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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

#141

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

ghaff wrote: post #139
gcanyon wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived in Los Angeles, Seattle, D.C., New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Boston. I've spent time in Phoenix, San Francisco, Kansas City, Chicago, Miami, Portland, Atlanta, and Orlando. None of them come close to what you see in St. Louis. As a disclaimer, I always tell people, every bad thing you hear about St. Louis is true, and worse than you've heard -- but also that the many, many good things about St. Louis…

Many cities have bad areas. But few have that 15 minute dynamic. OK maybe SF with the Tenderloin but even Howard St. isn't as bad as it used to be.

Most older pre-war cities have a core that is hollowed out with more affluent areas nearby creating a stark contrast. Newer cities that developed with automobile sprawl have that more diffused.

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

#142

Post by scythe »

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…

There is also the secular trend. Detroit's dominance in the auto industry wasn't an accident. Iron was mined in the Iron Range in Minnesota and shipped across the Great Lakes to Detroit. It was natural for manufacturing to occur there. Other GL cities had similar advantages, but e.g. Alabama wasn't a realistic competitor. Coal was also shipped, mostly from the Allegheny region, west across Lake Erie.

Today, less iron is refined domestically, and cars are made of more aluminum and less steel. Most coking-quality coal is now mined in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. On top of that, the US shipbuilding industry has become less competitive globally, which together with the Jones Act has resulted in a significant drop in shipping on the Lakes. See Figure 2 on page 2:

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R47550.pdf

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

#143

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

dcchambers wrote: post #20

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…

Rochester NY is seeing an influx of people driven by the high CoL elsewhere. The region's housing stock has been severely undervalued for decades. Now migrants and REITs are snapping it up for comparatively cheap causing locals to have a lot of anxiety over the rapid run up in housing costs. The region ranks high on safety from disasters and resource shortages so, in the long term, it and the entire great lakes will see more migration once the "glamour" of scurrying between air conditioned spaces wears off in the places due to become desertified or flooded.

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

#144

Post by notesinthefield »

gcanyon wrote: post #138
dgfitz wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most US cities are like that in the “downtown to disheveled in 15 minutes” sense.

I've lived in Los Angeles, Seattle, D.C., New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Boston. I've spent time in Phoenix, San Francisco, Kansas City, Chicago, Miami, Portland, Atlanta, and Orlando. None of them come close to what you see in St. Louis. As a disclaimer, I always tell people, every bad thing you hear about St. Louis is true, and worse than you've heard -- but also that the many, many good things about St. Louis…

I spent a long weekend in Soulard to see Brittany Howard last year. Outside of the immediate mile radius of the neighborhood, my partner and I constantly asked ourselves “where the hell is everyone?”

Ive been everywhere in the US but the Dakotas and never seen a city of STL’s size feel so big yet so empty.

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

#145

Post by sagarkamat »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #60
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'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'd say don't give up on Ann Arbor yet. It's a great place to live in and there are plenty of jobs in a commutable distance within Metro Detroit.

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

#146

Post by ec109685 »

skybrian wrote: post #134
yardie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sun belt took wind out of their sails. And even they are starting to see softening demand. Miami just cancelled an A-class commercial high rise due to weak demand. In Austin, rents are tanking. It’s very hard to revive a town or city when the tax base is way down. I thought Detroit was going to succeed but they simply have too much ground to manage with their revenue. And there isn’t a way to shrink a shrinking c…

The decline in rents in the Austin area is due to building more housing, according to this article: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/22/austin-texas-rents-f...

It also stopped growing rapidly: https://www.austintexas.gov/news/new-census-data-austin-metr...

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

#147

Post by oldpersonintx »

skybrian wrote: post #134
yardie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sun belt took wind out of their sails. And even they are starting to see softening demand. Miami just cancelled an A-class commercial high rise due to weak demand. In Austin, rents are tanking. It’s very hard to revive a town or city when the tax base is way down. I thought Detroit was going to succeed but they simply have too much ground to manage with their revenue. And there isn’t a way to shrink a shrinking c…

The decline in rents in the Austin area is due to building more housing, according to this article: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/22/austin-texas-rents-f...

[dead]

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

#148

Post by ZeroGravitas »

gcanyon wrote: post #34
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…

St. Louis is similar: you can walk from downtown to empty grass-filled blocks in about fifteen minutes. My favorite story is the origin of the City Museum (which, shoutout to the City Museum, it's awesome). The City Museum building is in a former factory, it's about 11 stories tall and fills a city block. It's on the edge of downtown about a dozen blocks from the Arch. The artist behind the museum bought the building…

They also filmed Escape from New York there in 1981 so they didn't have to spend any money on making a post-apocalyptic cityscape!

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/arts/how-a-1976-st-louis-fir...

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

#149

Post by ZeroGravitas »

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 watched a YouTube video recently about Detroit's rebirth with a focus on old architecture being renovated.

What I mostly noticed, from the Arial drone shots, was how spaced out the buildings were, it looked to be about 70% car parking.

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

#150

Post by AngryData »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #83
ghaff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Im not sure how easy or hard they would be to put on and take off for you, but one thing a lot of people ignore in the winter that can help, simple crampons/ice cleats. They make ice basically a non-issue if you are wearing them. The downside is some stores might not like you walking on their floors with them on, but of course parking lots and store walkways are pretty well salted so you might only need them at your house or if you walk around residential areas.

With the heat issue though, Michigan is surrounded by water and half the state is swamp, so yeah it might not be quite 100 degrees out, but if it is 95% humidity out it might as well be well over 100 degrees out. It is definitely something to consider if you want to avoid the heat.

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