When it comes to getting younger––particularly retaining and attracting recent college graduates––fixing the damn roads is not the answer. In a recent report the Citizens Research Council includes a top and bottom ten list of state road conditions compiled by…
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…
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…
The New York Times recently wrote about Ford's purchase of the long-abandoned Detroit train station. The article's subtitle is what matters: By renovating a symbol of the city’s decline, the company hopes to create a magnet for the talent needed to…
When Bart Carrigan moved from East Lansing to Minneapolis to manage his Michigan-based employer’s newly opened restaurant, he was struck by the city’s many amenities. “I love the environment, and there are a ton of outdoor activities all year round,”…
A few weeks ago, Amazon announced that neither of Michigan’s major metros, Detroit and Grand Rapids, are finalists for the location of HQ2. Lou wrote about why we at Michigan Future were not at all surprised. For years, MFI has…
My biggest concern for the state and its regions––particularly metro Detroit--is that we have a vision of what we want the future to look like and a public policy agenda, from across the political spectrum, that are grounded in the…
What concerns me most about Michigan's politics is how much of it, on a bi-partisan basis, seems designed for the 20th Century. We seem to be having a hard time learning what made us prosperous in the past, won't in…
Governor-elect Snyder was right on when he wrote in his ten point plan that “many of Michigan’s youth are looking for an appealing metropolitan community – and many are moving out of state to find it”. As is the plan’s…