 
Dfd
Member
Username: Dfd
Post Number: 496
Registered: 09-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 9:32 am: |    |
In the book Origins of the Urban Crisis, I read that the pharmaceuticals were big employers back in the day. Have they suffered the same loss as most businesses in Detroit? |
Sumas
Member
Username: Sumas
Post Number: 199
Registered: 01-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 9:48 am: | |
Yep. The last biggie to pull out was Parke Davis. My Grandfather came to Detroit from Europe with a dual passport (Russian/German)at the turn of the last century. He was a chemist and worked for a small pharmaceutical company on Jefferson.The company stayed open even during the Great Depression. Detroit was king. |
Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Member
Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Post Number: 139
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 10:09 am: | |
Yes and no. Big pharmaceutical is well poised to be an economic juggernaut with the aging population we have here in the country. As of late, they've suffered on hard times as some of there big blockbuster drugs have had patents expire. But many are still money making machines that still have very strong balance sheets and decent pipelines of development.
What's striking is that with few exceptions, small to mid pharmaceutical development is still happening in the state of Michigan. But it's not in the Detroit area. Much of it is on Michigan's westside, in the Grand Rapids area. There is also a lot going in the Washtenaw County area, near the University.
The question we need to ask ourselves, is why don't these companies view SE Michigan (not just Detroit city proper) as a place to do business? Techtown is a good start. But we've really got to get people to stop viewing Metro Detroit as just a "car city". I think that starts with us in the region, too.
YPD |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 3341
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 10:35 am: | |
"The question we need to ask ourselves, is why don't these companies view SE Michigan (not just Detroit city proper) as a place to do business? Techtown is a good start. But we've really got to get people to stop viewing Metro Detroit as just a "car city". I think that starts with us in the region, too."
It's simply not the center of economic activity.
Other than the urban lifestyle, healthcare & entertainment, downtown Detroit doesn't have much importance regionally. It's much cheaper in Michigan to do business outside of town where te taxes are lower & there's not as much trouble to start a business. On the other hand, you have folks who would rather live that urban lifestyle. So since they can't have both, these people take their jobs elsewhere. In addition, the national media with stigmas like Detroit being the most dangerous city & all will turn businesses from out of state away.
There is really a lack of regional cooperation as well. It's pretty much every man or woman for themselves. You have this in Oakland County, that in Macomb County, and this in Wayne County. It's all screwed up. Whatever happens in Detroit proper & reaches the national level will also send a tidal wave throughout all of SE Michigan.
In addition to that, much of our workforce is undereducated for the few jobs that are offered at Techtown & what not. Majority of the workforce is based from the assembly line. Considering the aging population, most of them can't adjust to our increasing technological society.
Medium cities like Grand Rapids & Ann Arbor are light years ahead of us building infrastructure & mass transit for the times ahead. Not to mention their economy is a bit more diverse/friendlier to businesses & Ann Arbor has U of M (which essentially is more elite than Wayne State). |
Jat44
Member
Username: Jat44
Post Number: 10
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 10:51 am: | |
Pharmaceuticals once were a very big business in Detroit. My family was very involved, and still is involved, in the pharmaceutical industry.
These companies moving out of the region actually started back in the mid to late 70's I believe.
What was the reason? I am not sure but I can venture to guess that it has to do with the reasons all businesses eventually moved out of the city and state for that matter.
You add our economic condition along with our mayor's recent series of escapades, and who in their right mind would want to locate in Detroit?
Back in the 50's, 60's, and early 70's, a lot of businesses also were in Detroit due to the presence of the pharmaceutical company's; bottlers, tablet makers, label makers, etc. When the pharmaceutical company's either moved or closed, so did these other companies that supplied them. |
Neilr
Member
Username: Neilr
Post Number: 767
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 4:03 pm: | |
The Lofts at 6533 East Jefferson by the Belle Isle Bridge is the former Stearns Pharmaceutical Building.
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Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Member
Username: Youngprofessionaldetroiter
Post Number: 140
Registered: 07-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 6:05 pm: | |
"Medium cities like Grand Rapids & Ann Arbor are light years ahead of us building infrastructure & mass transit for the times ahead. Not to mention their economy is a bit more diverse/friendlier to businesses & Ann Arbor has U of M (which essentially is more elite than Wayne State)."
I'm a UM grad and my business is based out of Ann Arbor. It's really interesting to see the contrasts between the way we do business out there vs. the way we do it out here in Metro Detroit.
On one hand, Ann Arbor is a wonderful place to be an entrepreneur. There are social organizations, business development organizations, business support organizations...all of this wonderful infrastructure that makes Ann Arbor an incubator for new businesses. We get regional cooperation, and economic development is highly valued.
With one exception.
There is still a large contingency of Ann Arborites that want the city to go back to being a quaint college town with old historical homes. Not with 15 high rises in a square mile and $9 martinis. Of course, they can fight the pace of change, but it is coming, one way or the other.
And that sometimes reminds me of being out here in Detroit, where I sense that people are resistent to change. Even when that change is a net positive. So much fighting here.
I pulled this from George Will's column in the Washington Post. Thought it was apropo...
In "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," a novel Brown admires, Milan Kundera writes: "Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition."
YPD
(Message edited by youngprofessionaldetroiter on August 10, 2008) |
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