As for the Universities, Detroit has Wayne State, Oakland University and UofM Dearborn. Plus they have Henry Ford hospital, Beaumont Hospital, the Detroit Medical Center etc. It's a hell of hub for medicine. Lot's of positives. Detroit needs people to reverse that reverse network effect (I just swallowed my tongue), and in order to do that needs an influx of capital investment by big corporations. How to get those corporations? Tax incentives and land for $1.
Again, network effect. Those are fine schools, but have fractional throw weight compared to our local. One reason Boston has it over RTP is their university density. Ditto for Silicon Valley over Boston and NYC. (NYC is seriously short on universities) You'd have to talk to the boss over how to get people in, that's her field not mine. But I can't see any big company bothering to move up there - it's just the reverse direction that everything is moving in. There's literally not a job that could pay me enough to move up there. -XC
How is NYC seriously short on universities? Oh wait, you're being sarcastic.