Why Detroit?

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Jeremy Tick, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Why Detroit?

Several months ago my wife and I decided to relocate from Washington, DC to Detroit. Before our move, as we shared with our community of friends and colleagues, mostly consultants like us or safely nestled career FEDS, the general question was “Why Detroit?!!!” Our response; “Because, it’s Detroit.” We arrived here five and a half weeks ago.

Over the last 20 years work and school has afforded me the opportunity to live in Boston, New York City, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Each of these moves has been to start some new and exciting project – whether to Pittsburgh to earn a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, to New York City to participate in the first ever e-commerce efforts of the luxury foods emporium, Dean & DeLuca, or to Los Angeles to be the business manager for a prime time television star. I’ve done some pretty cool stuff. But the most exciting so far, despite this twenty year run, has been my move to Detroit.

Soon after I relocated to DC to join my fiancée, where she had landed after grad school, we agreed that Washington was going to be a parking spot for us while we figured out the place we would ultimately call home. I’m an East Coaster by birth, so for me, the only ‘real’ cities were New York, Boston, Chicago and maybe LA, because the film industry is pretty sexy and if you’re lucky, pays really well. My wife, a Midwesterner by birth, was all for Chicago – New York would be a stretch for her and LA was too far, Boston was pretty, but… etc. We couldn’t quite find something that was going to accommodate our chosen lifestyle as urban entrepreneurs who find significant importance in work/life balance.

Over the winter holidays, while visiting my wife’s parents in Michigan, just outside of Ann Arbor, after, in fact ruling out Ann Arbor, I recalled having read an article about a restaurant in Detroit in GQ a few years back. I asked my wife how far we were from the city. For me, with my background, nothing could be less interesting than visiting an old, rusty, out-of-date manufacturing town that I knew nothing about – but I was looking for a distraction from the holiday ‘family stuff’, and if GQ had signaled the place out as worthwhile, maybe it was worth a look. Besides in a recent, rather patriotic moment, I had sold my Acura and replaced it with a Chrysler 200 – I thought it might not be bad to see the city from where my car was imported. My wife confessed, despite having grown up about forty miles away, that she had experienced little of the city save its famed Fox Theatre – she said “basically when I was growing up, you went in and you went out. You didn’t stay.” We agreed to go on that Friday as it would coincide with an event my sister-in-law thought I would find professionally intriguing.

As we drove down Interstate 94 from Ann Arbor, I was surprised when nearing the city limits to see a real skyline. I turned to my wife and said, “it’s a city!” She smiled and reminded me that far more than luxury food and television stars, there was a whole world of people doing things that required skyscrapers – even in Detroit. She began to share some of its rather fascinating history and as I listened I began to finally understand her feelings of connection to our Chrysler. Her grandmother had moved from Pennsylvania to Detroit and been a riviter during World War II. Upon his return from the war, her grandfather joined Chrysler too… their work in a factory in Detroit had lain the foundation for my wife to have earned a top tier graduate education and participate in the life that we now shared. Listening, with the city as the backdrop, I thought to myself this is really what America is about. As we drove, I was surprised both by how urban the place felt and yet how empty. It felt wide – like there was room for more than what was there. She explained to me that Detroit, in its heyday, had been home to more than 2,000,000 people but now housed about 700,000. Despite myself, the New Yorker in me thought ‘wow, cheap real estate!’ The businessman in me thought: doesn’t that mean opportunity?

We had timed our visit to experience a brown bag lunch at one of the incubators, The Green Garage. While there, I got to listen to entrepreneurs talk about their various business efforts, from self-publishing services to public advocacy, from medical devices and furniture manufacturing to organic grocery delivery services… all the sorts of widgets one would expect to find domiciled in a vibrant and sophisticated city – this place felt more San Francisco than it did Midwest. I was curious to learn more.

Interestingly, not one of the business owners discussed or mentioned the fund raising process: they were all producing something and selling it. Of equal interest was their shared focus on the production of widgets that were relevant to their immediate community. As a coach and consultant specialized in helping businesses design and organize infrastructure to support their brands – I was transfixed – here was a community of creative professionals building businesses and creating opportunities for themselves – together. This was not the group of quasi-entrepreneurs I have experienced in the past whose primary output is a pitch for investment – this was a group of do-ers, making business happen in a challenged economy, in what is arguably amongst the most challenged of cities in our nation. And they were all smiling. Did they have a secret? I was curious to find out – Why Detroit?

We left the Green Garage and spent the afternoon touring the city and consciously meeting retail business owners and restaurateurs. Even with the December cold, everyone we spoke with was warm, interested, and in spite of the busy-ness of the holiday, took the time to listen and seemingly be interested in learning about the purpose of our trip. Unlike in other cities I have explored, there was genuine excitement about the possibility of something, or someone new joining in the community. Even more unusual was what seemed to be a genuine desire to help. We left Detroit with a box of fresh tamales from Mexican Town and stories we had no way of knowing we would be sharing.

Upon return to DC my wife and I were both perplexed and excited: Detroit had not been on our radar, but it seemed to have many of the things we were looking for – an urban environment, creative professionals, entrepreneurial spirit, sophistication, old world elegance and genuine civic pride. To be frank, such a winning combination of attributes had never been presented to either of us in any of our initial prospects– there was always some sacrifice. But Detroit posed none that we could find. While not hooked, per se, we were nonetheless intrigued and agreed we would make a return visit.

We did that in March, with the intention of snooping around, checking out the restaurants and jazz bars, listening in on another brown bag and interviewing locals for their feelings of safety (given Detroit’s reputation) and community (also given Detroit’s reputation.) The first surprise was the hotel… shortly after arrival we asked ourselves when do clerks in a Downtown/Commuter City in a hotel actually smile at you and recall your name? Next surprise – the following day: despite it being four months since our initial visit, everyone we met in December recalled us, our work as well as our interest in moving. They asked: How is business? Have you checked out this place yet? They’re renovating this space, it’s beautiful, you should go see it… I have a friend doing this business, you two should meet – let me see if they’re free, and so on. Final surprise: we had the opportunity for a last minute viewing of a space in Midtown, in an historic hotel that had been converted to condos and apartments, located directly across the street from the Detroit Institute for Art and the Central Library.

We viewed the space. After seeing it and leaving we asked to see it again. Places that look and feel like this aren’t available anymore except in the back pages of the New York Times Magazine and we’re only in our 30’s and not Investment Bankers. We took a deep breath. We left and went around the corner for a drink to talk it over and calm the adrenaline from having seen such a gorgeous place being so near to what we have been looking for, and for the right price. And then, without having spoken to any of my clients or my wife’s employer, without having spent more than one full day in the city, without doing a proper risk analysis or knowing what we were really getting ourselves into, we called the landlord and committed to the first and only space we had seen in Detroit. We agreed to make it our home. Because it’s Detroit.

Four months later we have been here for just over five weeks. The city has just declared bankruptcy and has made international headlines – both good and bad. There is a lot of discussion about what to do and how it can happen and there is lot’s of discussion about who is at fault and a lot of query about what’s next. For native Detroiters there is consternation about politics. But for me, the expatriate from all of these other, fabulous places, I feel at home for the first time in years, amidst what I am experiencing as a calm, civil, elegant and proud place where people work hard, think good thoughts and talk about ways to improve this creative city that I believe is going through its next renaissance. They seem to take pride in just about everything they create and get excited by the work of others. On several occasions I have been told, “Detroit needs more people like you.” This is a far cry from the attitude of the glitterati I spent the better part of fifteen years associating with where, I assure you, it was quite the opposite.

Though I have been here only five full weeks, it is because of my experience thus far that my suspicions have been confirmed: This is a place where the new America can thrive. The despondency that is referenced and reinforced in the media seems not to be present as the stranger that walks beside you on the street nods and smiles. The blight that is so frequently being highlighted for its sad, poetic beauty seems not to be the focus of the many creative people who are lovingly restoring houses and commercial buildings to their former glory, creating homes and businesses that inspire others to do the same. The year round downtown farmer’s market, packed with thousands of people, seems not to be representative of the ‘food desert’ that is referenced when speaking of Detroit and the Midwest in general. And finally, the relative slowness of the place, I believe, has allowed for the loneliness now so prevalent in the major cities, not to be present here – people take the time to get to know you, and they seem to care.

As a consultant who specializes in business development and organization health, what intrigues me most about the opportunities presented to entrepreneurs either in, or considering Detroit is that there is room not just for creativity, but for creative businesses to grow in a healthful, sustainable manner. The barriers to entry here are not so complicated as in other places and the talent pool is vast and surprisingly sophisticated, hard working and refreshingly unentitled. With inexpensive real estate and space to grow, creative professionals have time and reasonable amounts of resources presented to them such that they may grow organically and experience, with reduced pressure, the healthful stages of group process – forming, storming, norming, and performing. They can afford to make mistakes and learn through their experiences what works for their new enterprises without the pressures of impossibly priced real estate – they can make neighbors rather than competitors and utilize them as barometers for their own possibilities. Most importantly, they can walk down the street on their way to a home they can afford and be proud of. While doing so, they can take a deep breath after a stressful day and experience a complete stranger smiling at them in acknowledgement – and somehow their day and all of the challenges and rewards of learning to build both a business and a life here becomes that much more worthwhile. Because it’s Detroit.