By Erick Schonfeld
What draws creative types to Detroit? It’s all the possibilities. I got a tour of the city yesterday from Jerry Paffendorf, a local resident and entrepreneur I met on Twitter. Paffendorf is the co-founder of Loveland Technologies, a startup with grand ambitions to help citizens reclaim their neighborhoods and redevelop plots of land.
He picked me up at my hotel and drove me around the abandoned lots and buildings that are everywhere. But where others might see a barren landscape, he sees inspiration. He sees the ghosts of Henry Ford and other industrial age innovators who turned Detroit into one of the most vibrant American cities of the last century. In the video above, he explains why he left New York City and Silicon Valley for Detroit.
For complete coverage of the September 12, 2012, Techonomy Detroit conference, click here.
