Summary of Key Findings

Survey Summary (PDF)

• While job opportunities are important when choosing a place to live, quality of life is significantly more important than many have previously thought. It might be more important to some than jobs.
• Despite concerns periodically expressed about Detroit as a place to live and work, respondents (who are 85% Michigan residents) still rate it as the 2nd best place to live in the state. Michigan residents see a difference between Detroit and its suburban communities. On the national list, survey respondents still rate
• Detroit as the 3rd most preferred place.
• Warm weather year-round is not a critical issue in choosing a place to live. This allows Michigan, once and for all, to dispel the notion that it cannot compete with other warm weather places.
• Being close to family plays an important role in decisions related to choosing a place to live. That importance seems to increase as they age and their lifestyle (i.e., married-w/kids) changes. Campaigns using a return-to-home message could be effective.
• A secondary target audience could be graduates of Michigan universities who have left the state. There are often ties to the community where one went to school that could be taken advantage of.
• The survey found that gambling places/casinos, professional sports, large malls and shopping centers do not play a significant role in choosing a place to live.
• Neighborhood preferences tend to favor being in or near a downtown though other types of areas received high ratings as well. Because of this, medium and small cities and even rural areas can effectively compete with large cities for the Creative Class.
• One of the few places in which the rank ordering of what was important in selecting a place to live varied significantly was by city type preferred. The differences in these listings suggest which attributes a city might want to focus on as its highest priorities when attracting the Creative Class. While there are a few similarities, each type of city can be quite distinctive in what people look for in terms of its key attributes.
• The study identified six major grouping of factors that communities can focus upon in order to target their development priorities. They are:
  1. The Cool Cities Core Values Factor: This factor is central in defining what constitutes a "Cool City". Focusing efforts on as many of these attributes as possible will help a community to become "cool".
  2. The Outdoor Factor: This is a grouping of non-team, outdoor sports and the simple yet personal experience of being outdoors. It is a key feature for selecting a place to live. The proximity of many smaller Michigan communities to substantial outdoor recreation assets (lakes, beaches, public forests, trail systems, etc.) means that those communities have a significant and important asset to offer to the Creative Class.
  3. The 3rd Place Factor: This factor emphasizes the importance of gathering places, a critical component of what appeals to the Creative Class. It is the place where a community or neighborhood meets to develop friendships, discuss issues, and interact with others. It helps the community develop and retain cohesion, and its sense of place.
  4. Safety and Security Factor: While key, this factor it is probably best to jointly undertake with other development targets, particularly with factors directly related to Cool Cities Core Values. A place might not necessarily be "cool" simply because it is safe and secure. Yet, it cannot become "cool" if it is not perceived as safe.
  5. Economics Factor: Like Safety & Security, Economics alone is probably not a driving issue in decisions about places to live, but still important. Because affordability is a highly rated attribute, it might help attract new residents if combined with other important factors. Affordability is the defining attribute related to this factor. It is mostly defined as reasonable housing costs.
  6. Entrepreneurial Factor: Those who want to start their own business are largely driven by this need to the exclusion of other needs or interests. This relatively small, unique group of people is motivated by other factors, and would probably warrant a separate type of strategy to try to attract.