I grew up there, and lived downtown for years before wising up.
Have a medical emergency and call 911? You're lucky if an ambulance shows up within an hour, if at all.
I've been robbed at gunpoint enough times for one lifetime. I'm tired of having to pick up my .45 as the first thing I do after landing at the airport and getting my rental car.
Tell me how cheap rent has to be to make it worth it?
No thanks. My family is there, I know tons and tons of people there, and know the city itself as well as the rest of the metro area like the back of my hand.
You couldn't pay me to live there.
There's a very good reason people run away from that place as if their lives depended on it. It's because they do.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-sho...
> [Gov.] Snyder said it’s been a long period of decline in Detroit, and now is the time to do something about it. With “unacceptable” 58-minute emergency response times, he said the 700,000 residents of Detroit deserve better.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409
(2010)
> Most shocking, perhaps, occurred when a building collapsed on six firefighters, half of whom were taken to the hospital in squad cars and fire trucks because there were no ambulances on the scene. If that is how people in uniform are treated, imagine what it is like for the average citizen in the dark of night.
>> Mack made a claim to Fox 2 News a few weeks ago that the average response time in Detroit for an ambulance to arrive on a 911 call is 12 minutes -- even while admitting that often there are no units available to get to calls.
According to that 2004 audit, the two-year average at that time was about 12 minutes. And that was before the city cut its paramedics and emergency medical technicians by nearly 40 percent.
As a comparison, the city of Grosse Pointe reports its average ambulance response is five minutes. Dearborn's is four minutes. Warren's is 5:35.
In 2005, there were 303 paramedics and EMTs working the streets and the EMS division of the Fire Department had a budget of nearly $25 million. Today there are just 188 paramedics with a budget of nearly $23 million. With that many fewer paramedics, what happened to their estimated $11.5 million in salaries and benefits?
It's not nonsense, you just don't use emergency services like police, EMS, or fire every day. That doesn't make it any less stupid to live somewhere they aren't available, though.
Enjoy unplowed streets and no street lights while things "pick up", though. Oh, wait, the rencen has a parking garage. Nevermind.
PS: obviously this "pick[ing] up" hasn't been reflected in tax revenues, eh?
A group of us is having a civic hackathon this fall at the M@dison Oct 4-5 to celebrate the state's release of open API's for five themes: jobs, tourism, safety, veterans and foster kids.
If you want to see the real Detroit please join us:
Hard to image a tech community "thriving" when basic city services and personal safety are so lacking.
when you're young, your hormones is off the chart, you have several people like you around - you're thriving and you don't need basic city services like police coming to quiet down your party, and "personal safety" is for old, like 30ish - 40ish folks.
To state why Detroit is Detroit is like saying that "Stalin was a dictator" in 1970s Russia[1]. It doesn't matter that the leaders[2] of the society acknowledged that as fact, or even that everyone knew that it was true on some level. You yourself can't state the truth about why Detroit is Detroit. Like in the 1970s USSR, you won't be shot, you will just probably lose your job and/or be forced into a public apology.
[1] http://www.volokh.com/2010/04/30/on-a-bus-in-kiev/
I remember very little about my childhood in the Soviet
Union; I was only seven when I left. But one memory I have
is being on a bus with one of my parents, and asking
something about a conversation we had had at home, in which
Stalin and possibly Lenin were mentioned as examples of
dictators. My parent took me off the bus at the next stop,
even though it wasn’t the place we were originally going...
What’s more, this is so even though most people, including
most Communists, knew that Stalin was of course a dictator.
The government itself had acknowledged as much. Even Lenin
was widely understood to have been a dictator in the sense
of someone who didn’t govern through democratic means.
But it’s not the sort of thing that you’d want to say in
public, or even to your friends in private. Sssh! — people
might hear! Those who hear might draw deeper inferences
about what else you might believe. This might get back to
the place you work. You might be fired, or blacklisted. By
the 1970s, you probably didn’t have to worry much about
being shot, or being sent to Siberia; these were not the
1930s. But lost jobs, ruined careers — sure. And a forced
public apology: well, of course, that might help a bit.
Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community
is naive about the fact that African-American young men are
disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system,
that they are disproportionately both victims and
perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that
fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for
that in a historical context.
We understand that some of the violence that takes place in
poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of
a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty
and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be
traced to a very difficult history.
And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds
to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-
American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse
is given, well, there are these statistics out there that
show that African-American boys are more violent -- using
that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently
causes pain.
I think the African-American community is also not naive in
understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon
Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by
a peer than he was by somebody else.Any city with a massive decline in population (which was probably triggered by racial issues and bad governance in the 1960s, a time when a violent armed revolution, at least at the local level, was quite possible) is going to have problems. Detroit had a heavily union population, reflected in the government as well, so unlike mining/etc. ghost towns, the "hangover" from the massive decline in population was a lot more unsustainable (in a place like Butte, people just left when industry left).
Sure, the decline into a war zone hurt, and compounded all the initial problems, but NYC was a warzone in the 1970s/1980s too, and didn't die. LA and Miami in the 1980s/1990s. I mean, even Oakland is somewhat turning around now (largely on the strength of SFBA overall and an artificially limited housing market in SF, true, not internal improvement.)
> By some estimates, the city owes as much as $20 billion. But the news is unlikely to halt the growth of Detroit's burgeoning tech scene, according to some of its entrepreneurs.
"according to some of its entrepreneurs"....if this is in the lede, I think it's safe to assume that the reporter isn't going to look at the big picture (i.e. the relative size of the tech startup boom compared to Detroit's job sector in general)...
> "We are the Facebook or the Twitter of the area," Gierak says. "We can get unbelievably good people who are extremely talented and think we're the coolest job in town, as opposed to being the 550th coolest job in town back in San Francisco."
I haven't been in the SF job market...but is the allure of being "Employee #single-digit" enough to outweigh a higher-paying job in a more amenable city?
> Neverthless, the tech scene in Detroit does face challenges. The most recent Census data shows Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree, compared to Chicago's 250,000. Michigan is one of four states that had fewer young professionals in 2011 than it did in 2006.
"...does face challenges"...that's quite the buried understatement. Detroit has a relatively tiny pool of young professionals...at the same time, tech jobs seem to still be in hot demand in nearby Chicago. It's definitely possible that Midwest professionals would like the choice of staying in the Midwest, but how likely is it they'll pick Detroit over Chicago?
This is not to counter the actual achievements of the Stik team, but it's unlikely the tech scene -- especially with startups focused on online remote services -- will have much factor at all in reversing Detroit's deterioration. Not through any fault of their own, but because of the sheer size of local revitalization needed.
A significant minority of startups in Chicago just feel like a grind to get an exit and as a developer you're basically given the minimal amount of resources and asked to work the maximum amount of time achieve that goal. All the while some dude (it's usually a dude) is breathing down your neck asking you why isn't their vaguely specified, poorly thought-out product done yet- "Shouldn't this just be a simple 'if' statement?" (An 'if' statement! Of course! Thanks for being my muse, boss.)
You see a lot of entrepreneurs here who come from big consulting groups that don't really "get" tech and barely even grasp startups. They're kinda like tourists - they know there's a ton of opportunity in the sector, they're willing to take the risk to capitalize on it, but there's no real passion for technology. If it all goes bust they'll just go back to their old job at Accenture or wherever and use their brief foray as an entrepreneur as a feather in their cap as they climb the corporate ladder.
The effect of all this is that it tends to drive more technically-minded entrepreneurs or more hardcore dedicated biz types to take their businesses outside the city to places like SF, Austin and NYC. It also prevents us from drawing in people from Wisconsin and Michigan. What we're left with are a bunch of suits trying to bro-it-up with a startup until they finally surrender the last of their adolescence and go back to working for someone else.
and...Whew, rant over. That's the only reason I can think of why you'd do something in Detroit instead of Chicago.
You might think that the tech sector can't do enough to turn the city around, but I disagree. This isn't just a collection of random startups. There are tech giants like Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and Amazon who are already in the area or looking to be. Quicken Loans (Intuit) is the biggest tech employer downtown and Dan Gilbert is doing everything he can to make the city more amenable to other tech companies.
And the auto industry? That's still there. It'll never be the blue collar manufacturing boomtown it was, but all the auto companies will continue hiring engineers. Both auto and software.
Over time I came to think that part of the problem is that Cleveland lacks the 'being a part of something bigger' you refer to.
I'll say this for Detroit - they're actually making things happen. I hope Cleveland gets some of the same mojo. There are definitely cool people in Cleveland up to good things, but there's not a movement afoot yet.
If bankruptcy is whats needed to turn city politics around and fix the basics, so be it. I hope it does work, because in my experience, Detroit is a fantastic, gritty, historical city with character like none other.
Forget about Chicago - why would anyone pick Detroit over, nearby Ann Arbor?
Granted Detroit does not have the population size of NYC but with strong leadership they can rebound. Well see if it happens. My bro in law lives near there and sells RE for a living. Said he feels optimistic that if Detroit cuts down on the city boundaries and focuses on areas of growth and potential they'll pull through.
> SILICON VALLEY IS A GREAT PLACE TO BE IF YOU'RE IN THE 1% OF TECH STARTUPS. BUT IF YOU'RE IN THE OTHER 99%, YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME TRYING TO FIND TALENT, AND NOT ENOUGH BUILDING A BUSINESS
> Detroit has just 11,000 young professionals between 25 and 34 who hold at least a bachelor's degree
Or is it "once we convince people to move here and work with us, they're trapped"?
I don't have the stats but there's a much larger number of young professionals within easy commuting distance of downtown Detroit.
Maybe Detroit needs a similar "let's get our shit together" turning point; maybe it's already happened and we just don't know yet. It's clear that local geeks have produced positive media coverage for quite some time now (I'm sure I've seen quite a few features on this "Detroit rebirth" in the last 24 months).
Over the past few years, private investors have begun trying to make big changes in Detroit. These are big name guys like Dan Gilbert (Detroit Venture Partners) and Bill Ford (Fontinalis). Each have started VCs that have made heavy investments to help Detroit's tech community grow. The Madison building as discussed in the article only popped up in the recent years, supported by DVP.
To be clear, I'm not talking about the entire Detroit metro/city area. The area that is on the up and coming is the area from Grand Circus Park up through Woodward right up to the Quicken Loans building. In the recent few years, Dan Gilbert along with other private investors has been buying up properties and renovating buildings. Practically every building in this 1 mile stretch is now owned by Dan Gilbert and is in the processed of being renovated and used by companies. For example, right next to the Madison Building, Detroit Labs has moved in.
You can see some of the vision for the future of Detroit right here:
http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2013/03/28/look-dan-gilbert-la...
Not only that but there is a stronger young professional population in this area. In the past 2 years, huge buildings like the Broderick Tower (http://brodericktower.com/) have been completely redone and turned into apartment buildings. These buildings are FULLY booked and are filled with young professionals.
From a security and safety perspective, Detroit isn't the safest city but isn't as bad as some people may suggest. The stretch down Woodward is actually VERY safe. In the past two years, there has been outdoor security cameras installed EVERY single block all the way up to Quicken Loans building. Dan Gilbert has hired private security contractors who monitor these cameras 24/7. In fact, I'd argue that strip of downtown is safer then MANY cities. As a whole, the outskirts and further away from Downtown is a different story (near Wayne State, etc.). This article is focused on the change happening downtown, not the entire city. It's going to be a many years coming to but for someone having grown up close to Detroit, it's crazy to see the level of change happening in the past 2-3 years compared to the previous 10 years...and it's all starting in this 4-6 block section in Downtown.
While Detroit isn't going to be the next SV or even NYC tech scene, to deny that there's change happening would just be ignorant. Even though Detroit as a city is going bankrupt, I cheer on the people who are there and working hard to make it a city they would be proud to call home. I encourage you guys just to check it out if you have the time. If you go to that section between Woodward and Grand Circus Park, you'll see that that lunch hours are PACKED with people and over the weekends when events are happening the city is bustling with life and energy.
Don't like the FUD get to you and get out to see the real picture!