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