When I attended Wayne State University in Detroit back in the mid-’80s, scattered around downtown Detroit were white pillars that supported… nothing. They looked as though they were part of a kind of ancient Roman ruin—but these pillars were brand new. They were the beginnings of Detroit’s People Mover, a raised monorail that was to take riders to various sites downtown. It was also derided as then-Mayor Coleman A. Young’s “train to nowhere,” the Motor City’s poor excuse for a mass transit system. The pillars stood alone for a few years because funding had run out in the middle of construction. At the time, these columns appeared to be emblematic of everything that was wrong with Detroit—a half-thought-out idea with no support.
But now more than ever, Detroit needs new ideas, and before they can be thought through and sufficiently supported somebody needs to start tossing them out there. Which brings me to Xconomy’s just-ended series in which we asked our Xconomists—some of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs and innovators—to answer the open-ended question: “What are five things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy?” Of course, you cannot ask innovators to always color within the lines, so some gave us four things, others six, but all of them were insightful, provocative, even at times humorous.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Without a Thriving Detroit, Michigan Cannot Catch that Train to Prosperity | Xconomy
Author: Howard Lovy
