Here are the highlights from the article:
While many of Muskegon's manufacturing jobs -- and some workers -- have gone south or overseas, the city could become a magnet for workers in fields like engineering, marketing and research science, a recent study shows.
That is, the study's authors say, if someone in the private sector is willing to create an infrastructure to support those kinds of workers, who often flock to large metropolitan areas such as New York and Chicago because they have been traditional centers of corporate business.
Yep, Michigan cities like Muskegon are poised to become job magnets. We already knew this, but the catch is that the private (and public sectors) have to build the infrastructure to support these kinds of workers.
But for that to happen, the city would have to include a revolutionary type of "remote work center." These centers, the brainchild of Grantham and study co-author Jim Ware -- a social psychologist who once taught at the Harvard School of Business -- would offer high-tech options for highly educated workers to live and conduct their business from smaller cities like Muskegon.
Muskegon would be ideal because it is one of more than 500 "micropolitan" areas in the United States with core cities of about 50,000 people within regions of more than 200,000 habitants, Grantham said. Other areas cited by the consultants include suburban Grand Rapids and rural Newaygo County.
These are communities that have much of what many knowledge workers want -- cultural and recreational opportunities and affordable cost of living, said Grantham, a former professor at the University of San Francisco but who now works out of Prescott, Ariz.
Communities with cultural and recreational opportunities, as well as an affordable cost of living? Gee, where have we heard this before?
The article continues...
The consultants claim that both groups would be willing to leave a major metropolitan area. A young family living in Chicago might own a modest brownstone house costing $600,000, but in a neighborhood where young parents would want to choose expensive private schools, Grantham said.
Muskegon and communities like it -- Traverse City or Holland, for example -- can provide the knowledge worker with a high quality of life and a low cost of living, Grantham said.
New York and Chicago are great places to visit, but it can be pricey for young workers to live there, especially compared to many communities in Michigan.
"This might be the best way for the community to prepare for the future worker by putting in the infrastructure to help new economy businesses," said Cindy Larsen, president of the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce. "This would ideally work in a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood like the downtown."
Grantham does not seem concerned that downtown Muskegon is a work-in-progress after the demolition of the old Muskegon Mall.
"What a tremendous opportunity to redo your downtown from scratch," he said. "It is so much easier to do new things when you don't have to undo things."
What a refreshing attitude. Sure, it's easy to get discouraged when community revitalization doesn't happen overnight, but those empty storefronts in towns like Muskegon present an opportunity to re-build neighborhoods from scratch, and make them even better places to live and work.
Heck, Grantham could've pulled some of his quotes from our vision statement:
Where others see empty, broken storefronts...
We envision the realization of the entrepreneurial dreams of successful small businesses which will create jobs.
Where others see hopelessness and overwhelming problems...
We envision new and renovated facilities through which non-profits can better serve their communities.
It's time to start seeing the glass as half full. We've been arguing for months that Michigan's opinion leaders need to ditch the doom and gloom rhetoric and realize that we need to take a proactive approach when it comes to jump starting our economy. It's nice to see that some reporters are finally getting the message, but there are still some folks who need to be convinced.