It’s no secret that southeast Michigan is blessed with abundant natural resources. Even in tough economic times, our landscapes buoy our spirits and enliven our imaginations. And now, they can also ignite our economy.

Energy is especially prioritized; the Obama administration is investing in strategies to reduce greenhouse gases by pouring billions into municipal energy efficiency projects.

“Massive and multiple funding opportunities are coming right now for local communities,” Corvidae said. “With the wider scope of the Regional Energy Office, we are helping to attract those dollars to our region and can deliver services to our communities in a more cost-effective way.

Corvidae said southeast Michigan cities can combine state and federal funding opportunities “to craft large-scale robust efforts to invest in our infrastructure.”

Nate Geinzer over in Farmington Hills has seen a meaningful impact from the Department of Energy’s EECBG program; it’s helped the city to reduce energy use and air pollution, while increasing local prosperity.

“Here in Farmington Hills, we are really excited about our EECBG-funded public education and incentive programs,” said Geinzer. “This investment will go towards advancing a regional and catalytic endeavor that will work to change the nature of southeast Michigan through sustainability.”

Geinzer added that the city’s participation in the Regional Energy Office allows Farmington Hills to direct additional funds to programming, rather than spending them on administration costs.

Farmington Hills isn’t the only local city that’s finding it easy to be green. The Regional Energy Office was recently awarded three million dollars by the Michigan Public Service Commission, 70 percent of which will be dedicated to energy efficiency projects in member cities. As well, it has just submitted applications for nearly two million dollars of competitive proposals to the State for additional EECBG funding on behalf of the southeast Michigan’s cities, townships and counties. (Contact Luke Forrest, program director, for questions about getting involved in this: Luke@suburbsalliance.org.)

Local cities are also pursuing the Department of Energy’s funding opportunity announcement for large-scale energy efficiency and conservation projects. Two complimentary proposals are being submitted via the Millennial Mayors Congress—one will support district-wide building retrofits in the region’s larger cities and key downtowns; the other will provide retrofits for smaller local cities. (Contact Sharon Carney, program director, for more on this and other federal opportunities: Sharon@suburbsalliance.org.)

Collaborative opportunities for coordinating energy-related funding can help hasten the on-the-ground success of city projects, according to Corvidae

“Funders know that collaborative efforts can serve wider needs and bigger audiences… A collaborative approach speeds up our ability to deliver,” Corvidae said

Meanwhile, stimulus initiatives in support of green construction and environmental clean-up provides another sustainable path for Michigan cities to develop their neighborhoods. Just ask Lincoln Park, which received recovery grants from both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for a total of $350,000 dollars.

The grants allow Lincoln Park to “identity and prepare to reuse brownfield sites and (to) replace lighting with high efficiency, high-energy streetlights,” said Steve Duchane, the city manager.

As well, ten Detroit suburbs—from tiny Wayne to expansive Dearborn—have received a total of $3,541,500 in stimulus funds for their local housing commissions. The goal? To approach green residential building in a way that reduces energy demand and water consumption, while lowering operating costs and improving quality of life.

As HUD describes it in its mission for recovery funds: “Green building is a more environmentally responsible and sustainable approach to building and operating our housing.”

At the same time, of course, green building develops the market for green jobs.

As well, advocates for Michigan’s environment and economy are taking it to the river … or rather, the Great Lakes. The EPA-led Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which was just fully authorized this month, makes its mission plain in its name. President Obama has designated $475 million of the EPA’s 2010 budget for what is describes as a new “interagency Great Lakes restoration initiative, which will target the most significant problems in the region, including invasive aquatic species, non-point source pollution, and contaminated sediment.”

This opens up the opportunity for water infrastructure grants designed for structural improvements that will lower bills for cities and residents. The Request for Proposals will be released very soon—as in, any day now. Some of the dollars are expected to be flowing (excuse the pun) by the end of the year. (Stay tuned to the GLRI website for the RFP and sign up for email updates in this funding here.)

But that’s not the only opportunity to create jobs and save cash through water clean-ups. The Ecorse Creek Watershed Inter-Municipality Committee (a coalition that includes twelve suburbs) has received $800,000 in recovery funds through the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Restoration. The committee works to ensure that the creek’s 43-square mile watershed is clean, healthy, safe, and beautiful—not only to improve quality of life, but to reduce the risk of flooding and improve storm management. The recovery funds are designated for this effort—that is, to research the feasibility of a flood damage reduction project in Dearborn Heights. This is the first step for Dearborn Heights to reduce city expense for mending flood damage.

Whether its energy, land, or water, Senator Debbie Stabenow, who leads her caucus for green job creation, is well aware of how Michigan’s natural resources can serve as a catalyst for our state’s economy.

“By developing new conservation strategies for our cities, we are taking necessary steps to make our country more energy independent, while also creating jobs,” Sen. Stabenow said when announcing last September that more than four million dollars in recovery funds were headed to Michigan through energy efficiency grants. She added that she anticipates Michigan becoming “a leader in the clean energy economy.”

Techno-Regionalism

Web-savvy organizers close in on metro Detroit’s Tipping Point 

by Anna Clark 

 

Ten years ago, Malcolm Gladwell cued a shift in popular thinking about how change manifests in American culture through connectors, mavens and salespeople. Now, the explosion of social networking has Detroit-area leaders rethinking our approach to the “Tipping Point” and turning new tools towards regional reform. 

Why is social networking so important to crafting regional change? It harnesses both people and power. Social networking offers a platform for us to connect broadly, as well as providing a virtual map for how ideas spread and choices are made. In southeast Michigan, the work of innovative people can be physically and practically disparate. The best of social networking offers an uncommon way of bringing coherence to our region. The visual and technological engagement that the network offers can be leveraged for real-life partnerships.

Relationships, in fact, are the name of the game at PeopleMovers.com, an online community network designed especially for metro Detroit and intended to build healthy communities. It is free for all participants, including individuals, governments, and organizations. Last week, the site went through a major upgrade, which PeopleMovers calls “Community 2.0,” as it prepares for a major publicity push this spring.

"We are really excited about this latest upgrade to our site because we hope it will finally allow people and organizations to understand what we're up to and get them connected right away,” said Keith Zendler, CEO of PeopleMovers.

The Detroit Institute of the Arts and City Year Detroit are two of the most popular organizations on PeopleMovers—which is perhaps intuitive for organizations that prioritize community engagement. Through the website, they’re able to connect directly to individuals and other local organizations. That one-to-one interface allows them to share news, raise funds, feature photos, and promote local events—without having to rely on an intermediary to tell their story for them. Unlike Facebook or other social media sites, PeopleMovers is focused especially on the Detroit area.

 In the DIA’s case, participating in social networking is right in line with the recent massive renovation and reinvention of the museum, which drew international attention when it debuted two years ago this month. The DIA’s new design is grounded on innovative ways of making its art collection accessible and engaging to the public. From illustrative videos to “Eye Spy” games that inspire kids to look closely at the some of the greatest art in the world, the DIA has turned heads for its ability to connect its collection with its community. The PeopleMovers platform (as well as an active Twitter account) maximizes technology in support of the DIA’s mission to “create experiences that help each visitor find personal meaning in art.”

The key word, of course, is ‘personal’—directly connecting with people. By building relationships through social media, the DIA engages individuals and partners in a personal—and more permanent—way.

The Michigan Suburbs Alliance and one of our projects, the Millennial Mayors Congress, are the two newest additions to the PeopleMovers network. Now in development, our pages will debut this week. We invite you to create your own PeopleMovers profile and connect with us on the network. We’ll be featuring our latest news, postings for internship and employment openings, photos, event spotlights, as well as updates from our partners.

As for the future of PeopleMovers, Keith Zendler sees 2010 as a year where the Community 2.0 upgrade will increasingly facilitate relationships across the region.

“Relationships are the most powerful way to sell or grow anything, as they can get people passionately talking about what you do,” Zendler said. “Community 2.0 facilitates this process.”

While people are the backbone of any social network, the power to create change is found in the complicated—and often unseen—connections among them. As the People and Land program is discovering, a handful of individuals have the right stuff to influence a network. And they might not be who you think they are!

The Suburbs Alliance’s Conan Smith and MOSES’s Ponsella Hardaway, who both sit on PAL’s leadership council, see hope for transportation reform by tapping into the power of network analysis—that is, developing a picture, or map, of who is working on transportation and is allied with PAL’s goals. The technique is destined to uncover influential people that are beyond PAL’s current network.

Jeff Kaplow, a research specialist with Public Policy Associates in Lansing, led the network mapping team for PAL. He said that a good start for any organization to reach its goals is to understand “who’s out there, how they are connected, and how to mobilize them.”

Fed by “snowball surveys” that ask people to name the individuals they partner with, a network analysis processes a picture that illustrates the extent that people are—or are not—reaching across organizational boundaries. It offers, Kaplow said, “an exciting and different way of thinking about how we can work together.”

“There’s a big push for regional cooperation lately,” Kaplow said. “This method taps into that push for regional collaboration across borders, because that’s what network analysis focuses on.”

Conan Smith understands how network analysis can be leveraged into transportation reform in particular.

“It is essential to know how people working on transportation are or are not connecting with each other,” said Smith. “With the network map, we can better tap into expertise, develop partnerships, mobilize our strengths and remedy our gaps.

“It makes no sense for all of us committed to transportation reform to work in isolation,” Smith added. “When we harness our collective energy, we’ll make real progress.

Real progress for southeast Michigan translates into real regionalism—in all its many facets. To break out of old patterns of behavior, to do our best work more quickly and more substantively, we need the energy of the people. In many ways, this fact is so old it’s new: traditional organizing has always depended on an expansive reach that maximizes the media, from broadsheets that were passed hand-to-hand in the feminist movement to low-power radio stations that disseminated information about civil rights.

In Michigan, in the twenty-first century, we have new tools to catalyze the old truism of “people power.” Social networking helps us connect broadly and directly. Network analysis helps us find the movers and shakers who might be located in unexpected places. Even in our very process, then, we have the opportunity to enact the principles of regionalism that we’re working for.