Detroit: Bankrupt city turned corporate luxury brand

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/may/14/detroit-bankrupt-brand-ad-chrysler-nostalgia

by drjohnson • 12 years ago

74 61 12 years ago

personZ4• 12 years ago

Detroit has bounced off the bottom. While we might exult in the ruin-porn of Detroit, it is a city on the mend, and is really an interesting city full of significant potential. I say that as a Canadian who travels to Detroit from the Toronto area, never feeling a moment of fear but enjoying some great restaurants, entertainment, and sports.

Go Lions!

camus2• 12 years ago

I guess we didnt visit the same place... Detroit is a dump and nobody wants to pick up the tab.

personZ4• 12 years ago

The downtown is resurgent, and is certainly not a dump. Many of the suburbs are very affluent. There is a large area that is in very dire shape (which is, of course, the area that people focus on when they seek their ruin porn), but is no worse than it was 20 years ago, and in most cases is significantly better.

Detroit had been in decline for many, many decades. It hit bottom and is getting better.

cfredmond• 12 years ago

things are definitely changing. downtown + midtown are nothing like they were just a few years ago. the neighbourhoods are another story; i'd go as far as saying they haven't been worse...

patmcguire• 12 years ago

I've been hearing this every year for a while. The year Detroit turns it around seems to be the same as the year of linux on the desktop - this year, but then not.

bilbo0s3• 12 years ago

It is interesting how the international view of Detroit differs from the domestic view of Detroit. Americans, as far as I can tell, view Detroit with what strikes me as hostility almost. Not all... but a lot of Americans that I have heard speak on the issue. And I say that as an American. Whereas elsewhere in the world, the view is... a bit different.

I think the "grit" brand positioning fits... since most of the brands trying to tie into Detroit are luxury. I think it will work well. But I don't think you could market many things to the average American using Brand Detroit.

Maybe cars ... that Eminem Chrysler 300 commercial was pretty good.

Just saying that the view of a Canadian, or Frenchman, or a German of Detroit will, in all likelihood, be different from the view of an American of Detroit...

Even though none of the people holding the opinions French, Canadian, German or American have actually ever visited Detroit.

Jare• 12 years ago

For what is worth, my view of Detroit as a Spaniard was shaped by a) dangerous and violent Robocop, b) the rough play of the Dennis Rodman era's Pistons, and c) the poor and depressed world of Eminem. I don't know if younger foreigners have different references.

personZ4• 12 years ago

Americans, as far as I can tell, view Detroit with what strikes me as hostility almost.

You don't have to go far to find Canadians who view Detroit as a North American Mogadishu. Such an opinion has a strong correlation with racism, it's worth noting: Detroit must be the perilous worst because it is held to represent black America.

As to the "never actually visited", do you claim that most, or even a remote minority of Americans have "actually ever visited Detroit"? Of course they haven't. They laugh and point and repost and share the ruin porn because, ha ha, look at Detroit.

In any case, it was a pretty bizarre claim to use in response to my post given that I expressly said that I go to Detroit almost regularly. Indeed, "Canadians" in Southern Ontario almost certainly know more about Detroit than the bulk of Americans, for obvious geographical and practicality reasons.

Now maybe I'm not going to the "real" Detroit in some people's opinion, in that I am in built up urban areas and affluent suburbs, but it is a part of the whole of Detroit.

Shivetya• 12 years ago

Dunno, all that separates today's Detroit from Robocop's Detroit are the robotic police units, well until they arm the drones. You have the yuppie Detroit and the rest. Doesn't look very different that some Mexican cities recently in the news, wealth on one side of the fence and the poor excluded. oh sure, they get subsidies and such, carefully factored to insure their incentive to take from those on other side of the fence doesn't occur.

Until all that urban blight is settled Detroit isn't back. This is just a game to get the bonds people and such back in the game after bankruptcy goes through.

justintocci• 12 years ago

there seems to be an attitude that what happened to detroit was not related to policies and politics. i respectfully submit that significant lasting change in any system requires change in the environment.

pyre2• 12 years ago

It was definitely racially motivated. That's where the schism began; back at the height of Detroit when poor blacks from the South were encouraged to come to Detroit to work the assembly lines.

Also in the disruption of the Big 3 when faced with foreign competition (thought IIRC, this is related to policies and politics because the Big 3 were protected by import controls for a while).

grimgrin• 12 years ago

I've saved a very informational Reddit comment giving a nice summary of The Fall of Detroit:

https://gist.github.com/shmup/11354626

bluthru• 12 years ago

Especially in the physical sense. The home of the big three tore down buildings, inserted parking lots, created large arteries to the suburbs, and that allowed white flight to take place.

Live by the car, die by the car.

antidaily2• 12 years ago

No matter what you have to say about Detroit, good or bad: It's not that simple.

brohoolio7• 12 years ago

It's bouncing back big time. It's going to take 10 or more years for the whole city, but it will be unrecognizable in the central city in the next few years.

I say this because when I go riding my bike in Detroit on Monday nights 2,000 people ride with me. That's the kind of thing that makes people move in.

Hole in the wall restaurants have an hour wait. Big name restaurants take reservations weeks in advance.

Minor minor minor minor league soccer teams draw like 2,500 people.

The brand is strong. People are going to use it. There is a ton of energy down here and a shit ton of people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right, and they are becoming right for the hipsters and college kids.

bilbo0s3• 12 years ago

"...people who live right around the city who will move in once conditions are right..."

Probably not... because once the "conditions" are right... the price DEFINITELY will not be. But Detroit will probably draw more and more of the high end of the creative class. I won't argue that.

michaelfdeberry2• 12 years ago

This can already be seen, housing is going to be a huge problem without some major investment in that area as well.

Nowhere beside Downtown, and maybe one other neighborhood, is worth living in right now, and the rent in those areas are starting to sky rocket.

Living in Cleveland I sometimes get contact by companies in Detroit looking for developers. I recently considered taking a position, but the housing situation made me reconsider.

It was either pay 3X the rent for an apartment Downtown, compared to my apartment in Cleveland, or have a 45-60 commute every day. Even with the increase in salary it wasn't worth the move.

jasallen• 12 years ago

Is this an organized bike ride through the city? Please post info, I'd be interested to join.

brohoolio7• 12 years ago

Yup.

http://www.slowroll.bike/

Come on down. It's seriously the best vibe and most diverse atmosphere in Michigan.

cylinder• 12 years ago

Who will employ these hipsters? Or do they just live off credit cards and their parents?

brohoolio7• 12 years ago

Tech companies, Engineering companies restaurants?

Who employees Brooklyn or Berlin?

nooron• 12 years ago

Hipsters is approaching synonymous with young people at this point. If you're curious as to how young people in Detroit are making a living, I will give you some very concrete examples:

1. Me. I am the biz director of a fantastic startup. 2. My friends started a very popular band and play gigs profitably and organize parties. 3. Many people work in Quicken family of companies, many in real estate. 4. Many are web developers. 5. Some grow medicinal marijuana. 6. Several of my friends have started food trucks. 7. Many are servers or bartenders. I know a couple strippers too.

I could go on like this for a while. Though I know some young people who are on their parent's insurance or receive some help paying down their student loan debt, I know of very few people who live off CCs & their parents. They do exist, but they are very rare.

aResponder23• 12 years ago

Are you one of those critical mass riders who shuts down Campus Martius for a few hours a month?

'Cause if you guys could stop and let traffic through on our way home from work, that'd be really helpful. You could pass out pamphlets and get more riders that way.

megablast• 12 years ago

The whole point is to stop traffic, make people get out of their cars. Cars have taken over most cities, this is people pushing back.

I think you may miss the point.

brohoolio7• 12 years ago

I'm not one of the critical mass folks. I'm a slow roller, which seems to be the opposite of critical mass. We rider later after traffic, starting at 7:30. We break up our group of riders into small ones so cars don't have to wait a super long time. And instead of any kind of militant attitude we just roll with good vibes, talking with cars, waving at kids encouraging folks to join us.

It's hard not to smile when confronted by such a group.

malandrew• 12 years ago

As the motor city, it would be interesting if Detroit reinvented itself as the first American post-car city. i.e. Take roads, which are the most significant public space in most American cities and take it back from cars and give it to pedestrians and bicyclists.

I would love to see any city in the world take this architects proposal for São Paulo (a major concrete jungle) and run with it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/12588351@N02/sets/721576231926...

cschmidt• 12 years ago

Shinola is using leather from the Chicago tannery Horween, that was discussed on HN last week...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7705512

http://www.shinola.com/journal/what-horween-leather

Dwolb• 12 years ago

I'm so torn by all these comments about whether Detroit has 'bounced back' or not. On one hand, it certainly seems like salaries, wages, rents, and prices are rising in the Detroit metro area, on the other hand parts of the city are in really bad shape.

My own perspective is to not focus on how to classify Detroit's status in relation to other cities and metrics, but to focus on what Detroit is. It's an eclectic area where poverty, middle class, and affluence collide. There are creative communities that butt right up against dangerous areas. It's a great area to bike since certain times of day cars are few and far between, and there is an upbeat sense of happiness in some communities. There's not much more to it other than it's the people's town and the behavior of individuals will have a lot to do with how Detroit fares in the coming years.

blueskin_• 12 years ago

I don't see how this would work, unless there are some nice suburbs/towns just outside Detroit, or companies allow a lot of remote work. Otherwise, you'd be hiring, have interested people up until you say the word "Detroit", then never hear from them again. Personally, I'd rather live somewhere I'm not likely to be mugged walking around the corner to the shops.

Detroit: Bankrupt city turned corporate luxury brand

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