Blogs
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell has put her stamp on a multitude of
development and transportation projects during her seven terms in
office. This week she writes on why loitering is welcome in downtown Saline, the personal property tax, and mass transit coming to lower Michigan.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Sean Reed, executive director of the Clean Energy Coalition, is on the front line of Michigan's clean energy front. This week he explains how starvation amongst the Maasai tribe in Africa shaped his work, and why we should stand up to funding cuts to low income and energy efficiency programs.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Ann Arbor has had an energy office longer than most cities - and also happens to know where each of its 14,000-plus water pipes are located (many cities don't). Matthew Naud and Jamie Kidwell, key players in Ann Arbor's sustainability planning effort, will write about using these advantages and others to forge a new sustainability framework for the city.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Americans are in the habit of tossing that $6 coffee maker along with the coffee grounds because pitching is cheaper than patching. And now increasingly wealthy Mumbai, India, is following American models of consumption. Among other things, NextServices CEO Satish Malnaik ponders on a throwaway culture and why excess money's not green.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
It's a feel-good storyline: Start-up founders lacking moola to enter business plan competition volunteer instead, return next year to win Best New Business Idea award at the GLEQ contest. Priya Gogoi, co-founder of DeNovo Sciences, covers the partners' de novo strategies for business launching and development of a cancer cell detection tool.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Why consume resources today that can get us through tomorrow? This week we pick the brains of Stephanie Chueh and Jordan Garfinkle, interns from the UniverCities program of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance charged with helping Metro Detroit cities cut their energy usage 25% by 2015.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
As you make your river, so you must row in it. Pam Labadie, marketing director for the Huron River Watershed Council, opines on the River Up! pilot project and why us residents of the Great Lakes basin aren't as flush with water as we think.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Instead of buying produce trucked all the way from Cali or Mexico, top-consuming school districts are cultivating relations with local farmers - and even growing their own veggies. David Lahey, dining services director for the Ann Arbor Public Schools, discusses the seeding of the district's nationally recognized Farm to School program.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
With strip malls and big-box manses gettin' way long in the tooth, bygone architecture is the mod new style. Patrick McCauley, vice-chair of the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission, believes local historic districts are what's needed for more vibrant communities.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Faltering English grades don't bode well for a state trying to foster a permanent class of young professionals. Author and teacher extraordinaire Jeff Kass delivers up Knuckleheads for the young men who'd rather work a backhoe than read a book. Jeff, writing program director for the Neutral Zone, also explains how the Ann Arbor Book Festival was revived by partnering with other non-profits.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
There's symphony in numbers. Steve Pierce, president of piercefinancial and board member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, talks this week on the self -employment penalty paid by entrepreneurs and compares the financial collapse to milking a duck.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Justin Fenwick, community manager of the Arts Alliance, defines art as the artwork itself and also the process of starting something. This week Justin gives the shout-out to Creative Hybrids, a local class of artisan entrepreneurs who form collectives or set up an L3C, a type of enterprise combining business and social mission.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Back in 2001 Larry Eiler, CEO of Eiler Communications and director of the Small Business Association of Michigan, wrote an essay comparing our entrepreneurial landscape with Silicon Valley. Needless to say Michigan came up lacking. Boy, what a difference 10 years makes. In this week's guest blog Larry updates his assessment and finds more than a few encouraging trends.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Lots of hands have been raised in the talks about where our feet will go around the Washtenaw County of the future. After 50 town hall meetings, the Transit Master Plan is coming soon. Michael Benham, AATA's special assistant for strategic planning, talks about public input on the plan and the shape of transportation to come.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
It has been said that you should write to be understood. Dan
Wickett, executive director and publisher of Dzanc Books, an independent
press and literary advocate, offers up resources
for those tangled in the oft-solitary pursuit of creative writing, and
speaks to how writers impact our economic, social, and cultural issues.