Detroit's Road to Renaissance

For the second time in less than two weeks, a high powered group of civic leaders in Detroit, MI has unveiled a strategy for the revival of their downtrodden metropolitan region.

The strategy, Transforming the Region's Economy: Road to Renaissance, focuses on six key areas:
  • Leverage the region's know-how in indusrial design, manufacturing, and distribution expertise to become a global logistics hub.
  • Nurture and grow the city's creative arts community
  • Stregthen "entreprenurial capacity" by making financing more available to people with new ideas
  • Engage the state's major universities in an effort to retain young workers in the fields science, math, and engineering.
  • Market the region globally as an international center of higher education, culture, arts, adn entertainment.
  • Establishing Detroit as a global hub of modern transportation technology and mobility.

That's a tall order for a region that can't agree on a strategy to provide basic bus service for its residents, workers, and visitors, as reported in yesterday's Detroit News.

Still, initial reports suggest civic leaders are pushing cynicism aside and striving to restore the Motor City's economic and cultural might.

Click here for a followup editorial on the effort from the Detroit News.

Staying with the News, the paper also interviewed some of Detroit's top business leaders about the challenges and opportunities confronting their city and the state. Click here to read the insightful comments.