ModeShift - Part 66

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 …

Apology: A Little Crash

by Keith SchneiderJune 27, 2007June 27, 20074

So just in case you’ve been wondering where I been, you need look no further. I spent Monday night and half of Tuesday in the Munson Hospital ICU recovering from taking a pretty nasty spill — that I do not remember — off my road bike. The details aren’t grim. I apparently hit a patch of sand and went down hard enough for my helmeted head to bounce. A friend and witness who owns a …

The Unforeseen: A Terrific Movie

by Keith SchneiderJune 21, 2007November 14, 20071

Earlier this month I attended the New York opening for The Unforeseen, Laura Dunn’s new documentary about the clash of values and struggle to protectÂ Barton Springs in Austin from the consequences of sprawling exurban development. I also met Laura and her husband, Jef Sewell, a well-known executive for anÂ entrepreneurial fulfilment companyÂ that serves entertainment Web sites.Â [youtube]24-6U5FK470[/youtube] David Brancaccio, the host of PBS’s Now program, also has taken an interest in Laura and the film and …

Flip: CFR.org Sets Multi-Media Trends for Non-Profits

by Keith SchneiderJune 19, 2007June 20, 20070

Mike Moran, a journalist, editor, and multi-media specialist who spent nine years of his career at MSNBC.com, an incubator of great talent and technique in the late 1990s,Â has been executive editor since August 2005 of CFR.org, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Internet site. CFR.org, one of the best sites in the non-profit universe, is doing a lot of things very well in making the complex world of foreign affairs simpler to understand, easier to access, …

Public Opinion on Energy Bill: Conservation Trumps Production

by Keith SchneiderJune 19, 2007June 19, 20070

Ruy Teixeira, a journalist who does a very good job keeping track of public opinion at the Center For American Progress in Washington, published this analysis of where citizens think the energy bill being debated in Congress ought to go. The verdict: Towards green, efficient, conservation measures and not to new production.Â The money quote: “The public is also quite clear on its priorities when it comes to promoting energy conservation versus increasing the supply …

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 …