehab a fine old building he got for nothing more than part of the back taxes. The blacks who lived there are just evicted.
Someone above mentioned the donut, the ring of destruction between recovering Detroit and the suburbs. It is becoming something from the movie "Escape from New York." That is where those evicted must go.
9
Your easy targets are wrong.
Fifty percent of U.S. auto jobs are still located in Michigan, and these jobs are UAW-represented. But, as with all of the American manufacturing sector, which once provided good living wages for tens of millions of Americans in many parts of the country, the domestic auto sector employs a fraction of the people it once did. Detroit is not unique in suffering the blows of American de-industrialization.
Decades of disinvestment, white AND black middle-class flight to the suburbs, massive decline of the local manufacturing sector, jobs and tax base led to Detroit's high rates of poverty and its government's fiscal problems, not the corruption of one recent administration.
Fifty percent of U.S. auto jobs are still located in Michigan, and these jobs are UAW-represented. But, as with all of the American manufacturing sector, which once provided good living wages for tens of millions of Americans in many parts of the country, the domestic auto sector employs a fraction of the people it once did. Detroit is not unique in suffering the blows of American de-industrialization.
Decades of disinvestment, white AND black middle-class flight to the suburbs, massive decline of the local manufacturing sector, jobs and tax base led to Detroit's high rates of poverty and its government's fiscal problems, not the corruption of one recent administration.
21
Hogwash, Detroit was driven into bankruptcy by inept auto industry management that had cut a fat hog for far too long. I worked for Ford in the early 1970's and you could see handwriting on the wall even then. The Japanese auto industry entered and cut their legs off but the US auto industry continued to wallow in their own hubris, ignore their customers and produce inferior products. But yes I must agree that political corruption played a big hand in it as well.
6
Thank you so much Frank for writing an accurate portrayal of our great city of Detroit. Not sure why but the NYT sure seems to have our back, publishing several articles recently with a 'positive' tone about Detroit. To all of you readers who are afraid of the 'D' come visit, you'll be amazed at the restaurants, unique shopping, the DIA, Belle Isle just to name a few.
66
They did support robbing savers to pay for the bloated pensions of your bloated work force, so I guess that's "positive". Kinda. They're doing it again in Puerto Rico, even though that government is a creation of the federal government and its bonds must ultimately be that government's responsibility. And by suggesting that interest rates continue to be forced low.
2
Sorry, the bid 'D' belongs to no other than Dallas, Texas. But heck, we'll let you use the small 'd'.
1
You called out the NYT correctly on this one. I have fallen in love with Detroit, from the retired black woman who rescued us standing on the street and delivered us to the Hostel Detroit and then came back with my $800.00 Harris Tweed overcoat which I had left in her car to the Concierge (I forget his name) at the Guardian Building who gave us a fantastic personal tour of that treasure! I love Detroit. Now if we could just get the NYT to change their approach to the Bernie Sanders Presidential Campaign.
2
It's wonderful to hear these stories of entrepreneurs taking advantage of the cheap living in Detroit. Back in the late 80s, as we'd drive into Detroit for a baseball game or July 4th fireworks, we'd marvel at the run down tenant housing and the burnt out housing caused by the massive fires during Devils Night and wonder if Detroit could ever be turned around. It's taken more than 30 years since those darkest days, but maybe, just maybe Detroit is finding a way to climb out of the abyss it's been in all these decades.
13
If Detroit is a gauge of our soul, why no mention of the fact that the reason Detroit is in the toilet is because the job base left when the auto industry bailed out? Detroit bloomed in the 50s with all the auto jobs, but when the industry left for cheaper workers elsewhere Detroit tanked. It is what it is and all the pie and cookie shops aren't going to put the old Motor City back in the chips again.
81
Lots of people have done very well with pies and cookies.
23
Bruni did mention the lost auto jobs. Read the piece again.
True, but not enough to make up for the loss of 90% of Detroit's manufacturing jobs.
11
When I think of Detroit as it begins to work its way up after hitting bottom, I think of Brooklyn and the incredible resurgence it's gone through. I can't wait to see what happens with this city over time. The Lions will always be a second class team behind the Packers, but I see Detroit as a first class city. It's exciting.
17
Brooklyn has Manhattan across the river. Windsor, Ontario just doesn't do the same thing.
3
'I think of Brooklyn and the incredible resurgence it's gone through'.
I can't help but think of gentrification and ask where the people who can't afford designer lattes and $800 Bugaboo strollers for their carefully curated families have gone. Or, more aptly, I'm afraid to ask.
I can't help but think of gentrification and ask where the people who can't afford designer lattes and $800 Bugaboo strollers for their carefully curated families have gone. Or, more aptly, I'm afraid to ask.
6
To me, Brooklyn is a cautionary tale. Yes, it's wonderful in many ways and certain areas have literally been transformed, but all of this comes with a huge price. It is simply affordable. Housing prices have skyrocketed, pushing out many people who could no longer afford to live there. While I would very much like to see a Detroit "recover", I don't want to see this happen at the expense of the long-time residents.
2
But expensive cookie shops and hipsters and Dan Gilbert's employees have one thing in common: they're vastly whiter than the residents they've replaced in this neighborhood. So "New Detroit" is just like old Detroit in its insistence on segregation; it's just that the dominant race is different. Travel outside of Dan Gilbertville and you find the 90% black population that Mr. Gilbert forgot. What we get out here in what's called "The Neighborhoods"- in Detroiteeze - is the bulldozer and laughable, unworkable schemes like the Detroit Land Bank. The predominant theory out here is to kidnap property, let it rot and then knock it all down so that arugula can be planted for the wealthy white residents of the "New Detroit." Yes, cookies are very inspiring.
34
You make a good point. The U.S.A. on the whole needs a way to redistribute wealth. Yes, I've said it. It either has to be a jobs program of some sort, like a massive infrastructure rehab of energy, transportation and communication, or an out an out tax on our financials that goes directly to the underfunded in life.
9
Well, Carolyn...
Pie and cookie kingdoms will never do well enough to finance the utopia you envision.
Pie and cookie kingdoms will never do well enough to finance the utopia you envision.
3
Yes, racial and financial segregation still exists in Detroit. Have you ever strayed very far off Michigan Avenue in Chicago? You'll find it still exists there and in virtually every American city. As for Mr. Gilbert, (who is, in fact, investing in residential housing in "the neighborhoods"), are you suggesting Detroit would be better off without him? Without Shinola? Without Sister Pie? If so, please tell us how.
6
As a car guy through and through, I can't help but root for Detroit.
I also can't forget that Mitt Romney (ex-VC) and the majority of Republicans castigated Obama for saving the US car industry. Those "shoots of growth" in 2015 are only possible because of the $80 billion auto bailout in 2008-9. Without that foresight and thought of community, the US car industry would be Ford and imports. Detroit would be a virtual ghost town; a larger version of Gary Indiana but with crushing debt and no basis to grow.
Detroit has "shoots of growth" because the government did the right thing and kept the forces of unregulated capitalism from razing Detroit and salting the earth.
I also can't forget that Mitt Romney (ex-VC) and the majority of Republicans castigated Obama for saving the US car industry. Those "shoots of growth" in 2015 are only possible because of the $80 billion auto bailout in 2008-9. Without that foresight and thought of community, the US car industry would be Ford and imports. Detroit would be a virtual ghost town; a larger version of Gary Indiana but with crushing debt and no basis to grow.
Detroit has "shoots of growth" because the government did the right thing and kept the forces of unregulated capitalism from razing Detroit and salting the earth.
146
Who was prez in 2008? That bailout money wasn't "his" either
1
What you wrote is true. I remember all the Republicans I knew who were in utter shock that the GOP was going to cut bait. Those were dark days and that bailout is the only reason we have any artisanal anything to debate.
2
@no:
That'd be "W". The money was ours, but as our chief executive, he had a lot to say in how it would be spent. I was no fan of Bush's, but he did the right thing there. Most of the administration was Obama's, and Obama came to own it. Obama took the heat for it, and then got the credit. That is the way it works.
Many people (not me) are unhappy we didn't leave more troops in Iraq. Bush signed the order to pull out in 2011, Obama implemented it. Obama has taken the heat for Bush's decision. That is the way it goes.
That'd be "W". The money was ours, but as our chief executive, he had a lot to say in how it would be spent. I was no fan of Bush's, but he did the right thing there. Most of the administration was Obama's, and Obama came to own it. Obama took the heat for it, and then got the credit. That is the way it works.
Many people (not me) are unhappy we didn't leave more troops in Iraq. Bush signed the order to pull out in 2011, Obama implemented it. Obama has taken the heat for Bush's decision. That is the way it goes.
1
Michigan has a long history of welcoming immigrants, and a key problem for Detroit today is it's shrunken population. Welcoming the more entrepreneurial of the Syrian refugees to help populate and rebuild from scratch areas of Detroit that have been scarred over the last decade may help partially solve two large problems. Baltimore, which has a similar desire to regrow it's population, would do well to consider the same. We could perhaps offer 10 year visas with a guarantee for green card provided the refugees spend that time in these cities which are looking to rebuild their populations to former glory.
38
You can't plant a few tens of thousands of people in a devastated area without jobs.
4
Detroit is one up in this regard with its already large suburban Middle East population.
1
Agreed. I've wondered why our governor hasn't tried to draw some of those Mexican and Central American immigrants that annoy the southwest so much to Detroit. There may not be jobs there now, but if enough people come, the jobs to take care of them will appear. Rehabbing housing, food services, gas stations, the business of life, would return. One key thing would be a real grocery store. Last I heard there was no place for a neighborhood resident to shop for fresh produce and reasonably priced food--only corner "convenience" stores, charging a convenience price for low quality foods.
I'm not sure you can rebuild Detroit -- maybe you should refer to it as remodeling. I do know with its great people (and music) it can once again be a source of pride for all the people who still call it home.
4
Detroit--the city too big to fail. We, the little people who pay most of the taxes, do have a vested interest in this vital city. One visit to Detroit will convince anyone that it's like a curmudgeonly old cardiac patient: revived once again through defibrillation and yelling to the nurse for his cigs and bourbon. Certainly too ornery to die. Seriously, the Detroit Institute of Arts deserves a visit and is a pilgrimage destination for my household, having approached a cultural pillaging not seen since Hermann Goering stripped the Louvre of many of its works. All of this was averted by adroit wheeling and dealing on the part of Michigan Governor Snyder with the buy-in of many charitable corporate foundations. We who appreciate fine art have reason to be deeply grateful for the Grand Bargain that went through in 2014 and should indicate this by visiting Detroit often.
31
I'm glad some stepped up and kept the art public. It would have been better if the public had been "first" for the past 30 years. Then the Detroit fiasco might never have happened.
9
Our governor Rick Snyder is one of the Koch shills and you can bet if he's done anything for Detroit it's part of a plan to turn the state red and parcel if off to private enterprise for dismantling and profit.
One of the very best things that could ever happen to Michigan is for Mr. Snyder to go away. He has done things in Michigan that are beyond immoral and have lined the pockets of the 1%.
One of the very best things that could ever happen to Michigan is for Mr. Snyder to go away. He has done things in Michigan that are beyond immoral and have lined the pockets of the 1%.
2
Detroit, and New Orleans, and Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, and Miami, and..... Comebacks and reinventing ourselves is the American Way!
20
I grew up in Detroit in the early 50's went away to college in Ann Arbor and lived there for 15 years until I moved back to Detroit at age 36 to work for the City of Detroit for 25 years in the Finance Department until I retired in August 2013.
I have seen Detroit go from "North of Eight Mile vs South of Eight Mile" to new hope Downtown and in Midtown. From irascible and contentious Mayor Coleman A. Young to cooperative and results driven Mayor Mike Duggan---I've seen it all.
But nothing will really change until we can get the residents involved ant that means the African Americans in the neighborhoods who all too often lack the education and skills to be able to make really positive change.
Young entrepreneurs and big time property developers are a good start---a big shot in the arm---but you've got to get the residents who are largely African American on board or the initiative is doomed to failure.
That should be the next step in the revitalization of Detroit---figure out a way to get the residents in the neighborhoods who are almost 100% black involved and get them on board. My advice is to go to the churches that are the core of the black community and start with them. Get the churches on board and you will get the people that go to the churches on board.
I have seen Detroit go from "North of Eight Mile vs South of Eight Mile" to new hope Downtown and in Midtown. From irascible and contentious Mayor Coleman A. Young to cooperative and results driven Mayor Mike Duggan---I've seen it all.
But nothing will really change until we can get the residents involved ant that means the African Americans in the neighborhoods who all too often lack the education and skills to be able to make really positive change.
Young entrepreneurs and big time property developers are a good start---a big shot in the arm---but you've got to get the residents who are largely African American on board or the initiative is doomed to failure.
That should be the next step in the revitalization of Detroit---figure out a way to get the residents in the neighborhoods who are almost 100% black involved and get them on board. My advice is to go to the churches that are the core of the black community and start with them. Get the churches on board and you will get the people that go to the churches on board.
36
Good point about the church's. But transportation to jobs is poor. Jobs need to be brought to these areas as well. Perhaps a "banker to the poor" type of system could help spur new small businesses.
7
Perhaps churches willing to provide micro loans and support education .
2
Thank-you for both the dose of reality with an inspired positive solution.
1
My wife and I just spent Labor Day weekend at the world's greatest free jazz festival on Detroit's waterfront. The vibrancy and spirit of the huge diverse crowd at this event were amazing. Detroiters we met expressed their pride in the city and their optimism that the city is on the rise. While widespread poverty, unemployment, a high crime rate, and an overloaded school system are still problems that must be dealt with, new industries, like Shinola which makes high end bicycles and watches using mostly local and regional materials, are springing up and the arts are thriving. Thank you, Frank, for drawing attention to the" spirit and promise" of this once and future great city!
55
I lived in Detroit in the late 70s as an art student. It was a ruin then already. But the art scene was just as intense as I heard it is now. And this is not surprising since the Detroit Institute of Arts is a first class institution. And Detroit still has real estate artists have access to economically, unlike New York City. It was the artists and the intense art scene that revitalized NYC. And NYC then turned its back on them in favor of unimaginative glass skyscraper lovers with unimaginative foreign capital. I hope Detroit doesn't make this mistake on its path to recovery.
43
I love this posting. It is true that everywhere artist gain a foothold, there is economic development. Then the artists get pushed out. Too bad about the piggies.
4
Imagine,
If only a fraction of the $108 BILLION US taxpayers have spent "rebuilding" Afghanistan, had been spent in Detroit.
If only a fraction of the $4 TRILLION wasted in The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, had been spent building a better America.
If only a fraction of the $108 BILLION US taxpayers have spent "rebuilding" Afghanistan, had been spent in Detroit.
If only a fraction of the $4 TRILLION wasted in The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, had been spent building a better America.
240
I wish I had a truck full of "recommend" to back up to this comment. Yes, what ARE our priorities?
3
So. Well. Said.
2
The initial battle in Afghanistan was necessary. You cannot allow someone to attack NYC and DC without getting hit back, and hit hard.
But after that, spending money on Afghanistan, Iraq, and yes, even Detroit is wasting money.
But after that, spending money on Afghanistan, Iraq, and yes, even Detroit is wasting money.
2
I'm still waiting for a comeback in Northeast Detroit 48212(City Council District 3), areas along E.McNichols(6 Mile),E.Davison, from Conant or Ryan Road to Mound Road or Mt.Elliott Street. A comeback has yet to reach many neighborhoods,especially in neglected,forgotten Northeast Detroit.
23
I think it will come. I grew up in the 70's, Detroit was the closest American city and all our cultural references (Motown especially) were there. I was born in 1965, so my entire life has been about "Detroit on the decline". In the 1930's my grandfather moved there for work, I have his 1936 Michigan driver's licence. My great uncle on my mother's side did the same. It was once, and once again can be, the city of opportunity. How refreshing.
But it won't happen everywhere at once. I visited the Lower East Side in 1993, and was terrified just walking there with the addicts, pushers, homeless, and frighteningly scared police officers. Now you're likely to get stampeded by groups of young women in high heels and party dresses. Young people can't afford gentrified neighbourhoods; so you neighbourhood's time will come, just like Brooklyn, or Asheville, or Parkdale in Toronto.
But it won't happen everywhere at once. I visited the Lower East Side in 1993, and was terrified just walking there with the addicts, pushers, homeless, and frighteningly scared police officers. Now you're likely to get stampeded by groups of young women in high heels and party dresses. Young people can't afford gentrified neighbourhoods; so you neighbourhood's time will come, just like Brooklyn, or Asheville, or Parkdale in Toronto.
1
It took decades of decay to devastate Detroit, it will take decades to rebuild.
3
Admittedly Detroit has some great culture and there are some neat things happening these days in a few neighborhoods (too bad the latter wasn't the case when we lived there, as we were essentially prisoners in our [very immediate] neighborhood because of the profuse amounts of crime - and we resented having to leave the city limits for almost any source of "life").
We've lived in several cities over the years, we've traveled quite extensively and frequently throughout the U.S. and much of the world, and we've seen a lot over the decades - but Detroit was a huge mess, and essentially it still is. The oppressive amount of dysfunction and corruption is absolutely beyond belief - so until that reality can be surmounted, the city will never improve significantly.
We've lived in NYC since leaving Detroit (and I'd also lived here for many years during the "bad old days", so I have a firsthand basis for comparison). Not even the worst era in NYC could compare to the nightmare that has been Detroit for several decades. I'm not being smug; I'm just being realistic.