The Oakland County Board of Commissioners has released a resolution announcing its support of the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund (MHCDF). This resolution, which the board sent to Gov. Granholm and the Michigan Legislature among others, represents the fund's latest in a host of endorsements from Michigan government and community organizations.
Jim Nash, the board's planning and building committee minority vice chair, said, "The Oakland County Board of Commissioners, in a very bi-partisan effort, voted overwhelmingly to support the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund."
Nash added, "The effects of this fund would be extremely beneficial to the community development and success in Oakland County and the state of Michigan, especially given the current economic situation."
See that? This is a bi-partisan effort.
Affordable housing is not a partisan issue.
The Oakland County Board of Commissioners recognizes the worth of this fund, within its community and beyond. It is recommending the fund based on many rationales, most notably:
- Without affordable housing for Michigan families, the future cost of supporting them through public aid will increasingly burden Michigan tax-payers
- Housing Trust Funds, such as the MHCDF, change reliance on annual budget allocations through the creation of dedicated sources of public funding
- The tremendous economic and social impact of this fund will provide increased stability for low-income families, which will allow them to become more invested in their neighborhoods and communities.
There's still time to get involved! Join the coalition and contact your legislators!
Together, we can make this happen.
1. The Detroit International Jazz Festival: Detroit's hot jazz scene got some cool coverage from the Boston Globe late last month, so here's your chance to really soak up Motown's music scene. The jazz festival is being billed as the "Rumble in the Great Lakes," and it runs all weekend long. You can read the full lineup here. Standouts include Herbie Hancock and Dave Brubeck (one of my personal favorites).
2. Michigan State Fair: The State Fair runs through Monday. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids and seniors. You can check out the entertainment lineup here, and read a list of additional fair events here.
3. Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix: For any racing fans out there, you can also check out the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, featuring the cars of the American Le Mans Series and the IndyCar Series. The full event schedule can be found here.
4. Hamtramck Labor Day Festival: This is the 27th year for the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival, which will feature live music, samplings of ethnic food, cultural dancers, carnival rides, and children's activities.
5. REO Town Music Festival: For music lovers in the Lansing area, here's your chance to save money on gas by sticking close to home for some great live performances this weekend. The full lineup is here. Also, be sure to check out this article from the LSJ.
The dinner celebrates the Trust Fund's economic justice mission and the accomplishments of the many non-profit organizations that are working to rebuild our communities.
It is also a time to honor the generosity of the investors and contributors that make our work possible. The resources channeled through these relationships make a remarkable difference in the lives of those in need, and the dinner is a great opportunity for the Trust Fund’s partners to gather and celebrate their collective achievements over the past year.
We'll have more details on the specifics of this year's dinner to share next month, but for now be sure to mark Thursday, November 8 on your calendars.
NOTE: Date corrected.
Anyway, for those who don't already know, our President/CEO Christine Coady married Shankar Narayanan just over two weeks ago in Ann Arbor.
Christi is one of the most dedicated and hardworking professionals in our industry, and I know the entire Trust Fund family is thrilled that she has such a wonderful person to share her life with.
Best wishes to the bride and groom!
Michigan Development News is a new weekly series that features affordable housing and economic development-related news stories from across the state. Feel free to submit a story suggestion by leaving a note in the comments section.
Local home builder Alex de Parry hopes to demolish a handful of rental homes he owns on the east side of Fifth Avenue south of William Street to build City Place, a new four-story, 84-unit apartment structure.
If built, City Place would likely be one of the first large-scale new construction rental developments targeted at the middle-income market - dubbed workforce housing - near downtown Ann Arbor in years."Right now everything happening in Ann Arbor is either upper end or lower end - no one is doing anything for the middle guys," said de Parry, who owns Ann Arbor Builders.
De Parry plans to rent City Place units - ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom suites - at between 80 percent and 120 percent of the city's average median income.
Remember, this type of workforce housing could potentiall be supported through the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund.
Model D: Broadway's Lafer Building almost ready for debut
The Lafer Building on Broadway is entering the final stages of its rehabilitation. Developer Michael Mercier expects tenants to move in this October or November.
The front facade's original windows and red terra cotta have been "meticulously restored," says Mercier. His involvement in the building stems from three reasons: his belief in Detroit's revival, his son's degree in construction management and his familial connection to the Lafer Building itself. The building was actually developed by his grandfather in 1916 and the bricks that he has restored were manufactured by his great-uncle.
Okay, so this project doesn't really reflect "affordable" housing, but it's still encouraging to read about this type of redevelopment taking place in Detroit.
This September, Detroit Montessori School will begin offering classes at its Cathedral Church at St. Paul location in Midtown. Founder and teacher Clima Fields says the new location's appeal is its proximity to cultural amenities such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, the main branch of the Detroit Public Library and Wayne State University. With the motto of "Building a Foundation for College," Fields plans to inspire her young charges to dream big.
The school, for students two-and-a-half to five years old, is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is more academically oriented than traditional daycare. Fields says the Montessori philosophy has more one-on-one teaching. "We know that children learn at different times and have different interests," she says. "A student might be musical, artsy or quiet and independent -- we cater to all of those things."
Part of Michigan's economic turnaround will hinge on our state's ability to offer a well-educated workforce. Montessori programs are a great way to give kids the head start they need at a young age, so it's great to read about this new project at St. Paul.
Rapid Growth: Life science study says $1B investment could bring $5B and 1,100 jobs
A new report lays the foundation to lift western Michigan's life-sciences industry to its full potential and back to global prominence.
Doing so would require additional private and public investment of some $1 billion, resulting in a "reasonable" return on investment of $5 billion within a decade and directly generating 1,100 jobs, according to modeling done by consultant Ed Bee, president of Taimerica Management Co.
Piecemealed or poorly funded efforts will fail, Bee wrote in the report, and publicly driven initiatives often make investments that are too small to yield desired results.
We're all competing for limited resources, but we certainly agree with the basic premise of this report that a major investment from the state is needed to kick start our economy, stimulate private sector investment, and create jobs.
Without further ado, here are the updated stats:
To learn more about our loan programs, be sure to check out our affordable housing and economic development pages here on the website.
Lately we've been keeping tabs on the great press Detroit has gotten from national publications like the Boston Globe and Sporting News Magazine. While it's great to get an outsider's perspective on all the positive things happening in Motown, articles like the one that ran in yesterday's Detroit Free Press are nice to read too, albeit for very different reasons:
When it comes to good food, culture and sports teams, Detroit has flavor, pizzazz and game -- and a fair share of suburban visitors.
Nearly two-thirds of residents of suburban Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties say they at least occasionally dine, attend cultural events or take in professional games in Detroit.
Work brings about 12% of suburbanites to Detroit frequently and another 11% occasionally. About 9% of suburbanites say they never set foot in the city, the poll found, though among those younger than 35, only 2% never get to the city.
What would bring more suburban and city residents downtown?
The top answer of both suburban and city residents was more security -- despite statistics that show downtown has a relatively low crime rate.
Detroit residents also cited better retail shopping and improved public transportation as changes that would bring them downtown more.
In all honesty, the poll results highlighted in this article are something of a mixed bag. Of course, being eternal optimists, there are certainly some positive tidbits we can take away from this research.
What's encouraging here is that suburbanites are starting to come back to the city. Getting a younger generation of Metro Detroiters to come downtown -- whether it's for work, class, or entertainment -- should be a major goal for the city throughout this process of economic revitalization.
We already know that Detroit's sports teams are a big draw, and as the article points out, the city's restaurants and various cultural attractions help bring folks downtown. Well, we think affordable housing projects (like the ones funded by the Trust Fund) can also be a part of the puzzle. Think about it...
Getting young people to visit downtown Detroit? Great!
Increasing the city's supply of affordable housing so young people will want to live in downtown Detroit? Even better!!
Remember, housing = jobs. More housing in Detroit = more jobs in Detroit. It's that simple.
Prior to joining the Trust Fund team, Rita was the Marketing Director for the Michigan office of the Fannie Mae Corporation where she worked for 9 years. Rita has also been the Vice President for Community Reinvestment at TCF Bank and a branch manager at Manufacturers National Bank. Rita was named one of Crain’s Detroit Business “2002 Detroit’s Most Influential Women.” She has a degree in business administration from Wayne State University. We are pleased to have her on our team.
The Department of Energy has awarded a three deal to United Solar Ovonic to share costs and cooperate on low-cost photovoltaic solar systems that can be integrated into building construction. The biggest flaw of photovoltaics right now is cost vs efficiency ratio. Because of the cost of such systems, it takes most people a long time to save enough on energy costs to cover the expense. United Solar Ovonic will get $4.6 million in government funding during the first year. If the project milestones are met by Ovonic, the DOE will provide almost $15 million in extra funds over the following two years.
Cutting-edge technology... and it's being developed right here in Michigan.
This is precisely the type of long-term investment our state needs right now. And remember, companies like United Solar Ovonic need access to a knowledgeable workforce in order to expand and thrive in a state like Michigan. That's why affordable housing and vibrant communities are needed to attract those workers and businesses.
It is estimated that housing projects will have a 1:3 ratio and community development projects a 1:2 ratio. Thus, a $100 million program (80% for housing/20% for community development) will leverage an additional investment of $280 million, create over 6,000 good paying jobs and generate approximately $21 million in state and local taxes!
Just imagine how many other United Solar Ovonics we could bring to Michigan with an investment in the Housing & Community Development Fund! Join the coalition today to support the Living in Michigan campaign, and send a message that our state needs to make affordable housing a priority.
United Solar Ovonic, building on technology invented and pioneered by ECD, is the world leader in thin-film amorphous photovoltaics. Because of characteristics unique to the United Solar Ovonic solar cell technology, such as lightweight, ruggedness and flexibility, it is ideal as building-integrated photovoltaic roofing systems for residential and industrial customers. ECD and United Solar Ovonic hold the basic patents covering the continuous roll-to-roll manufacturing of thin-film amorphous-silicon alloy multi-junction solar cells and related products. More information is available at http://www.uni-solar.com.
MEDC: Brownfield Redevelopments in Grand Rapids, Ingham County, Owosso Create up to 165 Jobs
Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced plans for three major redevelopment projects in Grand Rapids, Owosso and Ingham County that will generate $18.3 million in new investment and up to 165 new jobs. The projects will benefit from assistance provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
“Creating vibrant communities attractive to businesses, residents and visitors is essential to transforming Michigan’s economy,” Granholm said. “These are among many revitalization projects that are transforming our cities into magnets for investment and jobs.”
Downtowns that are vibrant places retain and attract 21st-century talent that want to live, work and invest in Michigan,” MSHDA Executive Director Michael DeVos said. “MSHDA is committed to helping downtowns, both large and small, become vibrant places.”
Ann Arbor News: Motorcycle ride to benefit homeless families
Members of the STAR Touring and Riding Chapter 317 of Ann Arbor are asking motorcyclists to join them and SOS Community Services of Ypsilanti in taking a 60-mile motorcycle ride Sunday through rural Washtenaw County to benefit area children and homeless families.
The police-escorted benefit ride will raise money to offset homeless youth program Washtenaw United Way funding reductions.
"With the tough economy in the region, all community service programs are seeing funding cuts - and we know the United Way is doing all it can," said Ellen Offen, SOS development director.
"But the fact remains, when a homeless family or a child in crisis reaches out, our hand should always be there and funding cuts are threatening the programs."
LSJ: REO Town shows its artsy side
Setting out to make their new home in East Lansing more aesthetically pleasing, Matt and Sarah Grossman decided to head over to the REO Town Art Market on Saturday afternoon.
They weren't disappointed. The couple stood before tables filled with art lining Washington Avenue in REO Town...
"This is my first time here," said Matt Grossman, 28, who bought a vase and a piece of artwork. "It's nice to get out and see places we haven't been. REO Town is pretty impressive, we will be back again."
NOTE: The Trust Fund's Lansing Headquarters are located in REO Town. You can learn more about this historic part of Lansing by visiting the REO Town Commercial Association website.
WLNS: Local Neighborhood Revitalization
They're taking off three layers of shingles and patching up holes in a leaky roof.
Amanda Thomason: "The roof was really really bad a lot of holes. I have a lot of buckets up there."
Brenda Thomason says things got worse when she realized her roof wasn't code compliant and she didn't have the $10,000 to fix it. She says she was afraid she'd lose her home.
Amanda Thomason: "It's scary it's scary it's the last thing I ever want to do."
That's not a concern anymore thanks to dozens of volunteers. They've donated all the labor and materials to repair two houses in the Moores Park community. It's part of an effort to revitalize Lansing neighborhoods.
Amanda Thomason: "Oh God I think it's going to bring a greater sense of pride in our city."
They're hoping their hard work will inspire others to help fix up their communities.
Amanda Thomason: "If you get something going where some work gets done it encourages other people and it really does work."
PR Newswire: State of Michigan Leaders Continue Commitment to Ending Homelessness in Michigan - Tour of the State in August & September
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) announced today that officials from state agencies leading Michigan's Campaign to End Homelessness will tour the state in August and September.
"These meetings will allow representatives from MSHDA, DHS, DCH and CSH to discuss what is being done at the state level to end homelessness in Michigan," said Michael R. DeVos, MSHDA executive director. "Local nonprofit agencies will also discuss how they are collaborating across county lines to end homelessness in their regions. This is a great opportunity for communities to come together and discuss what is being done, and what will be done in the future. This is also a great time for community residents to learn what is being done to end homelessness in their area."
Rapid Growth Media: West Michigan's life sciences industry sixth largest in the nation, and growing
Earlier this week two leading economic development organizations announced that they have joined forces to market the region's life sciences cluster in an effort to attract investment, more research, and more entrepreneurs.
Grand Rapids-based The Right Place, Inc. and Kalamazoo-based Southwest Michigan First also released the results of a joint study that contains investment, incentive, and funding recommendations to bring the region's pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries into the global spotlight.
The region is the sixth largest biopharmaceuticals cluster in the US, with a recent investment of over $1 billion in life science endeavors. In addition, there are over 850 clinical trials currently open in West Michigan.
Tuesday, July 31, was a momentous day for the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign. For the first time since the campaign began in 2001, legislation (HR 2895) to establish a National Housing Trust Fund was successfully moved out of committee. Full House consideration of the bill is expected in September. To-date, only ONE Michigan legislator (Congressman Kildee) has signed on as a co-sponsor. Please contact your US Representative and urge them to co-sponsor this bill (supporting materials are available).
As we've said numerous times, affordable housing is not a partisan issue. That's why it's encouraging to see support for the National Housing Trust Fund from both sides of the aisle.
For any policy wonks out there, you can head over to the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign website (FYI: this is the national equivalent of the Living in Michigan campaign) for a more complete update on the committee's action, including amendments to the bill.
We'll be keeping tabs on this legislation, and will try to keep you informed with any important updates.
To receive news and other useful information about what's going on in our industry, be sure to sign up for CEDAM's email list. Just head over to their main page and enter your address to join.
The Neighborhood Networks Conference took place in Washington D.C. last week, and it looks like someone assembled this list of resources on how nonprofits can use social networking websites, blogs, and social bookmarking to connect with a wider audience through the web. In fact, there's a lot of information here that we really need to pour over and put to work for ourselves. Anyway, here are the resources that caught our eye:
• Using Facebook in Your Nonprofit
• MySpace for Nonprofits
• Why Your Group Should be on a Social Networking Site
• Promote your cause on Facebook in 5 Easy steps
• 7 Tips for Successful Social Network Campaigns
• Tiptoe into Blogging in 5 Sensible Steps
• 10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs and Bloggers to Support Their Cause
• 5 Tips to Start a Nonprofit Blog
• 10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English
• Tagging and social bookmarking for nonprofits
We've been toying with the idea of jumping into the world of social networking by starting a Facebook Cause for a while, and this might be the incentive we needed to actually do it.
Have any of our nonprofit readers out there successfully used sites like MySpace or Facebook to reach out to new supporters? We'd really like to know, so please share your thoughts in the comments section.
1. MLive News Blogs: Just about every Michigan newspaper associated with the MLive network has some sort of blog content these days, but a few papers have been more useful than others. Our favorites include the Flint Journal, the Muskegon Chronicle, the Ann Arbor Business Review, and the Jackson Citizen Patriot's Taking Notes blog.
2. Model D Media: This online newsletter -- funded by several corporate, government, and nonprofit sponsors -- features wonderful news stories about various affordable housing and community development projects throughout the City of Detroit. This site is a must-read for anyone in our industry.
3. Rapid Growth Media: Same goes for Rapid Growth Media, the Grand Rapids counterpart to Model D.
4. Michigan Nonprofit Association's Blog: While the MNA doesn't deal exclusively in our line of work, we'll cop to having pinched a few story ideas from them on occasion. As you would expect though, this is an excellent resource for any Michigan-based nonprofit.
5. Michigan PR Newswire: Again, while the PR Newswire doesn't focus exclusively on affordable housing or community development news, you can expect to see at least a handful of related news stories each week that might not get picked up by the mainstream media (like the MLive blogs).
Keep in mind, while these are all wonderful resources, this can be a lot of material for one person to manage and process. However, with the aid of RSS feeds, it's actually pretty easy to aggregate all your news feeds by using a free service like Bloglines or Google Reader. For those of you shaking your heads, wondering what the heck an RSS feed is, be sure to read our primer on the subject.
Anyway, we hope you found this post useful. If you have any questions about RSS feeds or blogging in general, feel free to drop them in the comments section.
I donned my hardhat and notepad and wandered into the old prison, which will soon be the new cultural center of Jackson. Along with me on my tour was a family whose daughter is thinking about moving into the apartments there. The father told me that when he was young, he snuck out of his house to see Ted Nugent perform at the Armory.
We were impressed by what we saw as we walked through the complex.
The apartments and lofts are spacious and have tons of natural light.
I just wish you didn't have to be a member of the working poor to live there. (There are income restrictions.) But Phase 2 of the project, will feature about 80 more units in a three-story townhouse style inside the village walls, and some of those will be market rate housing.
There also plans down the line for a jazz cafe, an outdoor stage, offices and lots of green space.
The housing units in the first phase of the project are filling up quickly. There are 62 rooms and 54 applications have been received and 40 people have put down deposits on specific units.
One of the most amazing things though is that of the 54 applications, 23 are from outside Jackson County and two are from outside Michigan.
Flint Journal: New signs of life raise hopes for downtown Flint
It's the story of two downtown Flints.
There's the empty one that doesn't exactly scream renaissance: streets and sidewalks barren on most weekends and nights, storefronts like a ghost town, haunted by fears of crime.
And there's its alter ego: Flint on Crim race day, sparkling as a safe hot spot, alive with people who blend into dots as they flood Saginaw Street, where pedestrians bump noses and downtown cash registers chime happily.
"It's like night and day," said veteran 10-mile Crim runner Craig Johnson, 47, of Mt. Morris Township.
Can one win out over the other?
With downtown about to host two of the area's biggest weekends of the year -- the Back to the Bricks cruise Saturday and the Crim Festival of Races Aug. 25 -- some say it will take more such crowd pleasers to tip the balance.
"It's a great one-day party," Johnson said of downtown on Crim day. "If it could be like that even half of the time, it would bring a lot more people."
LSJ: Tax breaks make way for affordable senior housing
The new apartment project is part of an emerging trend in senior housing in small communities. In effect, the small cities, townships and villages in mid-Michigan are underwriting affordable housing for seniors by providing tax breaks to developers.
The owners of apartments pay no local property taxes; instead the owners pay a fee based on rents collected.
"That's how developers can offer below-market rents to seniors; we're seeing a growing interest in these deals," said David Allen, market analyst for Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which finances these programs statewide.
"Seniors in smaller towns want affordable housing, but they don't want to leave their community," said Cheryl McHallam, who began a career eight years ago as a senior housing developer after working as a volunteer to help the village of Ovid create a 12-unit apartment building.
A nonprofit board operates the housing project, and a percentage of the rents paid to the board is given to the village of Ovid, and to the surrounding township, instead of taxes.
"The project was rented up in about a month, and there was a waiting list," McHallam said.
LISC: LISC Names Detroit a 'Sustainable Communities Site,' Awards $100,000 Grant
The National office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has named Detroit as one of 11 national demonstration sites for its Building Sustainable Communities program, awarding Detroit LISC a 2007 grant of $100,000 to its current Neighborhoods NOW initiative.
Nonprofit Detroit LISC serves as an intermediary channeling financial and technical support to the Detroit-area community and seeks to build sustainable communities that transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy ones, offering them technical assistance, project financing, operating support, and training.
Here's the lowdown:
The Coalition for Michigan's Housing and Community Development Fund has a new strategy. On August 7th, the directors, CEOs, and presidents of the coalition organizations met at the State Capitol in Lansing to reshape the efforts of the grass roots coalition. The strategy to date had been to reach and influence a handful of senators in an effort to garner solid support among Republicans. With that mission complete, the job has now shifted. As the budget debate is coming to its peak, it is critical to create a mass awareness effort with all members of the house and the senate. Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is our new strategy.
It is time for every member on every level to act. In the next 50 days, we expect there will be a vote on the 2008 State Budget. There are several ways that Sen. Jansen and Rep. Tobocman have proposed MHCDF be funded. To ensure the success of these efforts, the coalition needs to ask every legislator to vote "yes" when they see or hear about the fund.
Our priorities have been laid out as follows:
1) Invite your legislator to see successful project in your home district. Show the economic impact and growth that comes from your work.
2) Visit you legislator in Lansing. Make an appointment and show him/her why this work will help them make a real difference in their district.
3) Write your legislator a letter, send an e-mail or call. There are customizable templates to make letters and e-mails super easy. Go to the Resources tab at www.livinginmichigan.org and look for the Member Tools for Legislative Meetings. There, you'll also find handy talking points and frequently asked questions to aid in any form of legislative contact.
4) Report your contacts and meeting highlights to your organization's lead contact person. Don't know who your contact person is? Watch for an upcoming action alert with those names.
Time is of the essence, folks. If we want to see the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund included in the 2008 budget, then now is the time to act!
Here are the details:
We are in the top ten for the IKEA makeover contest!!
What this means is now we are in the running for $50,000 in Ikea products and a $5,000 cash prize - and we need you and everyone you know to help! We have until August 22 to get as many votes as possible. You can vote for Old Town's video, titled "Old Town Lansing- Just a little past normal..." on the Ikea site. (Directions are below.) Voting will compromise 30% of the final decision made by Ikea judges. You can vote once per email address and tell your family and friends to do the same!
Thanks so much to Such Video, Redhead Design Studio, Preuss Pets, the Headroom Salon and Pablo's and everyone else in Old Town for all of their help with the video!
To vote in the contest and help Old Town to win a Main Street Makeover:
1. Visit www.ikea.com/business/mainstreet
2. Click on Old Town's video, titled "Old Town Lansing, Just a littlepast normal"
3. Click on the "Vote for this" blue button
4. Click on "Non-member, Join the contest. Register now"
5. Enter your email address & register
6. You will receive an email from Ikea to confirm the address
7. Click on the link and submit your vote
8. Cross your fingers and tell all your friends to vote for Old Town!
The video looks great, and with 1060 votes so far, OTCA is currently in the lead (a business called "All Dressed Up" in Illinois is in second place with only 639 votes). Even though our friends in Old Town are in a strong position to win the prize from Ikea, they still need your vote.
Watch the video, register for the contest, and place your vote. It only takes a couple minutes, and you'll be helping a great Michigan-based organization along the way. We promise you'll get a warm, fuzzy feeling by helping out!
Note: There are two other Michigan companies in the contest –– Synergy Soup Interactive and Black Lotus Brewing Co. –– although, they don't have anywhere near as many votes as OTCA. Which is why we still encourage you to go vote for them.
While no one expects this one action to single-handedly turn around the City of Detroit, it could signal an important turning point for Motown:
As Detroit waits to hear whether Quicken Loans founder and boss Dan Gilbert will move his headquarters and some 5,000 employees downtown, many leaders talk of a tipping point at which the downtown revival of recent years would really take off.
But those same civic and business leaders admit that, even if Gilbert relocates to Detroit from the suburbs, downtown's revival remains a long-term goal, not a short-term promise.
Creating that more vibrant downtown will take a lot more work, said Matt Cullen, head of economic development for General Motors and cochairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, which is building the new RiverWalk.
"We are kind of at the end of the beginning," Cullen said. "It's approaching a tipping point, but it's very fragile. I think there's all kinds of excitement and emotion around it, but it's still hard."
Kate Beebe, president of the newly formed Eastern Market Corp. and a longtime downtown planner, agreed.
"We really have to stay on task to make sure these things get done that we've started," she said. "We have to constantly work to reinforce what's there, because it won't just happen on its own."
But downtown still sports too many empty buildings, vacant storefronts and blocks mostly devoid of pedestrians. A relocation by Quicken, also known by its local brand name Rock Financial, would help. But more must be done, according to political, corporate and nonprofit participants in the rebuilding process.
Good. People should be excited about all the progress that's been made in Detroit in recent years. Clearly, this citywide turnaround won't just happen on it's own -- that's where organizations like the Trust Fund come in.
While business development is obviously a big part of the city's revitalization plan, affordable housing obviously needs to be part of the solution as well:
Besides daytime office workers, downtown needs more residents, too.
Downtown has enjoyed an influx of residents in recent years as projects like the Kales Building and the Lofts at Merchants Row opened. But the gains have been modest.
"Unfortunately, this housing crisis has really slowed things," said Ray Parker, a downtown property broker. "Until the population increases downtown, we will be short of what's needed to maintain the little retail we have now and support the restaurants."
If you get a chance, go read the whole article.
Again, while Detroit's turnaround isn't going to happen overnight, it's still encouraging to see positive press like this. Here's hoping we see even more in the future.
1. Bay City Times: Thumb families get help with housing
Twleve Thumb-area families will get help buying or repairing homes under a grant announced today by State Rep. Terry Brown, D-Pigeon.
The Human Development Commission has received a $300,000 grant from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority which will help 12 households in Thumb counties pay for down payments, repairs or developers fees.
“Owning a home is a source of pride and security and a cornerstone of the middle class,” Brown said. “We should do all we can to make sure that everyone has access to the American dream.”
2. Michigan.org: Governor Granholm Announces Redevelopment in Downtown Saline
Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced plans for the mixed-use redevelopment of a section of downtown Saline’s main street that will expand the downtown district by an additional city block. The project stems from Saline’s participation in the Blueprint for Michigan’s Downtowns programs in 2004, and comes as the southeast Michigan community was named to Money magazine’s list of America’s top 100 places to live. Three buildings will be torn down and replaced with condominiums and retail businesses in a project expected to create as many as 80 new jobs and generate investment estimated at up to $10 million. The brownfield redevelopment will benefit from assistance provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA).
“Communities that make use of brownfield incentives to revitalize their downtown centers are better able to compete for new commercial and residential development,” MEDC President and CEO James C. Epolito said. “Saline is making good use of the brownfield incentives that the state makes available for precisely this purpose.”
"Downtowns that are vibrant places retain and attract 21st century talent that want to live, work and invest in Michigan,” Michigan State Housing Development Authority Executive Director Michael DeVos said. “MSHDA is committed to helping downtowns, both large and small, become vibrant places.”
3. Muskegon Chronicle: Groundbreaking kicks off downtown redevelopment
A groundbreaking ceremony this morning was said to symbolize the start of a building boom in downtown Muskegon.
"This will drive the start of the downtown," said Mike Teeter, a partner in Capstone Real Estate LLC, which is developing the project in cooperation with Buck Construction Co. And it came as the result of a massive public-private effort lasting more than a year and a half.
"Everybody put aside their agendas and worked toward a vision," Teeter said. "Everybody had one thing in mind -- to improve the downtown. It wasn't a matter of whether it was going to happen, it was a matter of when."
4. Michigan Future: After 10 years, bakery launched in unlikely location eyes expansion
Starting a new business is always risky. Starting one in Detroit’s Cass Corridor – not exactly an economic development hotbed in 1997 – was riskier still.
But 10 years later, Avalon International Breads, 422 W. Willis, has created a recipe for success out of a Buddhist business plan, a love of the city and the activist backgrounds of its founders, Ann Perrault and Jackie Victor. Business has, for the most part, risen steadily since.
Plans call for new facility “within smelling distance” of the current location, and Perrault and Victor have hired a firm to conduct heat recovery research that could save up to $10,000 a month once the move is made. The new 7,000-square-foot facility will accommodate future sales projections that look so good. Perrault expects the company to double in size.
“We’re providing a good amount of jobs now,” she said, “We have 35 employees, but it would be nice to have even more.
“Our belief is to pass the wealth on and create a business that does well by doing good.”
5. Model D Media: 26 more neighborhoods to receive NEZ tax breaks
On July 25, Detroit City Council approved the list of 26 neighborhoods -- including Woodbridge, West Village, Midtown and New Center -- that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick recommended to receive Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax cuts for fifteen years starting in 2008.
Eligible residents will be mailed applications next week, which must be filled out and returned to the Assessor's Office. The application requires that the homeowner agrees to perform $500 worth of home improvements to the property within three years. If no proof is rendered within that time frame, NEZ status will be rescinded. Savings to the homeowner range from 18-35% of annual property taxes, as determined by the assessor. Any homestead homeowner that purchased their home since 1997 is eligible to apply.
In this video, public officials and residents from San Mateo County, California share their thoughts about the importance of affordable housing in their communities. The whole thing is just over five minutes long, but it's definitely worth watching.
While these folks are discussing affordable housing issues in their neck of the woods, they could just as easily be talking about any number of communities here in Michigan. That's because this issue is so universal.
The thing that caught our eye in this mini-documentary was the short exchange with Todd Kaufman, a representative from a local business, Genentech:
"Affordable housing really is a fundamental building block of not only the social sustainability of a community, but the economic sustainability of a community. We build a successful business, we generate revenue, we pay local taxes of a significant amount, and those taxes go to pay for schools, fire, and police and a host of other services and facilities that make communities quality places to live and do business."
Affordable housing is an economic development issue in and of itself. Like we kept saying during the Affordable Housing Conference this spring, Housing = Jobs.
It's just nice to see a video like this -- which looks very professional, by the way -- and have it reaffirm everything we've been trying to push here in Michigan over the past several years.
If you get a chance, be sure to watch the whole thing.
Okay, so we're admittedly getting a little bit off-topic with this post. Neither of the phrases "affordable housing" or "community development" appear in the article we're about to cite.
That being said, we've been on a roll with all the positive coverage of Detroit this week, so doggonit, why stop now?
The City of Detroit has been named the #1 Sports Town in America by Sporting News! Here's the scoop from WXYZ:
Say this about your sports teams, Detroit: They reflect the show-up-for-work-every-day-and-punch-the-clock roots of your city. And in a Best Sports City year in which championship cities' "sportfolios" had gaps, Detroit's regular-season efforts and thisclose success in the playoffs pushed it to the top of our annual rankings, even sans title of any kind.
Visit Detroit these days and you'll see that this is a baseball city out of hibernation and filling Comerica Park. The Pistons and WNBA's Shock put a spring in a hoops fan's step. Yes, it's still Hockeytown, same as it was when Detroit was our Best Sports City in 1998. Yet on an unseasonably warm Saturday in April, with the Wings facing the Flames in the playoffs at The Joe, you were as likely to see an old English "D" on a cap in downtown Detroit (the Tigers were playing the White Sox) as you were a winged wheel on a red sweater.
This is a city immersed in its teams, living and dying with them -- mostly living, but there's even a hint of optimism about ... the Lions?!
Okay, so while this isn't exactly earth-shattering news, it is another nice feather in Detroit's cap. If our teams are doing well, then that means fans are happy, which means they're going to games, and spending time and money in the city (with the exception of the Pistons, of course).
Yep, things are looking up in Motown, and folks outside of Michigan are finally starting to notice.
Sure, the city still has a long way to go to reclaim its mi