
Detroit's Big Comeback: Out of Bankruptcy, a Rebirth - evo_9
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/28/680629749/out-of-bankruptcy-detroit-reaches-financial-milestone
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pram
Downtown Detroit is kind of starting to seem like a Potemkin village. A lot of
these “comeback” articles focus primarily on the development in a tiny portion
of the city that honestly never declined that much to begin with, in
comparison to everything else.

Crime and poverty are still insanely high. The school system is a tragic
disaster. The majority of the urban area is still abandoned and blighted.

It’s really not a place to raise a family, unless you intentionally live
separated from all the disfunction (private school etc) and then what’s the
point?

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sixeleven
I work downtown but live in the burbs. I totally agree. Its a strange feeling
when the entire business district (which is what is seen as evidence of the
"comeback") feels just like a giant Quicken campus. I see far more private
security than police.

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hyperbovine
The burbs sprang up around a city and economy 3-4x as large as it is today.
Coupled with an overall shift in preferences towards urban living among
millennials, it seems unlikely that there will ever again be a need for as
much suburban housing around Detroit as there was in 1950. In other words, is
it really reasonable to expect all of these areas to rebound?

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collyw
I am curious if there is a preference for urban living or its just a case of
where the jobs are. I would quite happily live in a small town but that's not
where the jobs are for me (software engineer) or my girlfriend (neurologist).

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c0nsumer
In the Detroit area the vast (VAST!) majority of the jobs are out in the
suburbs. There's a good bit of stuff in downtown, but almost everything here
is in an outer ring like Warren, Auburn Hills, Novi, Dearborn, Southfield,
etc.

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collyw
I am in Europe and the opposite seems true.

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captainperl
Being from the Detroit area, I find many of the comments here naive as one
can't compare Detroit to an average urban city.

To understand what Detroit is like, watch a film like "Escape from New York"
or a WW2 bombing documentary.

There are areas with no police or fire forces.

Also, the soil around mfg. plants (and downwind) have metal contamination. The
air quality used to be worse than anything in China today, with choking
curtains of black and red soot and oxides which precipitated into the soil.

So do your homework, get your firearm certifications and spend some time there
before any relocation or investment.

It is a great location if you want cheap industrial space or your own truck
marshalling yard (true story) and you don't need city services like elementary
schools. Check out "Detroit Steel" to see more:

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6403968/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6403968/)

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satsuma
a lot of detroit's problems also stems from the existence of grand rapids. i'd
imagine if a company wanted a michigan office detroit wouldn't be the first on
the list despite being the bigger city.

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jlj
I passed on a consulting opportunity to move the city's bond finances from
paper and spreadsheets to an ERP system back in 2008. At that point it sounded
like no one really knew how good or bad things were financially for the city.
I took an easy corporate job instead. Missed a great learning opportunity a
few years out of college and wish I would have gone for it.

Happy to see them turn around.

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afarrell
> a few years out of college

How good were you at communicating about software estimates back then?

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flurdy
Probably no better than today?

I certainly am, just perhaps better at communicating that it is a futile
pointless guesstimate theatre. At detail and macro project level.

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nothingnewhere
Detroit New Year Gunfire 2019
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3yo7tX7c_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3yo7tX7c_k)

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dbmk
The winters are still horrible, and Americans are somewhat less tolerant of
that than they once were.

It would take a small miracle to make Detroit into what it used to be in
1914-1960.

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ghaff
I don't necessarily disagree with your broader point but what makes you think
Americans are less tolerant of winter than they once were? Cities like NYC and
Boston/Cambridge seem to be doing just fine.

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Scoundreller
My guess is that ubiquitous air conditioning made the south tolerable.

Or it’s just a price thing. Lots of Canadians bought winter-homes in Florida
and Arizona during the 08 crash.

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benrbray
My gut feeling is that the spending habits of people who can afford a second
"winter" home don't really reflect those of the average consumer...

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Scoundreller
What I meant was cheap housing due to overbuilding.

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atomic77
This is a semi-serious suggestion as I am just a techie without enough
background in the legal and political side of things, but it has always struck
me that cities like Detroit and Buffalo struggle while they border the area
that is the economic engine of Canada.

Could something along the lines of the schengen agreement be feasible between
Canada and US border regions, making it easier for people and capital to flow
between them? Not hard to imagine someone in Toronto trying their luck to
start something up in Buffalo or Detroit where their costs would be a fraction
of that in Toronto, but still allow them to remain close to home. People from
those border cities that want to find better work in Toronto could do so more
easily rather than having to move further away within the US. It would seem
like a win-win for both sides.

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gammateam
> Could something along the lines of the schengen agreement be feasible
> between Canada and US border regions, making it easier for people and
> capital to flow between them?

Of course it could, even if states like California left the union similar
cooperation can be formed

Critics never seem to imagine that

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atomic77
What I was thinking of is something along the lines of the agreements that
some European countries have with each other, where residents that live within
a certain distance of the border are treated somewhat differently. Or the
special economic zones that exist in some Asian countries.

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Tsubasachan
A comeback implies that Detroit is just as relevant as it used to be. But its
population and economy is much smaller than it was during the 50s?

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echelon
How's the real estate in Detroit? Is it too late to invest in good property
for cheap?

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missingcolours
Expensive downtown and cheap in the neighborhoods, so no, but it's far less
clear to me that the neighborhoods will rebound in the way that the downtown
area has (nearly all of Detroit's non-gentrified areas are overwhelmingly
black, and across the midwest predominantly black neighborhoods have proven
quite resilient to gentrification, for better or worse).

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subpixel
A rebound in not necessary for a real estate opportunity to exist. Even poor
non-white people pay rent and there are mountains of money to be made in
rental portfolios where you would not like to visit, much less live. But it’s
by no means easy money - it’s a super competitive market.

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fredgrott
a question....we are forgetting history...

I live close to a city that sprang up because Gary Indiana got its first black
mayor in the 1970s is Merrillville Indiana had a large group of white flight
from Gary to Merrillville

How deep was the white flight from Detroit's impact on the future lived now?

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hamilyon2
If only too-big-to-fail banks declared bankruptcy back then.

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roymurdock
Then what, Detroit wouldn’t exist, instead we have a zombie city slowly dying
and giving people the chance and time to escape at least.

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based2
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit:_Become_Human](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit:_Become_Human)

