Three stories making news across the Midwest today:

1. New Cleveland lakefront development plan. For more than a century, development along Cleveland’s lakefront has come with “piecemeal action and broken promises,” writes The Plain Dealer. Mayor Frank Jackson presented a plan Monday for changing that, the newspaper reports today. Jackson’s plan included developing the waterfront from the city’s port to Burke Lakefront Airport with offices, restaurants, shops and marinas across a 90-acre space. The plan, according to EE&K architects, could take years to complete and reach $2 billion in value. Money for the project is expected to come from the private sector. Many who have watched similar plans never come to fruition in the past were skeptical at Monday’s press conference, but Jackson said this plan has the backing of key lakefront interests.

2. Detroit-area home sales up. Home sales in metro Detroit increased for the fourth consecutive month in October, according to a report from Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Realcomp II, which reports sales of condominiums and single-family homes jumped 4.8 percent. Median prices rose 7.7 percent to $70,000, according to The Detroit News. Sales were up in three of the metro areas four counties. Oakland, Livingston and Macomb counties all saw increases, while Wayne County sales decreased 3 percent.

3. AirTran cuts central Illinois service. AirTran announced Monday it would end service to five U.S. airports, including one in the Midwest that leaves local officials seeking an alternate air service plan. Central Illinois Regional Airport learned service would not continue, after being an AirTran destination for 15 years. The airline flew 40 percent of passengers from the Bloomington, Ill. facility. Although officials considered themselves an “underdog” for continued service amid airline consolidation, according to The News-Gazette of Champaign, the airport’s marketing director said the official announcement “changes the landscape for everybody.”

History is filled with searches for Magic Bullets.

Economically speaking, those are quick-fix endeavors that promise to fix sour economies, provide jobs and bring prosperity to communities and regions. Changing Gears reporter Kate Davidson wrote earlier this week that, “Some have soared; many have backfired.”

Communities across the Midwest are employing a new round of Magic Bullets in attempts to rescue themselves from the Great Recession. All sound promising, but which ones stand up under further scrutiny?

Here’s a look back at Changing Gears coverage from the past week:

Sunday: A very brief history of the Midwest Magic Bullet

From failures like AutoWorld in Flint, Mich. and Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics to the (historic) success of Detroit’s auto industry, Kate Davidson offers a look back at Midwestern Magic Bullets over the years and slots them into four categories: The one-industry town, the “if you build it, they will come” big public projects, the great event and, most complex, urban renewal.

Monday, October 17:  Obama, Werewolves and Silver … Err … Magic Bullets

What exactly is a Magic Bullet? Depending on who you speak with, it’s a matter of semantics. Some people, including President Obama, seamlessly substitute the phrase “Silver Bullet.” As Kate Davidson found out in a visit to an Ann Arbor comic book store, the terms are definitely not interchangeable.

Tuesday, October 18: Can battery plants charge up Midwest jobs?

Western Michigan has become a hub for lithium ion battery plants. Estimates say the battery plants and their suppliers could create 10,000 jobs by 2020 in the region. Not everybody, Changing Gears contributor Dustin Dwyer learned, is on board with those projections.

Wednesday, October 19: Can healthcare fix our ailing cities?

Cleveland’s hospitals have been growing for nearly a century. In the past decade, health care has become the epicenter for economic development plans in the city. Other cities in the Midwest are trying to learn from Cleveland and become medical destinations. But Dan Bobkoff reports that Cleveland could prove tough to copy.

Thursday, October 20: Can small businesses rebuild our economy?

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have hailed small-business growth as a core requirement for fixing America’s economy. Niala Boodhoo spoke with a University of Chicago professor who researched the impact of small businesses on the economy. Do they contribute to job growth? “No,” he said.

Three stories making news across the Midwest today:

1. First UAW rejects Ford deal. UAW Local 900, which represents workers at three Detroit-area auto plants, has narrowly rejected a tentative contract agreement with Ford, the Associated Press reported today. Local 900 was the first to vote on the agreement reached last week, and 51.1 percent of 2,582 voters nixed the deal. More votes are scheduled this week and next week. Bill Johnson, bargaining chairman of the Michigan Assembly Plant, tells the AP that workers are angry the contract does not restore some items lost in previous concessions.

2. Michigan State creates economic development center. The U.S. Economic Development Administration has given Michigan State University a $915,000 grant to create an economic development center that will focus on innovative ways to generate Michigan jobs. MSU will partner with other colleges, local and regional governments, private businesses and other groups to identify innovative ideas and practices. Rex LaMore, the head of the initiative, said many economic development practices have become outdated in what has become a knowledge-based economy.

3. Construction begins on Chicago rail project. Fourteen Amtrak, 78 Metra and 46 freight trains vie for rail space each day near 63^rd and State Street in Chicago. On Tuesday, workers broke ground on a $133 million project aimed at breaking that bottleneck. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin tells our partner station WBEZ that the project allows for expanded Amtrak service around the Midwest, and will create more than 1,500 jobs. But one union laborer who watched Tuesday’s groundbreaking was skeptical of that number. “They say they’re going to hire from the community, but I’ve been hearing this for years,” Bob Israel tells the station. “It’s just a dog-and-pony show. Trust me.” The project, called the Englewood Flyover, is due to be completed in 2014.

Three stories making news across the Midwest today:

1. Cleveland counts on small growth. In the past, economic development approaches in Cleveland have centered around big-ticket items. A new stadium. A new arena. The Medical Mart and Convention Center. That strategy is changing. Under Cuyahoga County’s new governing structure, executive Ed FitzGerald will target small-and-medium-sized business growth rather than large-scale projects. Our partner station Ideastream examines a proposal for a $100 million economic development fund that FitzGerald calls “a major commitment to business development.”

2. Tennessee GM plans will re-open. The contract agreement between the United Auto Workers and General Motors calls for the hiring of an additional 6,400 employees. Approximately 1,700 will be located at the company’s plant in Spring Hill, Tenn. The plant was initially shuttered in June 2009, but in a move that’s considered rare among industry insiders, the plant will re-open as GM seems to gain market share from Toyota. According to an Atlanta Fed analyst, the re-opening is one such reason “Tennesee could be viewed as a leader of the pack in automotive manufacturing strength,” throughout the nation.

3. Business school applications down. As prospective students grow leery of accumulating massive amounts of student debt, applications to most Chicago-area business schools have fallen. Crain’s Chicago Business reported Monday that applications at Loyola University’s Graduate School of Business have fallen 9.5 percent this year, applications at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management declined 5.6 percent. Applications at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business dropped 3.0 percent. DePaul was the only university in the Chicagoland region to buck the trend, noting a 13 percent jump.

Three stories making news across the Midwest today:

1. Factory orders rise. Demand for automobiles and motor vehicle parts surged in July. The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday orders rose 9.8 percent in July, the biggest recorded jump in more than eight years. Overall, factory orders climbed 2.4 percent in July on auto demand and a jump in commercial airplane orders. The increase follows a 0.4 percent decrease in June, which had worsened fears the country was falling into a double-dip recession.

2. Chicago school considers conversion. One local school in the Chicago Public Schools district is mulling an unusual strategy in improving its performance – it’s considering the possibility of shutting itself down. On Tuesday, the school council at Wendell Smith Elementary, seven times on probation, will likely vote on whether to shut down and reopen as a charter school, according to our partner station WBEZ. It’s believed to be the first time a CPS school has held a vote on whether to shut itself down.

3. JobsOhio heads to court. A lawsuit in Ohio is challenging whether Gov. John Kasich’s privatized development corporation is eligible for exemptions from corporate regulations. Two Democrats and a liberal policy group filed the suit Tuesday, also arguing the state cannot invest “public dollars in a private entity,” according to The Columbus Dispatch. Earlier, the Ohio Supreme Court said it did not have jurisdiction in the case until it had been heard in lower courts. Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed in Franklin County Common Court.

We told you last month about the joint approach that two big cities in Kentucky — Lexington and Louisville — are taking to economic development. Well, they aren’t wasting any time in getting started.

The effort by Mayors Greg Fischer of Louisville and Jim Gray of Lexington kicked off on Thursday with an appearance before 1,100 people at a Leadership Louisville luncheon. The partnership will be called the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement. Here’s the story from the Louisville Courier-Journal.

“We want the national decision makers, the international investment decision makers, to say, ‘we’ve got to play in the Bluegrass region,’” Fischer said. “So this is a question about us coming

Lexington's Gray (left) and Louisville's Fischer. Photo: Louisville Courier-Journal

together and being cooperative.”

The partnership was announced earlier this summer at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago. The two cities, each home to major auto and parts plants, want to become a national center of advanced manufacturing. It’s a specialty that the Great Lakes states have always claimed as their own.

Is this an idea that our states should try? Would you like to see a partnership between Cleveland and Columbus, or Madison and Milwaukee? Or are towns better off in going it alone?

Regarding your opinion piece (which I highly doubt you wrote yourselves, it’s most likely the work of some PR flacks), I have several points to raise as well as some questions.

First point. Second sentence. Wrong. OBAMA (not the LA Times) said the nation needs to update itself “Cleveland-style”. Get the facts straight.

First question. Resurgent manufacturing economy? Huh? USA Today “80K manufacturing jobs lost since 2000″. Where are your figures coming from? It’s not in the 2010 report from the Fund.

Second point. “Alignment and connection”. Thanks for finally getting it. Too bad it’s too little too late.

Second question. The “Health-Tech Corridor in Cleveland”? What sort of made-up BS is that? Can you actually take any credit for it if it does exist?

Third question. If we have “sufficient resources” is it necessary to FOCUS them? On the regional priorities YOU’VE established but no one else agrees with?

Third point. Representing the clusterfuck known as Voices and Choices as “extensive public input” is complete BS.

Fourth question. “an unprecedented wave of local government collaboration”? Really? Again, produce some facts. Unless you have actually figures and compare them to other regions, it’s just an opinion.

Fourth point. Now I see why you’re flogging “alignment and connection”. “Puget Sound and the Twin Cities emphasized the criticality of aligning and connecting assets through private, public, civic and philanthropic collaboration. ”

Final point. For the last 30 years, you’ve been ED of the GCP Joe. Brad, you’ve been ED at the Fund for 5, and with the Cleveland Foundation prior to that for at least five years.

Fifth question. What effect can you honestly say you’ve had on the regional economy?

Final question. When will you step aside?

Signed,

George Nemeth

Please click thru to the original post and leave your comments. Thanks in advance.

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Richard M. Daley is spending his last week as Chicago mayor. As if to bid him goodbye, thousands of tulips have burst into bloom on Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile.

The two are closely related. In nearly 22 years as mayor, Daley made the beautification of the city a top priority in his efforts at economic redevelopment. If Chicago looked attractive, tourists and business travelers would be more likely to come, and residents would feel better about their city, or so he reasoned.

Changing Gears reporter Niala Boodhoo looked at Daley’s approach to beautification and his other efforts to spur development on the eve of Chicago’s mayoral election in February.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (Photo courtesy of Kate Gardiner, WBEZ Flickr)

On Monday, the public has been invited to bid farewell to Daley at City Hall from 1 pm to 4 pm. He’ll be succeeded next Monday by Rahm Emanuel, the former Congressman and White House Chief of Staff.

Daley is far from alone in using beautification as an approach to attracting visitors and business. Last week, Holland, Mich., kicked off its annual Tulip Festival, which attracts more than 500,000 a year to the town on Lake Michigan. The festival, which began in 1927, runs through Saturday.

Farther afield, Ottawa, Ontario, is celebrating its own tulip festival through May 23. The Canadian capital is awash in tulips each year, thanks to the gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs from The Netherlands marking the close association between Holland and Canada during World War II.

And New Yorkers look forward to the annual displays of tulips and other flowers on Park Avenue and at Rockefeller Center. This year’s tulips were orange, planted in honor of the Netherlands.

Does your Midwest city make an effort to spruce up its downtown? What does it plant — and do you think it makes a difference

Send your pictures to changinggears@umich.edu and we’ll post them here.

American 2050 reports:

A new study, “The Economic Impacts of High Speed Rail: Transforming the Midwest,” outlines the potential benefits of a high-speed rail system in the Midwest Megaregion with it’s $2.6 trillion economy, the fifth largest in the world, behind only the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany.

Download the executive summary.

Read more from the Midwest High Speed Rail Association web site.

Midwest High Speed Rail Association 2011 Economic Study Executive Summary

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