Ann Arbor can't afford to neglect its role in helping Detroit recover
Detroit, meet Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, meet Detroit.
Sounds simple, but information technology executive Bruce McCully says it’s critical to his business.
McCully, founder and CEO of Ann Arbor-based IT consulting firm Dynamic Edge, believes that southeast Michigan can’t fully recover from its economic disaster without Ann Arbor and Detroit joining forces.
And from a practical perspective, that starts with a basic, old-fashioned business practice: networking.
That’s why McCully accepted the position as chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Business InSight 2009 small business conference. The Oct. 28 event, to take place among the exhibits at the Henry Ford Museum, aims to allow business people from Ann Arbor and Detroit intermingle.
“We’re just a fragmented group,” McCully said. “I think we all have an opportunity to learn from each other, but more importantly to bridge that gap.”
It’s natural to stare at Detroit’s economic disaster in befuddled awe. Time magazine this month, in a controversial cover story, called Detroit a “tragedy.”
Perhaps the greater tragedy would be if Ann Arbor doesn’t leverage its economic muscle and entrepreneurial community to give Detroit a helping hand.
This isn’t philanthropic. This is practical. We need Detroit to get back on its feet. It’s important for attracting good talent and reconstructing Michigan’s image in the global business community.
McCully, whose 25-person business employs mostly young professionals, makes a point of organizing regular trips to downtown Detroit for his employees. He wants to show them what Detroit has to offer - an admittedly slim resume, yet nonetheless crucial to propping up the region.
“As we show people what’s available in the city and that it’s not all the pictures that you see in the news, you start to realize that Detroit really isn’t this ... hell on earth," McCully said. “Detroit’s in our backyard. We as a community need to embrace that and make it so that people don’t have that perception. And I think the only way to drive that is by creating opportunities and jobs.”
McCully, like most of the business community, isn’t waiting for Lansing lawmakers to fix our region.
The state Legislature’s failure to close the $2.8 billion budget deficit by the Oct. 1 deadine was not surprising to most.
“It just proves my point,” McCully said. “As business leaders, we need to stand up.”
It starts, he said, with networking, establishing connections and working cohesively to repair our economic infrastructure.
“Hey, this isn’t a competition,” McCully said. “We’re just trying to get everybody to work together, because that’s how we’re going to win this thing - and by win this thing, I mean, make Michigan a place that’s more attractive to other businesses.”
Contact AnnArbor.com’s Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Comments
rreidannarbor
Wed, Oct 14, 2009 : 8:05 a.m.
It take a bit of guts and determination to do what Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans is doing, which is to bring 1700 + creative class workers, young, driven, Millenials and Gen-X'ers downtown to a new Quicken Loans Headquarters. Moving HQ's to downtown is not a panacea but is a step in the right direction. What is needed is a clean and effective city government that opens its doors to such opportunities as Quicken Loans downtown HQ. Regional county and city governments must work together. The schools need to be vastly improved with the help of the private sector (look at Cornerstone Schools as a model). Regional transportation needs to improve and better connect Ann Arbor and Detroit. Give people an easier way to get downtown than only having 1-94 as an option and they will come. If we had 2 or 3 vibrant and growing companies like Quicken Loans investing in downtown it may just bring a new wave of energy and opportunity into the city.
treetowncartel
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 10:32 a.m.
The city payroll tax in Detroit is one factor in its demise. I was glad when I got a new job and stopped paying it. It is taxation without representation. The out of city workers should at least get the same respect as the resident of Washington D.C., a spot on council. Ann Arbor should be weary of such a tax, there is plenty of land for the U of m to acquire in the county.
Alan Benard
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 9:30 a.m.
Mayor Dave Bing has it right -- Detroit cannot provide services it cannot pay for, and it cannot continue to sustain the payroll and patronage system which has made fortunes for so many in the city's political class, starting with its U.S. Representatives and ending with store-front preachers.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/26detroit.htmlRead this if you want to understand how the organized criminal political class in Detroit has undermined regionalism and reform. http://metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=12522When Kilpatrick first ran for office, part of his promise was that his youth would help him break down the racial barriers that keep Detroit so terribly divided from the rest of this region. Tom Barwin, then city manager for the city of Ferndale, looked forward to that promise being fulfilled. But he never saw it. Now manager for the village of Oak Park on the outskirts of Chicago, Barwin was a driving force behind formation of a coalition of older suburbs surrounding Detroit in 2002. "When I was in Ferndale, we did what I thought was the closest thing to a miracle Detroit could ever hope for by forming the Michigan Suburbs Alliance," says Barwin. The nonprofit organization brought together older, inner-ring suburbs beginning to experience some of the same problems Detroit had been dealing with for decades. With issues such as smart growth and regional mass transit atop its agenda, and almost a million people in the cities represented, the group offered the prospect of being a powerful ally for Detroit. "If I had been the mayor of Detroit and heard about what we were doing, I would have got down on my knees and thanked the Lord. But we couldn't even get in to see the mayor." It was a huge disappointment. "A lot of us were really enthused by the mayor's rhetoric when he was running for office," says Barwin. "That rhetoric may have even helped lead to our coalition-building." But once Kilpatrick got into office, the tune changed. "It was our clear impression that Detroit and the mayor were not understanding the real-world need to build coalitions," says Barwin. "The message we got was, 'We don't need any great white hope to come in and save us.' It was a continuation of metro Detroit's unfortunate racial stratification." Looking at the situation from afar now, he sees Kilpatrick's current problems as doing even further damage to any prospects of regional bridge-building. "If you lose your integrity, or are even perceived to have lost your integrity, it is tough to get much accomplished," he says. And what does attempting to deflect blame by playing the race card do? "In terms of public policy," Barwin says, "playing that card is a disaster."
njgreg
Sun, Oct 11, 2009 : 12:47 p.m.
Mr. McCully is dead on point. The problem is that too many people in Michigan do not realize that the fortunes of the rest of the state are tied to the Detroit area, whether we like it or not. Why is this? Because nearly half of the state's roughly ten million residents reside in Metro Detroit. Detroit must recover and it can. We need more people in the state like Mr. McCully. You can call me foolish (which I am sure many of you will), but Detroit can once again be the "Paris of the Midwest". This will require an enormous, sustained effort on the part of citizens, industry, and government.
John Galt
Sun, Oct 11, 2009 : 12:35 p.m.
You cannot help those who refuse to help themselves.
MjC
Sun, Oct 11, 2009 : 8:34 a.m.
Are you kidding? We've been trying to save Detroit for over twenty years. Just like the Lions football team it's a losing battle. I have loved Detroit. The river, the restaurants, the sports and arts, the buildings, and the caring people who live there. But former Mayor Kilpatrick (who will likely come back and be re-elected some day), the failure of DPS (all that money stolen from the children who live in that city), the city's ridiculous dependency on the auto industry, and all the corruption in that town (it never ends)... it's not a place to do business with.