Virtual & Built Infrastructure Archives - Michigan Municipal League

September 7, 2021

2021 MML Convention Aims to Spark a Community Revival Through Trust and Belonging

The Michigan Municipal League’s 2021 Convention is taking place in person later this month and this year’s focus is around the Community Wealth Building work the MML started last year. The Convention, happening Sept. 22-24 in Grand Rapids during ArtPrize,…

July 22, 2021

Saginaw Fitness Court is Community Wealth Building in Action

This video out of the City of Saginaw caught our eye in a few ways. First, this new Fitness Court opened looks awesome and the way they did a ribbon cutting by turning it into a fitness competition between a…

July 14, 2021

Expanding Access to Broadband: The Least Available Essential Utility

In spring of 2020, schools and the state of Michigan raced to get emergency food assistance and devices for remote school login to students across the state--many of whom lacked access to broadband connections or grocery stores to use them.…

April 16, 2021

Community Wealth Building: Taking It to Our Small Towns

“While the effects of the pandemic have been felt unevenly across Michigan communities, it has further emphasized the changing needs of our members.” Over the past year, the League has built out our evolving policy platform on Community Wealth Building.…

January 27, 2021

Michigan Can Reinvest in Itself Again with the Return of the Historic Tax Credit

It's back, baby! Let's take this renewed Michigan Historic Tax Credit out for a ride! On December 30, 2020, Governor Whitmer signed Senate Bill 54, reinstating the Michigan Historic Preservation Tax Credit with Public Act 343 of 2020. Good policy,…

December 7, 2020

It Gets Cold Here—May As Well Enjoy It.

“That might work in Minneapolis, but you know we have winter here, right?” someone once objected. I think we were talking about bike commuting, but we could have been discussing any number of quality of life or placemaking ideas. That…

September 15, 2020

Remote Work Post-Covid

“Do you remember back in March, when school announced it was closing for three weeks?” I asked my wife recently. Obviously, few of us had been pessimistic enough about the protracted impact of Covid-19 on our lives. Ubiquitous work-from-home has…

June 4, 2020

Foundations for community wealth: our four pillars

As we evolve the Michigan Municipal League’s work into community wealth building, we’ve organized our approach into four focus areas, or “pillars.” These four pillars work together to support healthy and thriving communities, and can be found at various scales.…

April 26, 2020

Re-Opening the Economy and the Complexities of Downtowns

Guest blog by Bruce Katz, Frances Kern Mennone and Gunnar Branson (reprinted with permission from the New Local Urbanism) As the demand for re-opening the economy takes hold, we must now think about how this will play out on the…