Spreading the word.

Well its been too long and this week's finds deserve some time. First there's the Forbes magazine rankings of the top 10 most fuel efficient areas and guess what... the Woodward Corridor makes it in at number nine. As Forbes notes, this dense corridor of 11 communities has commute times half as long as other downtown neighborhoods. Also, a great article in the Wall Street Journal about efforts in Sacramento to become more dense. More and more, ordinary folks, elected officials and developers are getting it.

Are they getting it?

Ok, its time to give credit where credit is due. Last week the Michigan legislature slogged its way through the 2009 budget. And although not done yet, it seems as if they're beginning to grasp what needs to be funded in order to help bring Michigan's economy back. Despite a $400 million budget deficit that needed to be solved, lawmakers found their way to give increases to higher education, community colleges and, believe it or not, for the first time in seven years, revenue sharing. In previous posts I've described how revenue sharing are those funds returned to local governments by the state to help fund essential services such as police and fire. It also goes towards parks and libraries as well, those things that help to maintain quality of life in our hometowns. Still to be decided but also likely to get an increase in funding is k-12 education and health care. So maybe, just maybe, they're starting to get it.

Listen closely

In a continuing effort to highlight organizations and people who "get it", who understand that we must focus our energy and resources on investing in talent and cities, I bring you Dan Kildee. Dan is currently Treasurer of Genessee County and was founder of Michigan's first land bank. This week he is the guest blogger for the Michigan Municipal League.