Brookings Institution calls Detroit's Midtown and downtown "innovation districts"

As great minds think alike, they also stick together. The Brookings Institution has noticed the recent spate of tech start-ups in Detroit.

Excerpt:

"As far as clustering innovation in an urban setting goes, Detroit’s Midtown and downtown areas are putting the city on the Brookings Institution’s radar of places in the U.S. where close collaboration is becoming an alternative to urban sprawl and suburban, corporate office islands.

In the Washington, D.C.-based group’s report on rising “innovation districts,” authors Bruce Katz and Julie Wagner describe the areas as compact and transit-friendly, and anchored by educational institutions and large companies.

The authors point to Boston’s South Waterfront, San Francisco’s Mission Bay, Seattle’s South Lake Union area, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard as examples.

In Detroit’s case, the report highlights Henry Ford Health System and Wayne State University leading the charge in Midtown. It says downtown Detroit’s innovation district was “catalyzed” by the decision of mortgage lending giant Quicken Loans to relocate its headquarters there in 2010."

More here.