[tachyoff]

> The trip, which took place on a luxury bus outfitted with a supply of vegan doughnuts and coal-infused kombucha, was known as the "Comeback Cities Tour."

I live in Detroit. It’s a city that has been pushed to the edge of oblivion... and then into oblivion for several decades. It's fantastic that thers investment, but at the same time, stuff like this feels so incredibly patronizing. "It's nicer than San Francisco!" Yes, there are, in fact, nice buildings outside of San Francisco, even in Detroit.

Midwestern cities don't exist solely to make money, and I'm rather disturbed that they're seen more and more as nothing but investment vehicles. Detroit is 80% black. We didn’t even have working street lights until a few years ago (shout out to the Public Lighting Authority). I just look at San Francisco and the entire Bay Area, and I think to myself: "we don't want that here". Detroit isn't just cheap rent and exposed brick. It's grit and soul and pain and culture and 300+ years of history. I'm sure these investors got a lovely tour. Did they talk about the 1967 riots? Did they show them northwest Detroit, where entire city blocks are basically becoming urban prairie? Did they talk to the regular folks living and working in the city for generations? They’re lovely people, and they live here too. They're as much a part of Detroit as the Madison Building or New Center or Dan Gilbert or the rotting houses or the rich history.

[Kinnard]

Thing is (I'm a native, black, 3rd generation Detroiter, and a serial founder who has lived in the Bay Area) none of that (unless and until it does) has anything to do with starting startups or making startups succeed.

[Apocryphon]

You're right, but that's still sad.

[Kinnard]

And impertinent. That's the thing: people want the side effects of startup success here but they don't care about successful startups or the things that make startups succeed. The Genius loci is huntin 'em and killin 'em here. I live it everyday. Maybe, just maybe a place like Detroit could overcome the premier network effects of the Valley if people here cared about startups. They don't.

In some ways it's unfair but true. In the same way that people with families should not start startups. "This one is real. I wouldn't advise anyone with a family to start a startup. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it. I'm willing to take responsibility for telling 22 year olds to start startups. So what if they fail? They'll learn a lot, and that job at Microsoft will still be waiting for them if they need it. But I'm not prepared to cross moms." ~ http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html

Unfair. True.