A just-released 2009 economic forecast from the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research underscores that Grand Rapids is not Detroit nor is it the rest of Michigan.

This area has lost jobs but not nearly at the same clip as Detroit or the state, Upjohn's senior analyst George Erickcek told a business audience last week when he presented the Grand Rapids area forecast.

In fact, while Grand Rapids is losing jobs, it also is creating jobs where there were none before -- at a rate of 20,000 per quarter since 2000, he said.

I was curious, obviously, what that difference might be attributed to.  Cool cities, probably.  Or not.

Erickcek attributes that to innovation and entrepreneurs in West Michigan willing to take risks to build their companies.

Contrast that to statewide figures where the job losses are staggering: 104,000 in 2008 and a projected 148,000 in 2009 and 43,900 in 2010.

Ah, should have, would have, could have.  Makes this one hurt a little more, too.  And by a little I mean a lot.  

We had a chance to export that Grand Rapids success story to the rest of the state but we didn't.  We kept that Wayne County / Detroit model, because its worked so well.  Just ask Dan Pitera, a professor of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy.  He's whipped up a staggering new graphic that underscores, in its own way, the folly of doing the same thing over and over again and pretending you aren't expecting the same results.  The Ivory Tower:

Detroit's thinning population is vividly -- some would say disturbingly -- illustrated in a new map that is creating a buzz in local planning circles.

The map shows how to tuck the land mass of Manhattan (23 square miles), San Francisco (47 square miles) and Boston (48 square miles) -- and their combined populations of nearly 3 million people -- into Detroit. All three urban areas fit snugly within Detroit's 139 square miles with room to spare.

That's because Detroit, which was once the home of two million people, is now home to fewer than 900,000.  Projections say it'll be under 700,000 in about a decade and a half and they aren't leaving because the Democrats / Big Labor model is working so well.

In fact, it looks like the only thing that'll keep that decline from accelerating is Presidential action on a bail out for the automakers.  The Detroit News reports that the President is expected to do something on that front in the not-too distant future, though nothing is expected today.

Aside, isn't it interesting that the Governor and Ron Gettelfinger are bending over backwards to say nice things about George W Bush and his leadership these days?  The fact that he's even considering offering a bridge loan after the things they've done and said about him proves that he's a much better man than I am, but I digress.

It is what it is, as they say.  

So what now?  690 some odd days, that's what now.  Would things be different if we'd elected Dick DeVos in 2006?  I am convinced they would be.  I am convinced things would be markedly better across the state.  Does that sort of daydreaming change anything?  Nope.  So its on to 2010.  

We've got 110 state House seats, 38 Senate seats, three pick-up opportunities in the US Congress, a Secretary of State, and Attorney General and a Governor to select.  And we've got  opponents on the left who will be forced to run, all of them, with the Granholm-Cherry track record tied around their necks.  Mix that with harder work and more dedication than any of us have ever mustered in the past and we've got a chance to reclaim this state for conservative, free market, pro job maker principles.  It starts with me.  And it starts with you.  And it has to start now.  To steal a line and a concept from Bob at Live Dangerously... what are you going to do to win today?

I mean, unless you prefer the Detroit model to what they've accomplished over here in Grand Rapids.