MOVING FOR DETROIT

Our journey from the Big Apple to the Motor City

[movingfordetroit]

Goodbye 2015

A year of disruption and new beginnings. 

Disruption: I gave up a career just as I crossed a 10-year milestone; a re-invention of identity. We left a city that I once felt intrinsically tied to, and still miss. We sold two homes, one of which my heart still aches for. We bade farewell to our dearest friends. 

New beginnings: We moved to a city, showing signs of growth in small pockets while marked by abandoned houses, dark streets and empty lots. We bought 4 houses. We laid the groundwork for 3 business ventures. We settled into a neighborhood, where on some nights we think we hear gun shots but where the friendliness of long-time residents provides a quiet reassurance. We met people who are entrepreneurs, innovators, and doers, and who are slowly forming our circle of friends.  

2015 will go down as the year we made our all-in bet on Detroit. Since moving in August and completing the whirlwind called the Hatch contest, Angela and I have been immersed with settling into our homestead. We’ve had contractors traipse in and out (with shoes on, ack!) of our house for 4 months or so, doing both minor and major work that included leaks, attic insulation and a full kitchen renovation. Many weeks felt like a long purgatory in Home Depot. But out of dusty chaos, we now have a beautiful home (nickname: “the Money Pit”) that I’m very grateful for and happy with. *A huge shout-out to my one-and-only lovely wife who is the best at things I can barely do -- she managed all the contractors, painted most walls and oversaw all design work. All I did was cook and fret. Lucky me! 

So, 2015 has been unusual, disruptive and hectic, and not an easy year by design. All turning points can feel that way -- a mix of discomfort (like, too much dust) and pang of remorse, superseded by thrill and inspiration. The exception has been the comfort of being closer to Angela’s wonderful extended family who lives an hour-plus drive north of Detroit. We also had the luxury of a brief but memorable trip in October to see my Mum, Dad and Sis in Shanghai. #SingaporeAirlines: Please consider adding a direct flight to Detroit.

So, goodbye 2015. I’m looking forward to 2016 as the year our wine venture The Royce Detroit launches, the year we find our footing with a local network of friends, and the year I finally feel comfortable saying that I am a Detroiter. 

[movingfordetroit]

What an Intro to Detroit!

The Hatch Detroit contest culminated in a “Hatch off” with final presentations by the the finalists last night, and a Q&A with the four judges who then voted for the eventual winner -- their 4 votes last night had a 50% weight against the popular vote. We didn’t win.

But hey, what an intro to Detroit! Looking back at this past month since the Hatch process started, I feel a mixture of pride, elation, amazement and fatigue. We first applied as outsiders from New York who had yet to move to Detroit. We only moved this past Tuesday, well into the finals of the contest. Yet we’d managed to emerge top four, out of the more than 200 applications that Hatch received this year. The people associated with Hatch, denizens of Detroit and friends on social media, reviewed our plans, liked our posts, and voted for us. Where else could a startup have had such an resounding stamp of approval before it even launched?   

Detroit is a startup city, and we’ve experienced it first hand. 

[movingfordetroit]

Enuf said! Link to Vote: http://hatchdetroit.com/vote/

[movingfordetroit]

Introducing Our Startup, The Royce Detroit

This summer hasn’t been all about fun and games in the Catskills (though there certainly has been much of that, particularly to do with corn holes). Angela and I have been busy hatching a new business that started with a concept and is now at a critical pre-launch phase of garnering public support and additional resources.

Indeed, we are more than thrilled to be [UPDATE] one of 4 finalists in an awesome contest, called Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest presented by Opportunity Detroit, which supports new brick-and-mortar businesses in Detroit. Our startup The Royce Detroit will be a mixed-use retail space that curates and offers the essentials in life, namely wine, food, and a sense of community.

It began with the notion to combine one of our passions -- wine -- with our desire to be financially independent business owners, free from corporate America. Wine is complex, diverse, replete with stories of location, history and tradition. Yet it’s also delightful and fun, and fosters friendship and community. We have a lot to learn about our newly chosen industry, the business of wine and retail, and I admit that it has been intimidating at times. That said, our vision for The Royce is based on a simple premise: wine should be an everyday essential, accessible to all, best paired with food and enjoyed with friends. 

We will start by selling the wines that we like, with a focus on wines made with integrity and from vineyards that practice sustainable farming. Oh, and we’ll offer more than wine - food pairings (cheese, charcuterie, and house-made pates, etc.) and select home goods will also be on the menu.

The Royce is named after Angela’s grandfather, who has been an inspiration to her and was a highly respected Detective Sergeant in Flint, Michigan who positively impacted the community through his programs with the local schools (an important distinction, given that some in the Motor City have asked if our name references a certain luxury car brand from England!).

Entering the Hatch Detroit Contest is one of the first key steps that we are taking to incubate and launch our new business in Detroit, which we feel currently lacks amenities like notable neighborhood wine shops that are within walking distance from where people live. That is one of the main reasons why we are aiming to open in the downtown Detroit area.  

Please vote for us everyday till voting -- to determine the eventual winner of $50,000 -- closes on Aug 28th. :)

And follow The Royce Detroit on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

[movingfordetroit]

Three Weeks To Go!

This blog space has been rather quiet as Angela and I have been busy in the Catskills (our “early-temporary-period-of-retirement”) since leaving Brooklyn in early June. It’s crazy to think that in exactly 3 weeks’ from today, we’ll move out from our beloved house in Mt Tremper and bid farewell to New York. And we’ve been savoring every remaining minute left in the Catskills. There’s so much to love about being here, and so much to miss once we leave.

Sunny days galore.

Sam met a cow for the first time. He really doesn’t like cows.

Sam met a horse for the first time. He prefers horses to cows.

We’ll miss drinking in our front-yard.

We’ll miss drinking in floaty things.

[movingfordetroit]

Thank you, Detroit

Two years ago this week, we started construction on Matilda, the house we bought here in Detroit for $35,000. So much has changed in the intervening months. We started as strangers, but we have bec...

This is an inspiring blog piece from Amy Haimerl, a former Brooklynite who’s now living in Detroit. 

[movingfordetroit]

Last Stop on the L Train: Detroit

As climbing prices and dwindling options push creatives out of New York real estate, some are choosing Detroit as a promising new home.

Guess the G train links to Detroit as well.  

[movingfordetroit]

If you come to Detroit, you’re probably someone who likes challenges.

Detroit City is the Place to Be, by Mark Binelli (via movingfordetroit)

[movingfordetroit]

Our Detroit Idea

Our Detroit idea started out simple: Detroit, the once great city forever emblazoned in America’s consciousness, is showing encouraging signs of a comeback. Where else can we buy affordable real estate and pursue our dream to launch our own hospitality and retail brand? Let’s participate in the revitalization of Detroit!

But idealism can be a fool’s errand. Since making our decision to move for Detroit, we’ve been reading as much as we can and talking to as many different insiders about the city, its opportunities and challenges. Our findings have strengthened our resolve to move to Detroit, even though we remain acutely aware of the complex realities that will confront us once we’re there. 

Statistics show that Detroit has the highest violent crime rate in the US, the worst case of childhood poverty of all the largest 50 US cities, and a housing crisis that continues to be a major problem. Each time we’ve visited, Angela and I have driven through some of the scariest looking neighborhoods that remind us of scenes from a post-war city.   

Someone lost that $10K bet.

One of the many destroyed houses we encountered in the area northwest of midtown Detroit.

Yet the Detroit that we’ve encountered (and admire) has another side that is diametrically opposed to decline and exemplifies the turnaround of a great American city. This Detroit has close to 100% residential occupancy rates in new downtown condos resembling lofts in NYC and Brooklyn. This Detroit has welcomed technology startups and spawned uber-cool retail brands like Shinola, Detroit Bikes, and Detroit Denim, all of which have in common the enlightened focus on locally-made, classic American manufacturing.

Two starkly different Detroits, deeply divided not just by socio-economic difference but also by racial difference. Can middle-class “white” migrants like us simply ignore the worrying existence of crime, poverty and blight, and move only for the new and the good side of Detroit? 

Two essays that I chanced upon this morning by Bradford Frost, a decade-long Detroiter articulately expresses the complex challenges with Detroit’s revitalization, and makes an impassioned plea to everyone involved in Detroit’s comeback: 

“Let’s shift from Detroit’s divisive bunker mentality and pivot towards a collective mobilization for the city’s inclusive growth story…Detroit has a unique opportunity to redevelop with racial equity and inclusion as the centerpiece to our story. It’s a process. It will take time. In 2015 we must commit to harvesting tangible pathways for all residents to share equally in Detroit’s promise.”

Frost’s other piece tells of his own journey to Detroit, of his increasing “cynicism and fatigue” but also his resolve to stay on in Detroit.

“Rather than fuss endlessly about “New Detroit vs. Old Detroit,” we need to re-romance ourselves with the Detroit idea. It’s the idea that we can each achieve our personal dreams here, but it will only be worthwhile if we work collectively to uplift all of Detroit’s people.” 

These words serve as a sobering reminder of reality and an inspiration to us, as we embark on our Detroit idea. For now, there are things we understand about the two sides of Detroit that make up their differences. Being able to bridge those divides, by developing real relationships and a sense of community, would be the true challenge.

[movingfordetroit]

June 26, 2015 - Today, I’m proud to be an American.  Although I do not have the right to vote, I’m satisfied to finally have the same marital rights and protections under the Constitution.  

This morning’s seminal ruling by the Supreme Court marks a turning point for this country and is particularly significant for me and Angela, and our move to Detroit.  Michigan’s one of the few states that’s had a ban on gay marriage since 2004.  If today’s ruling had gone the other way, Angela and I would have had to deal with practical annoyances, such as having to file separate state tax returns despite being able to jointly file federal returns.  And more importantly, would I have felt comfortable referring to her as my wife in a state where it’s illegal for people like us to be married?  Probably not in many circumstances. 

But all that’s irrelevant now, isn’t it? Hurrah and hugs for the five SCOTUS. :)

[movingfordetroit]

Follow the Art

It kind of all started when we read that the Galapagos Art Space had moved to Detroit.  They were one of the first parties I’d attended when I first moved to NYC as a very serious-minded college graduate, trying to make it on my own in the Big Apple.  

Traipsing, by invitation of a new friend, to the far reaches of Williamsburg, circa early 2001, my night out at Galapagos seemed like an edgy experience on the fringes (what is the L train?), with a hint of the avant garde high-brow that was at the same time laid back and unassuming.  Over the years, Galapagos remained one of spots I could always count on for some combination of art, hipster edge (before “Hipster” branded all of Brooklyn), and cocktail-infused fun.

And now they’d given up on Brooklyn -- where they’d put a pre-gentrified Williamsburg on the map, and following that, Dumbo -- and bought 600,000 square feet of space in Detroit.  Their tagline today couldn’t be more perfect: “Born in Brooklyn. Raised in Detroit.”  I hope that they make t-shirts!  I encourage everyone to read why they’ve moved, in their own words.  

Leaving the greatest city on earth isn’t easy, but Robert Elmes the executive director of Galapagos expresses their motivations for moving to Detroit very well; his words have also inspired our own move.  

He writes that every “creative ecosystem” needs “three ingredients” to function well, which are “time, space, and people.” 

“Arguably, New York City has people but they no longer have time or space. Detroit has time and space and is gaining its critical third component - artists - at an astonishing rate.

In the end only one-thing matters: good artists and the best young thinkers follow ideas, and ideas flourish only when there is opportunity to realize them.”

Galapagos thinks that Detroit can be that place to attract and incubate the next generation of great artists.  We are heartened by their vision.  Artists we’re not, however, we believe that Detroit is the place that affords us the opportunity to realize our ideas.

[movingfordetroit]

Goodbye Brooklyn  [An Intro]

We did what seemed unthinkable and left Brooklyn two weeks ago.  Perhaps for good, we don’t know for sure, but certainly for the foreseeable future; come August, Angela, Sam (our dog) and I are moving to Detroit. 

Our decision to leave New York City, where we’d both lived and worked for more than a decade, wasn’t made overnight.  Yet once the idea took root, it felt right.  Simply put, Manhattan and Brooklyn have become to us overly crowded, homogenized and commercialized in too may ways.  While we’ll always love and revere its many grand and unique features (the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station, top-notch restaurants, dim sum at any time, the best theater and art in the word, the list goes on...), the city just no longer inspires us. 

So why Detroit?  Many whom we’ve told have reacted with that question, often barely masking a mix of shock and puzzlement: Detroit has brutal winters, Detroit’s bankrupt, and why give up Brooklyn, the hippest spot on earth that even the Swedes emulate!?  

The purpose of this blog is to reflect on the various reasons why we’re moving FOR Detroit, and our experience doing so.  By capturing our process, we hope to inspire others to take that same leap; Detroit certainly needs new blood, more diversity, more entrepreneurs and adventure-seekers, creating new opportunities and building new businesses.  

[movingfordetroit]

The view we’ll never forget.