News & Events

Letter from the Staff

August 2008

On Babies, Scotland and a New Way

by Anna Clark, Communications Coordinator

By the time you read this, my little sister's probably had her baby. This is the first of the next generation in my family, and it comes with all the feverish anticipation you can imagine. But we Clarks are experiencing it at a distance: Elizabeth lives in Scotland. I won't meet the child until the family of three visits Michigan for the December holidays.

Disappointing, yes. Heartbreaking even. My mother fills the void by buying up all the newborn gear from the Detroit Tigers, the Red Wings and the Pistons, so that the baby, who will boast dual citizenship, "won't forget their roots."

But it was never a question of Elizabeth returning to Michigan for her pregnancy; the family support offered in Scotland simply has no local counterpart. At least not yet. Elizabeth is a Central Michigan grad who, two years ago, returned to the country where she studied abroad. She's 25-years-old, and her Scotland experiences offer me a vantage into another way of doing things--from family support to education. Over here in Michigan, a state intent on enticing young talent and families, what I see resonates.

At the Suburbs Alliance’s Mayors & Managers Policy Forum last month, we gathered in Hamtramck to talk up strategies to sustain Millennials in public service jobs. I heard a lot that came down to practical flexibility: telecommuting opportunities, day-to-day flex scheduling and loan forgiveness for city employees were among the great ideas. I’m excited for more conversations on how to make it happen in southeast Michigan.

But my sister’s life in Scotland gives me more to envy. She enjoys public transportation and transit-oriented development, for one. Not only in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but also in the small town in the south of Scotland that she just moved to.  As well, Elizabeth became pregnant just after receiving her master’s degree and while working two part-time jobs; she—an immigrant on a visa—is now in the midst of a 36-week paid maternity leave, and her health care with Scotland’s midwives and doctors is supported. Her fiancé, a physics teacher, receives a paternity stipend. His work is through an education program that forgives his student loans in exchange for his agreement to be placed at any school in the country for a year (hence their recent move to southern Scotland). When their child is three or four-years-old, he or she will have a free place in a nursery that engages in age-appropriate curriculum.

Their neighborhoods are designed for walking; the couple doesn’t own a car, and it’s no huge feat for them to get their groceries or to a medical appointment. As well, there’s a thriving youth culture over there: 95% of all Scottish students who go onto college choose Scotland’s universities— in a country that’s one-third the size of Michigan.

I don’t mean to paint Scotland as a utopia; Elizabeth tells me plainly about what’s not working well, and reasons why she misses Michigan (among those reasons: the Great Lakes and no unofficial fancy dress codes that come into play every time she leaves the door).

But the point is, witnessing other ways of organizing communities—whether it’s in another country, another state or another city—suddenly puts a choice before us. It forces us to question our assumptions. How, and when, and why, do we move from place to place? How do we welcome families and young people and retirees, people of different income levels, people who are new to the country and those who are lifelong residents? Why do we offer some incentives, and not others? How are our values manifested in our policies?

We’re at a tipping point. Southeast Michigan is ready for positive, thoughtful transformation; we at the Suburbs Alliance see it with the enthusiasm from cities and partners for the Millennial Mayors Congress and the Regional Energy Office. My hope is that the momentum will continue as local cities learn from one another, embracing each other’s examples as an opportunity to reflect on new ways of doing things.

And for those individuals out there who’ve made it their life work to support and enhance southeast Michigan? First, I want to give my deepest thanks. It’s a region I’ve lived and worked in for ten months now, and I’m grateful for all you’ve done to make it a place I want to be.

Second, though, I want to offer a suggestion. When the work gets frustrating—as I’m certain it does—or when it feels more automated than inspired, consider taking yourself to a place that’s wholly new to you. Explore. Wonder. Let the unexpected differences of another community’s way of being lead you to new ideas and new energy.

Then bring it back home. And let’s work together to move our beautiful state into the sort of place where my little sister would want to begin her family, where she could find that job in a historical museum she wants, where her child will have a brilliant and healthy education, where her fiancé is encouraged in his teaching career, even—especially!—as an immigrant.

I’ll admit I have a personal stake in this: I miss them. But, hey—isn’t your stake in it personal too?

Anna Clark is the Communications Coordinator at the Suburbs Alliance. She lives in Detroit.