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Comment by unsupp0rted | Hacker News Reader

I heard Detroit has made a huge comeback? Any truth to that?

Parts of Detroit are much nicer, particularly downtown and midtown. They're tearing out I-375 which will make a huge difference immediately northeast of downtown. Soon, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be complete and I believe that will be a boon to Southwest Detroit. The city of Hamtramck, which is inside Detroit, has also grown a lot and is probably the most religious and ethnically diverse spot in the state. There are some huge festivals (Movement / Mo Pop / Jazz Fest).

Just wish they would get rid of all the parking lots...

"A huge comeback" is a big overstatement. Overall, it's still a burnt-out husk of its former glory. But it is true that the city proper has developed something which it lacked circa 2000, which is non-auto jobs (Quicken Loans + some other tech startups), a downtown art scene, young people, music, some hip food, and so on. In other words, it's germinated the embers of a much smaller, bougier, more livable town than existed at any time since the mid-late 80s.

For reference, the Detroit was the 5th largest (some sources say 4th largest) city in the US at its peak in the 1950s, similar in size to LA. It's now 27th, with about a third of its peak population.

My perception (never been) is that Detroit used to have 1million+ more residents 50 years ago, but when the core industry (automotive industry) was wooed to the South and Canada/Mexico, those who could afford to left the region.

There is some recovery happening. A few select neighborhoods are thriving with creatives and strong local community.

But city services are slow and expensive because they were built out for 2x the population/infra but have been starved of funding as houses went condemned and utilities bills/property taxes went unpaid.

This is my experience as well pre Covid. I switched jobs in 2021 and have not been back down town so who knows how much of this still applys. I worked in down town Detroit for ten years but lived in the suburbs. Once Rocket Mortgage and associated Dan Gilbert businesses moved down town there was a lot more activity and stuff going on in a couple square mile area. There's still a lot of run down area's surrounding the fairly nice down town area. If I had started working five years later I would have probably lived down town instead of the suburbs.

I grew up in Windsor, Ontario (right beside Detroit). The vast majority of my friends from there work at Amazon/Rocket Mortgage. On paper they make less than SF, but lifestyle wise they’re all crushing it. A large chunk of them have paid off or almost paid off their mortgages and are under 35. Great place to have a family.

I couldn’t handle the snow after growing up there for 22 years. Ended up in California for 7ish years instead :)

The comeback is its plausible to live there. You can buy a 4 bedroom house for $75 it’s going to need about $100 in work but that’s not even a down payment in San Francisco. There are some cool things in Detroit. I went to a cool market and tea shop, a great Caribbean restaurant.

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