Unfortunate timing for this to front page here given that Detroit and Michigan in general are going to endure some extremely rough times in the coming months and years. Detroits revival just took some direct hits.
How do you mean? A lot of things have stayed pretty consistent here over the years. What are you expecting?
Michigan's economy is tied to a lot of things that just received a tariff like manufacturing and agriculture. Michigan's largest exporter by far was Canada and 20% of the state's GDP comes from Canada, Mexico, and China imports.
I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…
It seems evident that people, by and large, don’t like freezing temperatures.
The tech company I work for is listed on the NASDAQ and headquartered in Birmingham, a few minutes out of Detroit - originally it was in Rochester. There is a lot of money in Michigan. The main issue I can see is that you have to be in the right circles - there is definitely a class divide in the state, and it's pretty brutal.
Yeah class divides are weird in Southeast MI. At smaller shops it leads to a lot of hubris from management. I've worked at more than one shop where circles of UofM grads insist on outsourcing everything new and having in-house employees only do maintenance or minor features. If you didn't go to UofM your opinion is worthless. Leads to incredibly toxic shops and terrible software.
I've seen that kind of thinking by some grads of MIT, Harvard, and Stanford, too. I think it's a minority of them, but not-unusual.
My position is, if you want a lifestyle company (and maybe a self-congratulatory echo chamber), then maybe it's fine to be a " shop". But if you want to hire the best people, and be informed by a d-v-rs-ty of perspectives and experiences, then you really need to not be so insular.
I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…
It seems evident that people, by and large, don’t like freezing temperatures.
That and you don't get the same pay by living somewhere cheaper.
I guess my question is, are all these startups going to Detroit because of the positive vibes, or are they actually getting compelling direct subsidies / credits / etc from the government?
(Not that there is anything wrong with giving or taking subsidies necessarily, but that might paint a more accurate picture of the incentives in place)
all the apocalyptic stories about Detroit’s decay after the ‘08 collapse and one thing that stuck with me was that there were serious discussion about razing entire empty neighborhoods to deal with the fact the city was a lot smaller than it used to be.
In my area, there are a lot of communities that have also gone through decades of contraction and are now sparsely populated with a lot of dilapidated structures. It’s depressing and requires keeping around a lot of infrastructure that these areas can’t afford to support.
I’m torn between thinking a) we should raze these unusable buildings, tear out some roads, eventually revert to nature OR b) start a massive reinvestment program to give stuff away and bring in some new blood to revitalize.
I left Michigan about 3 years ago after living around Detroit for 7 years. Tech jobs there are primarily with the Big 3, and the cult known as Rocket. There are places like Ann Arbor, but again, the opportunities are limited.
As for Detroit itself, I feel like I've seen this headline every year for the past decade. I'm not saying that Detroit hasn't made progress (it absolutely has, go visit the refurbished train station), but compared to other cities it's still lagging.
I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…
It is happening, but it takes time as those cities can only grow as fast as palatable housing stock comes online. The largest percentage growths in home values, with short days on market, have have been in Rockford, Akron, Fort Wayne, Lansing, etc. There is new construction in all of these markets, but much of it is from rehabbing old manufacturing buildings, another limiter, or from a mix of public and private money that city government can only consider so quickly. Economic growth is mostly in services to support the remote jobs. Building new primary businesses (sell out of local market) might never happen. So they look just as sleepy as ever even though there’s a lot of activity in housing and new transplants.
I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…
It seems evident that people, by and large, don’t like freezing temperatures.
NYC, Boston, and Toronto are still bustling. The uncertainty of work from home with RTO mandates popping up at a moments notice keep people from making the jump.