Did Detroit’s lack of public transit scuttle Detroit’s chances?
Some first impressions following Amazon’s decision to leave Detroit off its shortlist of 20 finalist cities for its second headquarters:
First, did our lack of public transit scuttle Detroit’s chances? Amazon made clear in its initial request for proposals that it wanted a city with a robust public transportation network for its employees to use.
We don’t know how much weight that carried in Amazon’s winnowing down of the 238 initial proposals to its list of 20 finalist cities and regions. But Detroit’s lack of the sort of light rail systems available in so many of the finalist cities — Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington, D. C., Toronto — makes me wonder if that became Detroit’s downfall.
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Second, of all the 20 finalist cities, only one — Newark, N. J. — shares Detroit’s reputation for severe urban distress. But Newark, situated just a short lob across from New York City, may have made the list due to lying within the Big Apple’s orbit. Detroit didn’t have that going for it.
Third, did Amazon think Detroit lacked the talent base to staff a second headquarters? Jeff Mason, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., told the Detroit Economic Club recently that Detroit would have to attract talent from Windsor as well as surrounding states including Ohio and Indiana to meet all of Amazon’s needs. That may not have been enough for Amazon.
And fourth, Amazon made clear from the beginning that it wanted a city with a stable business climate and a large and growing tech sector. Detroit may have come up short on both counts.
Detroit and Michigan as a whole still suffer a traditional boom-and-bust cycle — higher highs during boom times and then dismal lows during recessions. That may have counted against us in Amazon’s deliberations.
And our technology sector, while growing rapidly, still lags that in many other cities.
I’ve always said Detroit did check many of the boxes Amazon cared about. We have a great international airport, great universities, a large population. Our proximity to Canada was a plus for us.
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And the bid Detroit submitted, prepared by businessman Dan Gilbert and his team, was a first-rate effort.
In the end, though, we won’t know for a while — maybe ever — why exactly Detroit didn’t make the short list. But we need to face coolly and honestly what our shortcomings are as a first step toward improving our attractiveness.
Because although Amazon may have been the biggest prize, there’s lots of others out there. And Detroit needs to compete for them day after day, year after year.
Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.
