For students coming out of Michigan universities with start up companies, cover an increasing percentage of their student loan payments for every year they keep the company headquartered in Michigan.
Expand the current Cool Cities initiative. Detroit will take decades to turn around, when that process ever even starts. The state needs other grand locales it can point to. Which ties into the next one…
Belle Isle. Mackinac Island. Two of the most distinct features Michigan offers, yet when was the last time any of us were on either of them? Both offer significantly more community and tourist potential than they currently draw. Part of the problem – from my perspective – is there isn’t an interest in nature among the city dwellers. The Michigan state forest system is 3.9 million acres, the largest in the United States. But looking at the cities, you wouldn’t think three trees ever stand beside each other in the whole land. The feeling in Denver is different. It’s a major, major city engulfed by trees. The people would stand it no other way. Nature to them is not landscaping, it’s life. Buildings there are a necessity that people escape as often as possible. Michigan, however, was too successful at producing a production society. Southeast Michigan is nothing but blue-collar consumerism. Like in the Upper Peninsula, a passion for nature needs sweep through the southeastern Mitten population, as encouraged by the elected officials. This in time will help battle depression, obesity, and guide the population from consumerism to conservatism. That later mentality is necessary for a population to think better thoughts about which companies they want to work for and support, which kinds of jobs and buildings they want in their communities, the influences they want their children to have. And speaking of a change in mentality…
Put all of your resources into prying Detroit free from the Democrats. Seriously; think of how unbalanced the US would be if it was run by the Republicans for forty-eight years. It’s past time for a priorities shift.
So few in southeast Michigan take advantage of the forestry system because they’ve been educated by example and environment that nature has nothing to offer except raw materials for merchandise and stews.
The gray sky for a third of the year is wretched. Speaking as one with seasonal depression, when I bought a full-spectrum sunlight lamp last month, my life changed. It’s a drug. A happy one. Whatever happens, full spectrum light bulbs should be a constitutional right–no, forget that; they are a right of humanity!
So yes, the gray skies contribute to depression and obesity. Another culprit is the consumerism. Whenever I’m in Michigan I walk the streets at night. House after house has that wicked blue glow of a t.v. flickering out the windows. No driveway is full of the cars of guests over for dinner. There’s no sound or sight of music being made, but only listened to –more consumerism!
The people believe their highest happiness will be found in consuming products other people make for them. Those who sell the products have done an excellent job of instilling that mentality. Don’t learn to make music, listen to what we make. Don’t cook, we’ve got whatever you want. Don’t think, we’ll do it for you. Even the Starbucks idea of a third space is being rubbed out as every new store now features a drive-thru. The idea of enjoying community is diminishing into ‘just buy the coffee and go.’
I’m viewing the problem from a pastoral angle. People will stay and work productively in places because of proper priorities and a sense of feeling valued in a soul-soothing community.
Detroit’s future will most likely be a different social group’s influx. The Oak Lawn area here in Dallas was similar 
to Detroit’s dilapidated, drugged out environment. Then Dallas’ gay community went house hunting. Being a minority group, they wanted to stay together. They basically bought blocks of houses at a time and one street after another, turned the area into one of the most swinging spots in Dallas.
Michigan’s Cool Cities program is actually designed to court homosexual populations for this same reasons. It’s in the front wording of the program; homosexuals, we want to be your community!
Pick a street downtown and start planning. Preferably within walking distance of the art institute.
Google or Macintosh could solve the issue in a decade like Ford did to Dearborn.
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Raging Kitty