Free Republic

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's "Cool Cities" initiative has not done much to help the working middle class. Joel Kotin, a professor at Chapman University, sheds light on what is happening in American cities in an article appearing in "The American" titled "Urban Plight: Vanishing Upward Mobility." Mr. Kotin points to a Brookings Institution study that found that New York City and Los Angeles have the smallest share of middle-income neighborhoods of all American cities. The Brookings Institution found that in 2007, Manhattan ranked first in social inequality, with the top 20 percent earning over 50 times more than the bottom 20...

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is planning to host a public forum next week to discuss the how to stem the tide that leads nearly half of the Michigan’s college students to seek professional opportunities outside the state within a year of graduating. Granholm wants to reverse that trend and minimize the effects of Michigan’s brain drain, something The Detroit News recently documented in a two-day series. The number of Michigan State University graduates leaving the state increased from 24 percent in 2001 to 49 percent, according to a school study. Fifty-three percent of graduates of the University of Michigan who are...

Michigan residents leaving cities for suburbs Updated: June 28, 2007 12:28 PM GRAND RAPIDS -- A new U.S. Census Bureau report shows more and more Michigan residents are fleeing big cities and heading straight for the suburbs. The report shows two-thirds of those cities have lost population over the past six years, including Flint (9.8 percent), Detroit (8.4 percent), Lansing (4 percent), and Grand Rapids (2.3 percent). The drop in Detroit is the second highest in the nation, next to New Orleans which is trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Americans have left industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest,...

Locals come looking for 'cool' Friday, December 10, 2004 By Sharon Emery Lansing Bureau LANSING -- More than 1,100 civic leaders and cultural entrepreneurs from across Michigan came to Lansing looking for the "sweet spot" that turns great ideas for urban renewal into projects that spark real change. The "Tipping to Cool" conference Thursday is part of the state's push to create "Cool Cities" by encouraging grass-roots efforts to draw people and economic development into urban areas. The conference, sponsored by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and other state agencies, focused on making good intentions a reality...

<p>Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants Michigan cities to be cool places that attract the so-called “creative classes.” But Michiganians seem to prefer another C-word: comfort.</p> <p>Some 13,000 people, identifying themselves as state residents ages 18 to 35, filled out a questionnaire on the governor’s Web site about Granholm’s cool cities initiative.</p>

MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm has a question for college students: What makes a cool city? The governor's Cool Cities Initiative is designed to make Michigan more attractive to young college graduates, many of whom are moving to the Sun Belt to start careers and families. "We're all really most interested in hearing from you, the students, the ones who are making the decisions," Granholm said Thursday during a forum at Northern Michigan University. "This is not a top-down movement to create cool. It's bottom-up." The forum is among three Granholm has scheduled to solicit student opinions. One...

Saginaw chosen to kick off Cool Cities initiative By BARRIE BARBER The Associated Press 2/6/2004, 12:26 p.m. ET SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — The state has selected Saginaw as the first of 12 urban areas to kick off its highly touted "Cool Cities" initiative, Gov. Jennifer Granholm says. What played into her administration's first-at-bat choice? The Democrat noted Saginaw's recent collaboration of community and business leaders to revive the long-ailing city as it has watched its jobs and population dwindle. "You guys are one step ahead of many other places," Granholm said Thursday. "You've laid the groundwork almost better than any...

Some see chilling effect in cities desperately striving to be hip You can't mass market cool, Ypsilanti business owner says Sunday, December 7, 2003 BY TOM GANTERT News Staff Reporter In the race to be cool, Jennifer Albaum has a message for Michigan cities looking to keep their young adults from running off to some other state. "I don't think it is good for every city to be cool," said Albaum, a downtown Ypsilanti businesswoman who has been asked to speak at Gov. Jennifer Granholm's Cool Cities Initiative Conference on Thursday in Lansing. "Every city should be different." Albaum sells...