HIHELP — Michigan Higher Education Land Policy Consortium

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State of the Cities Report is Released Online

State of Michigan Cities: An Index of Urban Prosperity, an official publication of LPI’s Michigan Higher Education Land Policy (MIHELP) Consortium will be released in hard-copy format later this month. The report examines thirteen Michigan cities, including Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon, Pontiac, Saginaw, Traverse City, Warren, and Wyoming, by using 36 indicators—demographics, economics,property values, crime, schools, government finance, health, and the environment.

MIHELP is a public-private, multi-university, inter-disciplinary partnership headquartered at MSU’s Land Policy Institute to address the fundamental research and outreach void in urban and metropolitan issues in the State of Michigan. By marshaling the resources of its component institutions, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Grand Valley State University, in concert with Public Sector Consultants, MIHELP is undertaking an ambitious research and outreach agenda that incorporates over 200 faculty experts.

The report comprehensively illustrates the condition of Michigan’s cities today by comparing each city to its county and the State, providing the reader with an ability to view each city in context. Additionally, the report includes a new Index of Urban Prosperity, which compares each city against the state as a whole in nine categories: crime rate, property value change, median household income, employment rate, employment change, graduation rate, MEAP passing rate, the number of young adults, and population change.

General trends illustrated by the report include:

Successful regions have one thing in common: successful cities.
Cities continue to lose citizens, jobs, and infrastructure.
Michigan cities are seen as the least performing nationally.
Vibrant cities are becoming increasingly important tools for revitalizing economies.
Cities are markets for talent, and, therefore, the building blocks of a new economy.
Downward demographic and economic trends in cities identified in earlier reports continue.
There is an increasing demographic and economic gap between cities and counties.
Michigan’s cities are the key the state’s economic recovery.

Unfortunately, even Ann Arbor, Michigan’s highest performing city according to the 2005 Index of Urban Prosperity, is underperforming nationally, with a ranking in the Milken Institute’s 2005 Best Performing Cities: 200 Largest Metros of 156th.

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