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    Today’s Machining WorldToday’s Machining World
    Home»Swarfblog»A Renaissance in Detroit
    Swarfblog

    A Renaissance in Detroit

    Noah GraffBy Noah GraffMarch 25, 2009Updated:January 21, 20144 Comments3 Mins Read
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    By Noah Graff

    Last week I went to Detroit to shoot a video spot for an advertiser of Today’s Machining World. A melancholy vibe permeated the city that I can only compare with the one I felt when I was last in New Orleans. When I arrived there were only three taxies and two limos sitting outside. Five vehicles to serve the entire Detroit Metro airport? I decided to query the empty rental car buses driving by to see if they had any cars available. I asked Hertz, Avis, and Budget, and every driver claimed that there weren’t any cars. Evidently so few people are traveling to Detroit Metro that the rental car companies have transferred their fleets to other more bustling cities.

    Yet amidst all of its depression and desperation, Detroit now has an unexpected grassroots movement, attempting to revitalize the city’s housing market. At this moment, artists from around the world are buying houses in the Detroit ghetto for a few hundred dollars each.

    Four years ago, artists Mitch and Gina Cope, bought a broken down house on Detroit’s North side for $1900. The house had been ravaged by scrappers who stole everything from copper plumbing, radiators to electrical lines. But the Copes bought it anyway and decided to turn it into what Mitch Cope calls the “Power House Project.” “Our idea — instead of putting it all back and connecting to the grid, we wanted to keep it off the grid and get enough solar and wind turbines and batteries to power this house and power the next-door house,” Cope says.

    He thinks he can make the whole place operate “off the grid” for around $60,000, a cost he hopes to help cover with grants. He plans for the first floor to be a neighborhood art center and the second floor to be a bedroom for traveling artists. Of course, his grand vision is for the entire neighborhood to transform itself into an artist community using dirt cheep real estate as a magnet for new settlers. Cope has already convinced around a dozen artists from countries around the world such as the Netherlands and Germany to buy houses. Jon Brumit, a prominent artist from Chicago just bought a house in the area for $100.

    You may find this story uplifting yet then put your nose up when you remember only 12 homes have been bought. But maybe manufacturers can learn from what these artists are doing. The bottom line is that the real estate in Detroit is going for practically nothing, Michigan is going out of its way to give tax incentives for new development, and there is an abundance of laid-off, skilled workers who potentially would jump at the chance to work at a job shop, even for a modest wage. Sounds like an opportunity for some creative types.

    Listen to a podcast of the story at NPR.org

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    Noah Graff

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    4 Comments

    1. Marty Fielder on March 31, 2009 6:31 am

      We took a vacation last summer to Detroit. Main object was Greenfield Village,
      but took some time to do some urban cruising, took side streets from Dearborn
      all the way to Rencen, where we took GM’s tour to the top floor. Then we cruised
      around on the people mover. The “street scene” was pretty grim, to say the least.
      Tons of abandoned buildings and rough looking guys. I was somewhat depressed by
      viewing it all, as I expected some ghetto and a lot of bad roads…but not ALL ghetto.
      The roads in il. are actually worse. For further shock, install “google earth”
      and look at the city from above. Scary. I will walk before I would buy an imported car,
      and that sentiment is directly related to our little vacation.
      This is the city that beat germany (WW2), they are deserving of a little compassion.

    2. Bill Burns on April 1, 2009 11:54 am

      I checked with my friend that lives in Detroit and there are plenty of rental cars to rent, not true what Noah Graff reported!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      It’s a sad day that a President of the USA can put enough pressure on a CEO, Rick Wagoner to step down.
      Where is our great Country heading?
      TOO much OUT SOURCING to China and other oversea Countries has put the USA in the crapper!
      GREED is ruining us and many Companies will be going out of business as work is out sourced to foreign countries.
      What a shame to have so many workers out of work, losing their homes and cars.

    3. swarfblo on April 10, 2009 4:04 pm

      I reported exactly what I saw. Three empty rental car companies. I’m sure there are rental cars still. There have to be. I was quoted 140 dollars a day on the web the night before I left. That’s why we never reserved one in the first place.

    4. Leonid on May 17, 2009 10:38 pm

      Если хотите могу поделиться собственным опытом в описанной проблематике. За денежку. ICQ – 45395774.

    Graff Pinkert

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