WDET News
- Keeping Our Young People Here
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May 30, 2008General - Link to Audio
(in annoying mom voice) My daughter just graduated from Michigan State with honors.
Oh congrats. Now what's up she up to?
(mom voice) Well, she and a few of her best friends just moved to Chicago. They don't have jobs yet, but I'm sure they know there's nothing for them in Metro Detroit.
Are you this woman? Or maybe this is your mother. Whatever the case may be...the story must sound familiar.
According to Lou Glazer of Michigan Future Inc. There are only 15000 young profesionals living in Detroit. That's compared to over 200 thousand in Chicago.
The subject of how and why this is happening was tackled yesterday in a room full of Mackinac Policy Conference attendees. For about 5 minutes...people divided into small groups and vented.
How many people do you know that graduate from Michigan who say, If I go to Chicago if I'm in finance, banking, sales... I can get a job. Do you feel that's happening in our region?
That's Chuck Lorer, a younger conference goer who works for career builder dot com
After that... a panel of experts gave their input. The owner of Detroit's Bureau of Urban living...Claire Nelson..told the audience that when she asked 50 of her friends what Detroit needs to retain young people. The first thing they said across the board was...
Obviously and you all know it, transit, transit, transit. And it can't come soon enough like not even tomorrow, but yesterday.
Nelson commended the region on making Detroit an entertainment destination.
But we need to start focusing on the services, the transit, the parks, the markets, because that kind of stuff is what people choose when they look at a place to live.
The last point she stressed to the room of mainly middle aged people was baby boomer buy in.
I don't know how we can talk about attracting young professionals when middle aged and retired professionals do not live in the city. When I moved here from NYC my first question was where are all the influentials. I get it now, they're all in the suburbs but we feel sometimes downtown that you all get it, but you're all painting the town with a long paint brush and we really need you to live there because its not just young professionals because we don't have the money and power and influence yet, we need to see you guys there because you look at NYC, you know what makes Central Park beautiful? It's because people who live on 5th avenue invest in that area because it's their back yard.
A lot of people at the session agreed that despite its many shortcomings...Metro Detroit has a lot to offer. People just need to realize that. The moderator of the panel...David Enger from the Hudson Weber FOundation made that clear.
The next cynic that pops up and looks at this town in the wrong way you have to look him right in the eye and say, you're not looking at the assets and possibilities that are here. This is one of the greatest communities on the planet. More fresh water than anywhere else, some of the finest cultural institutions in the world, there's no place like this. And it starts with you if we're gonna be the attractive place.
From the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island...I'm Zak Rosen.