Detroit files for bankruptcy

[FangKC]

Bankrupt Detroit's downtown renaissance creates trickle of hope

That would help to build on the boomlet downtown, where residential occupancy rates stand above 95 percent, driven by an influx of companies and entrepreneurs. Plans for construction of a 3.3-mile light rail line along Woodward Avenue, the city's main artery, and a new bridge across the Detroit River to Canada, are seen as encouraging signs. Both projects have state funding.

Timothy Bryan, CEO of healthcare software developer GalaxE.Solutions, opened an office downtown three years ago. His firm employs 150 people here and plans to expand to 500 within the next two years in what he described as a "cost-effective" city where the rent is low and nearby universities, such as Detroit's Wayne State University and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, churn out well-educated graduates willing to work for much less because of the low cost of living. Local IT firms say they tend to pay software engineers as little as half the going rate in California's Silicon Valley.
"There is an opportunity to grow IT in downtown Detroit, and we think this is a very, very good place to invest our time and money," said Bryan.

Some of the younger workers who have moved here, or moved back, say downtown Detroit is a cool place to live because of the city's gritty urban cachet and they feel that they can stand out here more than in cities like New York and Los Angeles. New restaurants such as Slow's, a hip barbecue joint in the city's Corktown neighborhood, and a Whole Foods Market upscale supermarket, have sprung up to meet increasing demand.

...

One of the biggest problems for Orr and his team is that Detroit is geographically huge given its population of only 700,000. It is 139 square miles - big enough to encompass Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco combined - and downtown Detroit only represents about 5 percent of that, or roughly seven square miles.

http://news.yahoo.com/bankrupt-detroits ... 29930.html

[FangKC]

I was sort of surprised about this.

Greater Downtown continues to be racially diverse, with
black residents accounting for the racial majority (68%).
Between 2000 and 2010, the black population declined,
the white population increased, and Asian and Hispanic
populations remained steady.

Employment in Greater Downtown as of
March 2010 totals 135,402 employees and accounts
for 40% of the total employment in the city.

Since March 2010, large employers have moved nearly 10,000 employees to Greater Downtown.
Quicken Loans/Rock Ventures: 6,430; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan: 3,000; and Strategic
Staffing Solutions: 450.

Since 2006, $6 billion has been invested in real estate
development projects in Greater Downtown.

http://www.detroitsevenpointtwo.com/res ... report.pdf

[FangKC]

Leg Up for Downtown Detroit

Mortgage Magnate Goes on Property-Buying Spree in Bid to Revive Faded District

Today, the district is showing signs of progress, with new tech businesses, trendy stores and rehabbed apartments occupying some of the dilapidated towers along Woodward.

...

Earlier this month, one part of Mr. Gilbert's plans fell into place: a $25 million federal grant for a $140 million, public-private light-rail line along Woodward that he and other business leaders backed.

Mr. Gilbert's investments "have accelerated our community and economic development plans by years," said Dave Blaszkiewicz, president of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, a group of business and government leaders.

...

Little Caesar's Pizza founder Mike Ilitch's Olympia Entertainment Group, meanwhile, has built or revived several entertainment venues and is now exploring building a $650 million entertainment district anchored by a new hockey arena.

In 2009, Mr. Gilbert, who also owns the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers, joined the trend, pledging to move his firm's headquarters from the suburbs to downtown, eventually bringing in more than 7,000 employees. Since then, his real-estate arm has bought 15 buildings, filling them with 65 new businesses, including Fathead, his own poster company, and an outpost of micro-blogging firm Twitter Inc.

...

Mr. Gilbert says, he will seek to expand housing and shopping outlets this year to meet growing demand from his employees and other downtown residents, addressing a chicken-or-egg problem that has long bedeviled Detroit: not enough residents to support a retail infrastructure, and not enough retail to attract new residents.

Real-estate analysts say they are seeing a ripple effect from Mr. Gilbert's spree, as lower vacancy rates and rising rents draw other investors off the sidelines.

Lansing, Mich., developer Richard Karp beat more than two dozen competitors to rehabilitate three buildings around downtown's Capitol Park, a $90 million project set to begin this summer. "Gilbert's investment in downtown added to our level of comfort," Mr. Karp said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 85644.html

[FangKC]

How Too Much Parking Strangled the Motor City

39.2 percent of the land in downtown Detroit has been paved over or built up for the purposes of parking.

"This is definitely a self-perpetuating cycle in which you sort of drain the vibrancy out of an area by adding more parking," Linn says, "which then makes the area seem unsafe, which makes you feel a little more uncomfortable in the space, which makes you add more parking."

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commut ... city/6585/

[aknowledgeableperson]

It was the vacant or near vacant buildings that lead to the glut of parking, along with two stadiums and an arena.

[FangKC]

Cars and Robust Cities Are Fundamentally Incompatible

Cities like Berkeley, Arlington and Cambridge experienced something different. Even as they cut back on surface parking, the number of people and jobs climbed upward, as did incomes. Less parking in these places has meant the urban fabric can be stitched back together and there is more space for shops, restaurants, jobs and other things that make cities great. More importantly, the parking isn’t needed. People own cars at higher rates, but they don’t use them as much. Instead, they live close to the urban core where upwards of 30 percent walk or bike to work.

Today, in many cities, roads and parking facilities continue to grow, as though the problem for the last 50 years has been that the growth was not enough. These cities might be able to guarantee a parking space in front of every destination that still remains (or they might not), but they are likely doing so at the expense of those things that cities really need – namely, people.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commut ... ible/4651/

[FangKC]

Lessons From Zurich's Parking Revolution

In our research at the University of Co ... ising.[/b]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commut ... tion/2874/

[chingon]

what is unexpected is the degree to whi ... s and jobs

maybe someone should study why anybody who did not expect that result is paid to do research on urban issues

[FangKC]

Some positive news for Detroit and Michigan.

The Great Lakes Revival

The other big story in manufacturing has been the recovery of the auto industry. Essentially we see two parallel expansions, one based around the revival of U.S. automakers and their suppliers, particularly around the Great Lakes, and another that’s keyed by foreign-based firms, particularly in the Mid-South and Southeast.

Among the larger metro areas, the star of the U.S.-led recovery is No. 5 Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich., an area that is widely known as “automation alley.” This region epitomizes the transition of manufacturing to more automated, high-tech production methods. After decades of losses, the area’s industrial employment increased 26% from 2009 through 2012.

More hopeful still has been the industrial recovery of the quintessential factory region, Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, No. 8 on our large metro area list. The Detroit resurgence is for real, with manufacturing employment up 18% since 2009. The industrial expansion has also sparked high-tech employment growth across Michigan that in 2010-2011 stood at almost 7% compared to 2.6% nationwide.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/ ... boomtowns/

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/edgl45fe ... ivonia-mi/

[KCMax]

I haven't read all of this yet, but its a great thus far.

How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young

[FangKC]

Detroit Leads the Way on Place-Centered Revitalization

http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/ ... talization

[FangKC]

This Is What Detroit Could Look Like In 2033 ... And Beyond

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/2 ... n_progress

[FangKC]

Immigrants Seen as Way to Refill Detroit Ranks

http://tinyurl.com/l6zzay2

[loftguy]

Immigrants Seen as Way to Refill Detroit Ranks

http://tinyurl.com/l6zzay2

Dammit! That was supposed to happen here!

[FangKC]

From the New York Times Magazine

The Post-Post-Apocalyptic Detroit

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/magaz ... .html?_r=1

[FangKC]

Can private money fix public problems?

JPMorgan is betting $100 million on Detroit. Can it leverage a lot more?

http://tinyurl.com/llm2r76

[FangKC]

Michael Bloomberg: Detroit Is Just Like 1970s New York, And That's A Good Thing

http://tinyurl.com/mabkryv

[aknowledgeableperson]

Looks like 6,000+ individual properties have been bought as a lot through auction for $3.2M. Includes roughly 2,000 vacant lots, around 1,000 habitable homes, and about 3,000 houses required to be torn down within 6 months according to the terms of the auction. Successful bidder unknown at this time.

[FangKC]

Looks like 6,000+ individual properties have been bought as a lot through auction for $3.2M. Includes roughly 2,000 vacant lots, around 1,000 habitable homes, and about 3,000 houses required to be torn down within 6 months according to the terms of the auction. Successful bidder unknown at this time.

I wonder if it's Mike and Marian Ilitch, owners of Little Caesar's Pizza and the Detroit Red Wings hockey team?

A DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION OF THE HEART OF DETROIT will begin in September, when the Ilitch family breaks ground on the construction of a $450 million Detroit Red Wings arena concurrently with another $200 million in apartments, restaurants, office buildings, parks and shops over 45 blocks. This is the city’s entertainment district, super-sized.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20 ... rtainment)

[FangKC]

Behind every crumbling downtown is a billionaire who wants to save it

http://grist.org/cities/behind-every-cr ... o-save-it/