Quote Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn View Post
I am always skeptical of plans that call for motivating other people's actions. Veterans are people just like everyone else; they can choose to move to Detroit, open a business, rehab a house like anyone else. Yes, they are eligible for loans and things that are unique to veterans. But they should do it on their own if and when they want to. Corralling them to move to Detroit would be both A) impossible; if they don't want to move to Detroit anyway, they won't and B) ignoring the real impediments to creating a flood of people moving in, i.e. crime, taxes, schools. If we work successfully on those three things, there will be more of everybody in Detroit.
I'm skeptical too, not because I don't think it is a good idea in principle, but because it is usually too hard. A while ago there were a bunch of libertarians who were promoting the idea of libertarians moving to New Hampshire, where there is already a bit of a libertarian bent, in the hopes of getting critical mass and transforming NH into a really libertarian realm. A bunch of them did move there, but not enough to have any noticeable effect on the politics. It wasn't an insane idea, it was just attractive enough to enough people for it to work.

But recognize that if you have a plan where part of the attraction is that a bunch of people do the same thing in a short period of time, you probably are going to need some kind of motivation and coordination. Once you have things rolling, the existence of the cluster may be enough to attract more people. This is similar to the approach Dan Gilbert is taking in trying to create a business cluster downtown--as you get enough stuff concentrated, it should start attracting more interest organically.

If you wanted to entice enough veterans into Detroit to change the city, that would probably be impossible. But if you get could them to concentrate in a neighborhood as part of a plan to make that area especially attractive to vets, that could work and be transformative of that limited area. It is still a hard path, first because there may just not be enough veterans interested in living in Detroit in any case, and secondly because of the coordination problem. Sun City in Arizona didn't arise because older people suddenly all decided to move to the desert. Del Webb built a bunch of infrastructure he thought would appeal to seniors, made a bunch of rules he thought would appeal to seniors, and advertised like crazy to seniors to get them to move there. I don't think there is any similar person available to promote a veterans' area of Detroit.

Of course fixing Detroit's problems is important and will make the city more attractive in general, but there is no reason not to try to attract specific groups too.