I've also thought quite a bit about this the past year. I moved to downtown Detroit after graduating from school, and I absolutely love it down here. Granted it isn't as bustling as the valley or SF, but we are slowly building a community of super talented individuals. Hopefully Techonomy can get a few more people out of the woodwork and interested in the community. I'm personally very interested in who is bootstrapping their business from the ground up. I have been doing so for about a year and it has been working out great.
Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
31–40 of 56 posts
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be surprised if Google doesn't have at least a data center in Detroit. Considering how much Google has been investing in urban real estate lately (NYC, Chicago) you'd think they'd want to snap up one of the big old factories and put a mini campus in there.
Google does have a campus close to Detroit (Ann Arbor). This is practically on campus for University of Michigan, which is where they do the scanning for Google Books. They employ ~300 people there right now. http://www.google.com/about/locations/ann-arbor/ There is also a campus they call Google Detroit (it's actually in the suburb of Birmingham). I'm not sure what they do there. http://www.google.com/about/jobs/loc…
The Birmingham location is ad sales
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be surprised if Google doesn't have at least a data center in Detroit. Considering how much Google has been investing in urban real estate lately (NYC, Chicago) you'd think they'd want to snap up one of the big old factories and put a mini campus in there.
Google does have a campus close to Detroit (Ann Arbor). This is practically on campus for University of Michigan, which is where they do the scanning for Google Books. They employ ~300 people there right now. http://www.google.com/about/locations/ann-arbor/ There is also a campus they call Google Detroit (it's actually in the suburb of Birmingham). I'm not sure what they do there. http://www.google.com/about/jobs/loc…
From my understanding (which may be a big outdated now), Birmingham's primary function was to service ad sales to the Detroit Autos.
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also have worked for QL, and there are actually very few of the workers that live downtown. Most commute from the 'burbs. I considered it and did a lot of research and here were my thoughts: -The income tax needs to go. 2.5% to live in a city with pretty bad crime and no amenities? No thanks. -Car insurance is through the roof. If you park on the street it's assumed your car will get broken into occasionally. -I do…
All good points. I sometimes think it would make more sense for companies to skip Detroit and just open an office in Royal Oak or Ferndale. I would work there in a heartbeat.
Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham (anything on woodward north of Detroit) are great places to live/work
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone know if Twitter moved into the Madison yet? and if so - how many people?? http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/04/04/twitter-opens-detroit...
Yes, they did. When I was visiting the Madison last week Twitter had a mini office on the third floor with like 2 or 3 desks.
The office is tiny -- like a closet with 3 desks against the walls. I've been by it a few times during business hours and I haven't seen anyone in it yet.
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, but you're missing an important point. An influx of workers who move into the community will ultimately yield an increase in grocery stores and amenities. Companies like Quicken (mentioned in the article) provide significant incentives to get their 4k+ employees to relocate downtown. And it's working...
I also have worked for QL, and there are actually very few of the workers that live downtown. Most commute from the 'burbs. I considered it and did a lot of research and here were my thoughts: -The income tax needs to go. 2.5% to live in a city with pretty bad crime and no amenities? No thanks. -Car insurance is through the roof. If you park on the street it's assumed your car will get broken into occasionally. -I do…
Municipal taxes pay for police. You can't simultaneously propose to eliminate tax and decrease crime.
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
i've worked at quickenloans, have lived in the metro detroit area, and have worked in downtown detroit. It needs more lifestyle infrastructure than one or two companies can provide incentives for. The state needs to take over the city, incent multiple neighborhood businesses (grocery stores, shopping malls, etc) to be relocating within a moderate radius of the downtown area, and incent families to move there (tax bre…
How is the dev life over at QL? They keep calling and trying to get me to come in for an interview, but I haven't had the time to really consider it having just gotten in at ciber in Southfield a few months back.
I worked with people at a company in Lansing (TechSmith) that worked at Quicken Loans. They were NOT disappointed with their move.
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
All good points. I sometimes think it would make more sense for companies to skip Detroit and just open an office in Royal Oak or Ferndale. I would work there in a heartbeat.
Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham (anything on woodward north of Detroit) are great places to live/work
Ferndale and Royal Oak don't really have white collar office jobs.
At any rate. The state of Detroit is extremely Depressing. It's the region's major city!
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#39I moved back to Ann Arbor from NYC about six months ago. I think I had to move to New York to see how truly awesome things are here. There is a lot top notch technical talent, the cost of living is low, and abundant cheap space makes it a startup's dream. The quality of life in Ann Arbor is very good, particularly if you want to start a family. To be honest a lot of the really talented people I met in NYC were midwest ex-pats looking for work.
Our start-up is banking on the notion that things are coming full circle for technology, and that we'll see a shift from consumer facing web-applications to physical hardware. Lately it seems that the New York Times agrees:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/technology/silicon-vall...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/new-wave-of-adept...
Re: Can Technology Redefine Detroit?
#40I've also thought quite a bit about this the past year. I moved to downtown Detroit after graduating from school, and I absolutely love it down here. Granted it isn't as bustling as the valley or SF, but we are slowly building a community of super talented individuals. Hopefully Techonomy can get a few more people out of the woodwork and interested in the community. I'm personally very interested in who is bootstrapp…
Out of curiosity -- what makes Detroit special (aside from cost)? Why would Detroit be a better choice for Tech than other 2nd tier centers?