300,000 new Detroiters

[Strong]

What if 300,000 people moved to Detroit? How would be positively affect the city.

If I were asked this question, my answers would be all over the table.

I would estimate that would be 210,000 new households subtracting out 90,000 people were families or just those who lived together. This would be 210,000 homes that are not occupied now that would become occupied meaning many streets that now have vacated, burned out homes would no longer.

I would estimated that would mean at least 5,000 new retail businesses of various sorts, lets say 1,000 of them would be in the downtown and midtown areas and the other 4,000 would be in the neighborhoods throughout the city, meaning those areas would look better.

I would estimated that would bring in about $400 million in revenue for the city, in terms of income, property and sales tax and grants, etc from the federal government. This would probably wire out Detroit budget shortfall.

I would estimated all the recreation centers, police and fire stations would have to reopen and hire additional workforce.

I would estimate that 80% of the non-working street lights would be repaired.

I would estimated another 50 public and charter schools and some schools would have that high academic standards.

I would estimated that a mall would be built downtown.

I would estimated that the Pistons would move downtown.

I would estimated that the Detroit Science Center would reopen and the other museums would have even more world class exhibits.

I would estimate that crime would decrease by 20% because of the lower unemployment rate, more police and private security, more recreational opportunities, and training facilities.

I would estimate that the bus system would be improved.

I would estimate that the Lions would win the Superbowl, just hoping.

I would estimate that people and the media would have a better attitude about Detroit.

I would estimate that Detroit would be mentioned as the comeback city and the place to be.

Maybe, just maybe.

Estimated by
Anthony Brogdon
Producer of the documentary "The Great Detroit" funding campaign www.indiegogo.com/thegreatdetroitdocumentary
Founder of www.strongdetroit.net

[Danny]

to bring 300,000 people to Detroit requires economic regionalization and jobs, lots of jobs. Detroit needs new security, better public school system, better neighorhoods and exotic retail market. Unfortunately about few hundred young professionals are making Detroit their home. With some up and coming immigrants.

[Detroitnerd]

It's a nice wish list, for the most part. Really nice, and it's important to articulate the things we'd like to see more of.

I guess my issues with it are the assumption -- cloaked in the trappings of pseudo-scientific "estimates" -- that if you have 300,000 people move in, the wish list is automatically accomplished. Oh, there are some subtleties in that list that show vestment in certain political ideas [[charter schools being better than public schools, for instance), or in somewhat passe trends [[a downtown mall is, by now, passe) but there is this tacit assumption that population growth will help us achieve these good things we all want.

Not always true. There are policy choices that will make or break whether thousands of new businesses open. There are issues with the city government's impartiality and transparency that pose obstacles to these latter-day mom-and-pop entrepreneurs making the magic happen. You'd need crimefighting tools that actually stopped crime instead of just moving it around. Having smart growth and good urban planning have a place in all this.

In regard to some amenities, such as walkable neighborhoods and rail-based rapid mass transit, I have often felt, yes, that "if you build it, they will come."

But I do find it hard to believe this apparent idea that "if they come, we will build it." What's to say that the new revenues and new energy won't just be plugged into a lot of the same old bad ideas?

So I guess it depends on what "kind" of people move in. Are they going to be politically engaged? Are they going to favor walkable environments or want McMansions on the water? Are they going to favor walkable neighborhoods linked by transit, or just want bigger freeways?

Ideally, they'd be engaged enough to demand the best, not just be taxpayers to buoy up the same old failed ideas. Taxpayers are people, not just meal tickets.

[iheartthed]

I don't mean to be an English teacher but...... How do you repeat the same simple grammatical error so many times? lol.

The best [[perhaps only?) way to get 300,000 people back living in Detroit any time soon is to establish a development green belt around Metro Detroit....

[jcole]

I don't mean to be an English teacher but...... How do you repeat the same simple grammatical error so many times? lol.

The best [[perhaps only?) way to get 300,000 people back living in Detroit any time soon is to establish a development green belt around Metro Detroit....

My guess is copy/paste

[Jimaz]

My guess is copy/paste

Now if we can only figure out how to copy&paste Detroiters 300,000 times.

[poobert]

Title: 300,000 more Detroiters

What if 300,000 people moved to Detroit? How would be positively affect the city.

Well, about that many people lived in Detroit in 1990.

Ah, 1990. Detroiters were anxiously playing Oregon Trail on their Apple IIs while enjoying You Can't Touch This by MC Hammer as the Gulf War was erupting and the Soviet Union was collapsing.

Aside from that, it was still an extremely unglamorous time for Detroit, but the big difference was that this felt like a big, functioning, albeit troubled city, as opposed to an abandoned godforsaken hellhole. Well, I guess it did feel kind of godforsaken, but in a less desolate way.

As the city was at one time holding 2 million people, there would be [[as their was when we had 1 million people) significant abandonment.

I guess what I am getting at is that 300k people would not be a magic bullet, as things were still generally horrible when we had that many people, horrible enough to make them all leave.

Your predictions remind me of this:
http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/3...s_-_Profit.png

Except structured thusly:
1) 300,000 additional people move to the city
2) ?
3) Pistons move to the city!

I do think that the difference is that if 300,000 people moved here they would end up in the more viable areas and greatly stabilize those areas. Before [[as today) people were scattered throughout the city in very good, vibrant areas and very desolate areas and everything in between. Now we are left with a handful of basically good areas and everywhere else looks like something out of Dante's Inferno.

While I don't support turning the eastside into rainwater retention ponds or some shit, I do think some sort of rightsizing is necessary, but also an influx of new citizens who are productive members of society [[which I presume you imply). I think that is the only way this city can continue to exist as we know it.

[MidTownMs]

Maybe someone should figure out how to keep 300,000 people from leaving Detroit.

[Detroitnerd]

Maybe someone should figure out how to keep 300,000 people from leaving Detroit.

Sadly, it'll probably swing the other way: Identifying the 300,000 people we DO want to leave Detroit.

Gentrification never raises all boats. It just moves them.

[corktownyuppie]

Sadly, it'll probably swing the other way: Identifying the 300,000 people we DO want to leave Detroit.

Gentrification never raises all boats. It just moves them.

Yes, this is true. The problem is that gentrification has been resulting in people with the money moving out of the city. What we need to do is figure out how to get the people with the money back into the city.

[Detroitnerd]

Yes, this is true. The problem is that gentrification has been resulting in people with the money moving out of the city. What we need to do is figure out how to get the people with the money back into the city.

If you really believe that, you don't understand what gentrification is.

[mwilbert]

Sadly, it'll probably swing the other way: Identifying the 300,000 people we DO want to leave Detroit.

Gentrification never raises all boats. It just moves them.

But right now there are way too many leaky boats in Detroit proper, and getting a better balance would be a good thing. And of course, in Detroit there is no reason any plausible amount of gentrification has to mean a lot of displacement--there aren't a lot of people living in the Broderick or the Book Tower right now.

[Hermod]

Gentrification usual means restoring older homes to like new condition that have been lived in and trashed by the lumpen proletariat. Until the problem of the scrappers comes under control, I do not see much in the way of gentrification. Converting an office building or a hotel into expensive condos is not gentrification.

[Wheels]

300,000 Detroiters would raise the murder rate by about 45%. Maybe you should wish for 300,000 Non-Detroiters?

[Hermod]

300,000 Detroiters would raise the murder rate by about 45%. Maybe you should wish for 300,000 Non-Detroiters?

Maybe the main question:

Do you want 300,000 people moving in from Flint or do you want 300,000 people moving in from Sterling Twp?

[corktownyuppie]

Maybe the main question:

Do you want 300,000 people moving in from Flint or do you want 300,000 people moving in from Sterling Twp?

Neither. I'd want 300,000 people moving in from Ann Arbor.
Better yet, 300,000 people moving in from Toronto.

Anyone from within Metro Detroit already carries the poisonous culture with them.

[corktownyuppie]

If you really believe that, you don't understand what gentrification is.

Mea Culpa. Then I don't understand what gentrification is.

[Brian1979]

Gentrification is when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class neighborhoods. The poorer people that were moved out of the area wouldn't be able to afford this area anymore and would relocate. It's basically the reverse of white flight.

This is happening right now in part's of Chicago's rough Westside. It's also happening in Chicago's South Loop and in the Bridgeport neighborhood just west of Sox Park.

[maverick1]

I want 300,000 people to move here but not just anyone and not anyone locally. I'd prefer a diverse 300,000 from anywhere outside of Metro Detroit with a significant percentage from outside the U.S. One thing Detroit has to do is find out who is moving here or the type of person that is willing to move here and aggressively find those type of people. This should be done in parallel to attracting business.

[DetroitPlanner]

300k would not fill 200k households. The average household is about 2.6 people. It would not mean a regional mall would open. If that was the only criteria how come one was never opened 15-20 years ago when the City had substantially more people living in it then that? The same holds true for the Pistons, they left Detroit when it had about 1.5 million people.

The most important things that need to be addressed in the City are safety and education. Unfortunately instead of addressing these issues they have become whipping boys. Once these two issues are addressed people will move back in, in droves. The tough nut to crack here is tax revenue. Too much of the current revenue goes towards debt service which means little to no money to operate needed programs to address safety and education. Past mayors and school boards did not do the city any good by allowing as many bonds to be floated as they did.

[Chicago48]

to bring 300,000 people to Detroit requires economic regionalization and jobs, lots of jobs. Detroit needs new security, better public school system, better neighorhoods and exotic retail market. Unfortunately about few hundred young professionals are making Detroit their home. With some up and coming immigrants.

A few years Canada did this because their birth population had fallen, so they brought over Europeans who promised to have and raise children in Canada.

[Strong]

How would you have written it? and what is a green belt?

I don't mean to be an English teacher but...... How do you repeat the same simple grammatical error so many times? lol.

The best [[perhaps only?) way to get 300,000 people back living in Detroit any time soon is to establish a development green belt around Metro Detroit....

[Islandman]

Neither. I'd want 300,000 people moving in from Ann Arbor.
Better yet, 300,000 people moving in from Toronto.

Anyone from within Metro Detroit already carries the poisonous culture with them.

This.

.......................

[iheartthed]

How would you have written it? and what is a green belt?

I was just chiding you on a simple grammatical error that you copied and pasted into several different lines...

A green belt is basically a land use policy. The idea is to restrict development to already developed areas instead of allowing developers to build new on undeveloped areas, which are usually cheaper to build on. Metro Detroit is the extreme odd ball among large regions for having so much discarded development, primarily concentrated in Detroit but rapidly steadily spreading to inner ring suburban communities. Yet even still there has not been a substantial regional land use policy enacted.

[Hermod]

Detroit did have a sort of natural "green belt" caused by the swamps north of Detroit. These were then drained and filled with glacial gravel quarried from the hills around Rochester. The land was then developed after WWII [[when Detroit was already pretty damn crowded and people were looking for "lebensraum".

.