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The leaders in sustainably developing our home corridor, the Woodward Avenue Action Association is a coalition of cities from Detroit to Pontiac. We work together on transit-oriented development and transit service on this essential regional connector. |
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When the region’s cities needed to be pulled together around energy policy and strategies to address climate change, we turned to our friends at WARM Training Center for their technical gravitas and superb vision. |
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From our first year, the Michigan Municipal League has been a policy and program partner on issues ranging from regional transportation to renewable and efficient energy use to municipal finance. They’re our voice in Lansing and a key thought leader on all things “city”. |
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Spun off as an independent nonprofit in 2012, the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office provides our communities with technical assistance and coordination around energy projects and policy. Their public body corporate can help with project financing. |
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For energy project financing, there’s no better expert than Michigan Saves. They helped us win more than $20M to help residents improve the efficiency of their homes, and together we’re looking at a Property-Assessed Clean Energy program for commercial buildings in the region. |
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The legislative bodies from the City of Detroit and Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties set up R-PATH (Regional Partners Advocating Transit Here) to build momentum for a regional transit authority in the metropolitan area. |
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The Ford, Mott and Kresge Foundations, underwrote Trans4M to leverage the expertise of more than 30 organizations working on issues from regional transit to rail bonds to fix-it-first initiatives, keeping sustainable transit on lawmakers agendas in the state capital. |
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Our metropolitan planning authority, SEMCOG – the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, is data-central for the region’s housing, transportation, collaboration and environmental quality issues. They also guide the processes for transportation planning for seven counties. |
Last week, the Census Bureau released new data on where people work—in contrast to where they live—offering a reminder that our regional connections aren’t limited to the fates of our Van Goghs.
Our staff spent a day at The Forge, a shared working/training space run by Pillar Technologies, a tech consulting firm that was nice enough to donate a day of staff training in Agile Project Management. We were hoping to learn how nonprofits can benefit from this relatively new technique.
In my last blog post we learned that Millennials are underrepresented in local government—and that the Millennial Mayors Congress selected the issue of Millennial (Under)Representation as its signature issue for 2013. How can the Congress actually affect what happens in the member cities’ appointment processes? With a protocol!