Detroit vs. the Metro Nation

Detroit is a wonderfully complex city.  Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of Detroit civic leaders (members of the CEOs for Cities City Cluster) who are working to bring 15,000 college-educated young adults to Detroit by 2015.  And they are focused on making Detroit an appealing place for them to locate by focusing on the vibrancy of downtown and Midtown along the Woodward corridor.

The Midtown area has a lot going for it.  Two major hospitals, Wayne State University, the College of Creative Studies, the newly renovated and reinstalled Detroit Institute of Art, along with multiple other cultural institutions.  What is obviously missing is the concentration of and connections among these assets.  But they are now working on it.

In fact, Detroit is positioned to become one of the first cities (along, perhaps, with Cleveland) to get its anchor institutions working collaboratively.  And in Detroit's case, most of the impetus for collaboration is emerging from the institutions (rather than from a monster funder).

Dave Egner and Katy Locker, both with Hudson-Webber Foundation, are the instigators of 15:15, and they are supremely talented convenors and very smart thinkers.

What a pleasure it is to sit around the table with such a dedicated, focused group of civic leaders.

(I stayed at the recently reopened Westin Book Cadillac.  The place is sleek and contemporary but with wonderfully spacious guest rooms.  And make its 24grille a destination on your next trip to Detroit.  It is the brainchild of four under 35s.  Definitely worth a visit.)

  

D. Legg, February 2, 2009

Even given the hard times our major industry is undergoing, and the resulting financial turmoil that has hit Detroit and Michigan harder than just about any other region, I definitely sense a new attitude. There is a core of business and political leaders who seem to understand the need to take our city and state in a new direction. I'm glad you recognize the hundreds of young people who are working behind the scenes to help bring these changes about. We have a huge, untapped creative-sector population in the Greater Detroit region, including some 50,000 engineers, who will help in the transition. We have great institutions, as you mentioned, a university system that is among the best in the world, and two of the best design schools anywhere. Those are powerful resources.

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