Michigan
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Sen. Stabenow jumps on climate denial train
Debbie Stabenow says no to M!ch!gan!Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has joined the pro-polluter frenzy sweeping the U.S. Senate, introducing legislation to permanently cripple Clean Air Act rules on global warming pollution. The small business legislation, the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2011 (S. 493), introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), is […]
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Does sprawl development drive away talented professional people?
Troy, Michigan: can this place be saved?Photo: Wayne Senville, Planning Commissioners JournalThere’s a great discussion going on at the indispensable blog about the industrial Midwest, RustWire.com. It was prompted by their posting last week of a letter from Andrew Basile, Jr., the CEO of a legal firm with offices in Troy, Mich., entitled “Why our […]
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Koch-funded group mounts cut-and-paste attack on regional climate initiatives
Fresh off last year’s successful defeat of federal climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, the oil baron Koch brothers and their dirty-energy buddies are now bent on dismantling one of the nation’s last hopes for doing anything about climate change in the near term: regional climate accords. Today, a total of 32 states are active […]
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Tearing down urban freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy
This is the second column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling. Here’s one way to fund bicycle infrastructure: Stop building freeways in cities. Better yet, tear down the ones we already have. Cities are starting to catch on that becoming bicycle friendly is one of the best investments they can make. Cities […]
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This is Flint, Michigan, in all its pain and all its glory
Buick City parking lot, 2010.Photos: Wes Janz, except when notedCross-posted from Places [at] Design Observer, an online journal of architecture, landscape and urbanism, published in partnership with Design Observer. “Distressed are big chunks of Detroit, Flint, Gary, Chicago, East St. Louis, and Cincinnati.” This is what I wrote after completing the weeklong Midwess Distress Tour with […]
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Sputnik moment: Historic meeting between U.S. and China may spur a clean energy race
In China, a race toward self-reliance and clean energy is certainly on, but the U.S. still needs to make some key changes if it wants to compete.
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Urban revitalization via art contest in Grand Rapids, Mich.
My interest in the ArtPrize contest underway in Grand Rapids, Mich., stems from this line from Gene Duvernoy: "Cities are what's going to get us out of this mess ... and what makes cities livable is art."
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Michigan: Outgoing Gov. Jennifer Granholm on creating wind energy jobs
In Michigan, our big, hairy, audacious goal is to make our state the international hub of the clean energy industry, creating jobs by transforming Michigan from rust belt to green belt.
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Michigan governor’s race: Snyder vs. Bernero
Michigan Republican Rick Snyder is a high-tech venture capitalist, a one-time Nature Conservancy board member, and a Smart Growth backer who talks about investing in transit and reining in sprawl. And he could well become governor of a state with huge challenges and huge opportunities to reshape its economy. For enviros searching for the elusive "green Republican," he's worth tracking.