Originally Posted by
Junjie
Admittedly, I spelled "cachet" incorrectly, so maybe that threw you... but I would think this would be pretty obvious.
Cultural cachet refers to a city's fame, reputation, and associations in the nation's culture. Milwaukee has very, very little cultural cachet. New York has a ton. Detroit has significantly more than Milwaukee and significantly less than New York.
You brought up Camden, Newark, etc. You also love to bring up Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Louis etc. in comparison to Detroit. But none of those places have the cultural value that Detroit does. This should be obvious. There are articles in every paper in the country, every week, telling you what "Detroit" [[i.e. the auto industry) is doing. None of them tell you what "Cleveland," "Milwaukee," or "Camden" are doing, because those cities have no comparable national influence or fame in even one area the way that Detroit does. "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" was a presidential campaign issue that played on that precise fact, but somehow Cleveland and Camden were overlooked. None of those cities have universally known nicknames like "Motor City." None of them invented entire genres of popular music. None of them invented the assembly line, or were known by amazing epithets like "arsenal of democracy." Hell, none of them have even gone bankrupt. Even the magnitude of its decline is a sort of cultural asset, increasing its fame [[or infamy) and drawing attention that other cities don't get.
What's Cleveland known for? "Haha, the river caught on fire." Ok, and then what? "Idk..." How about Detroit? "Haha, it's a pit and went bankrupt." Ok, and then what? "Well, cars, and Motown, and..." Detroit is a famous, interesting place with a wealth of historical value that no comparably cheap city can match.
I have had conversations, in Chinese, in Beijing with average people about "Car City" [[qi che cheng / 汽车城), as they call Detroit. They had heard it had gone bankrupt and wanted to know how that was possible given how popular Buicks are in China. I am skeptical that they would have much to say about "ke li fu lan" [[Cleveland) or "niu wa ke" [[Newark). Even across the globe, speaking in Mandarin, Detroit gets a special nickname! Detroit is simply bigger on the cultural landscape than any of these other places you bring up. That's cultural cachet.
Now, none of that is relevant to most people when they choose where to live, except maybe to avoid a bankrupt city if they can. And rightly so. But young artists aren't most people. Some are assuredly inspired by natural beauty like the Hudson Valley. But others are inspired by the interesting, unique, and provocative. Detroit has those latter characteristics in spades.