Economics | ModeShift

Blissfest: Things Michigan Does Well

by Keith SchneiderJuly 16, 2007January 31, 20131

Â BLISS TOWNSHIP — There are a few things that Michigan still does very well.Â Its three big universities — Michigan, Michigan State,Â Wayne State –Â and network of smaller public colleges and universities, are terrific. Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Traverse City compare with anyplace in America as great places to live and do business. And we have Blissfest, theÂ affirming, heartening folk/blues/acoustic music festivalÂ founded in 1981, andÂ ever since has held the second weekend in July, on a …

While Lansing Sputters and Fumes, Grand Rapids Excels

by Keith SchneiderJuly 12, 2007July 18, 20074

Â There still isn’t much to be happy about when it comes to the political conversation in Lansing, our state capital.Â Though she won more than 50 counties in the 2006 election, more than any Democrat running for any state office in Michigan history –Â she also delivered a Democratic-led Â House;Â Republicans hold the state Senate by a slim majority –Â Michigan’s governor hasn’t done anything with her influence. Politics is a full contact body sport.Â Ms. Granholm, …

Green Neighborhood Grant Act in Illinois

by Keith SchneiderJuly 2, 2007October 31, 20073

Illinois, our neighbor to the west, has been doing a lot of things right of late for its residents, environment, and economy. It makes a Michigan resident a bit jealous.Â The Center for Neighborhood Technology and Bethel New Life, for example, convinced the Chicago Transit Authority to rebuild rather than tear down the elevated Green Line in the 1990s,Â helping to promote the revival of the city’s West Side. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley turned a tree-planting campaign …

Low Great Lake

by Keith SchneiderJune 28, 2007June 28, 20073

It’s an odd sight to venture to the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s upper peninsula and see dry dirt where there used to be water. Lake Superior, which holds 14 percent more water than the four other Great Lakes combined, is 18 inches below normal, lower than it’s been since 1926. We’re sort of used to low lake levels out here in the upper Midwest. Not long ago Lake Michigan was so low that …

Two Conversations on Energy in America; and Everything Else

by Keith SchneiderJune 27, 20072

You may have missed this little note out of Wall Street last week but many of the renewable and alternative energy funds are doing very well. The New Alternatives fund is up nearly 37 percent the last 12 months and 20 percent so far this year. The Guinness Atkinson fund is up 17 percent and 27 percent while the Wilder Hill funds, which launched last fall, are each up about 11 percent this year. By …

Toronto Transit City

by Keith SchneiderJune 18, 2007June 20, 20071

In 1954, the year that Detroit was busily completing the Lodge Freeway and starting construction on the city’s other major highways Toronto (see pix) opened 12 stations on the Yonge Street subway line, the city’s first. Since then Toronto has built three more regional rapid transit lines, 69 stations, and nearly 43 miles of subway and rapid transit track. The city’s subway and surface streetcar system carries 1.2 million passengers a day, many of whom …

With Richardson Promise on Transit, Mode Shift Idea Enters 2008 Presidential Race

by Keith SchneiderJune 14, 2007June 14, 20070

Â Democrat BillÂ Richardson, a member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet and the current governor of New Mexico, this week became the first 2008 presidential candidate to formally introduce a Mode Shift idea into the national race. Richardson was in West Hollywood on Monday, and according to the Associated Press promised “to create a partnership to build a light rail network and help untangle the Los Angeles regionâ€™s notorious traffic. With gas prices rising and …

Hey! Energy Bill Debaters Look At New York

by Keith SchneiderJune 12, 2007June 17, 20073

Â NEW YORK — Early this morning, before the sun peaked over the roofs of the grand old apartment buildings of the Upper East Side, I followed the road bikers and dog walkers and joggers over to Central Park for a splendid four-mile run.Â New York is full of young people now, bright, educated, trim, and ambitious.Â A whole bunch of them are up just after dawn toÂ clear their minds and keep their bodies tunedÂ sufficiently to compete …

Flip: Markets Are Key To Farmland Conservation

by Keith SchneiderJune 9, 20072

Here’s a great example of how to deploy Internet technology and interactivity to conserving farmland. The Michigan Land Use Institute just posted the latest version of our Taste The Local Difference Web site, which links buyers of local farm products to sellers. Here’s a new facet of the site that enables wholesale suppliers and buyers to connect very quickly on the Web, an online wholesale market as it were.Â Â Just great work by the Institute’s …

Grand Rapids, Other Cities Loving Transit

by Keith SchneiderJune 5, 2007June 7, 20070

Last November, just as they have in previous local and state elections stretching back to the mid-1990s, voters in 13 states considered 32 transit-related ballot measures and approved 70 percent of them, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a research group based in Washington, D.C. Spending on those projectsÂ will total $40 billionâ€”bringing both immediate stimulus and long-term economic development tools toÂ local economies. Well, the beat goes on. Last month voters in the Grand Rapids …