Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us. Editorial Remaking Detroit T he move of Quicken Loans to downtown Detroit had been rumored for months, so the formal announcement was not quite a stunner. Still, Dan Gilbert's decision to take his thriving company into the heart of the city from its present location in Livonia was a heartening development for those who believe that a vibrant downtown holds the key to redefining the entire metro area. The addition of 4,000 jobs is a great boost to Detroit's economic picture. But there is a greater meaning to this move. It brings Gilbert, 45, into the forefront of the area's major players and also under- lines the fact that the generation unbur- dened by memories of what Detroit used to be is the best hope for remaking it. Where many older residents of this area look to the city and see only regrets, a new group of business leaders sees opportuni- ty. Gilbert's new headquarters will, in fact, be placed atop one of downtown's haunted places, either the site of the J.L. Hudson store on Woodward or the Statler Hotel on Grand Circus Park. One of those ghosts will finally be put to rest. Downtown bears little resemblance to the moribund business district of 15 years ago. Fresh ideas and new gathering places, stadiums and casinos, restau- rants and offices, a new look for the tired Renaissance Center and a new life for the Book Cadillac — all of it is transforming the urban core. There have been so many false dawns for the city since the riots of 40 years ago that it is easy to dismiss this one, too. But it is the cumulative impact of all these forces that has come close to a achieving a sort of critical mass. It is still imperative for a residential community of young adults with a good deal of discretionary income to come downtown. That will, in turn, create a demand for retail and other services — things the urban core lacks now. There also are those who complain that all Detroit has done is play beggar-my- neighbor by shifting jobs from another local community. But for good or ill, it is Detroit that symbolizes all of this region, and not Livonia. That suburb has undergone a renewal of its own, as any drive along Interstate 275 or Haggerty Road reveals. It is never pleas- ant to shed 4,000 jobs. But they will act Dry Bones ANNAPOLIS STARTED WITH A PUBLIC DEMAND UGMTRE FOR ISRAEL TO MAKE "PAINFUL CONCESSIONSI! as more of a catalyst to Detroit than they ever would in Livonia. Dan Gilbert is walk- ing in a path blazed by Max Fisher, another member of the Detroit Jewish community who did all he could to revive the fortunes of his hometown. Now it WELL THAT'S is up to others to follow. (BUT TO BE EXPECTED. There are reports FROM THE that Josh Linkner, a ISRAELI close business associate SIDE/! of Gilbert's, may choose to move his booming e-Prize company down- town from Pleasant Ridge. The sort of young, innovative men and women who work for this organization www.drybonesblog.com would be a perfect fit for the downtown that is taking shape. own best possibilities. To be honest, even with the best sce- And for all those concerned with keep- nario, downtown Detroit is not going to be ing our talented young people in this area, Chicago. But it can be Detroit, true to its that is a lot. I 1 Reality Check Time To Get Real W e used to hear a lot about the generation gap back in the 60s. Bob Dylan told our elders to get out of the way because the times they were a-changin'. How did that all work out? Well, after acquiring a job, a family and a mortgage the erstwhile revolutionaries discovered they weren't a-changin' quite as much as they thought. But now the genuine generation gap is here, and it is not based on anything as ephemeral as politics. It is technology that defines the divide. I think of my computer as a tool. Sometimes it is useful, sometimes annoy- ing — kind of like a hammer, which is what I would like to take to the thing on certain days. To the generations behind me, though, the computer seems to be the threshold to a separate reality. And when it overlaps into the real reality, they seem genuinely confused. A26 December 13 2007 Look at those high school students in the suburb of Belleville, expelled because they posted pictures of themselves in gangster garb with guns and drugs on YouTube. The kids and their families claimed they were only publicizing a rap album. It had nothing to do with the real world. But how isolated can you be? School administrators saw the pictures and all they thought of was Columbine and Virginia Tech, where gunmen had posted similarly disturbing images. The Belleville school board would have been derelict in its duties if it had let this pass. This wasn't like a third grader drawing a picture of a gun in art class or a kinder- gartner bringing a plastic knife to class to cut her birthday cake. Those were cases in which school officials behaved like idiots. To any one in touch with reality, however, these YouTube images were a warning, and it had to be heeded. The reality of the Internet had spilled over into the real world. Recent college gradu- ates are also finding to their sorrow that prospective employers are going onto the Internet to gather informa- tion about them. When they appear with a bottle of beer in their hands, muttering "Dude, I am so wasted;' it doesn't do much for their job prospects. They seem stunned that anyone would be unsporting enough to track them onto the Internet and check up on them there. Isn't that supposed to be a separate space? A private place? But in an era when concerns about privacy are quite legitimate, it seems the most exhibitionistic generation in our history is cavorting around the Internet prepared to show anything to the world at large. It's not that they're dumb. It's just a case of trying to stuff reality into a separate compartment that just will not stay sealed. Google almost anything these days and YouTube material turns up. Sometimes that's great. I was recently trying, for example, to find the lyrics to an old Hoagy Carmichael song, "How Little We Know." Within seconds I found myself watching a clip of Lauren Bacall (actu- ally the voice of a teenage Andy Williams) singing that song to Bogie in a movie. Someone had posted it on their YouTube space. But when it is used with no discretion, YouTube can be disastrous. The Internet eats its young, and it is very much a real world meal. II George Cantor's e-mail address is gcantor614@aol.com .