As somebody who grew up in the Metro Detroit area and moved away, I’m unbelievably impressed by the bid Detroit put together.

The entire region is so completely disfunctional. The idea of getting the neighboring counties (which have the money, education, and talent) to work together was unheard of.

I do think the Metro Detroit area is consistently understated as a potential tech hub. It has one of the largest cohorts of STEM people in the nation (albeit in more traditional engineering roles).

I don’t think the tax breaks will be sufficient enough because Michigan only seems to care about manufacturing plants. I hope Detroit gets the HQ2 bid or at least can use this process to start getting good tech jobs in the area.

I know I (and many of my hometown friends) would move back if the job market was closer to Seattle.