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

**iheartthed** · April-30-15, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by ndavies

Patterson my be irritating but his county is doing lots of things right.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/loca...cast/26639053/

Talk about worthless statistics. Oakland County could have a 5% unemployment rate even if there were not a single job in the entire county.

**Danny** · April-30-15, 04:56 PM

I say that L.B. Patterson is an irritation to all Metro-Detroiters. He is not going to get Gilbert to invest his properties in the his "White version of Detroit". He needs to shut his mouth and move on with his life; like retire from politics!

**maverick1** · April-30-15, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Talk about worthless statistics. Oakland County could have a 5% unemployment rate even if there were not a single job in the entire county.

Right. Oakland County holds the majority of the area's white collar work force.

**gameguy56** · April-30-15, 08:26 PM

Originally Posted by maverick1

Right. Oakland County holds the majority of the area's white collar work force.

With GM in Macomb County, and Ford in Wayne, I'd like to see statistics on that. Especially if you include UM in Washtenaw now as part of the greater SE MI area.

**ParisianLesion** · April-30-15, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by gameguy56

With GM in Macomb County, and Ford in Wayne, I'd like to see statistics on that. Especially if you include UM in Washtenaw now as part of the greater SE MI area.

While it would be interesting to see statistics, and I'm sure they are available if you translate "white collar" to a particular income level, I would be extremely surprised if maverick was wrong.

**iheartthed** · May-01-15, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by gameguy56

With GM in Macomb County, and Ford in Wayne, I'd like to see statistics on that. Especially if you include UM in Washtenaw now as part of the greater SE MI area.

I interpreted what he is saying to mean that the majority of the Detroit area's white collar workforce lives in Oakland County. Every person living in Oakland County could work in Detroit [[or other parts of Wayne County, or Macomb County) and the county could still have 5% unemployment, hence it being a useless statistic in the context of this conversation.

**Huggybear** · April-30-15, 06:28 PM

This thread could be re-titled: "Dan Gilbert: the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

HB

**Hypestyles** · May-01-15, 10:01 AM

more office buildings need to be occupied, and newly built downtown as well as other parts of the city, east and west.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · May-01-15, 05:09 PM

Bham1982 is the "smartest guy in the room" and resident "know-it-all", so anyone's efforts to dispute his knowledge about any and everything, especially demographics is all for naught.

**emu steve** · May-05-15, 01:32 PM

One thing about economic activity at say the state level. Population in Michigan is pretty stagnant. That means there is little real growth. Without robust growth what we have is city A trying to grow at city B's expense [[or vice versa). Kind of a zero sum game.

**professorscott** · May-05-15, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by emu steve

One thing about economic activity at say the state level. Population in Michigan is pretty stagnant. That means there is little real growth. Without robust growth what we have is city A trying to grow at city B's expense [[or vice versa). Kind of a zero sum game.

Just so. The region needs to work together to attract talent from elsewhere, and then jobs will follow the talent. It isn't like it was fifty years ago, when you built a factory and people flocked to your town to work there. So the question is, how do we attract talent? Couple facts to feed such a discussion:

1. It's easier to try to attract young talent than older talent, just because younger adults are more portable. A forty year old is likely to have family or other commitments and be much more anchored to a community than someone who is twenty-five.

2. It's easy to gather data about communities that are successful in attracting young talent. The difficult part lies in determining which data are relevant. I have always felt that our cultural amenities were a strong positive [[arts, sports, the river, Canada, coney dogs) but our transportation and segregation were strong negatives. But I could be entirely wrong about this. Anyhow, once you figure out what your positives and negatives are, trumpet the positives to the skies, and work on the negatives.

By the way this doesn't work if we try to improve and market Detroit as one thing [[or two, or many) and Oakland County as another thing and Macomb as yet another thing and A-squared as another. We need to improve and market the whole area to be successful. Nobody [[in leadership) seems to be on the same page with me about this, though.

**BankruptcyGuy** · May-05-15, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by professorscott

Just so. The region needs to work together to attract talent from elsewhere, and then jobs will follow the talent. It isn't like it was fifty years ago, when you built a factory and people flocked to your town to work there. So the question is, how do we attract talent? Couple facts to feed such a discussion:

1. It's easier to try to attract young talent than older talent, just because younger adults are more portable. A forty year old is likely to have family or other commitments and be much more anchored to a community than someone who is twenty-five.

2. It's easy to gather data about communities that are successful in attracting young talent. The difficult part lies in determining which data are relevant. I have always felt that our cultural amenities were a strong positive [[arts, sports, the river, Canada, coney dogs) but our transportation and segregation were strong negatives. But I could be entirely wrong about this. Anyhow, once you figure out what your positives and negatives are, trumpet the positives to the skies, and work on the negatives.

By the way this doesn't work if we try to improve and market Detroit as one thing [[or two, or many) and Oakland County as another thing and Macomb as yet another thing and A-squared as another. We need to improve and market the whole area to be successful. Nobody [[in leadership) seems to be on the same page with me about this, though.

Interesting article on fivethirtyeight.com on the topic of segregation.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...st-segregated/

The most segregated city in America? Chicago.

**313WX** · May-05-15, 04:20 PM

Originally Posted by BankruptcyGuy

Interesting article on fivethirtyeight.com on the topic of segregation.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...st-segregated/

The most segregated city in America? Chicago.

Within the city limits? Sure.

The thing is Detroit's segregation problems go beyond the city limits, with mostly white suburbs and a mosty black urban core. If we measured by metro areas instead, Detroit would easily top the list.

**professorscott** · May-05-15, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Within the city limits? Sure.

The thing is Detroit's segregation problems go beyond the city limits, with mostly white suburbs and a mosty black urban core. If we measured by metro areas instead, Detroit would easily top the list.

Where we rank on this or that list does not change the fact that [[1) it's pretty damned bad, and [[2) something that needs to be worked on. It's unhealthy, morally wrong, and unproductive, just to name three things wrong with it, off the top of my head.

**maverick1** · May-05-15, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by professorscott

Just so. The region needs to work together to attract talent from elsewhere, and then jobs will follow the talent. It isn't like it was fifty years ago, when you built a factory and people flocked to your town to work there. So the question is, how do we attract talent? Couple facts to feed such a discussion:

1. It's easier to try to attract young talent than older talent, just because younger adults are more portable. A forty year old is likely to have family or other commitments and be much more anchored to a community than someone who is twenty-five.

2. It's easy to gather data about communities that are successful in attracting young talent. The difficult part lies in determining which data are relevant. I have always felt that our cultural amenities were a strong positive [[arts, sports, the river, Canada, coney dogs) but our transportation and segregation were strong negatives. But I could be entirely wrong about this. Anyhow, once you figure out what your positives and negatives are, trumpet the positives to the skies, and work on the negatives.

By the way this doesn't work if we try to improve and market Detroit as one thing [[or two, or many) and Oakland County as another thing and Macomb as yet another thing and A-squared as another. We need to improve and market the whole area to be successful. Nobody [[in leadership) seems to be on the same page with me about this, though.

I don't see this changing anytime soon. Michigan has one of the highest concentration of baby boomers relative to population. They dictate what happens in Michigan and Metro-Detroit. I don't see us attracting younger people because it isn't baby boomer focused or benefits them in a way they understand. Their idea of progress is very 1960-1990 and anything that doesn't align with that is shut down. Suburban middle class baby boomers run things and until they die off not much will change.

**313WX** · May-06-15, 02:37 PM

To add to what Bham said, some people don't desire to be pioneers. They want to live in a place where they can enjoy the things THEY desire NOW [[not several years/decades out, or for their grandchildren to have).

**iheartthed** · May-07-15, 10:17 AM

Back to the o/t, L Brooks Patterson is a kook who does not deserve to be taken seriously anymore [[and OC voters who continue to elect him risk making the county irrelevant). Metro Detroit -- this includes Oakland County -- is the only metropolitan area of the top 50 that has not increase its college educated population since 2000. And it didn't just not increase, it decreased by a whopping 10%. Metro Detroit is truly in a league of its own by this measure. So if Oakland County is Metro Detroit's economic engine as he likes to view it then he should accept that his leadership has done a stunningly poor job at what it claims to be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/up...g-to-live.html