Brooklyn Brainery get into things ✁

This whole thing will not get built, but if it does, I am leaving the newly shadowed over streets of Brooklyn forever.  Say, maybe, for Detroit. 

And maybe, if a whole bunch of people who own businesses or make art and are way more creative than I am move there too, then maybe Detroit will rebuild its tax base a bit, and old beautiful houses will eventually get restored, and maybe in thirty years everyone will have new monster development plans to rage against in the Motor City. 

And so, to hasten your trip our west, here are a handful of links about Detroit, including this awesome recent article from The Economist, which gives you lots of good facts (population’s now less than ½ of what it was in 1950; avg. house price is 15K) as well as being a lovely portrait of the art currently coming from there.  

-Also, a nice thorough piece from Model D about the coming wave of gentrification (but it’s from 2005--I’m too late!)

-Another long article about Detroit and urban farming, from Harper's in 2007.  I haven't read it yet but it seems pretty definitive.

-A good, long, old Salon interview with Richard Florida, who long ago wrote about the rise of the creative class and gentrification in cities.   

About Detroit specifically: “They got trapped in the organizational age; they thought we really live in a patriarchal, white, corporate society and that the key to success was to strap on your tie, go to work 9 to 5, and behave yourself. There was no room for people with new ideas.” Well, there's plenty of room now!

-From CNN, a nice overview of the D's current situation. Fact: Detroit has more murders than New York this year, but we have 10X as many people here.