MI Community Minutes
By Eric Walcott
MI Community MinutesAug 17, 2022
A Countywide Approach to Solving a Housing Shortage
What do you do when your county is 7,750 units short of providing adequate housing? As communities across the state face severe housing shortages, Kalamazoo County has adopted an innovative approach. From a unique funding approach, to tailoring strategies to meet the needs of both rural and urban communities across the county, Kalamazoo is thinking outside the box, and it seems to be working. In today's episode, we hear from Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema about innovative approaches Kalamazoo County is taking to addressing a significant housing shortage.
Click below to check out the housing plan Mary references
Kalamazoo County Housing Plan Executive Summary
As always, if you know of a local government doing interesting work that we should be highlighting on this podcast, feel free to get in touch at walcott3@msu.edu.
Developing Thriving Communities in the Upper Peninsula with Ishpeming City Manager Craig Cugini
This episode is the second of 2 episodes where we hear from neighboring communities in the upper peninsula about some of the challenges they've faced over the years, and how they're working together to move forward in building vibrant communities.
In this episode, I'm joined by MSU Extension Senior Educator Brad Neumann, who's based in Marquette, and we talk to Ishpeming City Manager Craig Cugini. We have a great conversation with Craig about his work in Ishpeming, some of the struggles facing historic mining communities in the UP, and creative ways Ishpeming is working to revitalize their community and make Ishpeming a destination town through outdoor recreation. Craig also shares some wonderful insights on how Ishpeming is leveraging state and federal funding priorities to invest in local infrastructure.
As always, if you know of a local government doing interesting work that we should be highlighting on this podcast, feel free to get in touch at walcott3@msu.edu.
Strengthening Irontown with Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron
This episode is part 1 of 2 episodes where we hear from neighboring communities in the upper peninsula about some of the challenges they've faced over the years, and how they're working together to move forward in building vibrant communities.
In this episode, I'm joined by MSU Extension Senior Educator Brad Neumann, and we talk to Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron. We have a great conversation with Nate about his work in Negaunee, some of the struggles facing historic mining communities in the UP, the importance of leadership, vision and collaboration, and how Negaunee is working with their neighbors in Ishpeming to create a vibrant region that enhances the strengths of both communities.
Check below for some of the resources Nate mentions in the episode:
Negaunee Downtown Development Authority
Negaunee Economic Development Magazine
Sustainability Efforts in Local Government with City of Holland's Dan Broersma
In this episode, MSU Extension Educator Andy Northrop and I talk with City of Holland Sustainability manager Dan Broersma about some of the innovative ways Holland is approaching sustainability efforts. Dan also shares some of the keys to Holland's success in this area, and some suggestions for local governments looking at stepping up their sustainability efforts. Then, Andy wraps things up by discussing a few resources that might be of use to communities in their own sustainability efforts.
Learn more about the City of Holland's Sustainability efforts here.
If you want to see the webinar presentation Dan gave, you can watch that here.
Hello
Welcome to MI Community Minutes, a podcast about issues facing Michigan communities and what some local governments are doing to address them.
I'm always looking for more examples, so if you know of a local government that has done something interesting or innovative to address a challenge in their community, please reach out to me by email at walcott3@msu.edu.
If you're interested in viewing any of the previous webinars in this series, click here.