Kurt Metzger is director of Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit in Detroit established by foundations to build greater capacity for people to work together, and improve lives and communities affiliated with the Michigan Nonprofit Association. He was research director for United Way for Southeastern Michigan from 2005 to 2008 and before that, was a director […]
Business Watch
Covering the intersection of business and policy, and informing Michigan employers and workers on the long road back from coronavirus. Our Michigan Economic Dashboard shows key metrics that show how the state is performing.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Moving from ‘we had money’ to ‘they want money I don’t have’
GREENVILLE – The line began forming an hour before the food truck arrived, starting in the parking lot next to the barren acreage where once stood the nation’s largest refrigerator factory and winding around the front of the former UAW hall. Men and women, some with children, held empty boxes and laundry baskets they soon […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
So you think you are a member of the middle class?
Charles Ballard, a Michigan State University economist, says everyone likes to think they are middle class in America to avoid the negative connotations of the extremes of wealth (greed) and poverty (sloth). (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) Marketers aim for its money, politicians insist they are looking out for its best interests, and the […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Michigan economy grew again in 2012, but pace was well off ’10,’11 rates
Kurt Metzger is director of Data Driven Detroit, a nonprofit in Detroit established by foundations to build greater capacity for people to work together, and improve lives and communities affiliated with the Michigan Nonprofit Association. He was research director for United Way for Southeastern Michigan from 2005 to 2008 and before that, was a director […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Detroit, Grand Rapids are at two ends of ‘job sprawl’ scale
As policy-makers and regional leaders in Southeast Michigan, and other parts of our state, work to grow jobs and connect residents to economic opportunity following the Great Recession, it’s important to remember that with jobs, location matters. The location of employment within a metro area intersects with a range of policy issues — from transportation […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Living for the city: Vibrant urban cores lure young talent
FLYING HIGH: Milwaukee’s avant-garde art museum is a landmark on its urban waterfront. Such amenities are seen as key to lure young talent to metro areas. (Courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) Detroit and Milwaukee have a shared history as blue-collar, manufacturing, shot-and-a-beer kinds of towns. In recent decades, the two Midwest cities also have […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
In turnaround, suburbs lose business to Detroit after years of flight
(Bridge illustration by A.J. Jones) The Southeast Michigan office of Grand Rapids-based public relations firm Lambert Edwards & Co. had been located for years in a gleaming high-rise Troy tower, surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking lots and clogged highways. “You couldn’t walk out your door to get a sandwich,” President Jeff Lambert said. […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Labor belabored: MEA losing members, losing fights. Will it lose its grip?
(Bridge illustration/A.J. Jones) Michigan’s largest teachers union is struggling to keep a toehold as change-minded foes with growing momentum seek to topple the MEA — one of the state’s traditional political giants. The 152,000-member union’s finances are deteriorating. Its growth strategy is uncertain. And it faces an unrelenting political offensive by opponents who see the […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Long-simmering GOP-MEA ‘war’ intensifies going into 2014
The Michigan Education Association and Michigan Republican Party are on speaking terms – sort of. SIGN OF TIMES: An MEA-financed billboard from last year’s elections reflect the heated rhetoric that has come to mark the union’s relationship with the Republican Party. (courtesy photo) Last year, the two sides regularly exchanged plenty of words – words […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Tax shift adds to fiscal woes at city hall
After years of political wrangling over the issue, business advocates hail the phase-out of Michigan’s tax on industrial machinery and business equipment as a welcome tonic for job growth. Public officials in places like River Rouge and Warren are not so sanguine. BILLIONS MORE LOST, BUT PROPERTY VALUE DROP SLOWING “This is not going to […]