Granholm Addresses First Smart Growth Council Meeting

"Michigan's hollowed-out big cities are not only the most segregated in the nation, they also are the principal reason that the state ranks 47th of 50 states in its ability to retain 25 to 34-year-old residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. From 1990 to 2000, more than 200,000 young people left Michigan. This and other sobering facts were presented this week to the 26 prominent public policy leaders who make up Governor Jennifer Granholm's Michigan Land Use Leadership Council, which met for the first time in Lansing. Panelists learned that Michigan is a state deeply stressed by decades of what Ms. Granholm called land "consumption without thought." Experts said Michigan is facing long-term economic decline unless development heads inwards, towards cities, instead of outwards, towards farmland and forests."