New at Reason

David Weigel | June 5, 2006

Shikha Dalmia asks the Million Job Question: Why is Bangalore booming, and what can stumbling American cities learn from its success?

Comments

hugo|6.5.06 @ 12:03PM|#

"sparkling riverfront"? The riverfront doesn't really sparkle till you cross over into the Grosse Pointes.

There are so many things that need to change in Detroit that I've become tired talking about it. The Union mentality still has a grip on the citizenry, every one seems to be waiting for the factories to open up again and for a return to the good ole' days. Every one looks backwards here, never forward. Hell, we can't even get Tiger Stadium torn down.

Horrible schools, crushing car insurance rates as well as high taxes (and taxes on everything, even fast food) does a great job of keeping developement out. I'll be moving out myself in a year when my lease is up.

Downtown is looking nicer, and WSU area of midtown isn't too bad, but the rest of the city is no picnic. It doesn't help that the suburbs and the city are constantly at each other's throats.

|6.5.06 @ 12:10PM|#

A lot of what Shikka Dalmia says is true. but it definitly has the scared suburbanite mentality to it.

First of all, building is booming in Detroit. They are building new condos all over the place - converting old buildings. And buisnesses that cater to the downtown urban crowd, like resterants and what not are also booming.

The vast majority of places in the city a person can walk at night, without fearing for their lives (not just greektown). There are all sorts of great neighborhoods to live (Palmer Park, Indian Village, West Village, Laffayette Park, Downtown, Corktown, etc.)... All of downtown Detroit is safer by orders of magnitude than downtown Toronto (its true, on average downtown Detroit has fewer murders each year than Toronto has in one weekend for it's Carabana festival), and there is places like Mexican Town, New Center, the Farmers Market area, Cass, all sorts of cool places that are perfectly safe.

Detroit has a high murder rate, but the vast majority of those murders take place in a handful of very poor neighborhoods on the edge of the city that your average person would be unlikely to go to, even by accident. If you are driving to buy crack at 3A.M. on the east side, yeah, you are putting yourself in danger. But it is very unlikly that Shikka Dalmai will be in those neighborhoods, even by accident.

The big problem with Detroit is not that there are not nice places to live/shop/hang out... the problem is that Detroit is so hostile towards buisness and the government is so corrupt. Basicly, GM or Compuware have billions of dollars, and can get around the red tape and bribes you have to pay in order to own a buisness. But basicly, if you don't have political connections, and can't pay lots and lots of money in bribes, it is very hard to open a real buisness.

So, you end up like me - I was living in Detroit (and loved it... very pleasant urban living on the cheap), but was commuting to the suburbs to work (because other than a few big corporations, there is no employers to speak of in Detroit).

If Detroit were to deregulate industry/buisnesses, it's economy would take off like lightening (like the new housing developments, which are not over regulated, are taking off). But the political machine is too powerful - there are a lot of people getting very rich on kickbacks and intimidation. Detroit government is a lot like the mafia.

|6.5.06 @ 12:20PM|#

Detroit government is a lot like the mafia.

Aren't they all?

|6.5.06 @ 12:21PM|#

Nice article. It actually does look at the situations.

Still though, the main lesson I learned, is a much shorter one.

I had a an old horse, he was slow and couldn't pull as much as he used to.

He had sired a number of foals over his life. Which I had sold.

They in turn had sired other foals, and I bought one of those.

Now I have a young horse that can carry the same weight that my old one used to carry.

Remember when, in this country, we used to talk about the "Japanese Miracle"?

Now it's the Indian Miracle.

Same breed of horse, different generation.

There is something to be learned in Bangalore, but I doubt that anyone in Detroit, or America for that matter, will learn it. Detroit is a dying city. The people of Detroit, the companies of Detroit, and the people of America have chosen both the type of life Detriot had lived, as they then choose the type of death it would die.

It's been over ten years since I've been in Detroit, and I will admit I only went there to see what a dying city looks like.

It looked like a suicide. That everyone, from the right, to the left, to the moderate, to the radical...participated in.

hugo|6.5.06 @ 12:42PM|#

sorry if this gets posted twice, server squirrels, etc.

Rex Rhino,

Most of those new housing developements are taking place because of temporary tax abatements. What happens when those wear off? I think instead of growth, all those new lofts represent instead a revolving door. A tax rate of 67 mills (not to mention scarce city services) is not in anyway conducive to growth.

Also, you are right that murder is isolated to a few neighborhoods, but robberies and autotheft are prevailent everywhere.

|6.5.06 @ 1:00PM|#

Detroit, Rock City!

|6.5.06 @ 1:20PM|#

Wait, I thought that they sold Detroit off for scrap earlier this year?

Now I'm confused.

;)

|6.5.06 @ 1:44PM|#

This comparison falls apart in equating Detroit proper with the Bangalore region. In fact, there is considerable investement and growth in Detroit's suburbs (and satellite cities), an important fact that the author alludes to be doesn't grasp the significance of.

Would you compare the South Bronx to Phoenix as a whole?

hugo|6.5.06 @ 1:58PM|#

Joe, how about comparing Bangalore to Michigan's "single state recession" then? I don't think the growth in the suburbs is really much to write about, especially since a lot of suburban tech companies cater mostly to the automotive industry. If there was a net growth in the economy of Michigan, I don't think we would be seeing so many college graduates move out of the state.

|6.5.06 @ 4:26PM|#

It doesn't help that the suburbs and the city are constantly at each other's throats.

This is a very common situation in the NE, where ancient municipal boundaries allow the suburbs to pretend as if the city doesn't exist. Until they all go down together, that is.

|6.5.06 @ 4:30PM|#

All of downtown Detroit is safer by orders of magnitude than downtown Toronto (its true, on average downtown Detroit has fewer murders each year than Toronto has in one weekend for it's Carabana festival),

Whoa. I'm gonna need proof of that.

|6.5.06 @ 4:39PM|#

Speaking of Detroit, who wants to hear ole wellfellow play at La Dolce Vita on Wednesday? Shameless, I know.

Larry A|6.5.06 @ 5:17PM|#

I'm getting old.

A whole article on this particular part of India about cutting through taxes, red tape, and official corruption without using a Bangalore Torpedo analogy?

|6.5.06 @ 9:35PM|#

I see that C.K. Prahalad is mentioned in the article. Anyone here read his "The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid"? It gives you an idea of what powerhouse India will be, and how they have claimed one market that Western firms do overlook (the blindness of affluence...)