Detroit & Michigan have lost the business PR battle

[canuck]

The difference between Detroit's failure and that of other cities is that Detroit has failed spectacularly on a grand scale for a very long time with no signs of not failing anytime soon. I was born in Detroit in 1967 and I cannot honestly say that detroit has ever been a successful city in my lifetime. 44 years! And it was failing before '67.

I left the Detroit area and Michigan two years ago when I realized the city/area most likely will not be improving to any relevant level for another 44 years. Seriously, what are the chances of an overnight success happening there even in 10 - 20 years? I want better for myself and my children. I don't want to spend my life wishing. You shouldn't either. Do something Detroiters and do it now, or else save yourselves and get out.

Well I have to agree about failure in terms of Detroit administrations not looking at opportunities outside the odd-o-motive industry. Maybe the civic and state leaders had a joined arrogance in defining what a city's success could be. There were many alarm bells ringing all along and what did urban planning schools propose?

[fryar]

I'm just chiming in real quick to support the idea that "Detroitcentric" is a reference to the auto industry in this article, with Detroit being used as a metronym for the Big 3.

And to join in the harping on, ahem, "Detroit." The metronym. I shudder to think of the positive driving experiences that will influence the future buying decision of some upwardly mobile city dweller whose occasional driving experience is limited by the Zipcars available in the neighborhood. Hardly a "Detroit" car amongst them. Which goes to the point about "Detroitcentric" group-think.

It does look like they have changed their tune, finally.

Anyway, nobody's talking about the city or metro proper, in my opinion.

[Richard]

Well lets look at this from an "outsiders " view of wanting to bring a factory to Detroit and this has been the results.

Governor = No reply
Medc = Half hearted reply
Mayor = No reply
City council members = no reply
City of Detroit= 2 Weeks of calling with no answer and full mailboxes so no message can be left no replies to emails.
UM = No reply , It is very common for joint venture relationships with university research and bringing new technology to market.
Wayne state = no reply
But an out of state university is interested in co joining forces .
Local structural engineers = We are to busy to look at this project, so an out of state structural engineer had to be flown in.

So other then the members on this forum and one young man within the city of Detroit named Timothy who was professional,courteous ,and could tell me exactly what I needed to do and sent me the required information via email with in minutes it is extremely tough for a business to even begin looking at locating within the state or even Detroit.

When compared to two other states this is a Michigan only thing,now what is the quality of life for potential employees? While Detroit has been eating her weak other states have been taking their weak and training them in the manufacturing and technology fields and have become a formable force.

So right now the positive things are.
New mayor in place to curb past corruption is in place but he is hanging onto a rung with no support under him.

There are a few holdouts within the city employ that are willing to go the extra mile to make things happen.

There are even if retired design engineers , highly experienced manufacturing mentors and hopefully a labor force that would take pride in their work that could be put in place to speed up production capabilities verses a trained but not experienced workforce.

Contrary to what is published in print this website does prove that there are still people that care dearly about the city they live in and that in it self shows there is still hope. But there is a serious lack of leadership going on that is hurting the city and state,what ever happened to working together to achieve a common goal ?

You could build an impressive and massive PR campaign but without being to be able to back it up what have you accomplished.

But there is positive progress happening albeit at a slow pace and there is still hope which helps to make a gamble a bit less risky.