'Lives + businesses can thrive here': NYT op-ed on retirees' homecoming from Fla.
Local author/adman Toby Barlow, a 2006 transplant from NYC, reminds Times readers to ditch reflexive beliefs that Detroit is "an apocalyptic wasteland teetering right at the edge of the end of the world."
His op-ed essay introduces EMU grads Ron and Patty Cooley, "who made it onto the lifeboat in the nick of time" by returning here from Florida.
Quote:
Florida’s economy seemed to be declining even more steeply than the Motor City’s. . . . So, weighing their options, they came back. They moved into a downtown loft, just a few blocks from the empty lot where Tiger Stadium once stood.
. . . Talking to them, I found that just like other new arrivals — the artists and recent college graduates coming here from other towns — they spoke of Detroit’s potential with an almost exalted optimism. Instead of depressing or slowing them down, the move has been a thrilling one and they shared examples of how exhilarating their life is downtown.
Being at the center of things means they can walk to the Avalon bakery on Saturday mornings and to the new Comerica Park for baseball games in the spring. Instead of endless golf, they now go to events like the fund-raiser where we met or lectures on design and sustainable development.
