Originally Posted by
Lowell
All those cities had their lows and pulled themselves up. Detroit can and is doing so too.
I like Chicago a lot and if I didn't like Detroit, all Detroit-Windsor, so much I would probably live there. What a great city.
My business can be done anywhere; I choose to do it here and have my business here. Why? I find the challenges here invigorating. All the cities above are defined, their power structures stable and locked-in. Detroit is like a pack of cards flipped in the air. We are undefined, our power structures are in flux and open. Our generation[s] has a unique opportunity to re-define what we are and what we can be.
I have often said that for many Detroit is lacking, even threatening, but for artists, planners, and thinkers, it is difficult to find a more exciting environment. If you thrive on challenge this is your town. If you don't and just want everything nice and perfect, then follow your heart, the other cities are for you.
So I think the governor is correct on this one - maybe it is the old Peace Corps volunteer in me. I would just like so see him followup by making the revitalization of our older core cities not just a sermon, but a passion. For starters, I would like see him support simply making those distressed areas as cheap to live in, in terms of insurance and taxation, as their surrounding metropolitan communities. I think a lot of people, young and old, would respond to that and endure the crime, beggary and lesser services if they weren't also financially penalized.