The Legislature opened its 2012 “lame duck” session this week. Where’s that phrase come from, anyway? Well, it was first used as a down-on-his-luck stockbroker, since an injured duck who cannot keep up with the flock is an easy target for predators. In the political world, lame ducks are something else again: Officeholders who were […]
Detroit
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“You can’t know, you can only believe — or not” — C.S. Lewis, 20th century English author. * About 25 percent of voters in Michigan this year are expected to cast ballots absentee. “More and more people, in talking to their neighbors, are finding out it’s convenient in saving you a trip to the polls,” said […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Blizzard of cash obscures bridge issues
The list of supporters for the planned New International Trade Crossing in Detroit reads like a roll call of distinguished Michigan stakeholders. Five governors. Five automakers. Twenty-three chambers of commerce. The state’s largest newspapers, corporations and most influential movers and shakers all have signed on in agreement that the state needs a new, modern link […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Snyder’s reinvention plans for Detroit tied up in two ballot props
A local sports page reader, commenting on the lack of attention Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown bid was receiving nationally last week, lamented: “Detroit on the whole has been nationally defined in the cultural consciousness as the ashtray of the United States.” Or it can be defined as tragically beautiful, according to the publicity for two […]
Posted inSuccess
A hope for homeless youth in Detroit’s Covenant House
Sam Joseph once spotted a former resident playing basketball in Covenant House Michigan’s gated five-acre campus. It was Prince, who had been a homeless teen when he found shelter, education and life-skills training at Covenant House Michigan, then got a scholarship and moved on to Ferris State University. “Why are you here? Did you get […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Citizen input sought on Michigan’s to-do list
By John Austin/Michigan Economic Center All of us who live in — and love – Michigan have some deep-rooted sense of what makes the state special. Our great outdoors and spectacular lakes. Our cars, the open road, hauling the camper or snowmobile Up North. Great colleges and universities that bring us together on football Saturdays […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it” — John Locke, 17th century English philosopher. * The Center for New Opportunity, a start-up incubator launched by some positive-thinking folks in Lansing, gets a nice write-up on The Atlantic Cities website. New phrase learned today – “low profit corporation.”: http://www.theatlantic.com/ technology/archive/2012/09/a-new-kind-of-startup-organization-for-a-new-kind-of-lansing/262614/ * The […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Motor City rolls on to tech, health care
Detroit has long been known as the Motor City. Don’t trying telling city officials that it isn’t anymore. Much of the city’s automotive production left long ago, as manufacturers and suppliers moved operations to lower-cost southern states. But Detroit officials will quickly remind you of significant auto operations that are still here — and are, […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Stirring the pot for Detroit development
One came with a poster-sized drawing of the television studio he wants to build. Another distributed a map of a light-rail system – a fantasy system, to be sure – covering much of Southeast Michigan. A third spoke of her plan to put addicts on the road to recovery via horticulture. And the last had […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Savior of Jazz Festival sees better times for Detroit
Gretchen Valade is known in Detroit cultural circles as the philanthropist whose intercession — $15 million worth and counting — saved the city’s Labor Day weekend jazz festival in 2005. Fewer know that Valade, heiress to the Carhartt clothing fortune, is as busy in her ninth decade as she’s ever been, playing a role in […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.