<story><title>Can you just move into an abandoned house?</title><url>https://www.quora.com/Is-it-okay-to-go-into-abandoned-houses</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samstave</author><text>Years ago, when detroit was in desparate throws, I thought that it was ripe for a new &amp;#x27;silicon valley&amp;#x27; and they should have pushed a huge start-up market. They didnt, but they should have.&lt;p&gt;I still think detroit is a solid market - but you have to get some serious incentives...&lt;p&gt;Look at fn twitter - they got SF to give them millions in tax breaks, only to find that all the other services (and tremote work) were untennable on market street (the Emporium now the westfield mall) has turned back into the failed district it was in the 90s (hint; public transport and parking greed fucked that up)&lt;p&gt;Now look - the city of SF depends on Salesforce and twitter to bring thousands of people into the city - but it has no affordable place to house or park them.&lt;p&gt;I think twitter owes the city a giant amount of money - and benioff can go fuck himself (speaking as someone who built out many of his offices)&lt;p&gt;The point being that places such as Detroit need to up there game and build a tech scene - but I am afraid its too late.&lt;p&gt;-&lt;p&gt;EDIT: @DANG - im tired of this fn &amp;quot;posting too fast&amp;quot; -- it stiffles intereaction.&lt;p&gt;I dont participate in Reddit any longer, but seriously - ive talked to you about this many times....&lt;p&gt;I want to &lt;i&gt;engage&lt;/i&gt; with HNers, and your speed-brake thwarts that... knock it off. :-)</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>Varies enormously with the jurisdiction.&lt;p&gt;There are places in the US so desperate for new residents they will offer you an abandoned house if you fix it up and pay property taxes. Buffalo, NY and Detroit have done this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ghaff</author><text>I was at a fairly sizable tech event in Detroit last fall. The convention center and area down by the river were nice enough but people didn&amp;#x27;t feel very safe in general and there were apparently some incidents--and we&amp;#x27;re not even talking particularly bad parts of town. A tech company would probably have a lot more luck with something like an Ann Arbor location. I think Detroit proper would be a really tough sell to get most people to move there.</text></comment>
<story><title>Can you just move into an abandoned house?</title><url>https://www.quora.com/Is-it-okay-to-go-into-abandoned-houses</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>samstave</author><text>Years ago, when detroit was in desparate throws, I thought that it was ripe for a new &amp;#x27;silicon valley&amp;#x27; and they should have pushed a huge start-up market. They didnt, but they should have.&lt;p&gt;I still think detroit is a solid market - but you have to get some serious incentives...&lt;p&gt;Look at fn twitter - they got SF to give them millions in tax breaks, only to find that all the other services (and tremote work) were untennable on market street (the Emporium now the westfield mall) has turned back into the failed district it was in the 90s (hint; public transport and parking greed fucked that up)&lt;p&gt;Now look - the city of SF depends on Salesforce and twitter to bring thousands of people into the city - but it has no affordable place to house or park them.&lt;p&gt;I think twitter owes the city a giant amount of money - and benioff can go fuck himself (speaking as someone who built out many of his offices)&lt;p&gt;The point being that places such as Detroit need to up there game and build a tech scene - but I am afraid its too late.&lt;p&gt;-&lt;p&gt;EDIT: @DANG - im tired of this fn &amp;quot;posting too fast&amp;quot; -- it stiffles intereaction.&lt;p&gt;I dont participate in Reddit any longer, but seriously - ive talked to you about this many times....&lt;p&gt;I want to &lt;i&gt;engage&lt;/i&gt; with HNers, and your speed-brake thwarts that... knock it off. :-)</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>Varies enormously with the jurisdiction.&lt;p&gt;There are places in the US so desperate for new residents they will offer you an abandoned house if you fix it up and pay property taxes. Buffalo, NY and Detroit have done this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>prepend</author><text>The problem is that Detroit sucks and it’s really cold. I don’t think startups would want to locate there.&lt;p&gt;Also, they are poorly managed and that’s part of their decline. They aren’t trying any good ideas like encouraging startup incubators and whatnot.</text></comment>