Home truths concerning Detroit's cheap housing_美文

Home truths concerning Detroit's cheap housing

To be honest, there are a few positive signs. I have a high school friend, now a successful lawyer, who swears that Detroit is on the verge of a comeback and he is not completely alone.

While prices are below the level of the year 2000, last year there was a 13.6% annual increase. Some hearty souls are indeed renovating blighted areas and establishing art galleries, boutiques and even some major service businesses. And in an ironic twist, because Detroit has more vacant land than it had a century ago, urban farming, with an emphasis on organic vegetables, is a major business category in the city.

Chinese people might actually like some aspects of Detroit area living. Outside the city there are beautiful beaches and parks. Canada is a few minutes drive away.

Detroit is the Las Vegas of the Great Lakes region. While lacking the glitz of its famous cousin, the area sports four new casinos.

I worry, however, about Chinese investing in places like Detroit if they behave like slumlords and segregate themselves into an hermetically-sealed Chinese enclave. Detroit has a sad history of racial tension that has boiled over into large-scale civil insurrections.

This will not only harm individuals but further weaken China's image. Only a few months ago President Barack Obama and would-be President Mitt Romney were bashing China for sucking jobs out of the local economy. Insensitive and insular Chinese investors could further weaken what remains of China's positive soft power as has recently been the case in nearby Toledo, Ohio, another Chinese investment target.