Detroit as ground zero of the post-industrial future from Time, Inc.

[darksumomo]

Crossposted to darksumomo

The stories below are part of a planned year-long series in Time and other publications in the Time-Warner media conglomerate entitled Assignment Detroit. More stories, including a blog, can be found at the link.

Time: Assignment Detroit: Why Time Inc. Is in Motown
By John Huey

This summer the editors at Time Inc. did something a

Comments

[volksjager]

Goes for the whole state of Michigan. You will see a "grapes of wraith" style exodus from it in the next few years.

[darksumomo]

Yes, but heading where? Texas? That happened in the 1980s. A lot of them came back when the oil patch collapsed and autos recovered. People have long memories in Michigan and I think they'll remember the experience well enough not to make that mistake en masse again.

California? I'm from California. Note the icon. I've lived in Bakersfield and I've lived in Detroit; I'll take Detroit. Bakersfield is, to quote nebris, a third-rate L.A. at the ass end of nowhere, while Detroit was a great city once and will be again, even if it's great in the sense of Medieval Rome, a magnificent but still inhabited and important ruin of past glory. As for the rest of the state, I'd rather have Michigan's problems than California's. At least Michigan has enough water and arable land to support its population. California, should things really go south, does not

[theheretic]

The Midwest. Houses are cheap. If industry can be convinced to give up the Bay Area and relocate to places like southern Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa, then company towns can form up with $40K houses instead of $480K houses, plenty of water and food supply close by. That makes sense. If a brain drain starts in the West, particularly in the Bay Area, it could start the commercial/corporate Exodus. That's where the real change will happen. When corporations pull out of California. They might just move into the Central Valley though, rather than leave entirely. Trouble is, the weather is so awful there it would be a hard sell for the workers, and its not much harder to move a couple thousand miles as it is a hundred. You still have to pack up everything and put it on a truck.

[nebris]

What industry? It's all been outsourced.

~M~

[nebris]

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americans-tame-their-wanderlust.html;_ylc=X3oDMTFuOWxzaG02BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDOTc2MjA0NjUEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawN0YW1lLXdhbmRlcmx1c3Q-

[theheretic]

That census bureau information is from 2008. Do you think its still relevant? A lot has happened in 2009.

Do you think its still relevant?

[nebris]

Sure. =)

~M~