Consider this post something of a holdover from yesterday's Development News. This is going to sound a little off-topic at first, but bear with us.

Salon ran a great article yesterday about America's water problems. Yes, you read that correctly... we're going to link a story about Great Lakes water protection with economic development:

In San Diego, which just experienced its driest summer in recorded history, the hills are charred from October's wildfires. The state of California is so tapped out that the pumps that carry water from the Sacramento River to San Diego were tightened in December. Water authorities are urging San Diegans to tear up their grass and replace it with cactus and succulent.

Sun Belters, there's a man in Detroit with the answer to your water problems. "They can have all the water they want," says Hugh McDiarmid Jr. of the Michigan Environmental Council. "All they have to do is move here." There's plenty of room. Some Detroit neighborhoods are so bereft of houses that pheasants hide in the vacant lots. And the cost of living is unbeatable. Earlier this year, an auctioneer was trying to unload a bungalow for $18,000. When no one would bid, he reminded his audience, "You get the land under the house, too."

Detroit clearly has an image problem to contend with (something we've touched on in the past), but former Free Press reporter Hugh McDiarmid actually made a great point with this tongue-in-cheek remark.

Michigan has access to the largest fresh water supply on earth. Sure, our winters are a little chilly and gray, but we'd love to welcome more than a few of those Sun Belters back here to the midwest:

So to Sun Belters, I say: Come on back. This is not an idle appeal. The Great Lakes basin is home to 33 million people. But its water can support millions more. William Frey, a demographer who has studied the Sun Belt migration for the Brookings Institution, thinks the South's water shortages may "spur a U-turn" in that decades-long pattern. Moribund Michigan, Ohio and New York may finally have a chance to recover all those kids who buggered off to California with their master's degrees, as well as all those congress members and electoral votes. They'll need to modernize their economies to lure people back, but water can play a role in that.

"The Sun Belt migration was thought to be a way to make more land habitable, to make more use of the Southwest," Frey says. "Maybe it's time to revisit that. Maybe people will find out it's better to have water year-round and put up with a little cold weather."

After all, water is a major cultural amenity, says John Austin, director of the Great Lakes Economic Initiative. Most Great Lakes cities sit on magnificent waterfronts. Tear down the old factories blighting the view -- as Waukegan, Ill., is now trying to do -- and you can create downtowns full of expensive lofts and coffee shops with open-mike nights. "People like to live and work in places that are proximate to water," Austin says. "Traverse City, Mich., is so physically beautiful that people who can work anywhere -- people with graphic design businesses, media businesses -- have chosen to live there. That's a huge piece of the economic picture."

Think about it. There's a reason so many people visit our state during the summer months. Anyone who's spent any time North of Mt. Pleasant knows that we're lucky to live in one of the most beautiful states in America.

A few clouds in the winter months might not seem so bad after another 10-20 years of global warming, droughts, and wildfires in the Southwest. Especially if those clouds come with access to abundant water and other natural resources.

Of course, Michigan's economic recovery and reverse migration could be accelerated if we take the time to fill in the other pieces of the puzzle, and build the type of communities that will attract young professionals from warm weather states now. That's where investments in affordable housing and economic development come into play.

We love Michigan, and we're not going anywhere. Hopefully, by taking care of the thing that makes us great -- our water -- we can kick this economy back into high gear.