What "industry" will put Detroit back on the map ?

**O3H** · May-23-17, 04:24 PM

The auto industry is no longer the only game in town.
Many have diversified, modernized, and evolved forward.

Is there any ONE thing that will make Detroit a glorious place again ?

Does anyone seeing Tech taking off to compete against other cities

**Tig3rzhark** · May-23-17, 06:11 PM

This place is the home of Techno music. The promotion of the music that Detroit is known to be popular for all round the world can be a start. Promoting futuristic music and the record companies that are starting up or are still here, can be a start.

However, it would not be enough as it is known that Motown eventually moved to Los Angeles and left its original headquarters behind as an museum.

Anyone have any other industries that Detroit can be known for in the 21st century?

**fanniemae** · May-23-17, 09:53 PM

Just throwing this out there, but what about art? We have College for Creative Studies, The Russell Ind. Ctr. [[ hopefully refurbished) some art galleries around Eastern Market plus the murals on the buildings. There is the DIA and some of the neighborhoods from the 1930's with the architecture. May not put us on the map, but a start. There are folks at the College for Creative Studies that promote art shows and exhibitions at the high school level . Some very fine work has been done by budding artists.

**casscorridor** · May-24-17, 03:14 AM

It's an obvious answer, but automation must be the industry that puts Detroit back on the growth path. Detroit must build on its existing strengths, while also diversifying them. Attracting talent will be crucial in remaining competitive, but also means heavy investing in infrastructure, education, and general quality of life. There is still a long way to go in this arena, and State leaders seem unfit to take on the challenge.

**O3H** · May-24-17, 04:59 AM

Detroit most certainly has NO lock or stranglehold on automation.
We lost that race years ago.

If Detroit is to advance it must diversify and stop beating dead horses into pulp

**emu steve** · May-24-17, 05:16 AM

Originally Posted by O3H

The auto industry is no longer the only game in town.
Many have diversified, modernized, and evolved forward.

Is there any ONE thing that will make Detroit a glorious place again ?

Does anyone seeing Tech taking off to compete against other cities

Your thread is interesting.

Industries seem to evolve/location to certain areas based on certain factors.

I believe a lot of N.Y., Ohio, MI, etc. became industrialized because of the waterways.

Tech as we know it grew in Silicon Valley as that is where it started and why not continue it there? Theoretically tech could have been located anywhere so why not pick a very, very desirable location?

Financial has been in N.Y. because it has been for centuries.

Government and related in D.C. area. [[biotech is big there, too) has been there for 200 years.

What does the Rust Belt have to offer emerging industries to locate there?

Maybe if we can get the feds [[won't mention any names but the guy is married to some woman named Melania) to get on the renewables bandwagon that could be very significant for the country, but then again, I don't see that being Detroit.

The biggest problem I see for the Rust Belt is that a lot of evolving industries could theoretically be located anywhere. Gone are the days where industries like coal mining had to be located in a specific area i.e., where the coal is [[pretty sell obvious

). Ship building near water.

Now knowledge industries are pretty free to locate wherever they want. Human personnel might be the biggest driver now.

**detroitpride313** · May-24-17, 08:39 AM

Well, this definitely won't put us "back on the map" per se, but I really hope that Detroit capitalizes on its new status as a UNESCO City of Design. As fanniemae mentioned, we have a lot of art and design stuff here and I would hope we could use that to translate into tourism dollars as well as bringing more creative people to the city

**Detroitdave** · May-24-17, 09:30 AM

Movies , TV and entertainment.
We were on a roll for a while, with the incentives , however , the short slightness of Lansing didn't see the benefits.
Everytime a see a movie or TV show shot in Georgia or Canada I think Damn that could have been Michigan and Detroit.
It's obvious the entertainment industry likes shooting here.

**Wesley Mouch** · May-24-17, 11:03 AM

The next big industry will be something we don't expect. I just checked the DetroitYes archive for 1900, and the auto industry was not on the list of industries to replace lumbering at that time.

**Richard** · May-24-17, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by emu steve

Maybe if we can get the feds [[won't mention any names but the guy is married to some woman named Melania) to get on the renewables bandwagon that could be very significant for the country, but then again, I don't see that being Detroit.

So capitalize on that,he is pushing made in America,take the ball and run.

If you advertise Detroit as a aggressive made in America hub and draw from across the country.

Renewables is a controversial subject that requires years of funding to maybe see a return and as you said a bandwagon,keep it simple,name one person in the country that would not support made in America.

You have everything you need,abundance of space reasonably priced,the best engineers in the world,funding sources,and a supply chain with all of the needed back up and support to supply the products,and a low skilled workforce.

Maybe take Fisher body and hook up Detroit blue jeans and co share the building with other textile related products.
The rail industry is screaming for safety technology.

The port is sitting there like a frog in the desert with its hands tied.

I personally do not think it will be one thing but a diversified mix which is best anyways.

Understandable about the mixed city leadership and financial situations of the past,but you now have that pretty much under control and you have what is considered some of the best minds in the world when it comes to innovation.

If you can connect all of those links the city can easily become a powerhouse in a short time.You do not need to be dependent on the big 2.5.

**Dumpling** · May-24-17, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

The next big industry will be something we don't expect. I just checked the DetroitYes archive for 1900, and the auto industry was not on the list of industries to replace lumbering at that time.

I really like this post.

**emu steve** · May-24-17, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by Dumpling

I really like this post.

Was Lowell alive in 1900?

**O3H** · May-24-17, 05:31 PM

I doubt Detroit will be much of a Port City anymore.
The ore freighters and steel industry basically disappeared around here.

Detroit does have its land border crossings to Canada
making it one of the busiest sites of commerce in North America.
Each year, nearly $175.8 billion in international goods travel by truck
and rail between Detroit and Canada.

I wouldn't expect much from rail the next 20 to 30 years, its fading

**313WX** · May-24-17, 06:44 PM

Realistically, for reasons others have already stated, I don't see any likelihood in a particular industry putting Detroit back on the map.

There's always the fairly strong possibility that Detroit will continue to become an increasingly irrelevant city, similar to places such as St. Louis and Cleveland. That doesn't mean it won't ever become a functional or attractive place to live again, but its days of being "The Big Motor" [[as Tom Joyner calls the city), when it was spoken in the same breath as cities such as Chicago, NYC, etc., could soon just be a footnote in history.

**professorscott** · May-25-17, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Realistically, for reasons others have already stated, I don't see any likelihood in a particular industry putting Detroit back on the map.

I think it's important to keep in mind that the whole idea of a single-industry town doesn't make any sense anymore. Detroit became what it became in automobiles, Pittsburgh in steel, the Carolinas in textiles, Massachusetts in computers and southern California in motion pictures because of the economic concept of critical mass.

Just to use Detroit as one example, in the early 1900s when the auto industry started to evolve, there were auto manufacturers all over the place, but several in Detroit. Because of the fact of several in Detroit, suppliers located here, engineers were drawn to here, and so forth. Back then travel and communication were difficult and expensive, so the Detroit auto makers had a really nice cost edge, with all the infrastructure in town, over their out-of-town competitors, who mostly all failed pretty quickly or switched to another line of business.

Turn to 2017: travel is cheap, when it's even necessary; communication is basically free. The reason to have a one-industry town, that it had a competitive infrastructure edge, is gone. You can design a car in Taiwan, have the plastic parts made in St. Clair, get the steel from Ohio, get the electronics from Vietnam, outsource some of the parts to Germany or Bolivia or wherever, and it can all be shipped to you at a pretty low cost.

Detroit's future has to center on the idea that it makes no sense to try to be a one-industry town. My advice to Detroit is the same as every investment adviser's advice to everybody: diversify, diversify, diversify. Make it easy for people to start businesses and try to grow them, and understand that a lot of the new businesses won't make it, which has always been the case. We sat around for most of fifty years waiting for auto-plant jobs to come back, while the world evolved. We have a lot of catching up to do.

**GMan** · May-25-17, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by Wesley Mouch

The next big industry will be something we don't expect. I just checked the DetroitYes archive for 1900, and the auto industry was not on the list of industries to replace lumbering at that time.

Yes but carriage making and shipbuilding were and those industries are gone!

**Tig3rzhark** · May-25-17, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by professorscott

I think it's important to keep in mind that the whole idea of a single-industry town doesn't make any sense anymore. Detroit became what it became in automobiles, Pittsburgh in steel, the Carolinas in textiles, Massachusetts in computers and southern California in motion pictures because of the economic concept of critical mass.

Just to use Detroit as one example, in the early 1900s when the auto industry started to evolve, there were auto manufacturers all over the place, but several in Detroit. Because of the fact of several in Detroit, suppliers located here, engineers were drawn to here, and so forth. Back then travel and communication were difficult and expensive, so the Detroit auto makers had a really nice cost edge, with all the infrastructure in town, over their out-of-town competitors, who mostly all failed pretty quickly or switched to another line of business.

Turn to 2017: travel is cheap, when it's even necessary; communication is basically free. The reason to have a one-industry town, that it had a competitive infrastructure edge, is gone. You can design a car in Taiwan, have the plastic parts made in St. Clair, get the steel from Ohio, get the electronics from Vietnam, outsource some of the parts to Germany or Bolivia or wherever, and it can all be shipped to you at a pretty low cost.

Detroit's future has to center on the idea that it makes no sense to try to be a one-industry town. My advice to Detroit is the same as every investment adviser's advice to everybody: diversify, diversify, diversify. Make it easy for people to start businesses and try to grow them, and understand that a lot of the new businesses won't make it, which has always been the case. We sat around for most of fifty years waiting for auto-plant jobs to come back, while the world evolved. We have a lot of catching up to do.

The promotion of settjng up new businesses have to start in education. I agree that Detroit has to face the reality that those factory jobs aren't coming back, no matter how the Donald says he's going to make America great again.

**1953** · May-25-17, 01:42 PM

We may not want to be a one industry town, but certainly economic clustering exists and is economically beneficial, no matter how easy it is to communicate electronically.

That said, a year or two back I heard that California was at risk of losing the porn industry, so maybe there's one we could take over.

1953

**Tig3rzhark** · May-25-17, 04:46 PM

I highly think that's not going to happen. You can do porn anywhere, so trying to attract that industry wouldn't be wise for a city.

If you want to diversity, it would be best to include marijuana. Our state may hopefully in time will make it legal for recreational use. Many more smaller businesses can develop in Detroit as a result. It would encourage other places to finally file a petition to add a U.S. constitutional amendment to legalize it.

By legalizing it, there would be more people working than in prison.

**313WX** · May-25-17, 05:39 PM

Being a single industry town in/of itself isn't a bad thing.

DC, Las Vegas, Houston, etc. are all single industry towns. The main difference is that the industries in these towns...

1. Can't be easily offshored to other parts of the world.

2. Can't be easily automated

3. Aren't as suspectible [[if at all) to wild swings in demand for the product/service they sell/provide. Even in the worst recessions, the federal government can print money to its heart's content, people will always need oil to fuel cars/airplanes/buses and people will always find money to spend on entertainment such as casino games.

**Tig3rzhark** · May-25-17, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Being a single industry town in/of itself isn't a bad thing.

DC, Las Vegas, Houston, etc. are all single industry towns. The main difference is that the industries in these towns...

1. Can't be easily offshored to other parts of the world.

2. Can't be easily automated

3. Aren't as suspectible [[if at all) to wild swings in demand for the product/service they sell/provide. Even in the worst recessions, the federal government can print money to its heart's content, people will always need oil to fuel cars/airplanes/buses and people will always find money to spend on entertainment such as casino games.

However, we can't be a single industry town.

The global economy allows industries to sell their wares, earn more profit, and save on labor by paying less to workers.

Automation is inventible in those places. It's just a matter of time.

In order for Detroit to survive, we must diversity our industries, or turn our entire city into a 20th century museum, where we still stay behind the rest of the world.

**Hypestyles** · May-25-17, 07:00 PM

it's going to take training and hiring urban local Detroit residents, or else the city will never properly "come back".

**renf** · May-25-17, 07:28 PM

Drew Philp wrote the recently published fascinating and interesting book
about buying a once elegant home in Detroit for $500 and then rebuilding it using sweat equity. It is a great read. Here is a quote from his website:

Detroit today is the Bushwick of 2015, the Williamsburg of the 2000s, Lower East Side of the 1980s, the Berkley of the 1960s, The Greenwich Village in the 50s. The greatest sea change in American culture since the 1960s is happening in Detroit, and it contains the seed of something brand new and revolutionary for urban areas across the United States and Western Europe.

**O3H** · May-25-17, 08:28 PM

I fear Detroit being one of those ""has beens"" , never to bounce back,
continually searching for that spark that burnt out long long ago.

**Richard** · May-25-17, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

Being a single industry town in/of itself isn't a bad thing.

DC, Las Vegas, Houston, etc. are all single industry towns. The main difference is that the industries in these towns...

1. Can't be easily offshored to other parts of the world.

2. Can't be easily automated

3. Aren't as suspectible [[if at all) to wild swings in demand for the product/service they sell/provide. Even in the worst recessions, the federal government can print money to its heart's content, people will always need oil to fuel cars/airplanes/buses and people will always find money to spend on entertainment such as casino games.

I think with the exception DC the other cities are subseptable to up and down swings much like the auto makers.

I had a business in the 90s in Orlando,when the tourists were there my revenues would be from $30k to $40k a month until schools started up north in august then the revenues would drop to $4k a month literally overnight,until the Canadian snowbirds came down and helped save the day.

After 9-11 you could drive down the main drag for miles and be lucky to see another car when normally you sit in traffic for a hour to go 6 blocks.

Finaly in the 2000s Orlando diversified mostly heavily into medical collages etc. and the revenues became more stable.

Houston dropped like a rock when fracking kicked in.

Vegas is also mood swings based on the economy but to me no role model for Detroit because you drive a few blocks off of the strip then it becomes a whole different story.

I think Detroit can do well with touching on a combination of many different things,but it gets risky trying to reinvent the wheel.

I agree with renf post where it is coming to Detroit but in a much better way because the city leaders are already showing that they are not repeating the mistakes that the other cities did on their climb back up,so I think that it will be faster and stronger.

Whatever happens is you have to work with what you got to start out with, in the unskilled labor erea or do something that brings a lot of others into the city to kinda water down the impact while working on the training aspect.

Sometimes you guys are hard on yourselves and not realizing how far and fast you have come already comparatively.