From Rustwire:
This is the full text of a letter from a business owner on why he might need to leave Michigan. This guy NAILED it, what we have been trying to express on this blog about sprawl and economic vitality. This is what the leadership in Cleveland doesn’t seem to get. Thank you, Andrew Basile!
From: Andrew Basile, Jr
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 12:16 PM
Subject: Why our growing firm may have to leave Michigan.
All,
I hope you find this essay of interest/value. It’s probably something
you’ve heard a million times but I thought I ought to at least try to
vocalize it rather than silently surrender.
We have a patent law firm in Troy. In 2006, our firm’s legacy domestic
automotive business collapsed. We rebuilt our practice with out-of-state
clients in a range of industries, including clients like Google, Nissan and
Abbott Labs, located in the US, Japan, Europe and China.
Today, we have 40 highly-paid employees and much of our work now
comes from out of state. This makes us a service exporter. We are very
proud of the contribution our firm makes to the local economy. We also
created a not-for-profit incubator using excess space in our office. The
incubator is home to 4 start-ups, all of which are generating revenue and
two of which have started employing people. This is something we do
without charge as a charity to help the state.
We’d like to stay in Michigan, but we have a problem. It’s not taxes or
regulations. There’s lots of talk about these issues but they have no
impact on our business. We spend more on copiers and toner than we do
on state taxes.
Our problem is access to talent. We have high-paying positions open for
patent attorneys in the software and semiconductor space. Even though
it is one of the best hiring environments for IP firms in 40 years, we
cannot fill these positions. Most qualified candidates live out of state
and simply will not move here, even though they are willing to relocate
to other cities. Our recruiters are very blunt. They say it is almost
impossible to recruit to Michigan without paying big premiums above
competitive salaries on the coasts.
It’s nearly a certainty that we will have to relocate (or at a minimum
expand ) our business out of Michigan if we want to grow.
People – particularly affluent and educated people – just don’t want to
live here. For example, below are charts of migration patterns based on
IRS data Black is inbound, red is outbound. Even though the CA
economy is in very bad shape, there is still a mass migration to San
Francisco vs. mass outbound migration from Oakland County (most
notably to cities like SF, LA, Dallas, Atlanta, NY, DC, Boston, and
Philly) San Fran only seems to be losing people to Portland, a place
with even more open space and higher quality urban environments.
The situation for Michigan is even worse than it seems because those
lines are net migration. You can click on the links and see the composite
of outbound and inbound. I went through many links, and in most cases,
the average income of the outbound from Oakland County is high (e.g.
$60K, and the average income of the inbound is low (e.g. $30K).
Recession or no, isn’t it screamingly obvious that people with choices in
life – i.e. people with money and education – choose not to live here?
We are becoming a place where people without resources are grudgingly
forced to live. A place without youth, prospects, respect, money or
influence.
There’s a simple reason why many people don’t want to live here: it’s an
unpleasant place because most of it is visually unattractive and because
it is lacking in quality living options other than tract suburbia. Some
might call this poor “quality of life.” A better term might be poor
“quality of place.” In Metro Detroit, we have built a very bad physical
place. We don’t have charming, vibrant cities and we don’t have open
space. What we do have are several thousand of miles of streets that
look like this:
Having moved here from California five years ago, I will testify that
Metro Detroit is a very hard place to live. Ask any former Detroiter in
California, and you will hear a consistent recital of the flaws that make
Metro Detroit so unattractive. Things are spread too far apart. You have
to drive everywhere. There’s no mass transit. There are no viable cities.
Lots of it is really ugly, especially the mile after mile of sterile and often
dingy suburban strip shopping and utility wires that line our dilapidated
roads (note above). There’s no nearby open space for most people
(living in Birmingham, it’s 45 minutes in traffic to places like Proud
Lake or Kensington). It’s impossible to get around by bike without
taking your life in your hands. Most people lead sedentary lifestyles.
There’s a grating “car culture” that is really off-putting to many people
from outside of Michigan. I heard these same complaints when I left
25 years ago. In a quarter century, things have only gotten considerably
worse.
Ironically, California is supposed to be a sprawling place. In my
experience they are pikers compared to us. Did you know that Metro
Detroit is one half the density of Los Angeles County?
The fundamental problem it seems to me is that our region as gone
berserk on suburbia to the expense of having any type of nearby open
space or viable urban communities, which are the two primary spatial
assets that attract and retain the best human capital. For example, I
noted sadly the other day that the entire Oakland Country government
complex was built in a field 5 miles outside of downtown Pontiac. I find
that decision shocking. What a wasted opportunity for maintaining a
viable downtown Pontiac, not to mention the open space now consumed
by the existing complex. What possibly could have been going through
their minds? Happily, most of the men who made those foolish
decisions 30 or 40 years ago are no longer in policy-making roles. A
younger generation needs to recognize the immense folly that they
perpetrated and begin the costly, decades long task of cleaning up the
wreckage.
These are problems, sure, but they could be easily overcome, especially
in Oakland County which is widely recognized as one of the best-run
large counties in the country. But despite our talents and resources, the
region’s problem of place may be intractable for one simple, sorry
reason: our political and business leadership does not view poor quality
of place as a problem and certainly lacks motivation to address the issue.
Indeed, Brooks Patterson — an otherwise extraordinary leader — claims
to love sprawl and says Oakland Country can’t get enough of it. These
leaders presume that the region has “great” quality of life (apparently
defined as big yards, cull de sacs and a nearby Home Depot). In their
minds, we just need to reopen a few more factories and all will be
well. The cherished corollary to this is that Michigan and Metro Detroit
have an “image” problem and that if only people knew great things were
they would consider living or investing here. The attitude of many in
our region is that our problems are confined to Detroit city while the
suburbs are thought to be lovely.
We don’t have a perception problem, we have a reality problem. Most
young, highly talented knowledge workers from places like Seattle or
San Francisco or Chicago find the even the upper end suburbs of
Metro Detroit to be unappealing. I think long term residents including
many leaders are simply so used to the dreary physical environment of
Southeast Michigan that it has come to seem normal, comfortable and
maybe even attractive. Which is fine so long as we have no aspiration to
attract talent and capital from outside our region.
My fears were confirmed when I began trying to gather local economic
development literature to use as a recruiting tool. The deficits which so
dog our region are sometimes heralded by this literature as assets. For
example, some boosters trumpet our “unrivaled” freeway system as if
freeways and sprawl they engender are “quality of life” assets. In San
Francisco, the place sucking up all the talent and money, they have
removed — literally torn out of the ground — two freeways because
people prefer not to have them. I noted one “Quality of Life” page of a
Detroit area economic development website featured a prominent picture
of an enclosed regional shopping mall! Yuck. It’s theater of the absurd.
The people who put together that website must live in a different cultural
universe from the high income/high education people streaming out of
Michigan for New York, Chicago, and California. Not only is there no
plan to address these issues, I fear that the public and their elected
leaders in Michigan don’t even recognize the problem or want change.
We have at least one bright spot in the nascent urban corridor between
Pontiac, and Ferndale, which is slowly building a critical mass of
walkable urban assets. At the same time, there’s no coordinated effort to
develop this. Indeed, MDOT officials lie awake at night thinking of
ways to thwart the efforts of local communities along Woodward to
become more walkable. Another symptom the region’s peculiar and
self-destructive adoration of the automobile. Even though the Big
Three are a tiny shadow of their former selves, Michigan is still locked
in the iron grip of their toxic cultural legacy.
I’d like to hang on another five years. I feel like we’re making a
difference. But by the same token, I don’t see any forward progress or
even an meaningful attempt at forward progress. It’s almost like the
people running things are profoundly disconnected from the reality that
many if not most talented knowledge workers find our region’s
paradigm of extreme suburbanization to be highly unattractive. It seems
to me that we are halfway through a 100 year death spiral in which the
forces in support of the status quo become relatively stronger as people
with vision and ambition just give up and leave. As we descend this
death spiral, we must in my mind be approaching the point of no return,
where the constituency for reform dwindles below a critical threshold
and the region’s path of self destruction becomes unalterable.
Thank you for considering my views. I welcome any opportunity to be
of help to any efforts you may have to fix this.
Andrew Basile, Jr.
—
Andrew R. Basile, Jr.
Young Basile Hanlon & MacFarlane, P.C.
228 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 300
Palo Alto, California 94301
Offices also in Troy and Ann Arbor Michigan
Yup, he nailed it. How long before the haters show up to explain why their lifestyle is superior?
“There’s a simple reason why many people don’t want to live here: it’s an
unpleasant place because most of it is visually unattractive and because
it is lacking in quality living options other than tract suburbia. ”
So compare this to my comments about your McKellar lake trash gyre.
I basically said a very similar thing – although my focus was on litter and this article is focused on sprawl. (This article/letter is EXACTLY SPOT ON though!)
People jumped all over me for being critical of Memphis for the trash but praise this author for saying much the same thing.
If you want to attract high quality people you HAVE to have high quality places.
Period.
This letter hits the head of the nail. It doesn’t matter if you build a factory that adds 100 jobs that all make $10 an hour. Sure, it is nice – but what you need is to add the jobs that pay 6 figure salaries. *Those* jobs spark the economy. And I am not talking strictly about trickle-down crap either (because that is BS). But I am talking about building companies, about building business, about making a place attractive to the movers and shakers.
Tax credits for companies take money from the poor and give it to the rich.
But if you make a vibrant, pretty, clean place to live with a vibrant urban core and lots of beautiful scenery – that benefits EVERYONE. Spend taxes making Memphis a nice place and the business will come.
It is as if our two MPOs are joined at the hip.
Portland-
Please understand. I agree with your message, but I refuse to categorize an entire community based on a specific instance or event, especially if the mechanics and details of the situation are not fully understood.
The quality of the built environment is extremely critical per the health of a community. It determines the physical health of residents, their mobility and access to resources and employment, crime and where it will occur as well as the level of equality within the community. However, where attracting employment and expenditures on the built environment are concerned, we need to understand the decision making process in order to create real change. Place yourself in the shoes of a community leader (councilperson or mayor). Your community is hindered by high unemployment and poor educational standards. Meanwhile the quality of the built environment within the city is also poor in nature. You have limited resources to address these issues along with many others. You can either immediately act to improve the quality of the built environment to create true neighborhoods scaled and built to encourage pedestrian activity, local retail and improve access to employment. The goal is to attract employers and skilled residents by creating a livable place. You cannot say how many jobs will be created, what their average pay might be or how many non-local residents will be attracted to such a community, but regional and national precedent dictate that such growth will occur. The other option is to utilize these funds to actively pursue and subsidize the location of facilities that will bring immediate and definable employment opportunities. It is easy to see why option B is the path chosen by many politicians as it offers immediate results with immediate and quantifiable returns. Of course, the sustainable path is probably somewhere down the middle.
In many cases, improving the built environment and bearing witness to the growth that accompanies such an investment simply requires more time than a single term in office. We need to remember that the greatest champion for more livable communities will see many of their efforts wasted if they are limited to a single term.
The “migration map” for Shelby county looks similar to Detroit. Not quite as bad though. What an amazing visual display of people data.
Well… I certainly feel validated; as I am sure many others do when they hear this story so efficiently articulated. Whoopity doo. Big deal.
So what now? It is getting tougher and tougher to rise to a cause that has been obvious longer than the 40 years I have been alive.
We know what the problems are.
We know what the solutions are.
We have tried every angle from sneaking to screaming to tell someone/anyone about it.
How many more steering committees, planning processes, academic journals, political speeches, business relocations must we endure? When are we going to actually do something about it? Playing around with others in the choir is not that fun anymore and our problems are growing faster than the solutions we are presenting. Do we have to collapse before anyone takes anything serious?
Thanks, John. That was beautifully said and right on point.
John,
True enough. I’m probably the longest winded choir member in the loft. To your point- yes I think it will require a crisis. I’m not talking about your pansy, everyday, school consolidation type crisis, but a real civic threatening crisis (municipal bankruptcy, earthquake, etc…) to enact massive change in response to these issue and even then it is still not guaranteed. Katrina wiped sections of New Orleans off the map, yet instead of following some of the plans and recommendations put forward in the aftermath, the city chose to continue with life as usual in most areas. It is getting tiresome reading about the problems and the solutions, attending public meetings and input sessions and then seeing nothing happen. Lip service has gone stale.
I’m jumping in here and shooting from the hip since I spent my day away from electronic media yesterday and will probably never catch up.
I spent the day canoeing sections of the Nonconnah Creek, starting at it’s headwaters in Marshall County, MS and ending at the forlorn McKellar Lake. What I saw was the beauty of migrant songbirds, egrets and heron, the engineering wonders of beavers and evolutionary steadfastness of turtles. Yeah, I also saw rafts of plastic bottles and jugs, styrofoam food containers, forsaken basketballs, soccer balls and kick balls–probably enough to supply several community centers. What I worried about most was the things I couldn’t see–sewage leaking from poorly maintained infrastructure, industrial discharge from poorly regulated outfalls and the automotive fluids from leaking vehicles, junkyards and storm drain oil changes.
The same stuff flows down Portland’s waterways too, but their water rushes rapidly to the sea where it’s diluted or has a faster route to one of the massive floating islands of refuse that inhabit the doldrums these days. Here in the Delta, like with our lifestyle, the trash lingers longer lazily with the slackwaters of the short slide to the Gulf.
I’m not so worried about picking up the litter as I am with picking up the level of awareness and esteem that lead to seeing the problem of the disposal of the waste in the first place. Rethink, reduce, reuse, and, then, recycle.
“The same stuff flows down Portland’s waterways too”
Not so much anymore. But Portland has about a three decade head start on Memphis, so it is not so much a fair comparison. And we are making massive progress every day here too, we have a lot of critical mass.
We have done a lot of very innovative things which are getting rid of the “unseen” type pollution in the water.
We are building new developments and rebuilding old developments with bioswales. Most developments are required to manage their own runoff. We are also building “green streets” with bioswales built in along the curbs and at the end of blocks. These bioswales catch runoff and perform two essential functions: First they keep water from flooding into rivers and streams from our paved surfaces – instead letting water soak slowly back into the ground the way it should with more natural surfaces, and second it traps pollutants and debris. Now when we make bioswales we plant them full of native plants which are known to help manage water and even break down pollution.
We limit the amount of impervious surface allowed on new or redevlopments. If you want to remodel your entire house – to get a permit you have to make sure that not all of your property is causing run-off.
We are building the modern “big pipe” (almost done!) to capture and clean massive amounts of run-off. And for over a decade we have been instituting “downspout disconnect” programs where homes get tax credits to remove their downspouts which used to drain directly to the sewers and let them instead drain back into the yards.
We have pretty strict vehicle inspection policies which help keep vehicles from leaking BS onto the roads – although we could get better there.
Many new and redeveloped properties are putting in “eco roofs” which capture and filter the water that lands on buildings.
Companies are being watched and regulated much better than ever before. Although we still have some old ones which are grandfathered in, most of them have been updated to new rules. Portland used to have a MASSIVE amount of pollution from paper mills and shipbuilding. In the 60s and 70s the Willamette river was completely dead. They have been working furiously since then to clean this crap up, and we have one of the nation’s highest percentage of superfund sites.
So Portland has been working on this for a long time, and we have a long way to go – but we also have a big head start on Memphis, and we also have much more public and political support for these kinds of things.
But back to the article. He specifically mentions Portland as one of the “desirable” places for talent. Let me mention why I think that is.
1. We have very good public transportation for a city our size. We have 4 light rail lines spanning 3 of the 4 quadrants of the city, and a 5th just started construction. We have a streetcar circulator which moves people downtown, and a new branch that crosses the river to the east side which is almost done construction. We have almost 1000 busses which run on a hundred bus lines, with maybe 20 of them being frequent service running every 15 minutes.
2. We have a very extensive bicycle network and infrastructure. We have bike lanes, bike paths, bike boulevards. We have bike signals at large intersections, and bike racks at almost every business and building. Many companies provide bike lockers and showers for commuting and local pubs and eateries provide discounts if you ride in on a bike. We have on-street bike corral parking in manyplaces.
3. We have a dense, vibrant urban core. Our urban core consisting of several neighborhoods in the central city includes residential, employment, entertainment, and government. This is a key – people live and play downtown and in the central city.
4. We have a beautiful natural environment.
I believe those 4 things attract a young talented and professional demographic. A demographic who doesn’t love cars as much as our parents did. A demographic who likes facebook and foursquare more than TGI Fridays and Applebees. A demographic who would rather sit outside a coffee shop cold in the rain – than even set foot in a WAL-MART.
Memphis has a pretty nice downtown, and in some ways it is more tourist friendly than Portland’s. But there is no transit in Memphis – none that is *really* usable. There is not a *lot* or residential downtown or in the central core of Memphis (although Midtown is doing pretty well). As we have discussed, Memphis could use some work on the natural environment thing. And I have seen Memphis also working on it’s bicycle network. So the evidence that there is progress being made in Memphis is there. Memphis is not even near the worst city for sprawl (although that outer loop being built is not helping). Memphis is actually pretty compact and accessible compared to a lot of places. It is harder for Memphis to maintain a “central” core as the old downtown was on the river for obvious reasons but now that is at the extreme west end of the city metro (not counting Arkansas). So instead of being in the “middle” of the metro area, the Memphis core is at the edge. Which means it is not very accessible to people in Germantown or Collierville or points east. That is a tough problem to solve.
The big thing that makes me nervous in Memphis is crime. I understand that the city feels they are compared unfairly because Memphis tracks every little tiny crime while other cities don’t report crimes less than certain dollar amounts – but I think that is just an excuse. Memphis does have a crime problem. I don’t know how to even start looking at that because it is directly tied to poverty – when poverty rates are high, crime rates are high. So we need to look at Memphis poverty which is a much more difficult problem as it is multi-faceted and in some ways people don’t even want it solved.
And yeah – the people who read this and the other blogs like this – are the choir. We can all preach, talk, type (comment) to each other until our fingers bleed. The people who need the education are not reading these blogs to begin with – we are a self-selected audience.
But maybe taking the problem on little thing at a time. My personal experience is in transportation activism – so maybe working on getting transit up to a place where you start to have riders of choice rather than riders by need would be a good start.
peace
I’m glad your still reading. You are absolutely correct on the 3 decade head start. I permanently relocated to Memphis in 1995 after coming up in the Palo Alto, CA area, which had at least a 4 decade head start.
Please know that we have been working diligently to catch up for the last 2 decades and are now seeing fruition all around us. Please also keep in mind that what we have to work with is essentially much older and entrenched than anything faced by Portland or the Bay Area. Please do keep reading and commenting and next time your in town, look me up.
Portland-
Thanks for the comments and your perspective. Let’s forget the rocky start. Totally agree per the transit comment. Unfortunately, if readers here will take a look at the online survey being conducted by Nelson/Nygaard ( http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/matapreferencesurvey ), it appears that rebuilding public transit in Memphis in a way that will appeal to transit choice riders as well as those who are transit dependent is not even being considered. The overall theme of the survey has a definite “retrenchment” bias. Instead of expanding service, retooling routes and increasing frequencies during key time periods we are looking at a system with either a smaller footprint or lower levels of service. The entire approach dooms any chance of the real change we here in the loft know is necessary.
Portland Oregon’s racial/poverty level/wealth statistics versus the memphis area’s? anyone?
cost of Portlands housing inside the Urban Service Boundary vs. ability of, say, a barista’s ability to actually buy a home there?
actual ‘worth’ of an existing residence at say, 7th and Marble in today’s market?
anyone?
Interested: Why don’t you do your own research?
We have plenty of Barista’s here who do just fine.
The cost of housing inside the Urban Service Boundary (I don’t know what that is, do you mean Urban Growth Boundary? I am assuming that’s what you meant) is irrelevant here because the entire metro area is essentially inside the UGB. So unless you want to drive from 2 hours away or live in Vancouver, Washington – you are inside the UGB just like everyone who is not a farmer or wealthy estate owner. But the cost of housing has less to do with the UGB than it does the market. Real-estate is only expensive if everyone wants the real-estate. Living downtown is more expensive – because lots of demand. We have TONS of undeveloped land within the UGB so we are not artificially constrained. And some of our inner city dense areas have the highest percentage of subsidized housing. In our neighborhood called “The Pearl District” we have income restricted and subsidized housing in the same buildings as $700,000 condos. We work hard to keep affordable housing available in the central city – although it is a really tough sell to those who value a “free market” approach. When you can get $1,000,000 for a fancy condo – why build an apartment building for $500 a month renters?
Also, home ownership is overrated. I had owned a home since 1998 until last year. Since I sold my house I have had much more disposable income, and have felt much more free and less restricted. When my hot water heater goes out – I just call the landlord. When the place needs painting – I don’t have to lift a finger or write a check. I just enjoy my life – no more worrying about the roof or the gutters or the plumbing. And I am within walking distance to anything I need, and tons of transit. But there are pretty affordable condos here in the central city as well. Sure – there are no ranch style 4 bedroom houses with a quarter acre lot, and the houses that are here are kinda pricey and usually old school mansion style (a lot like your Midtown area) – and those get expensive…
“Cost of living” is a terribly over-quoted figure. Memphis area is about 5 to 8 percent less than Portland area based on most references. But how does “cost of living” compare to “quality of living”. Most places that are expensive offer something worthwhile – which is why people are there and things are expensive. No one really dreams of moving to Memphis, or Detroit (for the most part). All kinds of people grow up dreaming of living in New York City and Manhattan, or San Francisco, or Hollywood and Los Angeles, or Seattle, or Miami. No one dreams of Oklahoma City – but the cost of living there is low! People dream of Paris, London, Tokyo, Honolulu, Sydney, Vancouver, Rome, and lots of other places with high “cost of living”.
is it raining today in Portland (yet?)
Interested: Is it tornado-ing today in Memphis (yet)?
When did this become a pissing match? Portland is widely recognized as a fairly successful model for a city. It was even mentioned above in the main article (letter):
“San Fran only seems to be losing people to Portland, a place
with even more open space and higher quality urban environments.”
I get it, you like Memphis. I know for sure Memphis has good things to offer.
The Portland model works. Despite the rain. Of course it won’t work for everyone – but it is at least worth learning from. I can give you a laundry list of ways I want Portland to improve too.. But the reality stands that people are migrating TO Portland – Memphis should look at why that may be. I have listed my opinion on the matter.
Call me back when it is 110 degrees with 95% humidity in Memphis, and we’ll compare weather then…
Urbannut – I looked at that survey. What a terrible survey! Every option is a cut option. You don’t even have the choice to say you want more service, not less! Talk about questions formed to deliver a pre-determined outcome.
i.o. likes Memphis? I would have never known…
“our political and business leadership does not view poor quality of place as a problem…” That is THE meta-problem.
The built, natural, emotional and visual quality of Memphis is a tiny blip, if visible at all, on the radar of our civic leadership — the Mayor, the City Council, Memphis Tomorrow, Chamber of Commerce, etc.
How do we make it a core issue? That should be a key question that the Memphis Regional Design Center, Memphis Heritage, MPact Memphis, our universities, Urban Land Institute, our Leadership groups and citizens like ourselves should be trying to answer.
WHY OF CAWSE I LIKES MEMPHIS!
born and raised here. (well, there-since I fled to the far reaches of the suburbs years ago).
Just disgusted over the direction we seem to be heading in, the corruption, the developer/politican virus, the incessant crime, lack of civility, the “STRUGGLE’ mentality, race-baiting,corrosion of the infrastructure, entitlement mentalities,megachurches,humidity,Terry Roland’s elocution,distance to the nearest beach,lack of beer sales before noon on sunday, University of Memphis football,overbuilt commercial environment,the local newspaper,proximity to Mississippi, and any elected official.
I think that covers it. Gee, I feel better now!
Gates: You are exactly right. Quality of place has to become an overriding theme for Memphis. There is a program that promises some help in this regard but we won’t know for a few weeks yet if Memphis is chosen as part of it.
Thanks, Portland, for the comments. While people always want to dismiss Portland as an example for Memphis, we shouldn’t. Forty years ago, Portland was written off – no major universities, no major businesses, weak form of mayor, etc. But the people there decided to adopt a DIY attitude and what we see today is the direct result of the citizen resolve to make things better.
Despite the naysayers, there’s no reason that we can’t adopt a similar attitude.
SCM, that’s excellent to hear.
As long as it’s about on-the-street and in City Hall action rather than press releases and Tom Bailey articles and shoehorning the same old stuff into new ideas (“the $1 billion mixed-use convention center will be a world-class destination for vibrancy and walkability”).
A poster said a funny:
***********“Cost of living” is a terribly over-quoted figure. Memphis area is about 5 to 8 percent less than Portland area based on most references. But how does “cost of living” compare to “quality of living”. Most places that are expensive offer something worthwhile – which is why people are there and things are expensive. No one really dreams of moving to Memphis, or Detroit *********
This is true, but nobody wants to acknowledge this simple statement in Memphis, TN. Each time some one articulates this point of view, some one comes out and claims that Memphis is “what you make it”…which is laughable indeed. There is a *cost” to a so-called low-cost-of-living component which Memphis touts, but in real terms, it’s not *THAT* Cheap at all as you point out.
That’s right ! most places that tend to be expensive also offer ‘something else’ worthwhile in those residents’ opinion.
Memphis is NOT a destination city in the truest terms. Why would it be anyway ? I have never, ever had one associate, friend, family member, collegue say that they just dream of moving to Memphis or Detroit, or for that matter places like Montgomery AL or Jackson MS either. You’d have to be nutty, or sort of trapped with no other real choices to even consider Detroit of Memphis as dream cities or destinations.
What are they going to promote ?? More smoked swine ? The Lorraine Motel ? Beale Street (again) ? Local Rap stars ?
Anon- You’ve already highlighted your ignorance per local culture and the city’s base. Care to add something new to the conversation- dare I say something based in fact and not your cliché 1960’s references?
Great article in the WSJ this morning about Detroit’s losing population of 25% over the last decade. Sounds like their death spiral might be duplicated in a city like Memphis TN. The other artcile highlighted the movement of population and Memphis showed large pickup of population in counties EAST of the city itself, not the city or even Shelby county really. The other article plainly detailed also how whites will be in the minority in lots of places in the US, and it’s already taken place in several states. Minorities aren’t really moving to city centers- if anything just the opposite it looks like. Dreams of a few white planners for a return of some sort of re-urbanization when the populations both black, white, brown are moving out all across the nation. The whites who hope for such migration must be hoping and planning for themselves who will be in a minority very soon. I don’t hear many minorities clammering for urban living in Memphis, or Detroit either- heck many just want away from cenral cities like Memphis and Detroit. The trend is not likely to reverse itself in this lifetime. I have not talked to one minority (black, hispanic, other) who believes that minorities will join the bandwagon, or march to the drumbeat of urban revival (central city). This crusade is not hardly found in black and hispanic social circles….and those are the circles which will be dominate in a very few years in this nation. Gee, whites are already outnumbered totally in Memphis.
Anonymous: You should actually take the time to compare Memphis versus Detroit statistics. There’s no comparison between the two cities except lots of black folks, which seems to be the theme of your comments.
Many scholars do happen to mention Memphis in the same breath as Detroit frankly, so that exact reason, and others. More importantly, statistics in the strictest sense can actually lie on occasion, or give a false sense of really what’s happening on the ground, in a community. For example, if you choose to believe the “statistics” about the unemployment rates of a Detroit, and specifically Memphis, you then are an educated fool. If you choose to believe the “statistics” about graduation rates having a positive correlation to levels of proficiencies, you are even a bigger fool. Similarly if you believe the “statistics” often used in explaining the so-called advancement in race relations, lessening of racism/prjudice and discrimination within Memphis, TN compared to a variety of other cities then you are a blind fool wishing his way to be a Chairman of the Statistics Department at a local junior/community college in PODUNK. The reality that both Detroit and Memphis do have “lots of black folks” make them more similar in many regards. Their sharing this “people component” is, in fact key in explaining and examining many many social, cultural, educational, economic, and behaviorial realities on the ground- even some other resulting facets of the community such as crime, and health issues. In many ways, Memphis has turned more Detroit-like, than more Raleigh-like, or Atlanta-like (which also has a sizable black population). That seems pretty easy to see if you’ve resided in Memphis, TN for anything over 15 years
West-
Could you please name a few of these scholars or cite their specific articles that compare the statistics being discussed in regards to both Memphis and Detroit?