Detroit Ranks Last in 2019 US Cities Scorecard for Millennials

[iheartthed]

One of the points I was making is that there is nothing about saying that Detroit has higher crime rates than most cities, and worst schools than most cities, etc. It ACTUALLY happens to be true. A kid living in midtown who grew up in Brighton and wears a "Detroit vs. Everybody" T-shirt up and down the Q-line should spend a few years living in 95% of the city before pretending to be some grassroots urban champion.

Meh, this is screwed up thinking. Detroit is apparently the only place in the world that must be judged by its worst qualities.

[stasu1213]

I feel that millennials love Detroit more 10 years ago or so before gentrification started hitting the downtown area. Many lived in apartments in the downtown/midtown/Lafayette Park/West Village areas paying cheap rent. Millennial would not want to touch as city where rent is skyrocketing, no decent mass transportation, no reasonably priced restaurants downtown or neighborhooods etc. There are more millennial that would even find Philadelphia more appealing than Detroit

[313WX]

Is that why the four people you mentioned that you know from NY moved to Detroit the last few years? I'm going to go out on a limb and say it wasn't because of the schools here, and it isn't because of any nuance. It is well-known and been written about quite extensively that the people moving to Detroit from places like NYC are mainly doing so because of the relative cost. And I don't blame them, it seems like a good reason. But it doesn't take away from the fact that this report many people are wiping their asses with was actually accurate in terms of opinions as to what is practically good about living in Detroit, what is not so good about living in Detroit, and why overall that puts Detroit at the bottom of the list. No amount of nuance would change it that dramatically. The factors against Detroit are actually quite objective. And it was city proper, not metro, which I think also plays into it because as an overall region I'm sure we'd do much better.

Don't forget employment.

It's also not a secret that the Big 3 automaker were on a massive hiring binge between 2013 and 2017.

Now they're in layoff mode again, but for Mechanical Engineers, GM/Ford/Chrysler are still some of the most highly sought-after employers in the country for their compensation packages if you don't mind the archaic infrastructure, old skool management and the lack of job security.

[O3H]

Another 1,400 automotive workers will hit the unemployment line soon.
Doubtful they'll come to Detroit.
Belvidere Assembly Plant near Rockford, Illinois downsized jobs
because of slowing demand for Jeep Cherokees

[bartocktoo]

In response to I heart - It is? What a silly comment. Only half of the parts of the survey discussed were negative about Detroit. The other half were positive.

I think quasi-intelligently contrarian is super cute. Like a puppy. You do it well. But maybe try to add content.

[bartocktoo]

Don't forget employment.

It's also not a secret that the Big 3 automaker were on a massive hiring binge between 2013 and 2017.

Now they're in layoff mode again, but for Mechanical Engineers, GM/Ford/Chrysler are still some of the most highly sought-after employers in the country for their compensation packages if you don't mind the archaic infrastructure, old skool management and the lack of job security.

I overlooked the employment when mentioning the problems. Good point.

[bartocktoo]

Meh, this is screwed up thinking. Detroit is apparently the only place in the world that must be judged by its worst qualities.

You entirely misread and mischaracterized the point. That's too bad. I was in New York [[JFK, so Queens, then Midtown Manhattan for a minute - a four hour trip minute, and unfortunately Long Island because it made for a very long day) yesterday for the second of at least four times this year. I'll hold off judging everything I observed about it, or being deliberately contrarian to those who actually know something because I don't live there and am not pretentious enough to pretend that I know.

[iheartthed]

You entirely misread and mischaracterized the point. That's too bad. I was in New York [[JFK, so Queens, then Midtown Manhattan for a minute - a four hour trip minute, and unfortunately Long Island because it made for a very long day) yesterday for the second of at least four times this year. I'll hold off judging everything I observed about it, or being deliberately contrarian to those who actually know something because I don't live there and am not pretentious enough to pretend that I know.

You were saying that the kid from sprawlburbia shouldn't embrace the 5% of Detroit that he likes because 95% of it is a place that he would not feel comfortable being. If we follow this thought process then every city in the world can only be defined by its unattractive qualities. This completely denies Detroit a chance to be judged like any other large metropolis, which are allowed to be different things to different people.

[bartocktoo]

You were saying that the kid from sprawlburbia shouldn't embrace the 5% of Detroit that he likes because 95% of it is a place that he would not feel comfortable being. If we follow this thought process then every city in the world can only be defined by its unattractive qualities. This completely denies Detroit a chance to be judged like any other large metropolis, which are allowed to be different things to different people.

Well, respectfully, I think that is a different issue than the one I was trying to communicate. I said earlier that as a metro we are far from any bottom. The city and region is an amazing and wonderful place, and I've always felt fortunate to have visited and worked in other places, but always live here. But as negatives rank, it's not shocking that city proper is still at [[or near, if we want to make it arguable) the bottom, and for the reasons that were stated [[although I agree with you on the schools being a red herring as a reason that people don't move to the City of Detroit from other cities because of schools...that's more of a where in the Detroit and Metro area do you decide to live decision). And that's OK. Knowing and facing the reasons for that is also OK. Detroit - even the bad - is far better than the "bad" Detroit of 20 years ago. And even if it still ranks near the bottom for reasons that still need to be improved upon, it's much closer to the higher-ranking cities than it used to be. If I can use an analogy, it's like a last place team in any sport trending upward, still ranked low, but winning more games and with a brighter future.

[Lowell]

Nice balanced post and good sports team analogy!

Well, respectfully, I think that is a different issue than the one I was trying to communicate. I said earlier that as a metro we are far from any bottom. The city and region is an amazing and wonderful place, and I've always felt fortunate to have visited and worked in other places, but always live here. But as negatives rank, it's not shocking that city proper is still at [[or near, if we want to make it arguable) the bottom, and for the reasons that were stated [[although I agree with you on the schools being a red herring as a reason that people don't move to the City of Detroit from other cities because of schools...that's more of a where in the Detroit and Metro area do you decide to live decision). And that's OK. Knowing and facing the reasons for that is also OK. Detroit - even the bad - is far better than the "bad" Detroit of 20 years ago. And even if it still ranks near the bottom for reasons that still need to be improved upon, it's much closer to the higher-ranking cities than it used to be. If I can use an analogy, it's like a last place team in any sport trending upward, still ranked low, but winning more games and with a brighter future.

[iheartthed]

Well, respectfully, I think that is a different issue than the one I was trying to communicate. I said earlier that as a metro we are far from any bottom. The city and region is an amazing and wonderful place, and I've always felt fortunate to have visited and worked in other places, but always live here. But as negatives rank, it's not shocking that city proper is still at [[or near, if we want to make it arguable) the bottom, and for the reasons that were stated [[although I agree with you on the schools being a red herring as a reason that people don't move to the City of Detroit from other cities because of schools...that's more of a where in the Detroit and Metro area do you decide to live decision). And that's OK. Knowing and facing the reasons for that is also OK. Detroit - even the bad - is far better than the "bad" Detroit of 20 years ago. And even if it still ranks near the bottom for reasons that still need to be improved upon, it's much closer to the higher-ranking cities than it used to be. If I can use an analogy, it's like a last place team in any sport trending upward, still ranked low, but winning more games and with a brighter future.

So to clarify my own points, I am not actually critiquing the list itself. Today is the first time that I even bothered to drill down into the criteria, and while I have some questions about methodology, my biggest gripe is that we've spent several pages elevating the profile of some obscure company because they mentioned Detroit.

This study has not offered us any new insight about Detroit's position that we didn't already agree on. The only thing we have accomplished in this thread is help boost the Google ranking for this company that 99.9999% of people in this country have never heard of before. So, why is it even a worthwhile discussion to rehash issues with Detroit of which we're all well aware?

To prove the point I'm making, open up Google and copy and paste "2019 US Cities Scorecard For Millennials" into the search bar. It's not until halfway down the second page that a direct link to this company's report actually shows up. Now, copy and paste "HBO Doc On Failed District Detroit" into Google. The first result is probably the DetroitYes thread on the subject. This means that DetroitYes.com has a higher Google PageRank score than this obscure website that we've spent 3 pages obsessing over because they mentioned Detroit. Thanks to us, we are helping this formerly obscure company become more relevant, through the authority of the DetroitYes.com url, even though they haven't told us a single thing about Detroit that we didn't already know.

[bartocktoo]

So to clarify my own points, I am not actually critiquing the list itself. Today is the first time that I even bothered to drill down into the criteria, and while I have some questions about methodology, my biggest gripe is that we've spent several pages elevating the profile of some obscure company because they mentioned Detroit.

This study has not offered us any new insight about Detroit's position that we didn't already agree on. The only thing we have accomplished in this thread is help boost the Google ranking for this company that 99.9999% of people in this country have never heard of before. So, why is it even a worthwhile discussion to rehash issues with Detroit of which we're all well aware?

To prove the point I'm making, open up Google and copy and paste "2019 US Cities Scorecard For Millennials" into the search bar. It's not until halfway down the second page that a direct link to this company's report actually shows up. Now, copy and paste "HBO Doc On Failed District Detroit" into Google. The first result is probably the DetroitYes thread on the subject. This means that DetroitYes.com has a higher Google PageRank score than this obscure website that we've spent 3 pages obsessing over because they mentioned Detroit. Thanks to us, we are helping this formerly obscure company become more relevant, through the authority of the DetroitYes.com url, even though they haven't told us a single thing about Detroit that we didn't already know.

Fair enough.