I hear this theme of let's tear down vacant buildings again and again. These are buildings that once made Detroit great. You've probably seen this video a hundred times on the building of the RenCentre in the mid-70s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6RlUsi_-ZA

Some of the facts that stick out in my mind include Detroit being called the Motor City, but only 13% of the workforce is employeed in the auto industry. Most are employeed in a host of other areas. They said this back in mid-70s that Detroit has the 4th largest financial centre in the world. Today, where is Detroit? We have 48 vacant buildings in downtown. With one skyscraper getting knocked down after another, it'll never be great again. Yet, I read articles like this http://www.observer.com/2008/most-ex...r-listed-150-m where condos on Central Park West in Manhattan are listing for $150million.

$150million for one condo.

Why isn't Detroit positioning itself for the head office market anymore? Why aren't we doing more to try to recruit these Manhattan offices to downtown Detroit? You move a major head office with 10,000 employees in Manhattan to Detroit and you've filled up all these vacant buildings in downtown Detroit. The downtown market would improve and the Lafayette would make sense to renovate. New York City has what, 20 million people? NYC has tonnes of old office buildings, why can't we keep ours? If we can't get a major head office.down here, why can't the federal government step in and move 10,000 federal jobs from Manhattan to Downtown Detroit? Have the CIA move into 1001 Woodward or the Whitney?. Have the Secret Service, FBI, IRS and a whole host of other government employees move into these other vacant downtown buildings or even some of the ones that are half vacant.. If condos are listing for up to $150million in NYC, they don't need all those federal government.jobs; they have more than enough private sector jobs and private money to sustain themselves. Why isn't Obama moving those federal government jobs to depressed cities that still have the infrastructure to be great like downtown Detroit? I don't get it. Stimulus money for the destruction of downtown office buildings instead of moving federal government jobs from cities that don't need them to cities that desperately do?. What gives? Mayor Bing, get on that phone and call up the White House every day. Sell the city to the President. Sell him on the federal tax dollar savings from a firesale real estate market vs.outrageously high Manhattan real estate prices. Convince him to move those federal jobs to Detroit.