Can you think of a time when Michigan and the Detroit Region have faced more economic challenges? In the past week alone the headlines have screamed "crisis."

• Nineteen thousand GM workers accept buy-outs!
• Ford announces 12,000 white collar lay-offs!
• American Axle announces thousands of job cuts!
• Greektown Casino goes into bankruptcy!
• The Detroit Auto Dealers Association threatens to sell the Detroit International Auto Show to Chicago!

It's enough to make you addicted to antacids!

So how is our leadership responding to these challenges? They are trying and making incremental headway, just not with the same sense of urgency felt in the business community. It doesn't have to be this way.

For example, we've been fighting over a plan to renovate Cobo for four years in a row. Why not put politics aside, focus on a plan the community can afford during these tough economic times and set a deadline to close the deal?

State leaders are spending valuable time talking about smoking bans, film incentives and plans to turn landfills into bio-fuels. Why not focus on the one thing that matters most: Serious strategies for restructuring government to get spending in line with revenues so we don't face a budget crisis every year (which we are again this year!)?

Academic and civic leaders are spending lots of time taking about retaining and attracting talent. That's important. But, why not spend an equal amount of energy on what we need to do to retain and attract jobs people can work in? Add to that redesigning the state's tax structure to attract the jobs and workers we need to drive the economy.

We in the business community are doing all we can right now to run our businesses in a tough economy and get behind a handful of projects that can make a difference to jump start the region. We at Detroit Renaissance, for example, are going to keep helping Wayne and Washtenaw Counties build an Aerotropolis, develop Woodward Avenue into a "Creative Corridor" in downtown Detroit and launch a media relations bureau to improve our image. But unless the overall business climate improves, the business community's efforts can only take us so far.

We need to act regionally to solve problems, make structural reforms and restructure tax policies if we hope to turn Michigan around.

~Doug

The Detroit News recently reported that Edesel Ford II’s “One D” is making headway on its plans to transform the region. “One D” is an effort by local business leaders to change and improve Detroit with the goals of economic prosperity, higher quality of life and regional transit, amongst others.

The article notes that though none of the targets themselves have been met, Ford was optimistic that they would be completed in time.

One D involves the Detroit Regional Chamber, Detroit Renaissance, New Detroit, the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan.

Some of the initial goals include having all children in Metro Detroit read at grade level and to have a true regional transit system be in place by 2015.

You can read the rest of the article here.

In this week’s “50 CEO’s on the D: Detroit Renaissance Reports,” Doug Rothwell speaks with Gary Russi, President of Oakland University. The University recently celebrated their 50-year anniversary.

Rothwell and Russi discuss the future of education, and how area universities must provide opportunities and programs in order to engage students in the community to help bolster economic growth. Russi talks specifically about the things Oakland University is doing to help, including the creation of a new medical school as well as the implementation of business incubator programs.

Russi explains that business incubators are important to the community because they allow faculty to get engaged with sponsor research and hire student interns.

“The key is to assert ourselves in this notion of community,” he notes, “to take resources, energy and power to the communities in order to solve problems.” It is this sort of engagement and problem solving that will allow students to stay and work within the region, ultimately helping economic development.

Listen to the podcast here, or subscribe via your RSS reader or via iTunes.

Here’s another article from the Detroit Free Press, in which John Gallagher reports on agencies bolstering economic development in the Southeast Michigan area:

According to the coalition's report issued Tuesday, the total number of jobs created in 2007 was 16,610, with an additional 9,552 jobs retained as a result of the investments. The report is not intended to be a comprehensive detailing of every project undertaken in the region but rather a snapshot of growth and development from the region's largest economic development organizations.

With 177 different companies represented in the report, the average number of jobs created was about 94 per company. That statistic highlighted a key finding -- that most growth comes from smaller, entrepreneurial firms, not the automotive giants that can create or destroy thousands of jobs in a day.

Our very own Doug Rothwell chimes in with some valuable words concerning keeping our heads up during a time of economic struggle:

"Even during what everybody says is the worst year we've had in God knows how long, 16,000 jobs have been brought in," Rothwell said. "People need to know that there is a reason to stay and a reason to have their kids stay."

For the whole article, click here.