
Detroit Is Going Bankrupt, But Its Tech Community Is Going Strong - bradbenvenuti
http://m.fastcompany.com/3014543/detroit-is-going-bankrupt-but-its-tech-community-is-going-strong
======
sneak
Anyone who lives or works there is a fool.

I grew up there, and lived downtown for years before wising up.

Have a medical emergency and call 911? You're lucky if an ambulance shows up
within an hour, if at all.

I've been robbed at gunpoint enough times for one lifetime. I'm tired of
having to pick up my .45 as the first thing I do after landing at the airport
and getting my rental car.

Tell me how cheap rent has to be to make it worth it?

No thanks. My family is there, I know tons and tons of people there, and know
the city itself as well as the rest of the metro area like the back of my
hand.

You couldn't pay me to live there.

There's a very good reason people run away from that place as if their lives
depended on it. It's because they do.

~~~
zenocon
FUD. This is total nonsense. I've lived in and around Detroit for the greater
part of my life. I've even lived in the Bay Area for a couple years. There
have been tremendous strides to turn this city around even in the last 5
years. I don't live in the city now, but I do work downtown every day in the
Ren Cen. Even in the last year alone, I've noticed things pick up in the
downtown area. I'm glad you took your cranky hatred elsewhere.

~~~
sneak
The five square blocks around the rencen and the casino don't count, though
you can't get emergency services there either.

It's not nonsense, you just don't use emergency services like police, EMS, or
fire every day. That doesn't make it any less stupid to live somewhere they
aren't available, though.

Enjoy unplowed streets and no street lights while things "pick up", though.
Oh, wait, the rencen has a parking garage. Nevermind.

PS: obviously this "pick[ing] up" hasn't been reflected in tax revenues, eh?

~~~
zenocon
Listen, I'm really just fucking tired of people slagging Detroit. The people
that are doing it always seem to fit the profile of this guy here, "I used to
live there...I have relatives there...I visited there once..." \-- quite
frankly, fuck all y'all. We're doing fine in Detroit, we're making it
better...slowly but surely.

~~~
semiprivate
_we 're making it better...slowly but surely_

That's a feeling not a measurement. Clearly economically it's getting worse.
And emergency services seem to be getting worse. What exactly is getting
better?

All I'm saying is that, especially in crisis, the truth and measurement are
far better than emotion. What exactly is getting better?

------
danso
There's not a lot of substance in the OP to back the claim "its Tech Community
Is Going Strong"...and a lot of the individual assumptions/assertions made by
the OP are kind of strange...

> _By some estimates, the city owes as much as $20 billion. But the news is
> unlikely to halt the growth of Detroit 's burgeoning tech scene, according
> to some of its entrepreneurs._

"according to some of its entrepreneurs"....if this is in the lede, I think
it's safe to assume that the reporter isn't going to look at the big picture
(i.e. the relative size of the tech startup boom compared to Detroit's job
sector in general)...

> _" We are the Facebook or the Twitter of the area," Gierak says. "We can get
> unbelievably good people who are extremely talented and think we're the
> coolest job in town, as opposed to being the 550th coolest job in town back
> in San Francisco."_

I haven't been in the SF job market...but is the allure of being "Employee
#single-digit" enough to outweigh a higher-paying job in a more amenable city?

> _Neverthless, the tech scene in Detroit does face challenges. The most
> recent Census data shows Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between
> 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor 's degree, compared to Chicago's
> 250,000. Michigan is one of four states that had fewer young professionals
> in 2011 than it did in 2006._

"...does face challenges"...that's quite the buried understatement. Detroit
has a relatively tiny pool of young professionals...at the same time, tech
jobs seem to still be in hot demand in nearby Chicago. It's definitely
possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the
Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago?

This is not to counter the actual achievements of the Stik team, but it's
unlikely the tech scene -- especially with startups focused on online remote
services -- will have much factor at all in reversing Detroit's deterioration.
Not through any fault of their own, but because of the sheer size of local
revitalization needed.

~~~
RandallBrown
I think the biggest appeal of Detroit right now is that the people going there
are trying to be a part of something bigger. They're trying to revitalize and
reinvent a once great city. And it's working. Detroit is a hell of a lot nicer
now than it was 5 years ago.

You might think that the tech sector can't do enough to turn the city around,
but I disagree. This isn't just a collection of random startups. There are
tech giants like Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and Amazon who are already in the
area or looking to be. Quicken Loans (Intuit) is the biggest tech employer
downtown and Dan Gilbert is doing everything he can to make the city more
amenable to other tech companies.

And the auto industry? That's still there. It'll never be the blue collar
manufacturing boomtown it was, but all the auto companies will continue hiring
engineers. Both auto and software.

~~~
mgkimsal
Quicken Loans is nothing to do with Intuit beyond using the name 'Quicken'.
They're not an Intuit company. They're certainly pretty strong on their own,
but the name is the only relationship.

~~~
RandallBrown
Ahh you're right. I had read that Intuit bought Quicken Loans, but I guess I
never read that Dan Gilbert bought Quicken Loans back from them.

------
vermontdevil
NYC almost went bankrupt back in the 70's. It took a long time and a strong
leadership to bring it back to where it stands now.

Granted Detroit does not have the population size of NYC but with strong
leadership they can rebound. Well see if it happens. My bro in law lives near
there and sells RE for a living. Said he feels optimistic that if Detroit cuts
down on the city boundaries and focuses on areas of growth and potential
they'll pull through.

~~~
rayiner
NYC always had the finance industry, which conveniently happened to boom like
crazy from the 1980's-2000's.

------
krakensden
It's hard to square these quotes:

> SILICON VALLEY IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE IF YOU'RE IN THE 1% OF TECH STARTUPS.
> BUT IF YOU'RE IN THE OTHER 99%, YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME TRYING TO FIND
> TALENT, AND NOT ENOUGH BUILDING A BUSINESS

> Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at
> least a bachelor's degree

Or is it "once we convince people to move here and work with us, they're
trapped"?

~~~
rmason
You're making a common mistake. Detroit has 700,000 people. Metro Detroit has
an additional 3.5 million.

I don't have the stats but there's a much larger number of young professionals
within easy commuting distance of downtown Detroit.

------
toyg
I'd like to say the good people of Manchester (UK) got through something very
similar in the XX century, and have been on the up ever since 1992, when the
IRA demolished half the rotting city centre and unwittingly kickstarted a
ground-zero regeneration campaign that's been wildly successful.

Maybe Detroit needs a similar "let's get our shit together" turning point;
maybe it's already happened and we just don't know yet. It's clear that local
geeks have produced positive media coverage for quite some time now (I'm sure
I've seen quite a few features on this "Detroit rebirth" in the last 24
months).

~~~
homosaur
Manchester has improved dramatically since the Thatcher years but they still
have a ton of cash issues.

------
harryzhang
Some of the comments are grossly exaggerated and don't really apply to the
epicenter of Detroit where alot of the innovation/change is occurring. I grew
up and lived around the Detroit area for 20+ years and I wholeheartedly agree
with the article discussing the growing tech community in downtown Detroit. I
now live in the Bay Area and the two definitely can't compare, but to make
widely exaggerated statements about the living situation there just goes to
show how different perception is from reality.

Over the past few years, private investors have begun trying to make big
changes in Detroit. These are big name guys like Dan Gilbert (Detroit Venture
Partners) and Bill Ford (Fontinalis). Each have started VCs that have made
heavy investments to help Detroit's tech community grow. The Madison building
as discussed in the article only popped up in the recent years, supported by
DVP.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the entire Detroit metro/city area. The
area that is on the up and coming is the area from Grand Circus Park up
through Woodward right up to the Quicken Loans building. In the recent few
years, Dan Gilbert along with other private investors has been buying up
properties and renovating buildings. Practically every building in this 1 mile
stretch is now owned by Dan Gilbert and is in the processed of being renovated
and used by companies. For example, right next to the Madison Building,
Detroit Labs has moved in.

You can see some of the vision for the future of Detroit right here:

[http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-
la...](http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-lays-out-
vision-for-downtown-detroit/)

Not only that but there is a stronger young professional population in this
area. In the past 2 years, huge buildings like the Broderick Tower
([http://brodericktower.com/](http://brodericktower.com/)) have been
completely redone and turned into apartment buildings. These buildings are
FULLY booked and are filled with young professionals.

From a security and safety perspective, Detroit isn't the safest city but
isn't as bad as some people may suggest. The stretch down Woodward is actually
VERY safe. In the past two years, there has been outdoor security cameras
installed EVERY single block all the way up to Quicken Loans building. Dan
Gilbert has hired private security contractors who monitor these cameras
24/7\. In fact, I'd argue that strip of downtown is safer then MANY cities. As
a whole, the outskirts and further away from Downtown is a different story
(near Wayne State, etc.). This article is focused on the change happening
downtown, not the entire city. It's going to be a many years coming to but for
someone having grown up close to Detroit, it's crazy to see the level of
change happening in the past 2-3 years compared to the previous 10 years...and
it's all starting in this 4-6 block section in Downtown.

While Detroit isn't going to be the next SV or even NYC tech scene, to deny
that there's change happening would just be ignorant. Even though Detroit as a
city is going bankrupt, I cheer on the people who are there and working hard
to make it a city they would be proud to call home. I encourage you guys just
to check it out if you have the time. If you go to that section between
Woodward and Grand Circus Park, you'll see that that lunch hours are PACKED
with people and over the weekends when events are happening the city is
bustling with life and energy.

Don't like the FUD get to you and get out to see the real picture!

