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