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Dan Gilbert blames 'elephant in the room' — Detroit reputation — for Amazon miss

Detroit's past reputation as America's poster child for Rust Belt decline sunk their bid for Amazon according to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

Businessman Dan Gilbert pushed back Wednesday against the idea that a talent deficit scuttled Detroit's bid for Amazon's second headquarters.

Instead, Gilbert blamed what he called "the elephant in the room" — Detroit's past reputation as America's poster child for Rust Belt decline.

"We are still dealing with the unique radioactive-like reputational fallout of 50-60 years of economic decline, disinvestment, municipal bankruptcy and all of the other associated negative consequences of that extraordinarily long period of time," Gilbert wrote in a letter to Detroit's Amazon bid committee members. Gilbert made his letter public Wednesday.

"This lingering, negative perception has unfortunately survived our impressive progress over the last several years," he wrote in his letter. "It is clear that we don’t do ourselves any favors by feeding the pessimistic narrative about Detroit and our region, when this view is not anywhere near the balanced, full story. I believe this is the single largest obstacle that we face.

"Outstanding state-of-the-art videos, well-packaged and eye-catching proposals, complex and generous tax incentives and highly compelling and improving metrics cannot nor will not overcome the strong negative connotations that the Detroit brand still needs to conquer.

"Old, negative reputations do not die easily."

Gilbert's letter came in reaction to Amazon's feedback on its selection process. When it announced its list of 20 finalist urban regions for its second headquarters, Amazon notified Detroit leaders that Detroit's talent pool wasn't deep enough to supply all the tech-savvy workers Amazon would employ. It also cited a lack of public transit here as a secondary reason.

MORE | Local officials offer no answers as to why Cleveland's Amazon bid fell short

Other civic leaders have acknowledged as much. As the Free Press reported earlier this week, the educational attainment of metropolitan Detroit residents ages 25 to 34 lags behind almost all of the finalist cities on Amazon's list.

And Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, who was part of the bid committee, has described metro Detroit's talent pool as good and getting better but not yet good enough in a high-stakes competition like Amazon conducted.

Gilbert did acknowledge that metro Detroit needs to solve its transit problems, and soon.

"We need to take investment in transit infrastructure very seriously," he wrote. "Companies like Amazon and their employee base require dynamic and reliable transit. If we are determined to attract exciting opportunities to metropolitan Detroit, then it’s time to get in a room and figure it out.

"Now."

But it's Detroit's image that needs the biggest overhaul, Gilbert maintained.

"One highly effective remedy to the fallout of a half century or more of reputational damage is to bring people physically HERE to see, touch and feel the excitement, opportunity, growth and reality that is the Detroit of 2018 and beyond," he wrote.

"Once we get them here, we’ve got them."

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