Texas Research Universities Initiative
Little noticed in yesterday's election was the adoption, by a 55%-45% margin, of a $500 million fund to create more Tier One research universities in Texas. It was supported by both parties - including a very conservative Governor. Their goal is to have as many top notch research universities as other big population states like New York and California. Why?…
How Do We Grow?
A couple of recent news articles struck me as representing where the Michigan is now and how we might turn it around. The first is from Brian O'Connor at the Detroit News on how Michigan is in for another decade of slow growth at best. It quotes some of the best economists on the Michigan economy – including my colleague…
High School Accelerator
Nice editorial in today's Detroit News about a new high school initiative we are about to launch. We have been calling it a metro Detroit high school accelerator. Its mission is to create over the next eight years thirty five new small high quality high schools in Detroit and its inner ring suburbs. The first phase will involve starting eleven…
dbusiness Article Update
The folks at dbusiness gave me a great opportunity to do a long essay on our prescription for improving the Michigan economy. You can read it here. The article went to print before the new 2008 state data came out on both per capita income and college education attainment. So here are the latest data. The first table is the…
Detroit’s Offer to Creatives – Space, Food and Time
The revival of Detroit is happening, slowly but surely. The best indicator is the pulse of the so-called "creative class" that are typically the first to re-enter and re-catalyze an urban area. This weekend, I met up with a friend who is a prototype of the creative class - an artist and musician who organizes underground music events, plays shows…