The next BIG thing DETROIT !

[Detroitdave]

Last night I attended the Next BIG thing DETROIT and had a great time . What was telling was the type of people that attended this event . Besides Quicken loans, I don't believe there were any national chains , I think it is more organic to have Detroit area companies , bringing Detroit back .

Quick back story I was born in Detroit lived here only until my teen years and have lived in many different cities and countries most of my life only recently returning. I would come back and visit every year and keep tabs on the city through sites like this great one !

Since returning over the last 3 years I have notice a energy and change that I haven't ever notice before . I believe this change is much different than the "Renaissance", that any, Casino , or some big Company , or Mall/Store , can come "save" the city. There is no "master plan "that the city is trying to sell .

Not to say that these big companies really didn't try to change the city and they have made a major impact on the city, no one can argue that , however , after attending the event last night and several others like it since I've been back in the city .I've notice a younger ,more artistic , urban, national and international , positive vibe and I believe this is picking up .

THIS is what is being picked up and what a lot of the national "chatter" is all about . this is much more than some nation chain stores moving in and opening up , which is needed , however these people last night at The next BIG thing ,and the finalist for the Hatch contest had some great great ideas .

Hearing the ideas and more importantly seeing the type of people that came out to hear and support what they had to say was inspiring . Most importantly supporting these younger people gave one a sense of "WOW this is the city I live in ,

I have ALWAYS been optimistic about Detroit through all the ups and downs, from near and far ,maybe this can happen ", It even inspire me to perhaps one day open my own business .

Did anyone else attend ? what do you think ? I will add pics later ... if I can figure out how
openly optimistic !

[Detroitdave]

I hope I did this right ? , if you haven't been inside the Beautiful David Whitney building you should go check it out ! I'm curious as to what it can look like , hopefully after it's gets it day in the sun !

[corktownyuppie]

The event was sweet. A trendy crowd, cool new businesses. I'd never seen the inside of the David Whitney building before. How gorgeous is that building...man. Lots of great, usable ideas and lot of people from both the city and suburbs who are passionate about Detroit. Love it. You can really feel a groundswell of movement picking up steam.

It was really cool to be on Grand Circus and see pedestrians all decked out walking along Woodward and GCP, taking the People Mover, etc. Between that crowd, the Red Wings crowd, and the Occupy Detroit crowd, downtown felt like a real "city" with lots of different people sharing space and being together.

There's something to say about a place that forces peoples from different backgrounds and interests to live among one another. That kind of dynamic is exactly what the metro Detroit area needs to reduce the dysfunctional polarization that plagues us.

CY

p.s. talking about movement picking up steam...

MLive reports that Club LAX has an online petition
So I started my own to keep GCP safe for residents, families, and visitors.

I actually am not really that anti-LAX. Had they just opened up the club 2-3 blocks away, I don't think this would be nearly as much of an issue.

[boneshaker]

Not to rain on anyones parade... but.... whenever I hear people say how "great" Detroit is.. I ask them.oh and where do you live?Dan Gilbert?Mike Illitch?William Clay Ford Jr/Sr?Robert Ficano?Dick Purtan?Huel Perkins?Diana Lewis?Aretha Franklin?Joe Dumars?Roger Penske?Kid Rock?Eminem?None of the above live in Detroit despite comments on how "great" the city is....Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

[mikeg19]

Not to rain on anyones parade... but.... whenever I hear people say how "great" Detroit is.. I ask them.oh and where do you live?Dan Gilbert?Mike Illitch?William Clay Ford Jr/Sr?Robert Ficano?Dick Purtan?Huel Perkins?Diana Lewis?Aretha Franklin?Joe Dumars?Roger Penske?Kid Rock?Eminem?None of the above live in Detroit despite comments on how "great" the city is....Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

Matt Stafford lives in the Book Cadillac

[313WX]

Not to rain on anyones parade... but.... whenever I hear people say how "great" Detroit is.. I ask them.oh and where do you live?Dan Gilbert?Mike Illitch?William Clay Ford Jr/Sr?Robert Ficano?Dick Purtan?Huel Perkins?Diana Lewis?Aretha Franklin?Joe Dumars?Roger Penske?Kid Rock?Eminem?None of the above live in Detroit despite comments on how "great" the city is....Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

I completely agree.

Their income and property tax dollars will do much more to revive Detroit than any ol' [[damn near tax free) condo or commercial development.

[boneshaker]

Matt Stafford lives in the Book Cadillac

hehe..after todays game Stafford will be lucky to hobble back......

[313WX]

Matt Stafford lives in the Book Cadillac

Do you have something to back this up with?

[animatedmartian]

People aren't going to move into Detroit just because celebrities live in Detroit. That's a very weak logic that hardly any rational person would do or maybe that's just me.

I guess I'll start saving up money now so I can go live next to Meg White in Indian Village then...

[313WX]

People aren't going to move into Detroit just because celebrities live in Detroit. That's a very weak logic that hardly any rational person would do.

I guess I'll start saving up money now so I can go live next to Meg White in Indian Village.

That wasn't my point.

People will move to Detroit if we can offer basic and sufficient city services, and you need revenue to do that, and a city can only get revenue from tax dollars, and the folks in question have plenty of that.

It won't be the yuppies that bring back Detroit, but the middle class families unfortunately, and middle class families just want some bang for their buck [[a functioning city). These familes will never come back until we can do that. Yuppies quite frankly don't have a pot to piss in, and that doesn't help the poorest city in the country.

[detroitpride313]

Not to rain on anyones parade... but.... whenever I hear people say how "great" Detroit is.. I ask them.oh and where do you live?Dan Gilbert?Mike Illitch?William Clay Ford Jr/Sr?Robert Ficano?Dick Purtan?Huel Perkins?Diana Lewis?Aretha Franklin?Joe Dumars?Roger Penske?Kid Rock?Eminem?None of the above live in Detroit despite comments on how "great" the city is....Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

Yes, I completely agree! I'm glad someone else feels the same way I do...however, I did hear that Dan Gilbert plans to move into the Broderick Tower when it's finished...

[downtownguy]

Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

Dave Bing moved into the city. Oh, wait. that was after he was elected mayor.

[kryptonite]

I completely agree.

Their income and property tax dollars will do much more to revive Detroit than any ol' [[damn near tax free) condo or commercial development.

True, and we are not exactly deluged with stories of Motown greats sinking money into the city. It would be nice if some of the ones with bucks would do a little for the city that made them famous back in the 60s.

[sycloneman]

I guess I'll start saving up money now so I can go live next to Meg White in Indian Village then...

I'll sign up for that! YUM lol.

Seriously though I would love to move back down to the city. I drove through the Bricktown area [[across I-75 from the stadiums) and there is so much potential there! The historic gems that are refurbished, and the ones sitting there just begging for someone to give them some attention. I just wish I could afford it!

[Doma]

This was an excellent event, I was so happy to see the inside of the David Whitney Building for the first time in my life!

[kryptonite]

The Whitney Building was a masterpiece even until the 70s and 80s. I am very encouraged to not only hear that it may reopen in the next two years, but that it has been kept up in reasonable shape even though it has been abandoned almost 20 years. In some ways I prefer it to the Guardian Bldg and the Penobscot Bldg. I had hoped to go Friday but could not make it due to other plans.

[DetroitPole]

Not to rain on anyones parade... but.... whenever I hear people say how "great" Detroit is.. I ask them.oh and where do you live?Dan Gilbert?Mike Illitch?William Clay Ford Jr/Sr?Robert Ficano?Dick Purtan?Huel Perkins?Diana Lewis?Aretha Franklin?Joe Dumars?Roger Penske?Kid Rock?Eminem?None of the above live in Detroit despite comments on how "great" the city is....Talk is cheap... time for the "believers" to move back to the city first. Others will follow..

I completely agree. For it seems the majority of boosters, Detroit is a great place...to visit, but they wouldn't want to live there.

Therein lies the problem. A city needs to be a great place to live. For forty years they've been treating the city like it's a goddamn amusement park. That isn't how a city works, unfortunately.

[mikeg19]

Do you have something to back this up with?

I do not actually, Just rumors I've heard from more than a few people, including some media types reporting that. Nothing I can say for certain though, no.

[313WX]

I do not actually, Just rumors I've heard from more than a few people, including some media types reporting that. Nothing I can say for certain though, no.

I did a Google and Yahoo search myself and all I found was rumors of him being spotted in the Book Cadillac, not that he lived in the condos.

It would be sweet if he did, though I have my doubts.

[Scottathew]

Dave Bing moved into the city. Oh, wait. that was after he was elected mayor.

LOL, one of the reasons I would have voted for Cockrel, that is if I had a vote!

[Scottathew]

For forty years they've been treating the city like it's a goddamn amusement park.

If Detroit were an amusement park it would have a lot of parking lots, street performers, a place for people to come and camp out, and a train to take you around. Oh wait......

[GOAT]

People will NOT move to Detroit if the city can offer service and the like.

They will move here for 3 reasons only which have been argued time and again.

1) reduce crime [[especially in neighbourhoods)

2) better school system period.

3) jobs.

End of story.

[corktownyuppie]

Therein lies the problem. A city needs to be a great place to live. For forty years they've been treating the city like it's a goddamn amusement park. That isn't how a city works, unfortunately.

I can't speak to the last 40 years, but I don't see the city trying to be an amusement park. I see it trying to change from a dying industrial-based economy to a growing knowledge-based economy.

I think workers from both fields have things in common. They want:
- safety
- jobs
- convenience
- good schools

But, there are also differences:

- Knowledge workers tend to trend younger.
- College degree almost always...many with advanced degrees.
- High career variability, job change is the norm
- Commuting long distance or even by plane is common

I think Detroit is trying to transform into a city that attracts those kinds of people. The problem is that the transformation, like all transformations, is painful as hell. And it's really shitty time to do it. It would've been easier to do it gradually over 40 years, but in the past 3 years we've a total shift in labor/management dynamics, paradigms shifting about city services, and even a cultural movement away from suburbanism toward walkable urban areas. And that's not just in Detroit, but it's all over.

How we balance shifting toward the new viable solutions while not screwing over those were invested in the old ways is just really, really, really difficult. And while I can't speak to whether or not we're doing a good job with that balance, I do know that rarely can any one person see the entire field at the same time long enough to properly analyze how we're doing.

It's shitty for people right now, and that's inevitable -- not to mention worth our empathy and concern. The question is whether or not the price we're paying in austerity is driving us something more sustainable in the long run.

Personally, I think yes. But that's easy for me to say, because I'm not the one suffering through the process. So I temper my opinions and defer to those who can see the whole thing at once.

[Detroitdave]

ummmm yes and no . Currently most families don't really have much of a pot to piss in these days . They have the expense of kids , a mortgage and college , so most families don't have a lot of disposable and Current history shows that yuppies and the artistic types, and DINKS do bring cities back , ALONG with families , but mostly in this order. Artist, glbt, yuppies, dinks ,then families . The artist move in because the families have already moved out and no one else feels safe to move in and it's cheap, so they move in , then the gay and lesbians move in because they see the potential and let's face it , they almost ALWAYS make everything more FABULOUS ! and raise real estate prices ,LOL , then the yuppies ALWAYS follow because let's face it they don't want to be left out the coolest "new" thing !,LOL , then Dinks ALWAYS follow because they can buy everyone else out ! :-) ,once they have kids most move out to the burbs , then after the taxes base is built up and its trending and fashionable , the families might move in , there are a few exceptions , but I've found this time and time again with most cities I've lived in , from NYC to Chicago to LA to Miami to Rome ect . This is how it works .
I've seen this happen time and time again and even several times in most "hot" cities . People just find the next new "hot" part of the town where they can afford to live , which is reasonably safe . Think Palmer park in the 70's/80's . This was an idea place until the city stop supporting the area and all the above groups that had moved in there, so all the above groups just moved two miles up Woodward , then another two miles to RO . And let's face it ,who want to keep moving up Woodward , what are we going to do move to Pontiac ?
As with almost every other city in the country , folks are moving back into the urban area. People are getting tired of living so far away from the core of the city and it's just not sustainable . We simply cannot keep moving further and further away and building roads , school , and awful freeways and exits , think 8 mile and haggerty ,[[ or feel free to add any suburban freeway off ramp )doesn't matter they are all the same ,apple bees , walmart , target , big box, this or that you get the picture , ect.
We've figured out we cannot throw cities away and just build a new one . It's not like buying a new car ever couple of years !