What NYC Thinks of D-Town

This is partially intended as a response to replies to the previous post, "What would it take to keep you here?"

Recently, I was in NYC, and when I mentioned to a student at NYU that I was from the Detroit area, she mentioned that she and her artsy friends had joked about coming to Detroit to buy a house for a dollar. It's a bit of a stretch, in that as far as I can tell, the "homes for a dollar" isn't exactly how it sounds, but with the average cost of a home in Detroit at about $6,000, that sort of scenario is playing out in the city.

Gentrification is beginning to take place in Detroit as what I'll call "new hippies" (millenials who reject the consumer culture of recent decades) move in, appreciating the low rent and grunge feel of a Rust Belt City. Many are artists or small business owners, attracted to lofts, houses, or cheap apartments in Hamtramck, Midtown, Eastern Market district, or other neighborhoods.

My response to the NYU student? Overwhelming encouragement to consider Detroit a livable, fun place to relocate after completing her graduate degree. That said, she would likely take time to adjust to D-town life, with its lack of public transportation, grocery stores, movie theaters, and bowling alleys.

Still, I argue that attracting such young professionals will begin to change the city, and that Detroit's best advocates are Detroiters.

What would it take . . .

to keep you here?

A couple years ago, I was ready to leave Michigan and return only to visit family. I'm a young professional with two bachelor's degrees and odds of being accepted to more than one of the many graduate schools to which I've applied, only one of which is in Michigan. My story is not at all unique - with the loss of jobs and public services declining, plus a distinct reputation as part of the Rust Belt, Michigan looks less than attractive to millenials (people born between 1980 and 2000).

However, projects like Detroit Goat Farm, Greening of Detroit, Urban Farming, Pure Michigan, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, and Free Clinics of Michigan, among a host of others, have changed my mind. I'm seeing how active many Michiganders are in their communities, how much innovation could happen here, and dreaming a new dream for the state of my birth. The result? My first choice for graduate school is Michigan State University, with University of Illinois at Chicago a close second, for its proximity to the Mitten State.

Of course, there are changes I'd like to see. At the top of the list is public transportation and stronger emphasis on education. I'm sure we can all think of things we like and don't like about our state of residence, be it Michigan, California, New York, Texas, etc.

Now I'm asking: what would it take to keep you here? Or to get you to move here, or to move back?