Worth Reading
We are releasing our annual report later this week. My plan is to use these posts for the next several weeks to highlight our findings. So rather than wait to write a complete post on each, here are some articles I think are worth reading. 1. David Olive wrote a fascinating column for the Toronto Star […]
Transportation Drives Growth
Terrific article by Christopher Leinberger in this month’s Atlantic. It’s about the increased consumer demand – in both cities and suburbs – for walkable neighborhoods linked by train. The article and his book the Option of Urbanism are worth reading. Leinberger is best in describing the changing patterns of consumer demand for housing and neighborhoods. […]
Does Economic Development Work II
Good series of articles in the Free Press on the state’s 21st Century Jobs fund. Worth reading. The lead article by Katherine Yung is titiled Bold Experiment Produces Few Jobs. Which raises again the question “is this kind of economic development effective?” We are skeptical. The fund was to be Michigan’s latest big effort to diversify […]
Lets Grow, Not Shrink, Detroit
Detroit needs a growth agenda. And the rest of us need to support it. There is a clear pattern across the country: the most prosperous states are either rich in energy resources or are anchored by an even more prosperous big metro with a vibrant central city. As I have written previously it’s Detroit that […]
Detroit’s Assets
We spend all of our time bashing the city of Detroit, we forget that it has assets to build from. Three of the most important are Wayne State University, the Henry Ford Health System and the Detroit Medical Center. Tom Walsh in a recent Free Press column calls them Detroit’s new big three. Likely the […]
The New White Flight?
Real interesting article at Yahoo.com about a new Brookings Institution study. Its title: White flight? Suburbs lose young whites to cities. That it’s even possible that whites are moving into, rather than out of, central cities will come as a huge shock to many – particularly here in Michigan. Where far too many of us believe central […]
Is Richard Florida Right?
Thought provoking article in the American Prospect about the work of Richard Florida. It is critical of him on a variety of fronts, but particularly his selling his ideas in speeches and consulting to many small to mid size cities and regions who he now has decided have little or no chance to retain and […]
Michigan Future Schools Jobs
Michigan Future Schools – our high school accelerator – is now hiring its first two professional. You can find details here. More than anything else we are looking for staff that know what is involved in operating a high quality urban high school and also are able to teach/help others do it. We are seeking […]
State Board of Ed Leading
Our politics are characterized by hyper partisanship and an unwillingness to tackle the big issues. So at a time when leadership matters most, we get inaction. There is some good news. The State Board of Education – on a bipartisan basis – is tackling the issue of how do you provide quality teaching and learning […]
The New Face of Economic Growth
Don Grimes and I are working on the latest update of the Michigan’s Transition to a Knowledge-Based Economy report. It will be out in May. It will once again tell the story that Michigan’s decline compared to the nation is the combination of the implosion of our dominant industry – domestic autos – and our […]