I'm from Detroit, but now I live here in the Twin Cities, as do a lot of other native Detroiters.
The guy in Edina who fixes my car is from Detroit, and so is my representative in Congress, Keith Ellison. I needed a new bike a few weeks ago, and bought one from one of my oldest friends, who moved here from Michigan long before I did.
New York and Chicago are much the same — full of expatriate Detroiters who left in the face of a failed economy and a poisonous social environment rooted in decades of systemic racial discrimination.
Now Detroit wants us back.
Last week, I returned to Michigan for an event called the "Detroit Homecoming," funded by a swath of foundations and corporate supporters hoping to attract capital — both financial and human — back to the city. Expatriate CEOs and investors leaned forward in their chairs as we heard from Detroit's mayor, Mike Duggan, and a wide variety of civic leaders.
I don't know if all of their plans will work, but if a fraction of them do, it will be a new era for the city. I could tell that many of those around me were tempted to be a part of what might happen next.
I lived in Detroit and its suburbs both as a child and as an adult, and was a federal prosecutor there from 1995-2000. You might imagine that being a prosecutor exposes one to the worst parts of a community. And you would be right. When I left in 2000, it was with the pain of leaving home and the relief of taking off an old and uncomfortable pair of shoes.
That's partly why it was such a shock to see what has happened. When I worked in downtown Detroit in the 1990s, it was a desolate and scary place. That has changed abruptly as construction and rehabs arise around every corner. Much of the construction is residential; young people are moving in. There is a flourishing restaurant scene, and more bicyclists than I see in Minneapolis.