Is the leadership finally starting to get it?

Michigan Cities See Placemaking as the Way to a Brighter Future

There’s no consensus in the urban planning profession — or in public opinion more generally — about how to handle declining cities like Detroit.All sorts of solutions have been proposed, ranging from the outlandish [[making Detroit a “skyscraper ruins park“) to the more widely accepted [[converting vacant land into urban agriculture).

But lately Michigan leaders have seized on a strategy that may be the most promising yet: placemaking.
From newspaper columnists to business executives, from theDepartment of Transportation and Governor Rick Snyder, Wolverines of all stripes seem to be coming to the conclusion that creating vibrant, walkable urban places is perhaps as important to the future of the state as the auto industry was to its past.
Leading this philosophical sea change is a nonprofit group representing the state’s incorporated cities and suburbs: the Michigan Municipal League. The League recently published a manifesto for the state’s renewal titled “The Economics of Place.” [[They also started a Streetsblog Network blog by the same name.)
League CEO and Economics of Place author Dan Gilmartin explains, studies have shown that 65 percent of college-educated young people look, first, for an attractive place to live and, second, for a job.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in the last several decades disinvesting in our cities, and all of a sudden that’s what makes you competitive,” Gilmartin said.

Creating places that young people find vibrant, exciting and attractive is essential to the state’s health, Gilmartin said on the blog:

"It started several years ago, in exploring what it will take to return Michigan to greatness. We looked high and low and came to believe with absolute certainty that our future depends on our ability to compete for talent. And as we dug deeper, we found that “talent” [[young, college educated, creative people, often entrepreneurs) demands great places. To them, an absolute prerequisite is a vibrant urban center that appeals on an emotional level. They want to live and work where they feel something — connected, challenged, inspired, excited, free and effectual. These are 21st century communities."

You just don’t get that in a subdivision thirty miles outside the city center, no matter how nicely the lawn is manicured. Don’t get me wrong, many people feel wonderful in that setting too, but for this key demographic, the urban experience is paramount.
This point is especially hard to get across for some reason:

Gilmartin agrees. “We don’t lose to the Chicagos, and Seattles, Minneapolises and places like that on taxes and regulations,” he said. “We just don’t.” He agrees with Dzwonkowski that creating vibrant urban spaces is far more important in revitalizing Michigan’s cities.
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/11/28...n-placemaking/