Open Thread

“I AM BIG. It’s the pictures that got small.”

“You would relate to someone who was BEHIND the times.”

Norma Desmond
Willy Loman
*rob*

“who was the president that invented welfare?”

FDR? lol…

Who was the one who ‘ended it as we know it? Clinton

ALOLZ at detroit trying to lure people from nyc!

“You’re smart, you’re talented, you’ve got new ideas.
In New York, you’re a sparrow. In Detroit, you’re a prized canary. This is Mecca for you, Mr. or Ms. Would-be Transplant, if you’ve got the brains and hustle to outwork and out-think the demoralized survivors of decades of renaissances that haven’t taken root.
No other major metropolitan area will out-welcome Detroit’s welcome. Give us your newcomers with moxie and talent. We’ll mentor you, invest in you and invite you to parties.

The flip side of a shrinking Big Metro Area is that some problems shrink, too.
Like big city culture. Cultural attractions that require advance commitments and plans in other cities are a snap here. Whether you want to snag seats for an opera, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, a visiting ballet company or an NFL football game, you can almost always see it here without using bonus dollars or extra sweat.
You can see a Tigers game this weekend. Tell that to your brother in Boston. And the traffic? You can commute downtown in 20 minutes from 20 miles away — choose the direction. My brother in Los Angeles can’t imagine that.
• Detroit’s affordable. Really, really affordable.
Here, a young couple can become landed gentry — house, backyard, good schools — for a fraction of the cost in a similar community anywhere else. In these shrinking-city days, a shrewd would-be homeowner can pick up a tidy, three-bedroom suburban house for what one used to cost here 15 years ago.
Or, if you’re young and adventurous, you can move into Detroit and try out the social consciousness and pioneer spirit progressive young adults mouth so easily from Portland, Ore., to Burlington, Vt. — places that entertain them but no longer need them.
“This is a place where you can take raw hope and be part of turning it into a brand new future,” I say. “It’s a unique time and place.”

By benson on August 26, 2010 2:17 PM

Donatella;

I stand by everything I stated above.

You believe that I mis-construed your statement, and I respect that. What I did not do, however, in the entire dialogue above, is insult anyone.

Actually, Benson, you are really quite violent in the
way you express yourself. I wonder about your ability to
make a quiet reasoned and respectful argument. And today you did not take the time to understand in a respectful way what I was saying which I am quite serious about. And to say — using my comments as a reference — how much that you want to leave NYC. THAT is insulting. Not that I am going to do a swan dive off the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ll cope somehow.