Three Main Problems in Michigan.... (Detroit, Lansing: budget, income, work)

[Bluefly]

Originally Posted by zakian

Well there is no creative class in Michigan, at least not enough to make a difference plus the fact that Michigan is now considered a "service state." Menial jobs. Please tell me where these young people with money are and what they're waiting for. Granhomeless is leaving the country again to try and create jobs instead of doing the smart thing and staying here. She doesn't have a clue.

The reason there is no creative class in Michigan is because they move away. I grew up in a very wealthy suburb of Detroit doing the private school Ivy League feeder life. These are the people Michigan needs to retain, yet they all end up in Chicago, New York, or Washington, DC.

Is it jobs? In part. But, having lived in DC, I can assure you people fight to stay in these places long after the job dries up because of the open-mindedness, the culture, the vibrancy, the urban energy.

Detroit gave into the automobile dependent landscape 100% and is now paying a heavy price.

[Cato the Elder]

Well, in metro Detroit, one can argue the problem is a double-edged sword. Not only is it difficult to keep the creative class, but the "uncreative" class has historically done quite well here (as long as you could turn a screw and had some connections). Remember the show Roseanne? Imagine that family but their income topping $100k and a $40k mini-van, $40k F-150, and $80k boat in the driveway.

This situation has served as a strong counter-current to any inroads by the creative class. Who wants to continually swim upstream? Miraculously, the museums, orchestra, theaters, galleries, etc. have somehow survived in pretty good shape. Even if an average metro Detroit kid beats the odds and makes it through art school or university, there is plenty of competition from metros with cultures more hospitable to their tastes.

[Bluefly]

^^^
That's a very good point and really, I think, gets at the heart of Michigan's problems. You can no longer turn a rivet for 40 years and be set for life like my uncles in the auto industry were. Those uneducated, retired men are some of the most financially secure I know.

You can no longer let a city just emerge because people will come and stay for an industry, not really caring about quality of life beyond simply being able to get to work easily and having a little plot of grass.

Those days are gone. The cities and people that are winning today have focused on integrated design and quality of life, not just comfortable lives where all you do is go to the same job for decades on end and barbeque steaks on the back patio on the weekend. Young people change jobs, homes, and even careers at alarming rates today. Michigan is still trying to play the old game of finding a stable job that'll pay the bills. Young people want way more than that and in this era of cheap travel they'll go wherever those opportunities for personal growth are.

Also - one need only look to the renewed vibrancy of Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago to get over the excuse that "We have bad weather here so no one wants to stay". We also have extraordinary beaches, lakes, and forests that would appeal to anybody. I think Michigan is a gorgeous state, myself. We just have to stop sprawling strip malls and subdivisions detached from any center of culture and life all over it.

[MIhome]

openmind society comes with a price,a severe one at that.look at frisco,the openminded city they have and culture is an extreme burden to the average taxpayer.Michigan has one way to go....green.
if it advances and creates new technology for this area,the world will follow suit.With all the resources it has,most than other states by far,it could lead the way for generations to come.

[Cato the Elder]

It is absolutely perplexing and frustrating to watch other cities and states with much less do so much better at reinventing themselves for the 21st century. CA is celebrated b/c there is so much to do. One weekend, we went water skiing on Saturday in the North Bay and went snow skiing the next day up near Tahoe. Though MI isn't quite as versatile, there's wine country, breweries, parks, sailing, historic neighborhoods, museums, B&Bs, skiing, etc. Very few states have such available and varying natural and cultural resources. You subtract Chicago and its formidable urban amenities, and what else does IL have?

It took MI decades to become the way it is from a socio-cultural perspective, and it will take some years and visionary outlooks to reinvent itself so that the creative class grows. Philadelphia has a coalition to specifically keep as many of its regional university students in the area as possible. MI needs to do something similar at the state level, but its got a much more difficult task with an entrenched, older, working class that's more interested in keeping the status quo than ensuring the longterm health of the state.

[Paddington]

1) Unions
2) Democratic party
3) Cold weather

[Paddington]

Originally Posted by deslok

I read an article in the WSJ that said big auto in Michigan is looking to export more vehicles now then ever, since the value of the dollar is down. While this may be good news, it just keeps going back to Michigan relying on the auto industry to bring us back.

The cheap dollar is great for places like Ohio, Michigan. But it doesn't help that the UAW is on strike against American Axle, and now against certain GM plants, leading to closures of around 40 factories. It hurts them badly during a time when the companies are hurting financially - and to add insult to injury - the market conditions are finally ripe enough for them to be making good money.

[MIhome]

Originally Posted by Paddington

1) Unions
2) Democratic party
3) Cold weather

you may have gotten 2out of 3 right,i believe other states with the democratic party in play are thriving

[One Thousand]

Originally Posted by MIhome

you may have gotten 2out of 3 right,i believe other states with the democratic party in play are thriving

I'd agree. It's more to do with which Democrats. Just as there are spenders like Bush and tightwads like McCain in the Republican party, there are different strains of Democrats... I wonder if Granholm and her Canadien roots lead her to be a particularly bad-for-America Democrat.

She may have been so accustomed to the 50%+ taxes that she didn't realize how severely Americans would buck at small rises... especially during a local depression.

[Paddington]

I agree that there's different flavors of Democrats and Republicans. Republican Bob Taft in Ohio was so left wing he enacted absolutely suicidal tax and spend policies that undid all the gains the state had made under his predecessor Voinovich (himself no Reaganite). But the context also matters:

A Democrat in a state like Arizona where the taxes are low and there's right to work laws in place can only engage in so much monkey business. A Democrat in California can pass all kinds of nutty socialist laws that make it difficult to do business, but the economy will still grow because people will put up with those hassles in exchange for non-economic advantages of beaches, mild weather, mountains, etc.

A Democrat in a state like Michigan, where the tax policy sucks, the laws actually empower unions instead of limiting their might, and where the biggest city is nation's murder capital can really send things over the edge, as MI is finding out now with years of a "one state recession", population loss, and widespread labor strife. If you look up "suicide" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Granholm.