Last weekend, the New York Times featured a story
in its Style section about the onslaught of hip, young urban pioneers
streaming into downtown Detroit. These “creatives,” as they are being
called, are taking advantage of low rents and the opportunity to recycle
this abandoned, blank slate of an urban landscape into something new
and exciting. There are restaurateurs and entrepreneurs of all stripes
living alongside environmentalists and urban farmers. The city,
according to the Times, seems like “a giant candy store for young
college graduates wanting to be their own bosses.” One woman said that
there’s a cool party just about every evening. The article pointed out
that even though recent census figures show that Detroit’s overall
population shrank by 25 percent in the last 10 years, downtown Detroit
experienced a 59 percent increase in the number of college-educated residents under the age of 35.
No doubt this is partly a word-of-mouth, grass-roots “movement.” But
behind the scene, millions of public, private and foundation dollars
are greasing the wheels. Last April, Blueprint America profiled an
effort called Live Midtown,
an incentive program created to lure some of the 30,000 employees of
midtown’s major anchor institutions (Wayne State University, Detroit
Medical Center and Henry Ford Health System) to move from the suburbs
back into the city. By the end of June, 178 people were reported to have
taken advantage of deep discounts on rent ($2,500 the first year and
$1,000 the second) or purchases ($20,000 toward the purchase of their
primary residence). We also looked at an effort by the mayor’s office to use federal stimulus money to lure members of Detroit’s police force out of the ’burbs and back into town.
 |
| Night life in Detroit, by Thomas Hawk |
more about Detroit:
No comments:
Post a Comment