East River Mansions - Grosse Ile Bed & Breakfast

We are fortunate to have the traditional bed and breakfast, Bishop’s Cottage on Macomb St. and the Pilot House on Groh Rd. for visitors to occupy during a stay.

But we need to offer more venues.

Thank the avarice-loving Wall Street gang of white collar thieves for creating a once-in-lifetime opportunity which is now manifested in abysmally low property values for millions of U.S. home owners.

Today, some of the island’s most beautiful and historic East River mansions are available at bargain prices. At least eight beautiful properties are for sale on East River Rd. We should take advantage of this opportunity and purchase them and turn them into bed and breakfast locations.

The net result will be saving our irreplaceable East River homes while creating uniquely appealing Bed and Breakfast properties for Grosse Ile and Metro Detroit visitors.

Let’s get it done!

The Great Reset – Creative People, Innovation, and American Democracy –

by Gary R. Baker, Senior Lecturer, English Composition, University of Akron

The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida, New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

“…the task of democracy is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute.” John Dewey, American Philosopher and Educator, “Creative Democracy – The Task before Us”, 1939.

“If we want our societies to grow and develop, we’ll need to extend the engagement of our full creative talents, not just of a small elite but of each and every worker (128).” Richard Florida, Economist, The Great Reset, 2010.

In our democratic and diversified and open society – especially in a time of crisis (economic or political or military, including the economic crisis that hit us in 2008), we can draw on the creative and innovative powers of the people who live here. We have done that before. In his newest book, The Great Reset, Richard Florida, economist and Professor of Business and Creativity at the University of Toronto, looks at the major economic crises in our history and how they prompted innovation, inventiveness, and creativity – and R and D. Florida points out, for example, that spending on research and development doubled over the course of the 1930s in the middle of the Great Depression (28). He compares our current economic crisis with the two previous “resets” – that occurred following the Long Depression (1870s) and the Great Depression (1930s).

Florida contends that our present experience is more like that of America’s during the Long Depression. “That nineteenth-century downturn began as a banking crisis brought on by insolvent mortgages and complex financial instruments (sound familiar?) quickly spread to the entire economy, leading to widespread and prolonged unemployment” (10).

Resets unfold over two or three decades (180). Each brings about a new economic order and a new way of life. “Great Resets are the pivot points of economic history….They are the great transformative moments when new technologies and technological systems arise, when the economy is recast and society remade, and when the places where we live and work change to suit new needs” (181). Great Resets require innovation to do their work – including innovation in transportation, infrastructure, communication, and education.

In the First Reset the factory became the center of economic life (21). The industrial city became the place to live. The shift was from an agricultural to an industrial economy (181). The transcontinental railroads were built.

The Second Great Reset evolved from the Great Depression. Manufacturing efficiency and productivity improved dramatically (28). Suburbia attracted the mobile population. The population migrated to the suburbs and the South and the West – so much so that a majority was living in the South and West by 2000 (36). The interstate highway system was constructed.

Finally, in the Third Reset, the megaregions with great and large hub cities are attracting the population and the talented and the creative (144). We are moving from “…an industrial to an idea-driven creative economy now” (181). We are seeing the Third Industrial Revolution. We are moving from “…an economy based on making things to one that revolves around knowledge and creativity” (107). Florida believes that this is the time to build a great high-speed rail system to further integrate each megaregion and eventually to connect the megaregions of America.

Florida makes the case that “the future of urban development belongs to…the megaregion” (142). The largest megaregion in the United States runs from Boston to Washington and has a population of 50 million. The second largest runs from Pittsburgh to Chicago with a population of 46 million. That’s a large part of the Rust Belt! But Florida is not thinking in terms of Cleveland and its suburbs, for example. He’s thinking in terms of the megaregion of which Cleveland and its suburbs are a part. The Great Reset requires a reset in our thinking, too.

“Every Great Reset,” Florida writes, “has been spurred on by new infrastructure that can speed the movement of goods, people, and ideas” (155). “High-speed rail can provide the connective fiber that enables megaregions to function as truly integrated economic units. It would dramatically reduce travel times between the major cities of North America’s megaregions” (166). With high-speed rail, the trip from Detroit to Chicago would be under 75 minutes; from Pittsburgh to Chicago, less than three hours; from Toronto to Detroit, about 90 minutes (167).

Think of our older industrial cities (especially in the Great Lakes Region), and consider this point about high-speed rail: “Instead of stumbling along inefficiently as functionally distinct centers, they can become part of a much larger area of interconnected supply and demand, production and consumption” (167). In fact, Florida imagines “…revitalization happening along the lines of a new Great Lakes high-speed rail network” (169). We must connect our Rust Belt cities “… to the developing megaregions that represent the next phase of our economy” (169).

In considering our current economic experience and previous resets, Florida discovers several guiding principles, including the following two:

1. “… every single human being is creative. Each and every effort and policy initiative we undertake can be measured by this simple yardstick: how do they increase the ability of people, organizations, places, and companies to mobilize human creative capabilities? … The real key to economic growth lies in harnessing the full creative talents of every one of us” (182).

2. We need “… to overhaul our education system…We need a system of learning and human development that mobilizes and harnesses human creative talent en masse” (183).

Clearly, Florida is not taking an elitist approach. It’s inspiring for innovators and independent thinkers and community based groups to know that creativity, innovation, and idea generation are not “kept” at the university or in think tanks. Creativity, innovation, and idea generation are not the sole province or secret of universities, think tanks, professional organizations, academic journals, big corporations, business-led economic development groups, advocacy or lobbying organizations, or government at any level – in other words, established and official groups. It’s also inspiring for individuals not born in the United States to find out that they can try out new ideas here. They can become entrepreneurs here. That’s part of the reset. In the new economic order we must not outsource idea generation, innovation, or the creative process.

Individual and community initiative, innovation, entrepreneurship, and local and bottom-up action are what we need now. Look at Pittsburgh where Florida lived and taught for a number of years. Some cities are not expanding but shrinking in this “postindustrial, knowledge-based economy” (86). However, Florida does not mean bulldozing and urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s sense.  “The most successful examples of shrinking, such as Pittsburgh’s, result not from top-down policies imposed by local governments but from organic, bottom-up, community based efforts … Community groups, local foundations, and nonprofits – not city hall or business-led economic development groups – drove its transformation, playing a key role in stabilizing and strengthening neighborhoods, building green, and spurring the development of the waterfront and redevelopment around the universities” (82).

In his chapter about industrial cities, Florida expresses serious doubts about bailing out factories and building stadiums, convention centers, and hotels. “…use that money to invest in local assets, spur local business formation and development, better employ local people and utilize their skills, and invest in improving quality of place” (84).

Finance capitalism is not the answer or the future. “If we want to prosper again, we’ll need to move the economy away from finance capitalism and back toward the aptly dubbed real economy – investing once again in technology and human capital along with the new infrastructure that can make long-term economic growth possible” (112).

“…we must return to the original vision and purpose of the financial markets: supporting innovation and the growth of the real economy” (115).  We have been sidetracked by finance and the thrill and excitement of risk-taking. In the Great Reset we must now concentrate on innovation.

Where do we look?  Florida is calling for investment in individuals – not big companies and giant corporations. In our open society we have tremendous human resources for new ideas – for innovation, invention, greater efficiency, and new ways of thinking. But could we be ignoring or underestimating valuable sources, experience, talent and potential? We need to draw on all our human resources including these groups:

1. Workers in the workplace (including service workers). What does the worker know  and understand – especially about efficiency – by doing his or her job every day? Florida believes in requiring and expanding and drawing on analytical skills (including problem solving) and social intelligence skills (including those needed in team building) in every job, including janitorial work, (118-120). Why not recognize the worker as an asset rather than a cost or liability? Why not draw on the worker’s knowledge, understanding, intelligence, and insight? Then with innovation in the workplace thanks to the workers themselves, the worker becomes much more valuable to the company, contributes to efficiency, and enjoys his or her work.

2. Students. What innovations are students coming up with in independent projects, in their spare time outside of class, in impromptu discussions in the dorm or student union, or in classes that encourage new ways of thinking? What prompts a student’s innovative thinking? To innovate, must students work in their spare time outside of class – away from class? Are classes the centers of innovative thinking?

3. Entrepreneurs. Especially on the local level, we need to encourage and respect entrepreneurs – those born in the US and those who immigrate here. We need to encourage the American citizen, resident, and recent immigrant who decide to form a new company together.

4, Independent and freelance innovators and inventors – whether born in the US or outside the US.

5. Local community groups – local residents who mobilize on their own to pursue a project.

6. Immigrants. We need to be open to researchers, inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs born in other countries who want to come here to try out their business ideas and to develop and test inventions and innovations.

The more we are open-minded, creative, innovative, democratic, and open-armed (welcoming – regardless of a person’s country of origin or generation since immigration), the more effective our effort will be to build the creative and knowledge-based economy and a new way of life.

But, in effect, are we outsourcing American creativity, innovation, and invention? We are if we are not encouraging innovation and creative thinking. We are if we are not encouraging the immigration of entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors.

“Sadly, we remain trapped in the mental models of the old industrial economy” (132), Florida observes. Is this the crux of the problem? Can we change our frame of reference to see other possibilities? Do we understand what is happening? Will the 2008 crisis jolt us into changing our mentality – our philosophic attitude and way of looking at our (economic) world? Florida is not trying to figure out how to restore what we had before 2008. He is arguing that this economic crisis is so profound that it is the beginning of a Great Reset in our economy and way of life. Innovation, invention, change, creativity, new mental models, idea generation are the necessary concepts – not restoration. This is a tough assignment. We are being challenged to change the way we think – not to restore what we had.

In the First Great Reset our public school system was expanded (and more and more students were encouraged to complete high school) to prepare our young people for work in factories as the number of workers in agriculture declined. Public schools geared young people for factory work or work in a factory-centered economy. But that is not the need today.

Florida argues that we need “…to overhaul our education system…We need a system of learning and human development that mobilizes and harnesses human creative talent en masse…We need a learning system that fuels, rather than squelches, our collective creativity” (183).

I grew up in Northeast Ohio and am interested in the potential of this area. I would love to feel a new sense of energy and enthusiasm, confidence and optimism in our cities, towns, and communities. I am also a college instructor who has been interested in idea generation for a long time. In our schools I would love to see an openness to idea generation that would liberate our thinking and energize our learning experience.

Instead, in our current way of thinking, we adopt a factory mentality and a factory model of organization.  With the a-b-c-d way of thinking – the multiple-choice mentality – in which all possible answers are already laid out – our model for testing becomes our way of thinking. What are we practicing by testing this way? I like the reminder that both athletic coaches and Buddhist monks (such as Thich Nhat Hanh) give – what you practice is what you do.

The experience of the process is what is important. However, we are fixating on assessment – on counting. How many pages did the student write and re-write? How many essays did he turn in?  I guess we are fixating on the conveyor belt to show that we are “producing”. But we are being sidetracked by assessment and counting when we should be thinking about idea generation and innovation. We should be asking – how do we generate ideas? How does a writer open her mind to writing – to creating or inventing? Why are idea generation, insight, and creativity so essential to genuine education – (in comparison with surface education)?

Over their years of education, our students worry about “points”. They ask, “How many points will you take off for this error or that?” “How many points will I get if I include X or Y?” “What’s my exact grade in this course as of today?”

Again, I wonder, what are we practicing?

If we are going to apply a yardstick, let’s make the assessment of some value and not simply a mechanical exercise to record, compile, and pass along to a supervisor, dean, and state official. Let’s look not at how many pages one student has written but at the educational programs – the educational policies – and ask Florida’s question, “How do they increase the ability of people, organizations, places, and companies to mobilize human creative capabilities?” (182).

Education is an internship in the creative process. Idea generation is step one in the creative process, the exciting, energetic, electric wide-open part of the process, a blend of serendipity and analysis. But the student has to know and believe in her own potential and the possibilities of the creative process in her hands – to get started and to keep going. The student needs practice in the creative process – an internship.

In this internship, the teacher becomes a coach. He is no longer the assessor or accountant – the point counter. The coach-teacher helps and encourages the student-intern to be open to his or her own potential and the possibilities of the creative process – rather than worry about the “certainty” of what has been measured or counted – the number of points earned or lost, the number of words written, or the number of pages completed. That’s a distraction for the student and the teacher. In the creative process, the intern writer / painter / dancer / photographer / inventor / engineer is involved in something much more important than counting and tallying. In the creative process, yes, the coach offers guidance, but of much greater importance – the coach encourages the sense of confidence of the student-intern and shows confidence in the student-intern. During the creative process, the coach must show confidence in “the ability of people”. He creates an atmosphere for idea generation.

In his writings, the American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, compared and interchanged these ideas – experience, education, and democracy. He saw how these ideas overlap, are dependent on each other, build on each other, and stand in for each other. He believed, “…the task of democracy is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute.” Try this. Substitute “education” for “democracy”: “…the task of education is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute.” In a democratic, free, and open society, such an educational philosophy leads to creativity, idea generation, and democratic innovation. And we return to Richard Florida’s insight in The Great Reset, “If we want our societies to grow and develop, we’ll need to extend the engagement of our full creative talents, not just of a small elite but of each and every worker” (128).

Gary R. Baker, Senior Lecturer, English Composition, University of Akron

Web Site for Richard Florida’s writing:  http://www.creativeclass.com       

Copyright © 2010 Gary R. Baker. All rights reserved

"Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war?

WASHINGTON - November 6 - Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) recently made the following statement:

"Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war?

"The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer's money while firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive.

"People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on Main Street.

"Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively little money to build things in the US.

"The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional $50 billion for war. I can tell you that a Democratic version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is no more acceptable than a Republican version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Trillions for war and Wall Street, billions for insurance companies... When we were promised change, we weren't thinking that we give a dollar and get back two cents."

The question Rep. Kucinich asked all Americans goes to reality of what our actions reveal us to be versus who we think we are as a nation and as individuals.

We have been blind.

While sincerely believing that the United States stands for good, we have been blind to the abuses and avarice wrought by the few who have benefited beyond belief on the backs of us - naive and trusting Americans. First they pirated and then mutated the "American Way" to their advantage and finally unabashedly plundered the "American Dream."

Now is the time for us to make our actions, our nation, our government, conform to our view of ourselves and change the direction of our nation.

Looking for Hope in Hard Times

“I know exactly what I’m going to write about.” One of my students was clearly excited about her topic for her first essay in English Composition. A few months before, she had driven several of her friends in her car and was followed by still more friends in a second car to an outdoor techno concert. “I’d never been there before. The concert was along the river. We got to meet our favorite performers. So many people … We had so much fun. Now we plan to go every year.”

This young woman – age 18 or 19 – was talking about Detroit. She did not know about Motown and the artists of the 1960s and 70s. Detroit was new to her. And visiting there was an adventure that she and her friends enjoyed.

I have been teaching at the University of Akron since 2001. Before that I served as the Academic Advisor for International Students at the university. As a teacher of primarily freshmen, I often heard students talking about transferring to another university – for now take a few courses, build up the GPA.  Recently that talk has died down. One student in particular comes to mind. Bright, articulate and energetic, he is interested in American politics. He heard about the Ray Bliss Institute and the internships the Institute offers. He came to the University of Akron (a state university) from New Jersey.

These young people represent hope for two Midwestern industrial cities – Detroit and Akron – even after the stunning economic downturn that became so evident in 2008. These signs of hope are important – and essential.

I have been looking for articles by the economist and Professor of Business and Creativity, Richard Florida, from the University of Toronto, to see what he is saying since his most recent book, Who’s Your City? and since the market and the economy became the center of everyone’s attention in the fall of 2008. (Early last summer I wrote an article for the blog comparing Richard Florida’s book with Caught in the Middle by Richard C. Longworth of The Chicago Tribune.) Florida’s most recent full-length article, “How the Crash Will Re-Shape America”, appeared in the March, 2009, issue of The Atlantic. With the online version I was able to read Conor Clarke’s February 11, 2009, interview with Florida called “The Great Reset”. He wrote a follow-up discussion, “Mega-Regions and High-Speed Rail,” dated May 1, 2009, which appears on his web site (creativeclass.com). Florida’s piece in The Atlantic stirred discussion. I listened to interviews with Florida about the article on PRI, NPR, BBC-TV, and Canadian radio.

The great downturn of 2008 (or reset, as Florida prefers to call it) has not caused him to change his earlier thinking, analysis, and insights. The deep trend we are now experiencing (most comparable to the Long Depression – or reset – of 1873-1896, according to Florida) is a shifting of our economy “…away from manufacturing and toward idea-driven industries.” Now our economy “…depends on generating and transporting ideas.”

What drew my students to Detroit and Akron were ideas – creative ideas in music, entertainment, politics, and education. A research university with 26,000 students, the University of Akron stands in the center of the city.  The university’s particular strengths are polymer research and engineering as well as research in biomaterials and medical devices and nanotechnology. In Detroit, more than 33,000 students attend classes at Wayne State University, Michigan’s only urban public research university. WSU operates in the Cultural Center of the city not far from the Detroit Institute of Arts. The College for Creative Studies has its campus nearby.

The subtitle of Florida’s most recent book is How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. Florida believes the secret to the vitality of a city is its attractiveness for talented, creative, and innovative individuals. “And innovation, in the long run, is what keeps cities vital and relevant.” Both Akron and Detroit have histories of innovation, invention, and discovery. Both cities have produced and attracted creative people. And even now in hard times these two cities have a new variety of seeds for a new season growing in their urban soil.

Both cities are part of the Chicago-Pittsburgh Mega-Region. Florida believes that part of a city’s energy and vitality comes from being an integral part of a Mega-Region. Such a city does not attempt to struggle along alone – but connects with the Mega-Region. In Detroit’s case, the city has the geographic advantage of being part of the Chicago-Pittsburgh Mega-Region as well as sitting on the edge of a second, the Toronto-Buffalo-Chester Mega-Region.

Florida is convinced that high-speed rail is important for reshaping such cities as Detroit. Traveling from Detroit to Chicago or from Detroit to Toronto (or from Akron to Chicago) should be easy, efficient, fast, and non-stressful. He does not favor “…building out more road capacity.” Creating more congestion is no answer. High-speed rail not only greatly reduces commuting and travel time over long distances, Florida explains. It also helps revitalize declining locations along the line.

In responding to the Great Economic Reset, Florida also argues that we must upgrade our airports. Both Akron and Detroit have upgraded, modernized, and expanded their airports. And Florida is especially complimentary of Detroit’s airport.

Yes, the infrastructure must provide efficient connectivity. But we have to be able to be mobile if we are to take advantage of opportunities – and if we are to be free to live where we are happiest. Florida believes we have put too much emphasis on home ownership – to the point that our mobility of labor is now at its lowest level since the measuring of it began. In the past, a contributor to the vitality of our economy and our cities has been the freedom of our people to move.  Florida has several ideas about housing – including placing a new emphasis on renting. He envisions “a new kind of rental housing” – in particular – “large scale multi-family units for townhouse-like construction.” These units would offer variety and a wide scale of prices.

Housing must be affordable. Housing must not make its occupants into its slaves. “Too often, it (homeownership) ties people to declining or blighted locations, and forces them into work – if they can find it – that is a poor match for their interests and abilities.” Today Akron offers housing at moderate and lower prices. And Detroit, in particular, offers housing at very low prices – so that the word is out among artists and musicians who are beginning to move into Detroit. For now – one result of the resetting of our economy has been the dropping of the value of houses. This result may help Akron and Detroit to attract “the creative class”.

In this time of the reshaping of America, we need to reflect on what is going on. As Americans we need to ask ourselves several questions. After the resetting - if a few gigantic corporations are no longer overwhelming a city’s economic, business, political, and social landscape, what opportunities does that change make possible – for newcomers, long-time residents, the various neighborhoods ( the “little towns” within the boundaries of the city – not just the downtown), and small business people and entrepreneurs?

In the old economy perhaps a handful of corporate leaders made most of the big decisions for the larger community and built the city around themselves (and maybe for themselves). This resetting offers the opportunity for wider participation in decisions about our cities and our economy. Who are the people taking part in the reshaping of our cities and the resetting of our economy? Is the circle of participants and leaders growing? How open and democratic is the political atmosphere of the city? How open are the city’s political leaders to new participants in the political process – both individuals who only now are moving into the city and individuals who have lived there for some time but have not felt free to speak out?

I am thinking of a recording of a City Council meeting I heard on the radio. The President of the City Council was not happy to hear views he did not agree with. As any member of Council who did not reflect the Council President’s views finished talking, the Council President would give a negative critique of that member’s remarks from the chair.

Participation – wanting to participate, finding joy in participation, participating without intimidation – makes possible and encourages creativity, vitality, and freedom to discover new ideas. Participation is an energy source for life in the city.

In his “Place Finder” (Appendix E in Who’s Your City?), Florida offers a series of questions that the individual should reflect on before deciding whether to move to a particular city – or to stay in a particular city.  Here are a few of them:

1. Is leadership diverse – by gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation and other factors?

2. How open and inclusive is the decision-making process? (my bold)

3. How are people of different races, ethnicities, religions, and lifestyles treated?

4. Can you be yourself there?

5. How does the place value people?

6. How does the “energy” of the place match yours?

These are among the questions that the people who want to re-shape cities such as Akron and Detroit should think about, too. We must make sure that the re-shaping of our cities is a democratic, open process. Our hope becomes stronger and opportunity becomes more possible when we have “a collective awakening” (as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it in The Art of Power). Even as individuals and small groups, people must feel free to speak out and to contribute their insights and to offer their talent. This endeavor must not be left to one political party or one in-group.

Florida does not envision a restoration but a reshaping of cities such as Akron and Detroit. He does not envision the much larger cities that Akron and Detroit used to be. But he has been thinking about how to bring vitality and energy and hope to such cities. This reshaping is not an instant process. It may well take an entire generation. But we need to attract a diversity of innovative and creative and enterprising people in all fields of work and art to Akron and Detroit “… to find scope for their abilities,” an expression Florida quotes from the English economist, Alfred Marshall.

This summer Detroit’s residents and many thousands of visitors are hearing the voices and sounds of the music festivals, Hoe Down (Country), MOVEMENT 2009 (Techno-Electronic), the Caribbean International Festival, the Detroit International Jazz Festival. In Akron the University of Akron’s Office of Technology Transfer is operating and university-business partnerships are being made. Hope.

Gary R. Baker
Senior Lecturer
English Composition
University of Akron

The Greatest of All Sins - Avarice

In response reader Bush's recent comment, "And there is what some alternative?" to my post Global Corporations Demand Equally Global Citizens...

I do not seek an alternative to “Global Corporations.” I accept the phenomenon as a market-driven fact with many positive results, low-cost goods among them. I can even tolerate some of the corporate obscene excesses such as multi-million dollar executive pay and bonus, while average-joe-workers make McDonald’s wages. All this I can tolerate just as our ancestors tolerated the “Robber Barons” of the late 1800s through the Great Depression Era. That is, up to a certain point.

In the United States, the current economic crisis clearly has proven that we have no alternative but to accept, as our ancestor did, that certain men / women who achieve powerful corporate positions and unlimited wealth, operating under their own recognizance — without higher regulation / oversight — will succumb to unbridled self-interest. I believe we must call it as it is: “the greatest of all sins” — AVARICE.

Just as our ancestors, we are now forced to become less trusting, naïve and hopefully, enlightened. We now know that the few, the well-positioned, modern day, international robber barons have given their souls to the gods of avarice and created this world-wide calamity.

Our clear alternative, as I see it, is to create Global Citizens — people of like interest joined together in common cause regardless of nationality. What is common cause? Thomas Jefferson declared: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Together, disregarding international boundaries, just as the Global Corporations have, we must put the lid back upon the Global Corporate Pandora’s Box. That means, put the regulations back in place where they have been disassembled, as in the U.S., and erect new ones to protect and defend our common good.

Unless we do so, our Unalienable Rights will be lost to the dark abyss. And the Dark Ages will once again be reprised. RB

Transforming Rustbelt Image into EcoLiving Sanctuary

Imagine… a summer evening.
The warm breeze touches your hair.

You breathe in magical fragrances.

The flowers are in bloom
The grass is sweet.
Leaves rustle ever so lightly.

Hear the water? Hear the music?

Give yourself a moment and just enjoy. Feel the enchantment...

You can slow down and take it easy. Live a little! You’re home… on Grosse Ile, your own island within the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge.

It’s not just any island, but an unparalleled eco-friendly environment, with exceptional schools, crime-free neighborhoods, and championship professional and collegiate sports teams, world-class symphony and theater only 20 minutes close-by... and that's just the beginning...

Am I dreaming? Certainly. Can the transformation from a "rustbelt, failed auto manufacturing" image into an "ecoliving sanctuary" be accomplished? You bet! We are already well along the path, today!  Go to: http://www.oppgrosseile.org  See Crain's Detroit Business, Brightside Video.  RB

Globalization: Insights and Suggestions

By: Gary R. Baker
Senior Lecturer
Department of English
The University of Akron

Longworth, Richard C. Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008.

Florida, Richard. Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to
Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
The key to Richard C. Longworth’s new book, Caught in the Middle, is to step back from a map of the United States and to look at the Midwest as the large region that it is –about the size of Germany. Considering the Midwest’s history, geography and economy, Longworth sees the Midwest as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, far eastern Nebraska, northeastern Kansas, the northern half of Missouri, and three states – Illinois, Indiana and Ohio – without their far southern counties. When he thinks about the effect of globalization on the Midwest, he does not let state boundaries get in the way. In Longworth’s mind, the smart way to figure out how to deal with globalization and how to live in a global economy is to consider the region – not the individual state. He thinks as a resident of the region, not a resident of a state. Then he can ask: What does the region need? What should we do as a region? How can we work together to help our fellow Midwesterners and ourselves in this global economy?

Longworth, an experienced and professional journalist, drove 11,000 miles around the Midwest to talk with people face-to-face and to look at the towns, cities and farms himself. Born in Boone, Iowa, and later a long time resident of Chicago, Longworth is a fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For many years he was a foreign correspondent and senior writer at the Chicago Tribune. His book is a serious and challenging “… report from the front line of America’s new economy.” He is not easy on the Midwest. He does not make excuses. He does not make a case for propping up failing or failed industries. In the global economy, he knows some Midwestern communities, towns and cities are being left behind.

With Richard Florida’s book, Who’s Your City?, the reader needs to stand back from a satellite map of the world at night and note where the light clusters and over what areas it shines out in “spikes”. It’s easier to see the cities, metro areas and metro corridors which are morphing into mega-regions at particular places on the map. The reader can then see the new global economy in action and discover that the Midwest hosts the third largest mega-region in the world in economic output. It runs from Pittsburgh west to Cleveland through Detroit to Chicago and, finally, to Minneapolis. State and national boundaries are not relevant in this economic picture.

“We owe it to ourselves,” Florida writes, “to think about the relationship between place and our economic future, as well as our personal happiness, in a more systematic – if different – way.” In the global economy – where you live does make a difference - even if you have a laptop, iPod, blackberry and cell phone because opportunity is not spread out equally across the map. Having the technology does not make up for the face-to-face conversations, the personal contact that leads to inspiration, insight and innovation. The technology does not make up for where you are and the people you talk with each day in the hallway outside the office, on campus, at a restaurant, in a local pub, on the street downtown.

Florida, an economist and author of The Rise of the Creative Class, is Professor of Business and Creativity at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He grew up in Newark, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers and Columbia and taught at Carnegie Mellon University. His wife, Rana, grew up in Troy, Michigan, near Detroit. They have lived together in a number of cities, including Washington, DC.

After many years of social science, statistical and survey research, Florida has decided to organize and lay out his findings so that the individual living in the global economy can make use of the results. Florida makes this argument: Where a person lives is directly connected to the individual’s happiness and creativity. The subtitle of the book is How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.

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In Caught in the Middle, Richard Longworth writes, “A city is an organic thing. It is born usually for economic reasons.” But what if the economic base disappears? “Great cities reinvent themselves, over and over, finding new ways to support themselves and their citizens.” Scanning the Midwest, Longworth observes, “The Midwest has a handful of global cities and creative cities, and it desperately needs more.” He sees Chicago as the Midwest’s brightest example of the reinvented city, the global city and the creative city in the new economy.

In Longworth’s review of the global economy and the Midwest, he is especially worried about education and job training. He wonders: Do Midwesterners understand what education means to the region’s future in the global era? Longworth contends that most Midwestern states are “shortchanging education at the moment in history when it’s most important…More than any other part of America, the Midwest has lost the knack to compete in the new economy, and the schools have lost their ability to teach it.”

He feels that one reason the Midwest is being held back in the global economy is that the colleges and universities are duplicating each other. He praises the example of California’s system of big time research universities, four-year state schools that teach undergraduates, vocational and technical colleges and two-year community colleges that prepare students for the four-year colleges.

In the Midwest Longworth praises the community colleges because they are offering a wonderful flexibility in their programs. “Everywhere I went in the Midwest,” Longworth remembers, “I found community colleges emerging as the engine of local economies.”

Longworth endorses the Midwest Research Universities Network (MRUN), “a potential base of cooperation”, composed of twenty Midwestern universities and medical centers. The mission of MRUN, now based at the University of Wisconsin, is to bring joint proposals to venture capitalists and to leverage the institutions’ brainpower to create start-up companies.

To reinvent itself in the global economy, the Midwest must think as a region – not as individual states. The Midwest “must find its voice.” Longworth would like to see a Global Midwest Forum (GMF). The job of the Forum would be “to focus the Midwestern mind, to grab the attention of the people with the power to ignite real action.” In the Forum let Midwesterners talk to other Midwesterners in similar situations. Ignore state boundaries. Discuss mutual problems. Call on thinkers and creative people from all walks of life to participate. But do not let the GMF become a forum of states led by governors.

Longworth argues that the Midwest needs a think tank devoted to Midwestern issues, a think tank to create tools for action. To support such an effort, Longworth suggests turning to foundations based in the Midwest. He would encourage the foundations to think and work together.

In trade offices overseas, the Midwest should sell itself as a single region. Each regional trade office would be backed by the research and resources of the GMF. Back home, the Midwest needs a good newspaper or Web Site to set the agenda for the Midwest, to see the news from a Midwestern angle, to speak to the Midwest and to speak in the voice of the Midwest – “a regional journal, with global coverage and thoughtful analysis…”

For transportation in the new economy, Longworth calls for high-speed rail to bring cities to cities and universities to universities. “It’s not that Amtrak can’t work. It’s just that we have to start taking it seriously.”

Rather than competing among themselves in the global economy, the cities and communities and states of the Midwest must compete as one region.

But how does the region educate and attract talented, innovative, imaginative, creative people? Besides the initiatives mentioned so far, Longworth also calls for in-state tuition rates for any Midwestern student at any Midwestern university. Talent, innovation, imagination and creativity are personal attributes, yes; but they are also economic factors, as Richard Florida will tell you.

Richard Florida has written Who’s Your City? to help people choose the best place to live. “The key,” explains Florida, “is to find a place that fits you – one that makes you happy and enables you to achieve your life goals.” He is more convinced than ever that happiness leads to creativity – not vice versa.

Look around you. Consider the place where you are now. Does it give you energy? Does it inspire you? Can you be yourself there?

In partnership with the Gallup Organization, Florida undertook a major study, the Place and Happiness Survey of 27,000 respondents “… to identify the key factors that underpin our happiness with place.” These are the factors that matter most in order of importance (most important listed first): Aesthetics, Basic Services, Openness, Economic and Physical Security, Leadership. In Chapter 16, “Place Yourself”, Florida guides the reader through consideration of places to live. In Appendix E he lays out the Place Finder, a survey in two pages – a tool to help the reader collect information and ultimately to rank places.

In organizing the data for his book, Florida makes careful note of the “life stage” of the respondents (Singles -20 to 29, Professionals -29 to 44, Families with Children, Empty- Nesters 45 to 64 and Retirees – over 65). “Appendix C: Regional Rankings by Life Stage for All Households” presents extremely valuable information for the individual, the family and cities and regions. Although Florida has written this book for individuals – at any stage of life – who are thinking about moving to another location in our global economy, leaders in our cities and regions would be wise to study the research results, too. In these charts – based on his survey and statistical research – Florida ranks cities and metro areas.

Florida makes it clear in his books and columns that creativity and talent are not restricted to one age group or to a short list of particular groups. Every human being is creative. The potential range of creative talent is wide not narrow. A place can promote and encourage talented and creative people if it is tolerant, open and accepting.

Florida reminds individuals who are thinking of moving as well as political and business leaders in the various cities and regions, “Places really do have different personalities.” Few considerations are more important than this one: Where would I be happiest? Yes, a region has a business climate and economic structure, but it also has a psychological make-up or “psycho-social environment”.

“Regional leaders,” Florida explains, “must become more aware of how their region’s collective personality shapes the kinds of economic activities that it can do and the kinds of people it can attract, satisfy and retain.” For the individual – “the point is to find the place that’s best for you, regardless of what others think.”
For regional leaders, the question in the global economy is not, “How can we get a factory to move here?” – but – “Who are the people we need?” and “How can we get them to stay here or move here?”

The three big questions in a person’s life are these: What will I do for a living? Who will be my life partner? Where will I live? Florida believes that these questions are of equal significance in our lives. It turns out that place is important both in the individual’s own life and in the global economy.

Gary R. Baker
Senior Lecturer
Department of English
The University of Akron

Richard C. Longworth is a Fellow at
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
http://www.thechicagocouncil.org

Web Sites about Richard Florida’s Writings and Work:

http://www.creativeclass.com

http://www.whosyourcity.com