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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Outbound moves record shattering and worse than feared


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 07:38:53 AM EST
    Tags: migration, Detroit, Granholm, Cherry, Granholm-Cherry, FAIL, farming, crops, fire, wind turbine, business, jobs (all tags)

    According to the Detroit News, we're setting records here in Michigan.  And not just setting records, but doing things that are so unique and so rare, there is literally no comparative example anywhere in American history.

    In any other state, that sort of paragraph could either be really great news or a portent of something down right rotten.  In a state governed by the Granholm - Cherry administration for the better part of a decade we tend to lose that first option pretty quickly.  Sure enough...

    Michigan's population is dwindling, and fast.  We knew that.  We learn each year that we lead the nation in outbound moves.  United Van Lines doesn't mean to punch us in the gut, they're just reporting their own numbers, but it happens again and again.  

    Since 2001, migration has cost Michigan 465,000 people, the equivalent of the combined populations of Grand Rapids, Warren and Sterling Heights -- the state's second-, third- and fourth-largest cities.

    Population loss of that magnitude is so rare that its impact has never been studied. But The News' analysis discovered some sobering trends:

    Those leaving Michigan are the people the state most needs to keep -- young and college-educated. The state suffered a net loss to migration of 18,000 adults with a bachelor's degree or higher in 2007 alone -- the equivalent of half the staff of the University of Michigan crossing the state line.

    In other words, those jobs of tomorrow and that whole diversification of the economy that the administration has been trying to engineer via tax increases, increased regulation and more overseas family vacations than you can shake a stick at just plain hasn't materialized.  To the contrary... the folks who aren't working are multiplying and staying put while folks who already HAVE jobs are beating feet and making a mad dash for the Indiana border (I refuse to entertain the notion any of them exit via Ohio).

    Read on...

    But I'm a silver lining kind of a guy.  There has to be an upside, right?  Less sprawl and smog, lighter traffic, forty square miles of vacant land INSIDE the state's largest city.  Errrrr.

    Forty square miles?  That's what the Ivory Tower reports this morning.  Never fear, though, because a local businessman has an idea and he's got Kwame Kilpatrick's former press secretary working for him.

    John Hantz is making the rounds and pitching a plan to convert giant swaths of the Motor City into industrial farm land, cider mills complete with hay rides and... drum roll... wind turbines.  

    Offering jobs and an ability to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, Hantz Farms could help Detroit "become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement," Hantz said.

    Detroit already is home to hundreds of smaller community gardens. But Hantz's proposal is the first to envision large-scale commercial farming.

    To say that I'm not sold on the wind turbine concept is to be overly generous, but I'm not going to hate on anyone in the private sector with a dream and the guts to chase it.  

    Frankly, anyone who can find any productive use for even a portion of the blighted, vacant land in the D will be a hero in my book.  Over the last few years I've had the chance to spend months worth of cumulative time inside the city and it never fails to set me back on my heels.  

    We've all seen the pictures but until you're actually standing in front of an all-but entirely burned out neighborhood, well, all you've seen are pictures.  Its an otherworldy feeling, and not a good one.

    So Mr. Hantz, best of luck to you.  I hope you're serious, I hope you're organized and I hope you can beat back the local elected bureaucracy.  Still, I can't help but worry, because if we've learned anything from the last few decades of campaign cycles in Detroit, there's a population there that's used to doing things one way and just plain won't change it up for anyone or any reason.  

    And crops?  They burn just as easily as buildings.

    < A Better Plan | Thursday in the Sphere: April 2 >


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    Another possible loss (none / 0) (#1)
    by Shell on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 08:40:32 AM EST
    My brother-in-law was just laid off.  With two kids and a wife with recently-diagnosed thyroid cancer he's looking locally but his best prospects appear to be in Tampa and Waco, TX.  He'd like to stay in Michigan but he's got the exact same problems that News story outlined.

    It's such a shame that TPTB in Michigan continue to push, drag, bully and force out businesses.  Lift the business taxes and we'd see a turnaround.

    Shell,
    The Conservatrarian

    Another part to worry about (none / 0) (#2)
    by blf80 on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 09:26:14 AM EST
    is we're coming up on a census year - major resident loss will equate with loss of representation in DC (although if we can lose some of the Dems - may be worth it)

    Escape to Ohio (none / 0) (#3)
    by Kevin Rex Heine on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 07:33:55 PM EST
    Since the State of Ohio is set to completely phase out all business taxation (re-read that . . . all business taxation gone in Ohio) by the end of 2010, I can see many Michigan business and their employees heading southeast, right across the MI-OH state line.

    Oh yeah . . . (none / 0) (#4)
    by Kevin Rex Heine on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 07:40:13 PM EST
    . . . another pitch opportunity for a favorite song of mine:




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