IT firm coming to 1001 Woodward

[Islandman]

Agreed, MS.

[DetroitDad]

In the current Downtown climate, a person earning $25,000 or less a year might possibly be more likely to move Downtown than a person earning $200,000 with a family. From what I've seen first hand, and you can disagree, is that lower income employees who live closer to work are more likely to walk to work or take public transit, meaning they will not necessarily increase vehicle traffic and not require a parking space at work, a parking space at home, a parking space at the video store, a parking space at the movie theater, a parking space at Comerica Park, a parking space at the corner store, a parking space a quarter of a mile down the road to pick up a sandwich on their lunch break, a parking space... etc..

I'm not sure we can handle too many more employees Downtown who don't live Downtown, without better transit or creating greater demand for parking and motorway widening.

[MotownSpartan]

I'm not sure we can handle too many more employees Downtown who don't live Downtown, without better transit or creating greater demand for parking and motorway widening.

We definately can handle them, so many thousands of workers have left downtown in recent years -- yet the parking spots they used are still there [[think of how many GM has laid off alone). Furthermore, I think that you raise some interesting points but the question is - how much will these jobs cost us [[i.e, in public money used to lure this company downtown) vs how much benefit do they provide?

[DetroitPlanner]

In the current Downtown climate, a person earning $25,000 or less a year might possibly be more likely to move Downtown than a person earning $200,000 with a family. From what I've seen first hand, and you can disagree, is that lower income employees who live closer to work are more likely to walk to work or take public transit, meaning they will not necessarily increase vehicle traffic and not require a parking space at work, a parking space at home, a parking space at the video store, a parking space at the movie theater, a parking space at Comerica Park, a parking space at the corner store, a parking space a quarter of a mile down the road to pick up a sandwich on their lunch break, a parking space... etc..

I'm not sure we can handle too many more employees Downtown who don't live Downtown, without better transit or creating greater demand for parking and motorway widening.

So much for the enormous parking structures Kwame built that flank this building on Woodward and Michigan Aves! I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. Surely better paying jobs create more jobs. $25k jobs are nothing to sneeze at though.

[kryptonite]

A bit of an aside, but Strategic Staffin Solutions had an official ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday for a new data center Downtown. Videos are on Facebook. Currently they have 50+ employees at the new facility, but plan to have around 200 employees by year end.

I'm not certain of the actual location, but it may be near the River Walk area.

[p1acebo]

Looks like there are more lights on in the 1001 at night. I notice that there are 4 or 5 levels that appear to be more active... not sure if they are actually moved in or not yet.

[DetroitDad]

Half Sarcasm, but really, there is not enough parking to compensate for all the vacant space Downtown, and I'm not sure that there could be. There is plenty of parking for the companies that are coming now, but we have some huge vacancies down here. I'm not sure we have the infrastructure to support all that space, let alone all the planned/hoped for space.

Making Downtown a better transit hub might be the best option, instead of building more expensive garages.

What is the average design life for those new garages, anyway?

[DetroitDad]

We definately can handle them, so many thousands of workers have left downtown in recent years -- yet the parking spots they used are still there [[think of how many GM has laid off alone). Furthermore, I think that you raise some interesting points but the question is - how much will these jobs cost us [[i.e, in public money used to lure this company downtown) vs how much benefit do they provide?

I think there might be an unseen benefit in just having more entry level jobs near all the colleges in Downtown and Midtown. Livening up Downtown and increasing pedestrian street traffic and public transit ridership is something that these jobs might do, and something that would benefit Detroit and Michigan. We really need better city centers with more vitality in this state in order to keep our young people from going to New York or Chicago.

Detroit right now doesn't cut it

[mikeg19]

I think there might be an unseen benefit in just having more entry level jobs near all the colleges in Downtown and Midtown. Livening up Downtown and increasing pedestrian street traffic and public transit ridership is something that these jobs might do, and something that would benefit Detroit and Michigan. We really need better city centers with more vitality in this state in order to keep our young people from going to New York or Chicago.

Detroit right now doesn't cut it

You make a very good point. There needs to be more than just a job to keep young people, myself included, from running to Chicago as soon as we have a degree. But I don't think Detroit is even close to what Chicago and New York have to offer or ever will be. There needs to be an attraction outside of a job to lure young people downtown, and there are a lot of great things to do downtown and in the surrounding area, but it isn't what Chicago and New York have to offer. Once I have my degree, I probably will move away, but I know someday I will come back to Detroit because I like living here.

[esp1986]

You make a very good point. There needs to be more than just a job to keep young people, myself included, from running to Chicago as soon as we have a degree. But I don't think Detroit is even close to what Chicago and New York have to offer or ever will be. There needs to be an attraction outside of a job to lure young people downtown, and there are a lot of great things to do downtown and in the surrounding area, but it isn't what Chicago and New York have to offer. Once I have my degree, I probably will move away, but I know someday I will come back to Detroit because I like living here.

Perhaps just as importantly, is the fact that the jobs in this region are so spread out. If you grow up in Novi or Northville, go away to MSU for five years then come back to look for a job, you have little idea what companies are actually up in, say, Birmingham or Troy. If more of the jobs were centralized, it would make it easier for students to find jobs. So many students don't even know half of the companies around, so they jump ship. In Chicago or New York, most of the companies have offices in the city, and you start to recognize names pretty easily. Whereas in Detroit, you go from Compuware to, look, and abandoned building. If more of the businesses were centrally located that would be a big help to students finding jobs and employers recruiting them.

Companies have no one to blame but themselves for talent leaving Michigan. It is more than just the jobs though, young people want to live in the city and not have a car, which is an opportunity that is not really provided by Detroit in the same capacity as that by Chicago or New York. If more was centralized in this region, we would all be a lot better off.