"Dan Gilbert is an irritation as far as our economic development" -L Brooks Patterson

[mwilbert]

I think this is an example of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Of course one can completely understand how LBP would think of Gilbert as an irritant in specific cases--Ally would presumably not have consolidated in Detroit if Gilbert hadn't been available to put together a package.

On the other hand, it seems very unlikely that it is bad for Oakland County development in general to have a stronger downtown Detroit, and Gilbert certainly seems to be working on that.