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Speaker 2: My personal last question is about Ghana. We've been spending
Speaker 2: a lot of time and Ghana. He was there in December,
Speaker 2: We were back there a few weeks ago, so, you know,
Speaker 2: just learning the in and outs of the culture. I've
Speaker 2: learned enough to understand that I think you probably were
Speaker 2: born on Friday, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That took that took you. That's no fair you went.
Speaker 3: How many times did you go there to find that out?
Speaker 1: Only took once.
Speaker 3: There you go?
Speaker 4: But exactly right.
Speaker 2: One of the things that you know we saw, obviously
Speaker 2: is the development right, so many different apartment buildings being developed,
Speaker 2: and there's such a strong interest from the diaspora, especially America,
Speaker 2: people coming there, people you know, coming during December, but
Speaker 2: people also relocating. We met a bunch of business owners
Speaker 2: that moved from America that started restaurants, that started different
Speaker 2: types of businesses. And now there's the residence of of Ghana.
Speaker 2: What's your thought process on Ghana currently in twenty twenty four, Like,
Speaker 2: what are you optimistic about?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 4: You have?
Speaker 2: Some concerns about you as somebody that's you know, you've
Speaker 2: seen it from where it was to where it's at now,
Speaker 2: which I'm just curious to know what your thought process is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, always start with a positive right, I think.
Speaker 3: The the there's.
Speaker 4: Tremendous interest and positive interest in in in Africa as
Speaker 4: a whole, but specifically in Ghana, and that interest is
Speaker 4: driving some curiosity, enough curiosity for folks to get on
Speaker 4: a plane and visit it. And often when they visit,
Speaker 4: they are enthralled by the people in the culture to
Speaker 4: the point where there is consideration for investment and and
Speaker 4: Ghana needs a lot of foreign directed investment, and so
Speaker 4: folks of their own accourt bringing their capital and their
Speaker 4: ideas to invest in the country is UH is tremendous.
Speaker 4: Tremendous because that obviously boost the economy and most importantly
Speaker 4: creates jobs. I am optimistic that the that.
Speaker 3: The education educational structure.
Speaker 4: Continues to really bring forward some really smart individuals, entrepreneurial
Speaker 4: individuals that have been able to sustain the country for
Speaker 4: a while.
Speaker 3: And however, unfortunately they are so good at what they do.
Speaker 4: Perhaps they are drawn away by the fact that they
Speaker 4: are so good at what they do that they there
Speaker 4: is significant brain drain going on. A significant amount of
Speaker 4: the health professionals in Ghana are trained in Ghana and
Speaker 4: then they leave, and that's concerning but somewhat understandable. I'm
Speaker 4: pessimistic because the fundamental infrastructure of the company requires a
Speaker 4: great deal of work, and that I mean the social infrastructure,
Speaker 4: while strengthen through the through the traditional heritage and culture,
Speaker 4: is weak when it comes through the sort of the
Speaker 4: social service networks and people are exposed. As the global economy,
Speaker 4: UH what's suffered over the last several years, these fragile
Speaker 4: economies in the Third World really took a significant hit,
Speaker 4: and that hit has a horrible, horrible residual effect on
Speaker 4: the folks at the bottom of the scale, who are
Speaker 4: who are having to work three times it's hard just
Speaker 4: to get frankly, the same amount of income, and that
Speaker 4: is unhealthy. I I and therefore I worry that the
Speaker 4: have the gap between the haves and the have nots,
Speaker 4: only increases, And my fear is that the governmental institutions
Speaker 4: haven't built enough bridges, and in fact it's so focused
Speaker 4: on sort of top line growth in terms of attracting
Speaker 4: more investment for and directed investments, you know, tourism, etc.
Speaker 4: Without necessarily finding ways to shore up the fundamental infrastructure
Speaker 4: of the economy, either by building those infrastructural pieces that
Speaker 4: would help transport or could create much more of an
Speaker 4: industrial base in the country. We're still exporting you're taking
Speaker 4: it out of the ground and exporting it via either
Speaker 4: coco or gold right exporting it for the most part,
Speaker 4: and subjecting it to the world market prices.
Speaker 3: After fifty sixty years, we're still essentially.
Speaker 4: Doing the same things we did many many years ago
Speaker 4: or decades ago, and that's not sustainable. So I worry
Speaker 4: that the gaps between the haves and the have nots
Speaker 4: only increases, and we're still somewhat in a subsidized era,
Speaker 4: and I'm terrified of the World Bank and IMF policies
Speaker 4: and what they ultimately might do to the country.
Speaker 1: My final question, Kobe is and thank you again for
Speaker 1: joining us, is I heard you say we have to
Speaker 1: focus on how cities work. And I thought that's very interesting, right,
Speaker 1: because most people don't look at it from that perspective.
Speaker 1: How does the city work? Where does it get revenue from?
Speaker 1: And so when I think Detroit and I'm thinking sports,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the intentionality. Right, if we
Speaker 1: look at from the landscape of their sports franchises, they've
Speaker 1: all moved downtown right where you had you had the
Speaker 1: Pontiac Dome. Now you have Ford Field, which is downtown.
Speaker 1: You had the Tiger Stadium, and now you have America Field.
Speaker 1: You have the Palace where the Pistons played. Now you
Speaker 1: have Little Caesars where the Pistons and the Red Wings play.
Speaker 1: And so I would imagine the revenue that's brought in
Speaker 1: from having people come in, the tourists that come in, right,
Speaker 1: and the taxes that come from that. How important is
Speaker 1: it to have sent like a focused effort to have
Speaker 1: something concentrated where rather than have different counties and different
Speaker 1: towns collecting the taxes, having something central to where downtown
Speaker 1: is obviously being a thriving part of a city, it.
Speaker 5: Is critically important when as you're trying to build up
Speaker 5: an economy, you want every dollar to go round and
Speaker 5: around around in that in a concentrated manner and create
Speaker 5: a virtuous cycle of investment.
Speaker 4: And so these sports teams being down, the sports teams
Speaker 4: downtown create a year long event for one of a
Speaker 4: better term right event in that uh, the Red Wings
Speaker 4: out playing, the Pistons are playing, its pst are playing,
Speaker 4: the Tigers are playing, and then the Lions are playing,
Speaker 4: and that brings people who wouldn't normally come downtown to
Speaker 4: come downtown. When they come downtown, they park, they may
Speaker 4: grab a bite, and that dollar they bring just sustain
Speaker 4: help sustain the economy. It's critically important because those dollars,
Speaker 4: that that density of investment, that density of expenditure, is
Speaker 4: what you use to convince the next business to come
Speaker 4: into the area, because then you can say, look how
Speaker 4: many people come down on a regular basis, and then
Speaker 4: that particular entity you're trying to attract will indeed say, well,
Speaker 4: if those are the numbers that are coming downtown, and
Speaker 4: I can get x percent of that by virtue of
Speaker 4: the business dim in I will make that choice to
Speaker 4: come downtown and fill yet another vacant spot, and that
Speaker 4: person will then attract its own people, and so it
Speaker 4: goes on and on and on.
Speaker 6: But it's very it has to be very intentional, and
Speaker 6: in addition to just that process, you also have to
Speaker 6: create these larger, perhaps seminal events that sort of break
Speaker 6: through the fog of what people might think a city
Speaker 6: might be, like a Grand Prix that everybody will now
Speaker 6: see Detroit and this splendor on their TV sets, like
Speaker 6: the draft, the NFL Draft and eight hundred thousand people
Speaker 6: coming downtown with fifty three million eyeballs looking at Detroit
Speaker 6: perhaps for the first time, thinking wow, that's a beautiful
Speaker 6: looking city and recognizing that it's nothing like they thought.
Speaker 6: And I think the critical word you use there is
Speaker 6: the intentionality behind it.
Speaker 3: It's not formulaic, but it's intentional, and.
Speaker 4: It is critical for us to ensure that people are
Speaker 4: coming downtown or coming to Detroit and having a great
Speaker 4: experience in Detroit, because when they take the word back
Speaker 4: either to their employers or their families, perhaps it just
Speaker 4: changes that perception. And when it changes that perception, they
Speaker 4: might make a decision that they wouldn't normally wouldn't maybe
Speaker 4: have made a month prior that they would add Detroit
Speaker 4: to their list, perhaps to come see the Motown Museum
Speaker 4: or the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is a fabulous museum.
Speaker 4: They just added to their list. And that's just one
Speaker 4: more person that you have the ability to win over,
Speaker 4: one more person that comes in and spends some money
Speaker 4: in a downtown area and therefore provide some opportunity for
Speaker 4: a local retailer or business to.
Speaker 3: Transact business.
Speaker 4: And the more all of that happens, the easier it
Speaker 4: is for us to go talk to a business and
Speaker 4: we ask them to come locate downtown, because we can
Speaker 4: then assure them that when they are downtown, their employees
Speaker 4: will enjoy being downtown because downtown is active, is amenditized,
Speaker 4: and has those kinds of family friendly activities that they
Speaker 4: would look for in any thriving major city. And he frankly,
Speaker 4: may dare I say world class city. And that's why
Speaker 4: it's so important to be intentional about bringing these essential
Speaker 4: components together.
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