Why Detroit matters

[agirlintheD]

Personally, I think if you've never lived in Detroit, you will never understand how deeply the city gets in your soul. There's just something about it. We've seen what it was...we see what it has become...which is probably why we get so damned pissed off with the stories of firebombings, shootings, unsolved crimes, beautiful pieces of architectural history being turned into a heap of rubble, delapitated buildings/homes standing empty, inviting scrappers....we've heard the jokes, we've probably told some, we've seen the national news stories, we've watched as fires blaze out of control and know that we've lost another piece of our city, we've seen part of who we are turn into a memory in our mind. Why does Detroit matter? Because it does. You wouldn't understand.

[7051]

Crawford [[and anyone else who thinks that transit, successful urban areas and related amenities don't attract companies and their needed workers),

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090916/...s_wealth_young

"What often happens is that those factors attract the young and educated who then end up staying," he explained.

"Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area"

Interesting on how this area has a lot of good jobs...might transit orientation and successful urban areas play a role in attracting the young [[who are the most mobile), which attract employers, which attract employees, etc. etc.

Today's "wealthy young people" become tommorrow's "decision makers" and those in charge.

As Crawford said in another thread "he lives in NYC because the job he wants is not here [[Michigan/Detroit). " Why isn't that industry/employer here? Enough said.

[crawford]

Crawford [[and anyone else who thinks that transit, successful urban areas and related amenities don't attract companies and their needed workers),

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090916/...s_wealth_young

"What often happens is that those factors attract the young and educated who then end up staying," he explained.

"Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area"

Interesting on how this area has a lot of good jobs...might transit orientation and successful urban areas play a role in attracting the young [[who are the most mobile), which attract employers, which attract employees, etc. etc.

Today's "wealthy young people" become tommorrow's "decision makers" and those in charge.

As Crawford said in another thread "he lives in NYC because the job he wants is not here [[Michigan/Detroit). " Why isn't that industry/employer here? Enough said.

You are confusing correlation and causation, and missing the metric being evaluated.

This study does not look at cities or metros; it looks at counties. And it does not look at raw numbers; it looks at percentages.

Therefore, small, heavily white-collar counties will rank the highest. The DC area has many such counties [[Arlington/Alexandra/Falls Church) while big places like LA County are [[not surprisingly) ranked much lower, even if they are no less of a draw to the young and successful.

More important, there is no implied link between transit and attracting the young. The young are attracted to DC for the relatively well-paying jobs and strong economy, not because of the transit.