Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by trisimix 2976 days ago
Hi I'm from Detroit, I love seeing my city talked about. A lot of people are claiming decline of residents as a lack of proof of revival. Heres a counterpoint: https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2017/07/10/detro...

Detroit is spectacular for many reasons. We have retained and nurtured our resources from before the decline such as our art museum, libraries and ISPs (not the consumer ones). In the midst of our decline for some reason downtown detroit developed some kind of renaissance, despite the decline people decided to cling harder to things like the eastern market, architecture, and art. We are full of things like artistic movie theaters, plays, public displays, interesting cuisine, and startups. Yet you will not find a theater showing avengers, or a traditional supermarket until you get to around dearborn. There are also many quirks in the worse parts of Deteoit, a huge spread of people instead of concentrations, and many people taking what we have left behind to make something. I have visited every major city in the US outside of california and New York and I have never seen anything like detroit. We have somehow through disparity been blessed with the ability to be almost meritocratic, the amount of opportunities and equality In have experienced coming from a lower class, and the genuine people that remain is what I imagine to be higher than other cities. Anecdotally of course.

2 comments

Hi there, fellow Detroiter here.

I would certainly say there is definite momentum in Detroit but I'd like to see additional angel funding / 1MM+ Series A rounds before I would use the word 'exploding' to describe the tech scene.

Second - there are some very interesting software problems that the Tier 1 suppliers (Delphi/Magna/AAM/etc.) are working on but you never hear about it. Generally working for a tier 1 supplier sucks (suppliers are always subservient to the OEMs) but you there's nothing quite like getting your hands dirty in bringing together the real world and code.

Do you work for the city, a university in Detroit, etc?
I am a peer leader on Wayne State, the university inside Detroit, I dedicate a lot of my time to trying to organize students to come together and accomplish tasks. However no, I do not work for the city of Detroit, why do you ask?