By: Kathleen Gray

Gov. Rick Snyder has nothing against the Windy City.

But when people ask him why young people should move to Detroit, he has a simple answer.

"Do you want to be another yuppie in Chicago, or do you want to make a difference in Detroit?" he told the Free Press on Wednesday.

Young people these days, he said, want to make a difference, be part of a renaissance or a success story. And Detroit offers opportunities galore.

"What better place to come than this community," Snyder said. "To say you're on the ground floor of helping bring back a wonderful urban environment, to be part of a success story. ... No disrespect to Chicago, but they've got lots of young people, and you're just going to blend in and just be another person there."

As for venture capitalists, he tells them that Detroit is a perfect place to practice value investing. He cites the city's abundant stock of cheap, vacant land, its portfolio of human talent eager to land a job and the opportunity for investors to diversify their portfolios.

"We have a lot of unemployment and underemployment and very talented people," Snyder said. "And the biggest driver of long-term economic growth in terms of where people will go is talent. That will drive more behavior than any other single feature."


http://www.freep.com/article/2011120...anging-Detroit