Essay: Michigan's Marketplace - 11/15/07
One day I was talking to the man next to me, whose biceps were about the size of my thigh. He could have broken me in half like a twig. He noticed my accent, or as I saw it, my lack of one.
“You’re not from here. Where are you from?” Deetroit, I said. He stared with newfound respect. “Deetroit!” he said. “You must be bad!”
Indeed I am, but that’s another story. This was Detroit in the era when it was seen as Murder Capital, USA, and Hollywood crime and blaxploitation movies regularly featured hit men from Detroit.
Once I told some people that in Detroit, the security guards had to cover me when I walked from the newspaper to my car at night. They all nodded, believing. You could persuade them of anything, except that this was a nice place to live.
Later, after I had moved back to Michigan, some people I knew from Memphis came to a convention. I drove them around the area, and they were flabbergasted. They had never imagined anything like Oakland County’s lakes and beautiful subdivisions, or the cosmopolitan streets of Greektown or Ann Arbor.
What had you expected? I asked.
The answer was dark and gloomy factories. Acres of frozen rubble, punctuated by gunshots. Maybe Dr. Kevorkian scuttling off to put some poor sufferer out of his or her misery.
Michigan has some very real problems. For a journalist, conveying them adequately and honestly presents a challenge. We live in world that doesn’t have much time for nuance. Detroit, and to some extent Michigan, already have an image in the national mind.
Changing that will take time, and has to be based on reality. I think Michigan has done a fairly poor job of telling its story and selling itself to the nation and the world. Nor has the squabbling of the state’s dysfunctional politicians helped.
The chamber of commerce and political types often get mad when journalists point out Michigan’s weaknesses. But the last thing any potential investor needs is a sugarcoated view of reality.
We have vast assets in this state that we can market. We also have problems that need to be faced frankly, admitted, and addressed, if we are to have any hope of a better future.
So, yes we have unions here, racial problems and a central city where blight is an issue and the schools don’t work very well.
We also have an excellent skilled workforce, beautiful vacation vistas, good universities and instant access to international markets. We have all the water you’ll need. There is no chance of a hurricane and we don’t get earthquakes or forest fires in our subdivisions.
So, think about doing business here. You could do worse. Many people do.
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