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Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

theguardian.com

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Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#81

Post by ghaff »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #47
RALaBarge wrote: post #4

30 miles West in Ann Arbor, there are tech gigs but not tons of them. If you are apart of the University of Michigan, there are tons of opportunities via the college and the groups there, but if not there aren't tons of openings. Detroit itself is an amazing city, but it isn't a tech hub, nor is it for everyone. It is the shell of the automotive companies that started to move their operations of out the country in th…

I was there about a year ago with a couple of friends, stopped for a night while driving through Michigan to go up north. It was just so eerie throughout the entire day. Incredibly wide streets, but sometimes you would walk for 5 mins before you saw a single soul. Maybe because it was a bit of a chilly day as well, but it felt like the city was built for way more people, and there just isn’t enough now.

Other people makes a big difference.

Even back when NYC was a lot more iffy than it is today in general, I never really felt uncomfortable walking down somewhere like Fifth Avenue late at night because there were enough people at night. Various midwest cities can be pretty eerie--especially after business hours. The downtowns are often not that busy during the day and they're deserted--except maybe some local pockets--after dark.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#82

Post by psunavy03 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #79
psunavy03 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no state income tax . . . yet. But the "soak the rich" band is already tuning up, and with the cost of living being what it is out here, "rich" will probably include anyone who can afford a house.

I would not be too worried about that. Washington legislators just outlawed income tax last year. While those who want earned income tax are vocal, the support for the initiative against income tax was so widespread that the politicians did not want it on the ballot for fear of voters being swayed to vote for the other ballot initiatives. https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2111,_Prohibit...

I wasn't just referring to income tax, but things like capital gains and so forth. The state Supreme Court ruled an excise tax on capital gains was not an income tax, and though the limit is like $250K currently, that could change. And the party that runs Washington is the one that's currently on the warpath about "rich tech bros."

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#83

Post by wing-_-nuts »

ghaff wrote: post #72
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually looked at Ann Arbor before as I adore college towns and was looking at trying to find one in the great lakes region as a forever / retirement destination. Given you're from the area would you have any others to recommend? Things I'm mainly looking for: * A climate change refuge * No 'lake effect' snow * Continuing education opportunities (i.e. auditing classes as a retiree) * A good public / uni library…

You probably need to decide if you want no "lake effect" snow specifically or just don't want a lot of snow. It still snows a lot in places that aren't Buffalo or Syracuse. Just in New York state Ithaca is pretty much out of the lake effect snow belt but it still snows quite a bit.

I have cerebral palsy. I'm from the south, and the few experiences I have with snow and ice have not been great, lol. A fall that might just bruise a hip in your 30's might well break it in you 70's and at that age, it's often a serious hit to your quality of life or even 'game over'. I want to be far enough north to rarely deal with dangerous heat, but far enough south that I'm not basically 'snowed in' given I seem to struggle with icey sidewalks.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#84

Post by wing-_-nuts »

filoleg wrote: post #69
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually looked at Ann Arbor before as I adore college towns and was looking at trying to find one in the great lakes region as a forever / retirement destination. Given you're from the area would you have any others to recommend? Things I'm mainly looking for: * A climate change refuge * No 'lake effect' snow * Continuing education opportunities (i.e. auditing classes as a retiree) * A good public / uni library…

I have an alternative proposal to Ann Arbor for this that hits every single one of your criteria, but with a plus-minus (with a caveat, but i will elaborate on that later) regarding reasonable cost of living. That would be Seattle area. I will go point by point. The good: * According to their own Climate Vulnerability Assessment[0], the region is fairly resilient to the impacts of the climate change. * There is no la…

I had previously looked at the PNW. I adore seattle , but the earthquake / tsunami / wild fire risk projections are extreme. I know they're retrofitting a lot of infra and housing there, but a cascadia fault quake / tsunami is gonna be a bad time even if fema's 'everything east of I-5 is toast' is overhyped.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#85

Post by knowitnone »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #74
eduction wrote: post #23

Detroit’s homicide rate as of January is about 4x the national average, 31.9 per 100k vs 7.4 nationally. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/20...

Like any city most of these would happen in easily avoidable areas and there's no reason to live in fear about it unless you're one of those people for whom it's a hobby.

"easily avoidable areas" as if criminals don't have cars?

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#86

Post by lowercased »

jetrink wrote: post #59
arrowsmith wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are the premiums going up? Hurricanes?

Increasing hurricane risk yes, but also a dysfunctional insurance market. There's a business model where roofing companies will approach homeowners telling them they have hurricane damage and are eligible to receive a free roof. The hurricane might passed through years before, but any damage that was overlooked is still the responsibility of the insurance company. The homeowners are surprised to learn that their roof…

We did this. Hail damage. There wasn't no damage. We'd had a hail storm. But... we've had them before. The root was 17 years old at that point, and... the last storm sort of tipped things over to the "needs repair" side of things. We may have been able to leave it a while longer, but do we wait until it's leaking, causing more damage? Insurance company sent an inspector, took pics, etc. Interestingly, they denied the claims of many of our neighbors, but ours was 'bad enough' to justify replacement. This still cost us several thousand of of pocket - it wasn't like it was 'free roof!' time.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#87

Post by wing-_-nuts »

ghaff wrote: post #80
evantbyrne wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grand Rapids and Traverse City might meet your criteria, but it's hard to say given how subjectively they are worded. If you want to live in a town with a large university, then obviously just look at the top three universities by size in each state.

Yeah, I'd look at university towns and small cities generally in the northern end of the country. Though it's probably not just the largest universities--there are smaller schools that caan still give a place a feel of a university town. Then pick some climate metrics like average inches of snow. Create a shortish list and go from there. I suspect some of the criteria are also less important than others. Continuing e…

Re: continuing education: I just wanted a way to take some classes and gain access to the university library. Technically I have access to lifetimes of material online via books, papers, MOOCs, etc; but it would be really nice take a philosophy class and actually be able to have in depth discussions, or check out some book that's never been published on kindle.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#88

Post by lotsofpulp »

psunavy03 wrote: post #82
lotsofpulp wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not be too worried about that. Washington legislators just outlawed income tax last year. While those who want earned income tax are vocal, the support for the initiative against income tax was so widespread that the politicians did not want it on the ballot for fear of voters being swayed to vote for the other ballot initiatives. https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2111,_Prohibit...

I wasn't just referring to income tax, but things like capital gains and so forth. The state Supreme Court ruled an excise tax on capital gains was not an income tax, and though the limit is like $250K currently, that could change. And the party that runs Washington is the one that's currently on the warpath about "rich tech bros."

Yes, that (and the LTCi payroll tax) was some nonsense and does bring into question the integrity of the leadership. But the 2111 legislation gives me hope that they aren’t stupid enough to get rid of the states’ most attractive feature for a young, productive workforce.

Especially in a future where young, productive people are going to be in shorter and shorter supply.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#89

Post by filoleg »

psunavy03 wrote: post #78
filoleg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an alternative proposal to Ann Arbor for this that hits every single one of your criteria, but with a plus-minus (with a caveat, but i will elaborate on that later) regarding reasonable cost of living. That would be Seattle area. I will go point by point. The good: * According to their own Climate Vulnerability Assessment[0], the region is fairly resilient to the impacts of the climate change. * There is no la…

There is no state income tax . . . yet. But the "soak the rich" band is already tuning up, and with the cost of living being what it is out here, "rich" will probably include anyone who can afford a house.

There are attempts at it at least once every decade, and every time they get squashed in the very end, even if they are passing the vote and get pretty much to the finish line. Any form of taxing it is against state constitution, and the state struck down any previous attempts at loopholes around that provision of the constitution.

I agree with the sibling comment that this is not something to realistically worry about at all.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#90

Post by filoleg »

psunavy03 wrote: post #82
lotsofpulp wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not be too worried about that. Washington legislators just outlawed income tax last year. While those who want earned income tax are vocal, the support for the initiative against income tax was so widespread that the politicians did not want it on the ballot for fear of voters being swayed to vote for the other ballot initiatives. https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2111,_Prohibit...

I wasn't just referring to income tax, but things like capital gains and so forth. The state Supreme Court ruled an excise tax on capital gains was not an income tax, and though the limit is like $250K currently, that could change. And the party that runs Washington is the one that's currently on the warpath about "rich tech bros."

They’ve been on that warpath since the glory days of msft and amazon (i.e., for multiple decades at least). All with that same party running things back then in WA. All they’ve accomplished is shooting themselves in the foot here and there, without any meaningful progress.
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