Michigan old and new

Looking back and looking forward as Michigan’s auto crisis deepens and its people hurtle toward a very uncertain 2009.

Here’s an enraging, one-sided look at Detroit by Time Magazine. It’s a photo essay that takes great pains to seek out the very worst vacant remains of the city’s industrial past. Yes, Detroit has struggled for years with vacant structures, I’d argue similar scenes to these photos can be found in many cities across the land. It leaves a bitter taste for Time to post this gallery, at this moment, while ignoring the positive steps in downtown redevelopment, the river walk, the new hotels, the Opera House, the university district.

The compelling story in Detroit is how its people and businesses continue to seek growth (just like those small saplings known to grow on top of vacant buildings). Maybe Time Magazine could come back for a look at the Detroit Young Professionals Vanguard Awards to honor young trailblazers working to reinvent the city. Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on the front of the awards invitation applies to all of us in this state at this moment…

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Finally, here’s a celebration of Michigan’s new economy: announcement of a new $550 million nuclear research facility at Michigan State University. Here’s how Lansing PR guru Roger Martin summed up its importance yesterday…

In these challenging economic times, it’s nice to get some good news. As you may know, we have provided public relations assistance to Michigan State University’s effort to win federal government approval for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a $550 million nuclear physics research project. MSU was in competition for the project with the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the project to MSU, along with the nearly 6,000 construction jobs and 500 additional full-time jobs it will bring to Michigan and the Lansing area. These are high-paying and highly skilled jobs coming to one of the world’s finest universities and to a state in desperate need. As hard as we worked on this project, please know the administration of MSU and the staff of the cyclotron worked even harder.