Dan Carmody joined Detroit’s Eastern Market Corp. in 2007, just in time to catch the local-food wave. The market district covers one square mile on Detroit’s east side and holds about 150 businesses, but the public draws are the five city-owned structures where, on Saturdays year-round, Metro Detroiters flock to buy fresh produce, meat and […]
Talking Detroit's Eastern Market, the hunt for the Michigan potato, and other food stuff
Posted inQuality of Life
Michigan food and the case of the Chinese cherries
Matt Gougeon runs the Marquette Food Co-op, a store that began the way a lot of co-ops did in the 1970s, as a buying club for a number of families who wanted food that was hard to find in the Upper Peninsula. Over the years, it’s grown into a 3,200-square-foot store with $5 million in […]
Posted inTalent & Education
Enjoy the fireworks
Bridge Magazine is taking a hiatus this week to enjoy the festivities surrounding Independence Day. New stories will appear at Bridge on July 10. In the meantime, please feel free to explore the site. For example, check out some of our searchable databases: * See how your local schools do on college remediation. * What […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Chasing the costs of ambulances
On a given day in Michigan, anyone with a scanner listening for 911 medical calls might hear something like this: “trouble breathing,” “pain in abdomen,” “swallowed something.” Some are emergencies. Others are not. In most municipalities, there is a good chance first on the scene will be a crew of medically-trained responders from the nearest […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Henry Ford CEO says higher pay is only way to attract primary-care doctors
Nancy Schlichting, chief executive officer of the Henry Ford Health System, which handles $4.2 billion in revenues, says there are no easy answers in addressing the projected shortage of physicians in Michigan, particularly primary care physicians. Health care economics also likely will dictate the end of small, independent community hospitals, she said. Those hospitals will […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial” — Sophocles, ancient Greek playwright. * The Michigan Legislature considered a move into the private prison business this spring, with a proposal to shift prisoners from a state facility in Ionia to one in Baldwin owned by GEO […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Incentives can address Michigan's rural doctor shortage
By Rep. Jim Ananich and Rep. Frank Foster Everyone in Michigan, regardless of where you live or where you’re traveling through, deserves access to basic, primary health care. Unfortunately, a shortage of specially trained doctors and medical professionals in some areas provides a costly barrier for too many families. Recent coverage in Bridge rightly pointed […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Detroit, allies caught on blight treadmill
The numbers are inescapable: Estimates of just how many blighted buildings still stand in Detroit– most of them houses past rehabilitation, nests of crime and the most visible signs of the city’s distress – range from 30,000 to as many as 70,000. It costs about $10,000, on average, to take down one of them. Which […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Poor people aren't getting equal shake in court, governor's panel warns
Fridays in Ottawa County’s courts — when criminal defendants often are arraigned without legal representation — are referred to as “McJustice Days.” In Sault Ste. Marie, attorneys representing the poor have little time to prepare and wait in line to meet with their clients in the courthouse’s unisex bathroom. In Wayne County, court-appointed attorneys haven’t […]
Posted inTalent & Education
GAO wades into charter-school special ed
Publicly funded independent, or charter, schools educate fewer children with disabilities than traditional public schools, suggests a new report by the Government Accountability Office. But the report, reported by Education Week here, notes that there are a number of contributing factors that make clear conclusions difficult: “Several factors may help explain why enrollment levels of students with […]