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Economic reckoning

November 21, 2008 – 12:11 pm

Is there a kids' soccer game, kids' dance class, neighborhood book club meeting, or cocktail party in Southeast Michigan where the economy and Big Three meltdown ISN'T a topic of conversation this month?
As you head into the Thanksgiving holiday, here are a few tidbits for discussion we've picked up in recent days...
GM'S FRIENDS & FAMILY [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (1)

Who will tell the People?

November 21, 2008 – 11:19 am

Increasingly, Michigan is a place without watchdogs, Phil Power writes this week.
He's not talking about rabid, drooling dobermans guarding junkyards, though his subjects (newspaper reporters) have been called much worse. He's talking about the decline of Michigan newspapers, which grew worse this month with the announcement of big cutbacks at the Booth Newspapers in Ann [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Accountability, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (2)

A New Economy Up North

November 21, 2008 – 10:32 am

How does a place like Grayling, Michigan thrive in the 21st Century?
Home to about 15,000 people, the Grayling area is known as a crossroads in northern Michigan, a place most people simply drive through on their way to Mackinac Island, Traverse City, or Petoskey.
The last big-name employer, Fred Bear Archery, left town more than a [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (0)

Invitation: Have YOUR say in Michigan's future

November 13, 2008 – 2:20 pm

Michigan needs a common ground agenda for the future. An agenda to keep our friends, neighbors, co-workers and brightest young people here at home. An agenda that lays the foundation for a solid economic future. An agenda that sets aside partisanship and brings people together.
Michigan needs YOU to help shape that common ground agenda.
We're writing [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (1)

Getting Michigan moving on transportation issues

November 13, 2008 – 1:25 pm

Michigan faces "dire" consequences -- including a loss of 17,000 more jobs, billions in federal matching funds, and lost global competitiveness -- if it doesn not double its investment in infrastructure, a bipartisan Transportation Funding Task Force reported this week.
The dozen and a half possible fixes include the first general increase in fuel taxes [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (2)

We were the tip of the spear

November 13, 2008 – 9:55 am

Remember the near government shutdown in Michigan last year, which came after several years of budget cuts and strong calls to rewrite the state's business tax code?
So many other state's now know our pain, as the National Council of State Legislatures reports:
Previous NCSL reports indicate states closed a $40 billion budget gap in 31 states [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Accountability, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (1)

Ballot echoes for Michigan

November 13, 2008 – 9:18 am

So, in Michigan we passed medical marijuana use and allowed wider freedoms in stem cell research.
Nationwide, voters decided 153 ballot measures, including several with clear reverberation here in the Great Lakes State.
In 2010, Michigan voters will decide whether to try to rewrite the state Constitution for the first time in a half-century. Interest groups of [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Accountability, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (0)

Battle Creek chooses jobs over unions

October 31, 2008 – 10:35 am

Did you feel the economic tremor in Battle Creek this week?
There's growing buzz in Michigan over the state's long and storied labor history (we should, indeed, thank unions for bringing us paid vacations and the concept of a weekend). Does the state's strong labor climate drive away potential new business? Or, is that a straw-man argument [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (1)

SE Michigan's Entrepreneurial Cities

October 24, 2008 – 11:13 am

Congrats to six Metro Detroit communities for earning the title of the region's most entrepreneurial cities..
Auburn Hills, Dundee, Plymouth Township, Southfield, Tecumseh and Troy.
That news comes from the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Center for Innovation Research...
The 2008 “eCities” study (or “the Entrepreneurial Cities Index”) found that many southeast Michigan municipalities “are hard at work attracting, cultivating, [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Entrepreneurialism, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (1)

A transit bellwether on Election Day

October 24, 2008 – 8:31 am

Talk about mass transit trains and high-speed rail has picked up steam in Michigan's two biggest cities in the past couple years. In August, public support for mass transit was evident as voters approved 15 out of 16 transit millage votes, mostly for busses.
Chris McCarus, Michigan's roving and always forward-looking radio correspondent, reports that the [...]

By John Bebow | Also posted in Economic Development, Fresh Thoughts, The Center at Work | Comments (0)

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