Originally Posted by
BrushStart
Last Friday I interviewed a young sales exec who grew up in suburban Detroit but moved to Chicago after college. He has a decent job there, but is considering moving back to the Detroit-area after we offered him a better paid position. His biggest hang up [[you guessed it) is: "Where would I live?" This guy has now experienced the wonders of a vibrant city with transit, which he rides everyday to work in the Loop. Between the endless streets lined with restaurants and bars filled with energetic young people, he may refuse Metro Detroit despite better pay, better benefits, better opportunity for advancement, and better working conditions. This may sound a bit misogynistic, but he confided in me [[being a man of similar age and status) that he can't get over how few young-professional women there are in the area. Chicago is literally teeming with ambitious 20 to 30-year-old females with careers. Sorely, Detroit is lacking both young men and women of this variety. We have plenty of old folks and some remaining families, and Detroit proper now has a visible number of "hipsters" and the like, but this is a huge setback for us. The reason, I would suggest, is the lack of diverse businesses and a vibrant urban core, which attracts both businesses and young people. How can we turn things around when we cannot get young, aspiring people to move here?