As Michigan creeps toward re-opening, Bridge Business Editor Paula Gardner shares what it’s like at Detroit Metro Airport and on a crowded airplane.
Paula Gardner
Paula directs the business reporting on Bridge, writing much of it and setting the strategy for how statewide business coverage fits into Bridge’s nonpartisan policy-driven editorial mix. Paula came to Bridge in 2020 after several years at MLive.com, where she covered the state on both business and environmental teams. Prior to that, she was editor of the Ann Arbor News and news director of online startup AnnArbor,com, and also focused on business news as an editor and reporter at Michigan Business Review. Born and raised in metro Detroit, Paula moved to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan, and has lived in the city for 20 years with her husband, who grew up in their neighborhood. Paula also regularly visits East Lansing and Grand Rapids to visit her college-aged children. She can be reached at pgardner@bridgemi.com
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan travel industry feels ‘pressures in all directions’
Tourism drives billions of dollars into the state’s economy. Now, after months of coronavirus shut-downs, it’s starting summer without answers on when it can attempt to do that again.
Posted inBusiness Watch
6 lessons Michigan restaurants and bars can learn from Florida's reopening
Some Michigan restaurants can reopen this weekend, but COVID-19 is still changing the industry. These lessons from Florida, which reopened dining room access earlier this month, offer insight into how the new rules are reshaping business.
Posted inMichigan Environment Watch
Midland flooding highlights Michigan’s aging stockpile of neglected dams
The state’s 2,581 dams, many aging and in need of repair, get little attention from legislators, but their maintenance and costs raise concerns, particularly as water levels rise in Michigan.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Over 1.7 million applicants push Michigan unemployment system to the brink
State legislators got their first look at overall jobless claims Wednesday after two months of coronavirus layoffs. Eight percent of applicants still await payments.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Long-term changes proposed for Michigan’s unemployment system
With 1.3 million residents filing for jobless benefits, the system is under a spotlight. Now, some policy experts and Democrats say, it’s time to revise it. Business leaders aren’t sure.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan restaurants give Gretchen Whitmer a roadmap for opening May 29
No opening date has been announced for the state’s restaurant industry, which lost over $1 billion in sales during April. Now the industry is outlining what it thinks it needs to do to reopen — and it wants the OK to start planning.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan jobless claims top 1.1 million as state streamlines approvals
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order this week, changing the review process for benefits. The state hopes that step gets money to unemployed workers more quickly.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Q&A with Brian Calley: 1 in 7 Michigan small businesses worry about survival
COVID-19 continues to pressure the state’s smallest operations, with 45 percent closed and 60 percent laying off at least one employee. Here is what an advocacy group says about the situation and what is needed next.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan college towns were economically stable. Coronavirus changed that.
Cities like Ann Arbor and East Lansing benefit from the ‘economic engines’ of their state universities. Budget shortfalls, potential layoffs and more fallout from COVID-19 now threaten their financial balance, from students shopping in local stores to how many people they employ.