Dan Gilbert, Kingpin of Detroit – Detroit Community-Engaged Research Program

Dan Gilbert, Kingpin of Detroit

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2016/06/29/gilbert-offers-big-vision-downtown/86540422/

The article I read was about how Dan Gilbert (the richest guy in Detroit who practically owns all of downtown) wants automobile companies to invest more money into the tech industry in Detroit.  He casually noted that it would cost GM about $1 billion to build a state-of-the-art tech facility to attract more young, bright minds.  Gilbert wants money to be spent on making Detroit a tech hub, “If Detroit loses the mobility race to Silicon Valley or elsewhere, Gilbert says it won’t be because they’re so great. It’ll be because we were sleeping again.”

I found the ideas proposed in this article to be extremely conflicting.  Gilbert’s investment in the city is great in many regards- money being put into Detroit should be seen as a positive- but there are so many other costs that come with it.  Are investment dollars really best spent in creating jobs in the tech field?  It is hard to imagine Detroit as a major tech city when its current population is not mostly affiliated with tech work.  That means that Gilbert’s dream of future Detroit will be filled with outsiders taking jobs.Can this investment actually benefit the city as a whole, or the small sliver of the population that is mostly non-Detroiters.

It is definitely conflicting because I want to work in the city one day, and I am definitely an outsider.  But the cool thing about my job at SDBA is that I am working on a project that will hopefully provide employment for residents in the neighborhood.  I am an outside investment, but I am hopefully helping people within the community I am placed in.

 

 

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