(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Detroit’s Revival – Michigan Journal of Economics [1]

[]

Date: 2023-11-01

Written by Siddharth Mehta

Many Americans are aware of the downfall of Detroit, a city which was once an industrial powerhouse and the birthplace of motown music. What they are unaware of, though, and what this article aims to shed light on, is the city’s striking economic growth in the wake of its 2013 bankruptcy.

Growth began with automobile companies once again betting on Detroit. In 2021, a new company to the area––Stellantis invested 1.6 billion dollars into the local economy to transform an older Mack plant to begin production of the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee as well as two state-of-the-art Jeep EV models (Stellantis, 2023). In doing this, the manufacturing giant created over 5000 jobs and commented that many of the jobs offered were high skilled positions requiring candidates to pass various math and reasoning tests (The Economist, 2023).

In addition to Stellantis, LM manufacturing, a local automotive company, also refurbished an old Detroit plant. It spent 18.1 million dollars and created 390 new jobs when it purchased an abandoned Sakthi Automotive factory in 2022 (Karadima, 2022). The revamped facility specializes in the full and high tech production of seats for many different car brands (LM Manufacturing, 2022).

The most impressive automotive project to transform Detroit, however, comes from the company that built up the city in the first place––the Ford Motor Company. In 2018, Ford invested 740 million dollars into renovating the once world-renown Michigan Central Railroad Station, a building which since its shutdown in 1988 had been synonymous with and a symbol of Detroit’s decline (Adolphus, 2023). Currently under restoration, once the station is complete in 2024, its full interior and once glowing, palatial ground floor will reopen to the public (Austin, 2023; Robinson, 2023). The building will include upscale shops and restaurants as well as engineering and innovation office spaces for Ford Motors (Michigan Central, 2023). As of yet there has been no announcement that trains will run through the station, however, many are pushing Ford to consider this idea for the future (Haglund, 2023).

Though it may seem so, automotive industries are not the only ones contributing to Detroit’s transformation. Tech giants Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and IBM have all come to Detroit in the last ten years to set up shop. In 2015, Amazon opened a new “tech-hub” office to help with its corporate and company innovation throughout the area. It initially hired hundreds of software developers and engineers but continues to add jobs as it announced in 2020, an extra 100 high tech positions were available (Loh, 2022).

Apple came to Detroit in 2021 with a different approach than other tech companies. Through a partnership with Michigan State University, it opened up its first ever Developer Academy which provides a 10-month education program in coding, app development, and entrepreneurship. This program is offered at no cost to people of any background regardless of tech experience (Apple Media, 2021). The program just recently graduated its second class of almost 160 students this July, many of whom have already obtained jobs in the tech industry and in iOS app development (Curry, 2023). In the future, Apple hopes to expand the program to educate around 1,000 students per class (Apple Media, 2021).

Smaller tech startups are also leaving their mark in Detroit. In fact, the amount of them has grown so much that one workspace development company, Newlab, just eight months ago set up a 270,000 square foot space in downtown Detroit to house 40 startups (mostly tech ones). Newlab’s goal with this shared space is to connect these startups not only with one another but with larger corporations down the road (Burgio, 2023).

And contrary to popular belief, many of these Detroit-based tech startups not only stick around––but they also see success. Since 2018, five Detroit area startups have become unicorns, a rarity as only ten other states have multiple unicorns (Pohl, 2022). And three of these five startups––Duo Security (valued at $2.35 billion), Onestream (valued at $6 billion) and Llamasoft (recently sold for $1.5 billion)––were tech startups (Afana, 2020; Coupa, 2020; Hu, K., & Sen, A.; Loh, 2022; Pohl, 2022).

Ultimately, despite the economic gains and skilled jobs that the tech and automotive industries have brought to Detroit, there is still much work to do in the city. Safety and education are two of the largest issues that need to be addressed. For example, last year Detroit saw 14,589 violent crimes and 22,731 property crimes and the violent crimes proportion per 1,000 people was 23.07 which was far above the national median rate of just 4 per 1,000 (NeighborhoodScout, 2023). And in terms of education, in 2022, Detroit’s graduation rate was 71.1%, 14.2 percentage points below the national graduation rate and its dropout rate did not fare well against the national average either (Detroit Public Schools Community District, 2022; Think Impact, 2022).

So to conclude, in light of Detroit’s job market success, people must not overlook issues such as crime and education. These definitely are far bigger issues and only until they are fully addressed, the city can not say it has come back.

Works Cited

Adolphus, E. D. (2023, March 16). 112-year-old train depot finds New glory in renovation. Engineering NewsRecord Midwest. https://www.enr.com/articles/56059-112-year-old-train-depot-finds-new-glory-in-renovation#:~:text=Michigan%20Central%20Station%27s%20%24740%2Dmillion,a%20futuristic%20mobility%20innovation%20hub&text=A%20new%20copper%20roof%20and,of%20the%20%24740%2Dmillion%20renovation

Afana, D. (2020, April 19). How Ann Arbor’s duo security went from a two-man operation to a $2.35 billion company. mlive. https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/04/how-ann-arbors-duo-security-went-from-a-two-man-operation-to-a-235-billion-company.html#:~:text=Duo%20boasts%20almost%2020%2C000%20clients,its%20users%20in%20various%20networks.

Apple Media. (2021, October 7). Apple opens Developer Academy in Detroit, creating new opportunities for careers in the iOS app economy. Apple Newsroom. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/10/apple-opens-developer-academy-in-detroit-to-create-new-career-opportunities/

Austin, D. (2023, March 24). Michigan Central Station. Historic Detroit .ORG. https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/michigan-central-station

Burgio, A. (2023, September 7). Inside look of Newlab in Detroit, a tech hub of innovation. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/inside-look-of-newlab-in-detroit-a-tech-hub-of-innovation/

Coupa. (2020, November 2). Coupa acquires AI-powered supply chain design and planning leader Llamasoft, broadening its leadership in business spend management. https://www.coupa.com/newsworthy/press-releases/coupa-acquires-ai-powered-supply-chain-design-and-planning-leader#:~:text=SAN%20MATEO%2C%20Calif.%2C%20November,price%20of%20approximately%20%241.5%20billion.

Curry, E. J. (2023, July 5). Regenerating Detroit: Michigan State University Apple Developer Academy joins the tech revolution. The Michigan Chronicle. https://michiganchronicle.com/2023/07/05/regenerating-detroit-michigan-state-university-apple-developer-academy-joins-the-tech-revolution/

Detroit Public Schools Community District. (2022). Detroit public schools community district demonstrates strong graduation rate improvement. detroitk12. https://www.detroitk12.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=4585&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=78427&PageID=1#:~:text=The%20Michigan%20Department%20of%20Education,0.5%20percentage%20points%20to%2081%25

Haglund, R. (2023, September 26). U-M alum Joshua Sirefman readies Michigan central for 2024 opening. Detroit UMich News. https://detroit.umich.edu/news-stories/u-m-alum-joshua-sirefman-readies-michigan-central-for-may-2024-opening/

Hu, K., & Sen, A. (2021, November 9). Exclusive KKR-backed OneStream software hires Morgan Stanley to lead U.S. IPO – sources. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-kkr-backed-onestream-software-hires-morgan-stanley-lead-us-ipo-sources-2021-11-09/#:~:text=Earlier%20this%20year%2C%20OneStream%20raised,Partners%20and%20Tiger%20Global%20Management.

Karadima, S. (2022, October 18). Don’t forget the Motor City: Back from the Brink, Detroit looks forward with confidence. Investment Monitor. https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/cities/motor-city-detroit-automotive-confidence-investment-fdi/?cf-view

Lexington: Detroit is working again. (2023, Apr 22). The Economist, 447, 38. https://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/lexington-detroit-is-working-again/docview/2805579138/se-2

LM Manufacturing. (2022). More than a manufactoring company. https://lm-mfg.com/about-us/

Loh, C. (2022, January 18). 5 reasons why the Detroit region is America’s next tech hub. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-reasons-why-detroit-region-americas-next-tech-hub-connie-loh/

Michigan Central. (2023, July 19). Michigan Central Development. https://michigancentral.com/development/

Pohl, S. (2022, June 15). This just in: Detroit ranked no. 1 emerging startup ecosystem: Michigan business. Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). https://www.michiganbusiness.org/press-releases/2022/06/tji-detroit-ranked-no.-1-emerging-startup-ecosystem/

Robinson, S. (2023, July 31). Detroit by drone: Michigan Central Station nears completion. Axios Detroit. https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2023/07/31/detroit-drone-michigan-central-station-corktown

Stellantis. (2023, July). Detroit Assembly Complex – Mack. https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com. https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=329

Think Impact. (2022, February 11). High school statistics. Think Impact. https://www.thinkimpact.com/high-school-statistics/

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mje/2023/11/01/detroits-revival/

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.