To hear John Henry, director of the Flint Institute of Arts, tell it, there once existed a near-magical time in that city’s history, when its blue-collar roots lived in harmony with a yearning for beauty and creativity somewhere off the assembly line. That was the era when Charles Stewart Mott, the city’s two-time mayor and […]
City stress
Posted inQuality of Life
Why go? A peek inside some of the state’s best art museums
With the end of a summer approaching, Michigan tourists may be looking for more indoor destinations in fall. The state’s art museums welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors in a year, with collections and programming that vary widely. A few possibilities are: Detroit Institute of Arts Michigan’s largest, located on Woodward Avenue in the city’s […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Kalamazoo, Muskegon make tough calls, rise in fiscal ratings
Muskegon has made major cuts in public spending in recent years. And the city’s fiscal stress score looks much better in a recent analysis by Munetrix. (Bridge archive photo) A gritty, blue-collar city on Lake Michigan, Muskegon faces headwinds similar to many Michigan communities: factory closings, job losses, an eroding tax base. But in the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Stressed cities hear little sympathy from State Capitol
DISCUSSION CLOSED: Republican leaders who run the State Capitol have rebuffed appeals from local governments to boost the flow of tax dollars from the state. Will last week’s announcement of nearly $500 million in “new” revenue change the debate? (Bridge archive photo) Michigan cities expecting a helping hand from Lansing as they dig out of […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Three reasons why you should want to know your hometown’s fiscal score
Eric Lupher is director of local affairs for the Citizens Research Council of Michgan, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group. Those of us who have been around for a while remember the opening of each “M*A*S*H” episode, with the doctors and nurses rushing to the incoming helicopters to retrieve and assess the newly injured soldiers. In […]
Posted inMichigan Government
See how your hometown’s checkbook is holding up
Nearly a decade ago, as Michigan struggled through a massive recession, the state Department of Treasury began to look at how the tough times were affecting the bottom lines in city and village halls across the state. These fiscal scores and Treasury’s “fiscal watch list” quickly became a source of controversy as local leaders contested […]