[jeffheng]

Ann Arbor is practically 35-40 minutes away from Detroit via I-94. The region as a whole is how it should be identified/branded. Fragmentation doesn't help anyone nor any community.

For example; Mountain View, Cupertino and Palo Alto are all roughly 45-50 minutes away from San Francisco. Yet, it is perfectly fine to say that they are in the Bay Area, or sometimes even as San Francisco for simplicity, familiarity and recognition sake.

There is really no reason to treat Detroit like a plague ..... it is 2011, let the dark history be by-gones, and give these start-ups the due respect that they deserve. They could be successful anywhere at all. Detroit and Southeast Michigan are glad to embrace them and support their goals.

Great job, Alex, for putting this list together.

[temphn]

The only thing is that the problems with Detroit are not in the past, but very much in the present. Ann Arbor and UMich, for better or worse, have a much better reputation in 2011 as engineering centers than Detroit.