  Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 105 Registered: 07-2008 |
Part of reviving the city is economic development...bringing business back into the city...businesses that will employ Detroit residents. Part of bringing businesses back into the city is getting people to go there to see that it can be a decent place to go and do business. Part of getting people to go there is to show them what they're missing. Introducing: Six Degrees Magazine http://detroit.sixdegreesmag.c om/ Nice, polished publication highlighting what to do out in Detroit when you're looking for a good time. Yes, tourism will not alone save the city. But tourism will bring people here. If they enjoy themselves, they'll meet others who are here. If they meet others, they won't be afraid of doing business here. And then come the jobs. Pass it along to your friends. Lots of fun going this summer...from club nights at the DIA to yacht parties on the Detroit River. Bring people into the city...businesses, jobs, and money will follow. YPD (Message edited by youngprofessionaldetroiter on July 31, 2008) | ||
Detroitmaybe Member Username: Detroitmaybe Post Number: 150 Registered: 03-2008 |
Hi there! I know that u just moved back to Detroit and I would like to encourage you to consider joining Cityscape Detroit. You have the type of energy that we are looking for!! Please check out our website at cityscapedetroit.org | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1290 Registered: 04-2005 |
yes, club nights...yacht parties on the river...the key to detroit's future. anything in there about playgrounds, schools, the job market, city government, city services, crime? i saw the numerous pictures of the sexy ladies, very nice. how about snippets about property and automobile insurance, is that a feature? will the club scene help provide qualified graduates for profitable industries, or just contribute to a well-run infrastructure that will beckon titans of industry and top graduates to locate in the "d?" | ||
Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 106 Registered: 07-2008 |
We generate plenty of qualified graduates. They are in Chicago. Kind of a cool city. Playgrounds, schools, all that comes when there's money. Haven't heard too much complaining about Troy's schools or Birmingham's schools. You want lower crime, better city services? Need a tax base. Lower property insurance? Lower auto insurance? Comes when upscale developers add security to their gentrified developments. How about a different type of political leadership? Might need a different kind of political electorate. Maybe we need the kind of leaders who value entrepreneurship and vision? Those people usually have money. You want cleaner streets? Lights that don't go out? How about the phone answered in a timely manner when you call City Hall? Need money. A steadily eroding tax base with major losses in middle and upper income households isn't going to cut it. And middle income households can't be the first to come back. You need upper income to lead, because they have the resources to make wholesale changes by investing their large reserves of capital into job producing companies. And how do you bring in these upper income households? Yacht parties. Sexy women (and men) wouldn't hurt. Titans of industry? Top grads? They will create industry if you get them to stay here. The most upscale area of Metro Detroit is called Chicago. It's where all our talent goes. YPD (Message edited by youngprofessionaldetroiter on July 31, 2008) | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 4793 Registered: 06-2004 |
Wander around the Loop and up Michigan Ave. for a summer's night as I did last year. If your eyes are open you'll see the falsehood that is "Chicago. Kind of a cool city." My heart was absolutely ripped out that night. I wish I had had my camera with me. I've been thinking of going back to see if I can capture the feeling on film. | ||
Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 107 Registered: 07-2008 |
Awesome. Make the video, and I'll add in the narrator's voice about the ridiculously high cost of living. $100 for Cubs tickets? I mean they haven't gone to World Series in forever. I'm not kidding. Our population loss to Chicago of under-30's is beyond absurd. At U of M, I'd put the number conservatively at 75%. Whatever it takes for them to realize that it's not the be-all-end-all of urban living. Which comes first? Jobs? or Talent? I don't want to argue. Let's work on both. I agree we need both. YPD | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 500 Registered: 12-2006 |
Jobs will draw talent. Ask any Detroit-born Texan....almost all of them are here for the work. The above-freezing Winter temperatures are mostly a side benefit. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 1510 Registered: 12-2006 |
You bring in titans of industry by providing a stable government with reasonable assurance of services and a nonconfiscatory tax scheme. Otherwise you don't bring them in. To bring in "households" depends on what you mean by household. To bring in single people, gays and young couples, you have to provide an urban vibe, good restaurants, shops and nightlife. If you want to include traditional husband plus wife plus two point three kid type families, you have to also stabilize the schools and provide reasonable expectations of a decent public education. Detroit has made some strides over the last five or six years, but still not enough; we are still losing population and tax base, and the titans of industry have not come calling en masse. First we need stability - people need to feel like it's not a horrible gamble to live in the City. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5224 Registered: 02-2005 |
YPD's right, it's all about money. Money needs to change hands in the City for it to grow, and money needs to reside in the city for the basics that Thecarl so properly points out to materialize. There's more to life than money (and parties on yachts), but it's amazing how just having a lot of normal people carry on their normal activities in the city as opposed to a place outside the city or another area entirely can change both attitudes and the facts on the ground when it comes to Detroit's redevelopment. So if a glossy magazine with cool pictures convinces a person who's looking for a party this weekend to do something in Detroit rather than visiting people in Chicago, then it's all good. But I do think there's some nice content in there. Maybe a little metro-focused rather than City exclusive. Where do you get a paper copy? | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5225 Registered: 02-2005 |
With few exceptions, Professor, the major American city today relies on young singles/starting families and wealthy families that can pick and choose among neighborhoods and schools for growth. If Detroit can similarly rely on these people (at a much greater scale than it already is relying on them for redevelopment), then changes in the tax base situation will be realized. If you hang out in certain parts of midtown and a handful of other neighborhoods enough, you will believe that we are well on our way. In a city this large, though, to balance out the effect of all the emptied and/or impoverished areas, you need to get a lot more people to fill in the gaps. Momentum has to built, and development will logically flow outward from the current hotspots. Somebody always needs to be watching out for the regular families, especially inasmuch as the decline in enrollment at DPS recently is so rapid. That is where stopgap measures and stabilization are desperately needed. No questioning that-- but how to do it is an incredible dilemma. The real growth potential at Detroit's present crossroads, though, are YPD and his fellow YPs. | ||
Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 108 Registered: 07-2008 |
...hence, yacht parties  I mean, if we're gonna be down here, we might as well enjoy ourselves For all the YPs who're thinking about coming back to the city...YPD | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 5226 Registered: 02-2005 |
Hey, we've got boats and a waterfront city. Go for it. | ||
Hockey_player Member Username: Hockey_player Post Number: 437 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thank you, YPD, for introducing us to a publication that most of us have known about for well over a year. Most people, though, can have the best of both worlds: clubs and "yacht parties" that they attend in Detroit, then they can drive 15 minutes home to Birmingham or Royal Oak where the streetlights work, the neighborhoods are safe and the schools actually teach children useful things. Not sure how desperate you might be, but few people will invest their lives and their wealth to move to a crumbling city just to be in the proximity of pretty girls at "yacht parties," when they can just as easily dip into the city for the events they want and then head home to normal life. Enthusiasm like yours is sometimes admirable, but unless it's tempered by a bit of wisdom, it can be the fuel behind rather poor ideas. | ||
Jjw Member Username: Jjw Post Number: 542 Registered: 10-2005 |
For the life of me, I can't see how that magazine can help the city. I mean, half the ads in it were for places in Birmingham. | ||
Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 112 Registered: 07-2008 |
Yeah, my fault. I should've been more clear. I'm still stuck as thinking of all of Metro Detroit as one region. So when people on the board are talking about leaving the city, I'm picturing the thousands of people leaving for Chicago, LA, NYC, DC, Atlanta, Phoenix. Not moving out to Hall Rd. and Hayes. I blur the lines a little bit because I see what's good for the region as good for the city and vice versa. Especially when in comparison to moving out to the east coast. Anything we can do to make Detroit (Metro Detroit) to seem to be a fun place. I know that people talk about focusing on job growth and economic growth. I agree wholeheartedly. But I also want to say that it's not just the jobless bolting from the region. I know plenty of people who specifically take jobs with big companies here in Detroit because it's EASIER and less competitive and then put in their transfer to Chicago 6 months later. Should've been more explicit. My fault. YPD | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 3348 Registered: 04-2006 |
It's always amusing to see Michiganders nitpicking on city vs. suburb issues when the entire Metro Detroit region has been written off by the rest of the country. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3218 Registered: 09-2007 |
"the entire Metro Detroit region has been written off by the rest of the country." ^True. If we don't bicker about city vs. suburb issues, Metro Detroit will never act like an actual region. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1961 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: Well, maybe it would help if you went other places than Michigan Ave. That's like an outdoor Somerset Collection. You don't learn a damn thing about New York by visiting Times Square. quote: I suppose that's debatable, but my 1BR apartment in Ferndale was $700 a month and my 2BR in Chicago was $950 a month. It didn't seem that ridiculous to me. (Message edited by focusonthed on August 01, 2008) | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1785 Registered: 04-2006 |
I don't think Lilpup was defining the stores of Michigan Avenue in that statement. Take a look at the people on the streets of the City. You will see people on many streetcorners selling streetwise or sleeping just off of the sidewalks. Homeless folks do not get much out of being there but the table scraps folks seem to give them. They might get a buck from a guy who just spent $500 at Needless Markups on a sweater. That being said, the inclusion of nightlife and other activities is one piece that adds to the vitality of a City like Chicago. Yes, there are still some great places to live in Chicago, but to be honest, their school system is not much better than Detroit's. People with the means still leave for the burbs once they have kids. In terms of schools, location is much less of a factor. I really think that since shifting the funding of schools away from the property tax to a sales tax was a collosal mistake. Prior to proposal A the school district would be very active in a community because it knew that if the community was healthy so would the base for the school. Now it is autonomous as districts are paid for each child and there is no real incentive for the school district to be part of the communities that it serves. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 1537 Registered: 08-2007 |
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Youngprofessionaldetroiter Member Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter Post Number: 114 Registered: 07-2008 |
Haha. I like it. Where do I get the dalmation costume YPD | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 541 Registered: 07-2005 |
I'd also like to point out that their office is in Farmington Hills. | ||
Dds Member Username: Dds Post Number: 706 Registered: 10-2006 |
quote: What a coincidence! | ||
Sumas Member Username: Sumas Post Number: 192 Registered: 01-2008 |
"Division Street" by Studs Terkle (sp)is still a timely book on Chicago | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 1418 Registered: 03-2008 |
YPD, looks nice! I like that you can flip through the magazine on line. That's kewl! | ||
Jat44 Member Username: Jat44 Post Number: 9 Registered: 03-2008 |
It is very nice to see all of those pretty people in that magazine dressed up and enjoying a night in Detroit..........then go back to thier apartments and condos in Troy, Farmington, Birmingham, etc. True, it all brings money into the city but how much actually stays in the city? Do the club owners live in the city? I doubt it. Is'nt a city's health measured by the neighborhoods, school system, etc? It cracks me up to see all those people who think they are "Pro-Detroit" by going to downtown clubs on the weekends. If they are so "Pro-Detroit", why don't they live in the city? | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 3342 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jat44, I completely agree. Downtown is like a heart while the neighborhoods are the blood & a good city government is the oxygen. Without one or the other, the heart will stop pumping. None of those big corporations are footing the outrageous taxes that the citizens of Detroit must pay. Why not improve the school system, improve police presence & make people feel welcome. Then we can earn a higher tax base & work faster to make our city world class (since we'll have money in the coffers). Big names & corpoation aren't going to invest here if the people are undereducated & the safety of their employees are chancy at best. | ||
Jat44 Member Username: Jat44 Post Number: 11 Registered: 03-2008 |
Detroitrise; It is just too bad that the city leaders and others are so focused on what is going on in the downtown area to bring people in to that area to spend money. We need to start focusing more on the neighborhoods and schools and then you will start to see the health of the city improve. | ||
Digitalvision Member Username: Digitalvision Post Number: 1077 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think it takes both. I think the rhetoric of a hard line between city and suburb needs to stop. However, I see your point Jat44. Detroit as weekend playground is NOT the right strategy. The best thing that could happen to Detroit is getting rid of the clubs - and getting in retail. It's hard to attract retail in areas where there are clubs; it's hard to attract residents, too... Especially the kind that aren't going to "grow out" of the city once they're done partying. It does crack me up how many people will go to clubs, but during the week, not go downtown or into Detroit whatsoever because since the clubs are there it's perceived as a dangerous or not good place to be the rest of the time. | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 107 Registered: 11-2006 |
Yes, Make the corporations pay! We should call the this special corporate tax "Overseas Job Migration Incentive Tax" just to signify its local importance. | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 108 Registered: 11-2006 |
The main advantage to living in the city versus living in the suburbs is transit. Where other cities have really built on this and have been successful, we've failed. When this gap is filled, your problems of attracting people/business, stable tax base and population growth will be solved. | ||
Sean_of_detroit Member Username: Sean_of_detroit Post Number: 1419 Registered: 03-2008 |
Quote: "It is very nice to see all of those pretty people in that magazine dressed up and enjoying a night in Detroit..........then go back to their apartments and condos in Troy, Farmington, Birmingham, etc. True, it all brings money into the city but how much actually stays in the city? Do the club owners live in the city? I doubt it. " While this is true to a point, I think it's a little extreme. It does bring SOME money in. Also, while the owners may or may not work in Detroit (many do), many of the employees do live in Detroit. Ten years ago, "no one" went clubbing in Detroit from the suburbs... it's new, and the start of much more (in theory). They do catch young peoples attention. That's something that is hard to do in this day and age. Edit: Feel free to correct me here, if I'm wrong on the ten years thing. I mean, not that clubs didn't exist in the CBD, just that majority of customers were not outer suburb suburbanites. They also were definately not a as numerous problem back then. (Message edited by Sean_of_Detroit on August 10, 2008) |
