Attracting Talent: Denver
In his terrific book, Triumph of the City, Edward Glaeser writes: “There is every reason to think that an increasingly prosperous world will continue to place more value on the innovative enjoyments that cities can provide. The bottom-up nature of urban innovation suggests that the best economic development strategy may be to attract smart people and […]
Choosing to be Mississippi again
Brian Dickerson’s Detroit Free Press column “What Rick Snyder wants most of all” column is highly recommended. It raises all the right questions about what direction the Governor wants Michigan to head in. Using the Governor’s proposal for another big business tax cut – this time the personal property tax – as a key indicator […]
Attracting talent: Pittsburgh
Our research clearly indicates that where recent college graduates concentrate you get prosperous economies. And increasingly that concentration is occurring in vibrant central cities. Specifically high density, mixed use, walkable neighborhoods. For the details see our Young Talent in the Great Lakes report. Cities – with the support of their regions and states – across […]
The 3.0 agenda: Chicago
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in an interview with NPR laid out the case as well as anyone that vibrant central cities are central to future economic vitality. And that public investments in those central cities is essential to staying competitive. You can read the transcript and/or listen to it here. In the interview, Emanuel said: […]
College educated big metros driving prosperous state economies
Our work at Michigan Future is focused on recreating Michigan as a high prosperity state. A place, once again, with a broad middle class. It is a status we enjoyed for most of the 20th Century, but now have lost. In our research we have found that the states that have high per capita income […]
Detroit parents lead education change
Conventional wisdom both here and across the country is that when it comes to k-12 schooling (and a whole lot more) Detroit is the most ossified place. Resistant to all change. Highly protective of the public school monopoly and unionized workers. Think again! Turns out that Detroit parents, in unprecedented numbers, actively shop for schools […]
Detroit parents as school shoppers
From its inception Michigan Future Schools understood that the schools it invests in need to be good at operations, academics and student recruitment. All three matter. That in addition to financial support, MFS needed to help the schools it invests in build the capacity to be first rate in all three areas.When it came to […]
Going backward faster on higher education
In our 2006 A New Agenda for a New Michigan report we wrote: “As we assess the assets Michigan has to prepare, retain, and attract talent, our higher education system rises to the top of the list. Michigan has spent decades building a world-class system of higher education, both universities and community colleges. They are […]