I recently spent a few days in Chicago for the 2022 National Shared Mobility Summit put on by the Shared-Use Mobility Center. Their mission is to advocate for equitable, affordable, and environmentally sound mobility across the US. There was no shortage of...
Where will people live? On my journey to pick up lunch, I pass help-wanted sign after help-wanted sign. Employers can’t find workers—more evidence that the housing pinch is being heard and felt from every corner of our community. A week doesn’t go by...
Above: Protector of the planet, inspirer of people, friend to all dogs, Jim Lively. When I joined the Michigan Land Use Institute in 2000, it was an upstart, brash group of journalists making waves with government officials and developers by wielding incisive writing...
Big changes are coming to Traverse City’s bay front avenue, Grandview Parkway, and more voices are needed to urge transportation planners to build not just a bigger road, but a far better road—one that sets the stage for our entire town as a place that values walking,...
ABOVE Russ Soyring retired a year ago from his 35-year career as Traverse City Planner. We walked with Russ around town and asked him to reflect on, among other things, the joy (and resilience value) of a good sidewalk. Photo by Jeff Smith. Russ Soyring guided the...
I started riding BATA’s Bayline bus route recently, and I’m hooked! I love it, and I think you may too. After a year plus of working from home and spotty internet at my new house, I needed a change of scenery and started going into the downtown office a couple of...