Half of the residents surveyed by Intellitrends L.L.C. on behalf of the Detroit Regional News Hub say they love living in Southeast Michigan, but the expansive survey, released today, indicates the metro area has image problems, inside and outside the state. Marge Sorge, executive editor of the news hub; Maura Campbell of the news hub; Marlene Stone of Intellitrends; and Strategic Staffing Solutions CEO Cindy Pasky, who is chairwoman of the news hub’s board of directors, met with members of Crain’s staff Tuesday to discuss the survey results. Crain’s Publisher Mary Kramer is a member of the news hub’s board but was not present at the meeting. The news hub’s goal is to connect journalists with facts about the region. Ninety-one percent of Southeast Michigan residents polled said that the Detroit area was portrayed negatively in national media, while just 62 percent of survey respondents outside Michigan felt that the metro area got a raw deal in the media. Sorge and Pasky said that while the news hub has made strides, there is much work to do. Southeast Michigan’s strongest association continues to be the auto industry: 91 percent of non-Michiganders said the auto industry was their top association with the region, compared to 83 percent of southeast Michigan residents. Few outside the region have heard of revitalization efforts or of green initiatives in the Detroit area. “Isolated negative issues” like crime or the 1967 riots were in the number two spot, with 67 percent of southeast Michigan residents and 52 percent of non-Michiganders associating those events or issues with the region. Music came in third, with 55 percent of Southeast Michigan residents and 50 percent of out-of-state residents linking the region with Motown and the music industry. News wasn’t good on the business front: 35 percent of southeast Michigan residents said the Detroit region was a good place to do business; just 30 percent said the region was a good place to invest. Numbers outside the state were lower, with 14 percent of respondents saying the state was a good place to do business and only 8 percent calling the state a good place to invest. Entertainment and sporting events draw Southeast Michigan residents to downtown Detroit, with 96 percent of those surveyed saying they go downtown “at some point.” One-third of respondents said they travel downtown weekly. Seventy-five percent of survey respondents said they go downtown for entertainment and 51 percent said sporting events were the draw. And 30 percent of residents say they come downtown more than they used to. Much of the migration in and out of the state is driven by the economy, the survey found, with 31 percent of respondents saying they moved to Michigan for work, while 24 percent replied that they left the state for a job. Just 3 percent of respondents said they moved to Michigan for quality of life; 11 percent said they left the state for that reason. But folks who move to the Detroit metro area are apparently happy. Fifty-one percent said they found Detroit to be “about what I expected,” while 31 percent said the city was “better than I expected.” Only 13 percent said the city fell below expectations. Respondents from the tri-county metro area emphasized that regional cooperation was necessary. Sixty-two percent of Wayne County residents, 69 percent of Oakland County residents and 56 percent of Macomb County residents said that communities outside the city should be extremely involved in the city’s revitalization, with an average of 30 percent saying that outside communities should be somewhat involved.