Michigan New Leader In U.S. Movement To Tame Sprawl

"Having convinced Republicans and Democrats that their interests coincide Governor Jennifer Granholm has gained her first significant policy achievement: A new civic consensus that sprawl is indeed a serious problem in Michigan and merits immediate state action. Until the last few weeks, such thoughts were considered so foreign in Lansing that only a handful of lawmakers dared speak of them. The formal position of Michigan's previous elected leadership was that sprawl, if it was a problem at all, was no more than a local malady, not connected to economic competitiveness or rising government expenses, and that state government had no proper role in providing assistance. Ms. Granholm's election changed all that."