Comment by rmason | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rmason | Hacker News Reader

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Actually it is becoming the hot startup city right now. There's a couple block area near Grand Circus Park that is full of startups, an accelerator (Bizdom) and VC's. Twitter, Uber and Stubhub have offices in the Madison building which is close to Tiger stadium. Google has a presence in Grand Circus (think General Assembly) around the corner.

Detroit is allowing experiments that I just don't see in other cities. I am personally excited about unearthing the many rivers that were buried.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/05/daylight...

Because so much of the land is empty the cost of unearthing the rivers in minimal. Years ago I did genealogical research in one of the city's older cemeteries and was just stunned to see this very pretty stream running through it with clear water. People laugh but Detroit could become America's Venice by 2045.

Course none of this is talked about by the national media at all.

Probably because it's coming about due to private enterprise I say this not to start a political fight, it's just that it really isn't something that's been attempted on such a scale before (unless I'm ignorant of history). If Detroit is to make a run at revival it will have to do so with a cooperative local government as well. The state's takeover has at least made a dent in the circus that was the Mayor's office over the past few decades which is a good sign. If the city goes back to hilarious levels of incompetence and corruption once the financial situation is solved then it's all for nothing but hopefully a little hope is enough to turn things around and I think it might do the job.

Well I am optimistic on the political front as well. Since the 1920's Detroit City Council members were elected on a city wide ballot. Because that took more capital than shoe leather they became indebted to their backers.

Now Detroit has gone back to districts. While it is quite controversial how those district lines were drawn the nature of candidates is changing. You've got school teachers and small businessmen running and they're doing it by depending less on radio and TV advertising and more on going door to door. We won't know for several years whether it makes a difference but I am hopeful.

There is also a young professional class downtown that weren't there a few years ago and are making their influence known in the mayors race.

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