I had a discussion recently with several of my friends at the University of Michigan about where they plan to live after college. I didn’t expect many of them to say Michigan, given the state’s poor record for attracting and keeping young talent. Still, I was surprised by how few of them even considered staying here a possibility. I probed them about why and didn’t receive any confident answers. They tentatively cited “nightlife,” “food,” or even vaguer, “things to do.” In essence, they wanted excitement from their dream cities, which I acknowledged that nowhere in Michigan could match. But, I added, those places don’t have our people.

Michiganders are a kind and generous bunch. I’m in no hurry to leave them behind. Even the Gen Zs rushing for coastal or southern metropolises concede that Michigan is a friendlier place than many of their destinations. In fact, we’re friendly to the point of mockery. The joke that Michiganders will hold the door open for someone fifty feet away doesn’t work anywhere else, and I take that as a source of pride. Our people are a resource. Politicians need to start considering them that.

A study by the Knight Foundation and Gallup of 26 communities across the United States found that three components tend to decide whether people will want to live somewhere: good aesthetics, openness, and social offerings. Michigan’s hills, water, and omnipresent greenery make achieving the first easy with a little elbow grease. The diversity and culture of Detroit, Dearborn, Ann Arbor, and Saugatuck are a good start to the second. The third point is where Michigan communities need to do the heaviest lifting.

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We can’t crowd into the town square if a highway splits it in half…

Social offerings refer to both the chances residents have to interact with one another and how they behave in those interactions. Like I said, Michiganders are a kind, generous bunch. Good behavior is one of our strengths. The problem is that we don’t have nearly enough opportunities to put it on display. We can’t crowd into the town square if a highway splits it in half, and we can’t bump into each other on Main Street if Main Street is now a superstore parking lot. If we do, it typically involves leaving a note on the other person’s damaged car with your insurance information.

Sadly, issues like these are common in Michigan, and young people don’t find this isolating sprawl attractive. When my friends and I come home from college, we spend most of our time together just driving around. “Cruising” is a rite of passage for American teens, but my friends and I are all in or approaching our twenties now, and we’re looking for something new to do. The fact we can’t find it should show to local and state leaders that they need to make a change. Young people want spaces to be near each other, unique events to bring the whole community together in one place, and city centers that prove more fun than the interior of my 2019 Subaru.

In other words, we want social offerings. I don’t believe Gen Z is moving to places like New York, Chicago, LA, etc., because these cities are doing something specific. I think Gen Z is moving because these cities are doing something. Social offerings shouldn’t look like these. Fast-paced spectacle isn’t our thing, and that’s okay. Michigan has its own strengths. Communities must take stock of their assets and start there.

Traverse City and the nearby area, for example, produce a good cherry crop. Now we have the Cherry Festival. The City of Holland’s Dutch influence led it to adopt tulips as the city’s flower, resulting in the Tulip Time Festival. Neither community tried to recreate Chicago’s club scene or Nashville’s music scene because they didn’t have to. They gave people a chance to come together in their own, uniquely Michigan ways.

Most of the time, social offerings aren’t so formal. They can go year-round in the form of welcoming town squares, parks, and plazas. The city of Allegan took a parking lot and patchy grass field on the Kalamazoo River and transformed them into something meaningful for residents: a park, a stage, and even a zipline across the water. Now residents have a place to go after work, perhaps the kind of place my friends and I would spend our time if we lived there. Marquette recognized that natural beauty is a key selling point for the city, so they launched a crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to build a year-round non-motorized bridge over the Carp River. Now, friends and families can better enjoy biking and walking the large trail network in the woods and hills near their homes.

Even simple third places—locations other than school/work and home—can suffice, especially those that stay open late. My friends and I love the 24-hour restaurant near our houses because it’s the only spot we can park, stretch our legs, and grab a bite at a sit-down restaurant after 11 p.m. Young people don’t want to live in a town that shuts down shortly after dark. Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor is a city staple, partially because it doesn’t close until 2 a.m. on the weekends. It has become such a landmark, in fact, that when developers announced they would be destroying it to build new apartments, city residents started a GoFundMe to bankroll the arcade’s relocation. They knew that Ann Arbor wouldn’t be the same without it, so they saved it. 

These communities embraced their local characters and built upon their existing resources. Success looks different for each of them, and that’s a good thing. They’ve proven that it doesn’t matter what brings people together, as long as something does. Michiganders need more places like these to see each other. We need more opportunities to experience each other’s politeness, friendliness, and generosity. That’s what would make me stay here, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that.

The author Anna Sewell wrote that “good people make good places.” She’s right. This state has the good people. The good places will follow with social offerings. To keep younger generations happy and excited to stay in Michigan, I can think of no better sales pitch than Michigan: Great people, great places. Let’s make it true.

Author

Jack Brady

I am a sophomore at the University of Michigan majoring in economics and political science. I am currently a senior editor for the Michigan Daily Opinion Section. In my free time, I do stand up comedy at local open mics.