Give me your elderly, your retired, your senior citizens

It’s well known that money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does buy a nice place to live – which is a step in the right direction. It’s also well known that the elderly, with mobile pensions, tend to seek out places that offer the best senior living arrangements for their buck. This means having a comfortable, maintenance-free living space in an attractive and safe environment with some interesting things to do and locally accessible health services to address the inevitable wearing-out of the human body.

Geographically, this has usually meant a move to the east or west coast of Florida, central Arizona, or perhaps Tennessee or the Ozarks. To say the least, when a relatively well-heeled senior leaves his or her longtime home, it represents a considerable loss to the community – not only in material and financial assets, but in the loss of knowledge and a future income stream that is likely to continue for many years.

For that reason and because American’s population is aging at a rapid rate, communities should take seriously the needs of their elderly and do all they can to get them to stay. Likewise, any new retirees to a community represents a significant gain that allows for the growth of social and economic capital. Elderly people not only bring a lifetime of accumulated financial wealth (some more than others) but a significant bank of experience and talent. Contrary to the popular notion, older people within communities are not burdens to be endured, but are important engines for community sustainability and growth.

Today, Michigan is hemorrhaging senior citizens. What can Michigan do to retain its seniors and attract new ones? A lot! Michigan can promote and invest in walkable retirement communities; safety and easy public transport; accessible social, recreational, and entertainment facilities that accommodate older people; and subsidized health and medical benefits. Given the uncertainty of life expectancy for the elderly, local governments might maintain high-quality rental housing to attract seniors.

Many elderly enjoy living is coastal areas and, indeed the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coast states have long enjoyed a net influx of free-spending seniors. Interestingly, Michigan has the longest coastline of any of the lower 48 states which, with improving winter weather (thanks to global warming), could be a powerful magnet to America’s 78 million aging babyboomers looking for coasts that don’t routinely have hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes.

All this is to say, Michigan (including metro Detroit) could be doing much more to support and attract senior citizens. To do so, would reduce our economic dependence on a maturing auto industry, promote a broadly based service economy, and perhaps, reverse the downward economic spiral that seems to be gripping our State. Our new motto should be: “Give me your elderly, your retired, your senior citizens yearning for a beautiful, safe, and low-cost environment for their remaining years and I’ll give you a prosperous State”.

Sssh... Michigan has a gold coast!

Perhaps one of our best kept secrets is that the west coast of Michigan is a “gold coast”. What’s a “gold coast” you may ask? A gold coast is a strip of land adjacent to a large body of water that has the potential to develop in a big way and generate a lot of income (gold) for lots of people. Needless-to-say, this is something that Michigan’s economy needs at the moment.

Why is it a secret? Many of the good folks who already live along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan are not anxious to share their good fortune with others. Long time residents remember the time the Federal government came in and made them give up some of their prime shoreline property for our nation’s 1^st national seashore, the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The Michigan retirees who have recently moved there, see potential new residents as competitors for the good stuff: lakefront property, well-stocked fishing and boating lakes and rivers, and uncrowded local services. They’re not about to advertise to “foreigners” the fact that the west coast of Michigan has beautiful dunes and harbors, good weather (becoming better with each passing year), diverse year-round recreation, unlimited fresh water, and a remarkably low cost of living.

What would happen if the prosperous but overcrowded peoples of Chicago and other mid-American states and cities got wind of the remarkable charms of western Michigan? They’d pour into the region, renting and buying up vacation properties, settling into sprawling gated retirement communities, make demands on construction, retail, and health services, and generally spend money like mad. The quaint coastal towns and villages would explode in population and be transformed into vibrant communities – much to the chagrin of those already there.

Who are the people who would bring all this gold and prosperity to western Michigan: Well-healed Chicago-area commuters and seventy-eight million retiring Baby Boomers (with mobile pensions) all desiring to stay and recreate on a coast where hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, floods, pollution, and unending droughts don’t happen.

The main limitations at the moment to the growth of Michigan’s gold coast are its snowy, but not bitterly cold, winters and poorly integrated transportation. Regarding the former, western Michigan’s winters are in fact getting milder while its summers remain pleasant due to the lake-effect of Lake Michigan (far better than the other side of this big lake).

Regarding transportation, effective growth is retarded by the lack of a passenger rail line, safe airports, and a scenic coastal highway. Indeed, one of the best investments the State could make would be in a high-speed rail linked to Chicago speeding vacationers and others to Traverse City in two hours, Charlevoix in three, and Petoskey in four. Unfortunately, Lansing appears quite oblivious to the remarkable opportunities afforded by western Michigan’s unique gold coast. Well, that’s because it’s a secret. Sssh!

Victory Lap

The climate change war is over. Global warming won! Those that fought tooth and nail against the reality of mankind's adverse impact our environment have either conceded defeat or are hiding in advanced states of denial.
How do I know? The old Al Gore gang staged a victory lap at the University of Michigan on May 8-10, 2007 called the “National Summit on coping with Climate Change” (http://www.snre.umich.edu/climate_change). Some 120 scientists and a few Washington bureaucrats who deemed it safe to stick their heads up, came together to talk about how American society might adapt to rising sea levels, more storms, desertification, and decreasing fossil fuels.
These people were prepared to acknowledge what had been denied for years – that climate changes will happen regardless of what Americans or anybody else does in the near future. They were ready to state publicly what Europeans and others already accept: “the globe is warming and we don’t know what to do about it”.
For some 18 years, the US Climate Change Program has poured billions into studying the physics and chemistry of the dynamic atmosphere -- awkwardly ignoring the real problem of why modern society emits more and more greenhouse gasses. To placate happy-talk politicians of both the Clinton and Bush administrations, they argued that climate change could be arrested if we just reduced our consumption of fossil fuels – which everyone knew wouldn’t happen. Reducing emissions was a non-starter because (a) the politically-connected the captains of American industry were not about to cut their windfall profits from mining and distributing fossil fuels, and (b) the physical scientists, who controlled the agenda, relished a reliable river of research funds. The rocket engineers and climatologists were not about to give up their research largess to social scientists who might actually have something useful to say about how society should or should not confront climate change.
All of this is to say, today we’re a day late and a dollar short. The National Summit should have come 10 years ago – as was acknowledged by one of it principal speakers.

What the experts don't know

Recently I attended the “Michigan Economic Forum” -- organized, to their credit, by University of Michigan undergraduate students in economics. A panel of invited economists and others presented data on the status of American’s economy, the auto industry, and Michigan’s business climate. While professing the obvious: “Michigan’s losing manufacturing jobs” and “the housing market is a bust”, none provided a vision of what Michigan could or should become. I came away with the sinking feeling that these so-called experts knew little about Michigan and contribute nothing useful to the dialog about Michigan’s economic future.

True, the popular “more high-tech” and “more college graduates” mantras were trotted out, but no vision accompanied these tropes. This advice did nothing to address Michigan’s broad employment decline in the manufacturing sector. If followed, the recommendations would serve only to increase the yawning gap between Michigan’s high-tech haves and the underemployed have-nots.

Recent experience with Pfizer and other hi-tech companies fleeing the state suggests that “more hi-tech” is not the solution. For a hundred years or more, Michigan has been exporting its creativity and innovations to the world – manufacturing technologies, pharmaceutical and chemical inventions, advanced sensors, and successful business models – leaving little behind. Sadly, there’s no Michigan-created technology that others can’t take away. For permanence, we need home-grown activities embedded in the very fabric of our geography -- rooted in our soil if you will. Is there such a thing?

Yes, Michigan’s geography is unique, highly attractive, marketable, and unmovable! The diversity of its landscapes, the richness of its history, and the increasing favorableness of its climate, make Michigan an attractive focus as a growing recreation and retirement destination.

Michigan’s coastlines are phenomenal; an outstanding attraction to this nation’s retiring 76 million Baby Boomers. Incorporating almost 40% of the voting age population, Baby Boomers have portable pensions and are likely to choose Michigan for its quality of life and quality of health care services. With a little effort, Michigan could attract retirees with wealth and experience, who in turn, would end up creating hundred of thousands of new service jobs in Michigan. This may be the answer that the experts have missed.

Michigan's next big thing

With the maturing of the auto industry, many of us are asking: What’s Michigan’s next big thing? What new wave of economic activity might propel our State forward? Digital or nanotechnologies? Life sciences or pharmaceuticals? Creative new urbanism?

It’s impossible to predict a certain future, but that’s not to say that we shouldn’t look to invest in those sectors that promise to employ as many of our citizens as possible – or at least that’s what I tell my students at Eastern Michigan University. Being an instructor of geography, I like to remind my students of just how much of Michigan’s prosperity has been due to its rich natural resources, to its location at the heart of the Great Lakes, and how much geography will continue to shape their lives.

In guessing about Michigan’s “next big thing”, we might factor in an environmental event we’re told is fast approaching if not already here: global climate change with rising temperatures. Many believe that such a trend is all but inevitable and that within several decades, much of Michigan could have a climate more like that of central Ohio. If so, climate change will have a profound effect on America’s and Michigan’s future. Surprisingly, the purported negative effects of climate change, e.g. disastrous droughts and floods, increasing hurricanes and sea level rise will little influence Michigan and may actually have some benefits (in a relative sense).

Michigan’s costliest hazards are related to its cold weather: highway accidents and transportation disruptions; flu, falls, and ill health; power outages and frozen pipes. Indeed, we anticipate cold winters with bigger furnaces, extra insulation, more energy supplies, and greater home-owners insurance. Significant costs are incurred simply in annually shutting down and restarting Michigan’s outdoor construction season. This makes Michigan a more expensive place to live than more southerly climes.

A warmer climate, especially one with less extreme winters, could bring Michigan its “next big thing”. Michigan would be less expensive and more attractive for recreation and retirement. Many of us know firsthand of the richness of our natural landscapes: its forests and scenic rivers, coastal dunes and inland lakes, and the great range of warm weather-related activities. While other benefits, such as longer crop growing and shipping seasons, would surely bolster our State’s economy, Michigan’s next big thing may be its growing attraction to affluent vacationers and retirees from all over the country.

Think about the hazards of a bone-dry Arizona, a flammable and earthquake prone California, or flood and hurricane-beset Florida. Michigan may emerge as an alternative to these. True, other Great Lakes states would also benefit, but none is so well positioned as Michigan to provide an interesting and stable environment to a mobile, healthy, and well-healed America population.

It won’t happen over night, but investments made in supporting our own senior citizens and in attracting Baby Boomers from across the nation to our shores (we have more coastline than the entire Atlantic Seaboard) will pay rich dividends. New recreational and cultural facilities, safe multiunit housing in walkable communities, accessible health care, local public transport, and easy communication will attract people to our State Most of all, we must fight tooth and nail to protect the quantity and quality of our most important asset, our 40 thousand square miles of Great Lakes water (41% of the State).

In-turn new, environmentally-friendly jobs and attractive communities would grow and attract young and creative people. As our smokestack industries decline, education, recreation, health care, and housing focused on seniors could be Michigan’s “next big thing”. As an old guy, I’m hoping so.