City of opportunity - event recap

I went to the Next American City and Model D event last night. It consisted of a panel discussion followed by a reception at the Center for Creative Studies. The venue was quite nice - it was neat to walk around that campus (I don't think I had been there before) - but the event started half an hour later than the publicized time. That worked out well though, as the room slowly filled up after being almost empty at 5pm.

Content wise, the moderator set up the situation, showing a map of where college graduates live in Chicago and Minneapolis and comparing that to Detroit - there was a big vacant space on Detroit, compared to lots of color on the other city maps. Then, the panelists (all from out of town) explained their reasons for choosing to live in the city of Detroit. I found it to be quite enlightening. Some of the reasons included:

• Affordability - less need to work crazy hours for the "golden handcuffs"
• Exciting to live in a big city after coming from rural background
• Nice to have a community
• Did not have negative perceptions or know much coming in - no bad things have happened since
• Outside of the US, Detroit does not have a bad reputation
• Desire to be a part of the revival and "move the needle" (can't be done as easily in other places)
• Urban experience
• Increasing attraction with each visit
• ...

There was some discussion about how Detroit could better attract the "creative class" - they are already here and word is getting out. The big point was to "spread the Gospel" of Detroit so to speak. There was a brief Q&A session. The point was made however, that the event was "preaching to the choir" - it should have happened in Ann Arbor. The moderator ended with an interesting poem about putting commas where we now put periods (when talking about Detroit) - we need to look forward and not try to remake the glorious Detroit of the 1950s.

The reception was ok - lots of attendees. Alas, I am not so great at the schmoozing, so I didn't meet to many people (ironic, as I am giving a speech on networking next week). Did speak to a couple of people though, including one of the panelists (who wrote the op-ed in the NYT about the $100 house). Interesting guy.

Overall, it was interesting event. I wouldn't say I learned too much or met the right people, but it was good to attend anyways, if only just to see a new part of the city. I guess these types of events happen rather often - the key is turning thoughts and ideas into action.

A website was also brought up, http://michiganfuture.org, which seems pretty interesting.