Mike Banks, Theo Parrish and Omar-S meet Detroit's Mayor to talk techno

Prominent members of Detroit's techno community — including Theo Parrish, Mike Banks, Omar-S and Underground Resistance's manager Cornelius Harris — met with Detroit's Mayor, Mike Duggan, to discuss how they could come together to safeguard the city's electronic music scene.

"Around the world, when you ask people about Detroit ... what they say is cars and music," said UR label manager Cornelius Harris. "Electronic music is a $6.5 billion industry globally. It was created here. The question is, of course, how much of that money makes its way back into the city? And the answer is very little."

The low-key roundtable discussion took place last week at the city's dedicated techno museum and one of the main talking points was how Detroit can better support its local techno scene.

One obvious bone of contention centred around strict licensing laws for venues, for which Duggan reportedly was open to the idea of trying to be more venue-friendly.

"I don't have any problem with [allowing parties to go later]," he explained. "I was supportive of the 4 AM bar activity. We need to do it in a way that's sensitive to neighbours and the like, but I think if we plan it together we can do it.

"I feel like if the government designates something as the place where the creative types should go, I get a sense that a bunch are going to go the other way, just by their nature," Duggan said.

"We can get the people here, we can do all that," Harris also said. "We don't need help from the city for that, we're just looking for an environment that's amenable for that kind of thing happening."

Via Metrotimes