Our op-ed in Bridge: it’s time for human capital-focused economic development
On Tuesday, Bridge published an essay I co-wrote with Ned Staebler, the vice president for economic development at Wayne State University and the president and CEO of TechTown. We hope to inspire an important conversation among those who work in economic development in Michigan. The evidence is clear that it’s time to stop a failed […]
Placemaking and equity: the Atlanta BeltLine
The Atlanta BeltLine is explicitly deigned to both improve the quality of life of current city residents and to attract new residents to the city, particularly mobile young professionals. This dual purpose is how placemaking should be done everywhere. The BeltLine is 33 miles of multi-use trails, parks, and a network of pedestrian-friendly transit links. […]
KIPP brings to Detroit a college completion focus
The announcement that KIPP will open a K-12 charter school in Detroit is good news for Detroit students. KIPP is the nation’s largest nonprofit charter school network, with more than 110,000 students ranging from preschool to 12th grade in 255 schools across the county. What KIPP brings to Detroit, first and foremost, is a commitment […]
Placemaking is essential to winning in the 21st Century
This post is about what good-paying jobs focused economic development should look like. About what it takes to grow, retain and attract high-wage jobs. It draws lessons Michigan can learn about winning in the 21st Century from our posts on Austin, Denver and Northern Virginia. Clearly economic development is just one component of state and […]
Winning in the 21st Century: Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia quite literally won economically in the 21st Century when Amazon chose them as the location for one of two HQ2s. Winning what was described by pundits as the Super Bowl of economic development competitions. HQ2 brings to Northern Virginia a commitment for 25,000 jobs with an average salary of $150,000. (Amazon also chose […]
Winning in the 21st Century: Denver
One can make a strong argument that Denver is the American region that has understood best the new reality that talent attracts capital. And because it has Denver is one of the regions best positioned to win economically in the 21st Century. In 2007 the Downtown Denver Partnership published its strategic vision, designed to make […]
The pandemic is hardening our two-tier economy
The pandemic is hardening our two-tier economy. One where those at the top are doing well, but way too many Michiganders are struggling. Low-wage workers have suffered the most since the onset of the pandemic and the forecast is that reality will last for years. This repeats the experience during and after the Great Recession. […]
Winning in the 21st Century: Austin
Austin Texas voters just voted to raise property taxes to pay for the operations and maintenance of Project Connect, a high-capacity $7.1 billion transit system expansion. Project Connect is highlighted by a new light rail system with 27 miles of service and 31 stations. It also includes a transit tunnel under downtown (think subway); four […]
What are and how to teach 21st century skills
A little more than a year ago the Grand Rapids Public Museum hosted Outsmarting the Robots: Redesigning education from the classroom to the halls of Lansing. The conference was organized around the question “how do we redesign our system for learning to build the 21st century skills that matter to meeting the needs of our […]
The preeminent path to good-paying careers
The preeminent path to good-paying careers looks more like rock climbing than climbing a career ladder. More ad hoc and non linear than predictable and linear. What makes successful careers for most of us are our second and third jobs, not our first. And second and third job skills tend to be very different than […]