Monday, May 16, 2011

Motown’s optimistic tune

Here is an article I found which pretty much summarizes all the pros and cons of living in Detroit and our discussion in class on Thursday. The article says that the city is improving drastically .What do you guys think ?
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/78388124-7c1e-11e0-a386-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1MW9sP8Bf

9 comments:

  1. I thought one of the most interesting quotes in this article was at the very end, where it says that "it's hard to spend a million dollars on a house in Detroit." I think this could actually be seen as a way to attract people to the city. The fact that you can get a lot more for your money in the city than in the surrounding suburbs might be enough to make some people choose Detroit over the metro area

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  2. I thought this article was great, it made me think about checking out the city after graduation. A fleeting thought, however, as I got to the list of pros and cons. Sure, living in Detroit is cheaper and it has a lot of cultural and educational institutions, but the poor infrastructure and public transportation, and high crime rate are all much bigger cons than the few pros. I'd rather pay a little more to be safer!

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  3. That's the editor's perspective. What about the people's (commoners) perspective in general?

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  4. I think Sam makes a great point - high crime rates really detract from the appeal of low prices. That's definitely a big factor that's driven a lot of people into the suburbs.

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  5. Detroit is not the most dangerous city in the United States or the world. When people say it’s too dangerous that is not the main reason they do not want to live there. It’s true the city is actually fairly modern. I think consolidating people into “areas of density” is a good idea. It will provide the city residents with better access to city services.

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  6. I think consolidating people into areas of density is a good idea but not because of access but because it is easier for police to patrol areas and keep residents safe. Sam you also make a great point, paying a little extra for some safety is definitely worth it.

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  7. its always drastic when you have nowhere to go but up

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  8. The city needing a good infrastructure with public transport is a bigger deal to me still than the crime. Having a really low cost of living city and combining that with very advanced and well thought out public transit would create a city that young professionals would flock to if there was any useful industry at all. And with the obvious room for growth in Detroit, this may be a sort of "if you build it, they will come scenario;" let the business work itself out, just create a really good environment for it, like Austin did.

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  9. A lot of these crime rates will diminish as buildings are inhabited and the ability to use abandoned buildings for criminal activity diminishes. This will quickly be realized as the crime rate diminishing pulls more people to the city and these factors build off of each other.

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