MSU’s Land Policy Institute has announced survey results on placemaking and the housing industry. With grant money from the National Association of REALTORS®, the LPI asked developers, bankers, and local officials about their perceptions of placemaking and its impact on the housing industry, and about the barriers that impede implementing placemaking projects.

Good news for placemaking advocates like the Center for 21st Century Communities (21c3), most developers and bankers “strongly agreed that supporting placemaking needs to be an important part of Michigan strategies to create high-impact economic activity attraction.” Local officials across the board are largely behind it. 95% of those surveyed think it is good for “economic development.”

However, over half of surveyed bankers think placemaking projects are at least somewhat financially risky. The survey identifies barriers and reveals that the case for championing placemaking strategies is not cut and dry.

It is complex, for example, according to the results placemaking has “the ability to increase home values. Yet, certain placemaking features...are bound to create housing affordability challenges for several sectors of the workforce,” the LPI states.

The full report is due out later this year.

The maturation of digital technologies, the internet, and social networking has proven to be one of the most pervasive influences that impacts how people communicate and manage information in the 21st century. It is not just the twittering teenagers and web-savvy businesses who are embracing next generation "messaging and technology" - one of the "Eight Assets" the Center for 21st Century Communities (21c3) champions on this site. Digital and internet technologies are also providing government with new ways to streamline operations, share information, and communicate with citizens. 

Michigan topped this year's list of “Top Digital States,” according to the 2010 Digital States Survey. The Center for Digital Government’s biannual study “examines best practices, policies and progress made by state governments in their use of digital technologies to better serve their citizens and streamline operations,” covering topics like e-infrastructure and utilizing online applications and Web 2.0., according to their website. Michigan and Utah were the only states to score an “A” grade this year, followed by “A-” recipients Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Michigan ranked high in all of the survey’s eight categories. It is 1st among all other states in the area of “Enterprise ICT (information and communications technology)” and 4th place or higher in all of the other categories - “Adaptive Leadership,” “Public Safety,” “Health and Human Services,” “Commerce, Labor and Tax,” “Finance and Administration,” “Energy and Transportation,” and “Citizen Engagement.”

The Center for Digital Government is a division of e.Republic, a public sector research, publishing, and events company. Registration is free to access numerous reports and resources on best e-practices and using digital technology for state and local governance. 

Jennifer Eberbach is a professional journalist and writer. Find contact information on her website www.jenthewriter.info.