'What Exactly Am I Doing Here?' - Time's new Detroit blog

[RealityCheck]

The flow of words, photos and videos from Time mag's $99K house in the West Village has begun, as NY Times biz columnist David Carr comments on here today.

As a reporter, I haven’t seen anything like modern Detroit since covering Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

On Time's site, correspondent Steven Gray launches his Letter from Detroit blog [[promoted in an index headline with the question in my subject line).

When I moved here last month from Chicago, Detroit felt, in many ways, like New Orleans, my hometown, in the months following Hurricane Katrina. . . .

Both cities played vital roles in the nation's economic and cultural development. Both are examples of American failure, but also of platforms of potential. Detroiters I've met in recent weeks have been surprisingly optimistic about the region. . . .

Our goal here on The Detroit Blog isn't to rehash clichéd stories about the region's problems. Some of that's unavoidable.

And in the Oct. 5 issue, going online this Friday, the D gets cover story treatment in a piece by Detroit native Daniel Okrent, a former editor and writer for Time Inc., and past public editor for The New York Times.

Hope he shares some of that surprising optimism instead of trying to wring out another Katrina image.

[BShea]

FYI/footnote: Okrent is considered the inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball, the launching point of modern fantasy sports. I interviewed him a couple years ago - very smart fellow. I suspect his piece will be insightful and not a rehash of the usual Detroit-as-[[insert image) trope.

[exdetroiter]

An actor name Terrance Howard recently was in Detroit filming and also said Detroit reminded him of New Orleans. People on the outside can always see things better than the people on the inside. It is what it is.

[Todd_Scott]

NYT: "A video that begins playing Monday on the CNNmoney site describes a city where people pay $4 for a latte on one corner — if they can find it — and $10 for a rock of cocaine on the other."

Which Detroit intersection could that be? [[And I'm not interested in either purchase.)

[Mikeg]

And in the Oct. 5 issue, going online this Friday, the D gets cover story treatment in a piece by Detroit native Daniel Okrent,

Detroit manages to bump Barack Obama off the cover of Time Magazine!

[Gannon]

I am comfortable with him giving us our due comparison to New Orleans.

I've heard it ever since a few of my friends traveled down there to help after Katrina.

People who have lived HERE all their lives.


After the third trip down there, the consensus was to stay here instead because we needed the help MORE.

Ours was merely a forty-year storm...but the same ignorance fueled the decline and devastation. [[with the amplifications offered by the combined negatives of damaged representative democracy and the dilution of corporate manufacturing through out-sourcing the foundation of capitalism)


I am eager to read more of his observations...on this very national of soapboxes.


Cheers

[Dhugger]

Coffee vs a Rock - Detroit is a city where people pay $40,000 for a new Cadillac Escalade and a few blocks away off Woodward can buy a house for $6,000.

[lilpup]

Maybe they'll do a article about insurance redlining and finally throw some national attention on the practice.

[mauser]

Its called "Detroit Blog" ?!

Bwahahahahaha !

I have heard that name before......

[OriginalG313]

An actor name Terrance Howard recently was in Detroit filming and also said Detroit reminded him of New Orleans. People on the outside can always see things better than the people on the inside. It is what it is.

Terrence Howard and Josh Lucas were NOT comparing Detroit negatively to New Orleans. They were stating how beautiful the Woodbridge area is and it looks like New Orleans. The movie is set in New Orleans POST KATRINA. The interview can be seen here:
http://www.motorcityflicks.com/category/josh-lucas

[lilpup]

Its called "Detroit Blog" ?!

Bwahahahahaha !

I have heard that name before......

Little doubt in my mind that the D blogs, forums, websites, and photog talent are what inspired Time's project. They can cop the homegrowns' ideas and views to turn bucks.

[lilpup]

CNNMoney.com has their Detroit site up ~ http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/assignment_detroit/

[Retroit]

So when is FEMA going to show up? If New Orleans was hit with a nuclear bomb from a group of terrorists instead of by a hurricane, would the federal government have stepped in to help rebuild? Well, Detroit has been bombed out by terrorists [[a.k.a. criminals), so send in FEMA, Obama!

[lilpup]

Wish they'd talk to someone other than Kid Rock. He didn't even bother to correct the $100K+ right out of high school autoworker bullshit.

Note: The CNNMoney videos suck when using Firefox - ok with IE

[daddeeo]

The State and Federal governments have been throwing money at Detroit for years. It's like the war of poverty.
Some things can't be fixed with just cash.

[Retroit]

The State and Federal governments have been throwing money at Detroit for years. It's like the war of poverty.
Some things can't be fixed with just cash.

Please forward to Obama, et al.

[lilpup]

The State and Federal governments have been throwing money at Detroit for years. It's like the war of poverty.
Some things can't be fixed with just cash.

Once again, and I'll repeat it until it sinks in through thick skulls: Michigan is a donor state and has been for decades. The Federal government [[i.e. the rest of the country) has not paid in net penny one to Michigan [[and therefore to Detroit). The only money poured into Detroit has been whatever Michigan has been able to spare.

[Mama Jackson]

Earlier today, I saw the reporter named Poppy standing outside the house [[looked very nice) telling the viewership about how the house was purchased and they will be in Detroit for a year to cover happenings. The interview included the Canine to Five lady, Liz Blondie. It was the usual type of reporting about Detroit, how businesses have problems with street people, etc. I am not sure they are going to be able to break out of their stereotypical thinking about Detroit to make their investment worth their effort. We shall see how it goes. http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/assignment_detroit/
Click on the link "Detroit Biz: Weird and Good"

[Meddle]

Not Poppy Harlow?

I can't imagine she'd be very safe down there.

[crawford]

Once again, and I'll repeat it until it sinks in through thick skulls: Michigan is a donor state and has been for decades.

But we are talking about Detroit, and Detroit has been a net recipient of massive amounts of federal largesse since the Johnson Administration. Just take a walk around downtown.

Millender Center
People Mover
Trolley Plaza
Riverfront Apartments
Corktown Industrial Park
Lafayette Park
Elmwood Park

All government projects, built with federal urban renewal dollars and basically no regard to market conditions.

[lilpup]

It's Federal largesse in name and appearance only - in reality it's Michigan dollars routed through the Feds to Detroit and no amount of semantic manipulation will change that fact.

[Mikeg]

Once again, and I'll repeat it until it sinks in through thick skulls: Michigan is a donor state and has been for decades. The Federal government [[i.e. the rest of the country) has not paid in net penny one to Michigan [[and therefore to Detroit). The only money poured into Detroit has been whatever Michigan has been able to spare.

Higher income states like Michigan bear a larger fraction of the federal tax burden—an imbalance that is sharply amplified by the progressive structure of the federal income tax. Michigan's net "donor" status has been true for many years at the Federal level, but probably not for much longer as our incomes plummet faster than other states.

However, whether Michigan is a net donor or recipient is irrelevant to daddeeo's point. Based on 2004 data, Michigan had been sending about $60 billion per year to Washington DC and only getting about $50 billion back. About $13 of the 50 billion was in the form of Federal grants to state and local governments in Michigan. To argue that because Michigan is a net donor state, Detroit didn't get a dime of that $13 billion is ludicrous. You can repeat it all you want but us "thick skulls" know better.

[lilpup]

I'm not arguing that Detroit didn't get money. I'm arguing that all the money Detroit got was money originally from Michigan, that the rest of the country has not contributed one cent in past years during Detroit's and Michigan's slide.

[Meddle]

Detroit Plan: Stopping Detroit's Brain Drain

[chitaku]

Don't want any FEMA here thank you very much! Ever see what they do to places they "help"?