What can be done for Flint? (Detroit, Lansing: travel, jobs, medicine)

[kaypurdue]

Inspired by the Jackson post... what ideas do you Flintstones out there have for improving the city?

[Miborn]

Ya know Flint use to be a thriving town pretty sad I'd say that it is in the state it is now in. I know this is not a solution heres one maybe get away from the auto industry and lure some big business's into the city how does one go about doing that I don't know. Taxes are pretty high there and allot of business move to states where the taxes are lower.

[Cliffie]

Flint is going through what all single-industry towns do...the industry dries up and the city dies. All Flint needs is several new industries. Same as Detroit.

Some thoughts: Biodiesel plants or other sustainable-energy type of industries. Food processing. I KNOW Michigan needs more candy factories and fish canneries! They should be founded in something people will need forever, like food and medicine.

[Miborn]

Originally Posted by Cliffie

Flint is going through what all single-industry towns do...the industry dries up and the city dies. All Flint needs is several new industries. Same as Detroit.

Some thoughts: Biodiesel plants or other sustainable-energy type of industries. Food processing. I KNOW Michigan needs more candy factories and fish canneries! They should be founded in something people will need forever, like food and medicine.

I think that Biodiesel is a great idea. We had one blow up here in Idaho not to long ago had not even opened up yet! Have not heard anything more about it. Don't ya love it when they don't continue to cover a story! Oh well.
Allot of farmers are growing corn and cashing in on it. I hear that is true in other states and are opting out of growing hay's for feed more money in corn. But not growing hay's is also hurting the economy because all livestock owners need hay unless they don't have winters that kill the grass.

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by Miborn

I think that Biodiesel is a great idea. We had one blow up here in Idaho not to long ago had not even opened up yet! Have not heard anything more about it. Don't ya love it when they don't continue to cover a story! Oh well.
Allot of farmers are growing corn and cashing in on it. I hear that is true in other states and are opting out of growing hay's for feed more money in corn. But not growing hay's is also hurting the economy because all livestock owners need hay unless they don't have winters that kill the grass.

I use a mix 1/2 bio. Most weeks about 500 gal., off road. The taxable (road tax) is about 1/3 bio. Hubby did not want to switch, but likes it now.

[famlife]

i've been trying to think of things they can do to utilize what they already have.. lots of huge, empty structures on railroad tracks.. it'd be great if they would let some big thriving corporations in there and give them some incentives. like man.. i wish google would've went to flint instead of ann arbor! if places like that opened up in flint, it would start attracting young professionals, which i believe can really turn a city around in more ways than could be predicted. i'm not big in economics, but i think that if there were people there making a little extra money, it would strengthen the local economy, new nice stores and businesses would start springing up, there would be people with money to rent/sell to so the neighborhoods may become nicer and more fixed up as a result.. educated people would demand that their childrens' schools be adequate..

if Flint could offer companies some incentives for business to come there.. maaaybe.. maybe the state could help somehow?

as i've said, i know technically know nothing about the way these things work, so i am incredibly naive, but i don't see how it could hurt!

[UpperPeninsulaRon]

Originally Posted by kaypurdue

Inspired by the Jackson post... what ideas do you Flintstones out there have for improving the city?

Here is a very interesting article written today in the Lansing State Journal that talks about these kinds of issues.

Lansing State Journal: Melot: On jobs, pursue 'travel' option

Probably the most compelling argument in the piece goes like this:

There's nothing written in stone that Michigan needs 10 million residents. And this state is going nowhere as long as its culture is dominated by a desperate bid to somehow mandate, in perpetuity, the economy of 1955.

This means a definite change in the way that we look at business in this state, and not rely on the ways that woked in the past. There will be no quick fix. The company that choose to move to Ann Arbor did so because that city looks beyond "the economy of 1955".