-BridgeMI: Traverse City’s growth draws attention
Communities that have vibrant downtown shopping districts, are pedestrian-friendly, offer numerous recreational activities and easy access to natural resources, and have a thriving arts community are magnets for young professionals and entrepreneurs, said Summer Minnick, the Michigan Municipal League’s director of policy initiatives and federal affairs. “Traverse City has done so much to become a community that is unique and offers reasons for people to want to be there,” Minnick said. “Regardless of the size of the community, urban areas that focus on the amenities that are attractive to the working class and retirees are the places attracting talent and creating jobs.”-MLive: How a Traverse City brewery inspired a beer-friendly tweak to Michigan agriculture guidelines
The audacious plan grabbed the attention of the state agricultural industry leaders, who see the potential for operations like Terra Firma to spark a larger farm brewery trail system around the growing number of Michigan farmers planting hops... In December, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture & Rural Development added microbreweries to the list of retail uses approved under the state’s Right To Farm Act, which allows farms to incorporate markets into their operation in limited form[will a farm brewery trail, the Ale Tail, work? See the next item]
-UniversalKilster: Fat Bike Biathlon: Chasing Snowshoe Hares on two wheels [more hunters should try hunting by bike]
-ibid: Cogburn CB4 Hunting Bike review [this is the world's first bicycle specifically made for use by hunters]
-AtlanticCities: Flint Local 432 and the Remarkable Power of a Great Music Venue
[like in the last linkfest that mentioned a similar thing in Omaha. Related - I spent a lot of time driving to New Space in the 1990's. You wouldn't know it now, mainly due to the early death of Brainiac's Tim Taylor, but in the 90's Dayton was THE biggest punk scene in the midwest, all because they had the space and the will. See: Shocker in Gloomtown series. I have not seen anything since that is comparable]
[like in the last linkfest that mentioned a similar thing in Omaha. Related - I spent a lot of time driving to New Space in the 1990's. You wouldn't know it now, mainly due to the early death of Brainiac's Tim Taylor, but in the 90's Dayton was THE biggest punk scene in the midwest, all because they had the space and the will. See: Shocker in Gloomtown series. I have not seen anything since that is comparable]
-CityJournal: The GOP and the City: Conservative policies have greatly benefited urbanites. Why won’t Republicans seek their votes?
-AdventureCycling: Benefits of Bicycling & U.S. Bike Routes [from 2012. A guest post from Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation and president of AASHTO in 2012]
-Urbanization Project: The City as Unit of Analysis
-Atlantic Cities: The Case Against One-Way Streets
[as we wait for TC Whiskey to open at Cass and Fourteenth]
-PhysOrg: Transportation research finds roundabouts are the way to go for drivers of any age
lots of good things in this article.
-BW: Why Americans Are Driving Less Each Year -> article is based on report from AdvisorPerpectives.com with nice charts like this one: Vehicle Miles Driven: Population-Adjusted Hits Yet Another Post-Crisis Low
-MyNorth: Miracle on Traverse City's Front Street: As Michigan collapsed around it, Traverse City flourished in the new millennium. We take a look at the how.
-MyNorth: US-31 Program Makes Significant Progress
-PRWeb: "Virtual Birding Trail" Helps Traverse City Visitors Find Feathered Friends
-Wired: The entire human population would only take up 7% of Lake Michigan
-MomentumMag: How Bicycles Bring Business - The Infographic
-Resilience.org: Energy Payback of Roof Mounted Photovoltaic Cells
[a meta-analysis of studies to determine if solar panels created more energy than they consumed to manufacture and if so, how long that took. Answer = 2-8 years]
-appearing soon at a Craft Brewer near you: Michigan Mobile Canning
-R-E Forum by Commander Joe Buzzela: Serving Traverse City was a pleasure -> related by Rachel North @MyNorth: the vital importance of the change of command at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City
-Liz Olson @HuffPo: Barefoot Freedom: Summertime in Northern Michigan
-Ticker: Northern Michigan Wineries in the Crystal Ball “We need 500 more acres of grapes to satisfy demand locally,”
-AdventureCycling: Benefits of Bicycling & U.S. Bike Routes [from 2012. A guest post from Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation and president of AASHTO in 2012]
-Urbanization Project: The City as Unit of Analysis
-Atlantic Cities: The Case Against One-Way Streets
"...cities looking to improve trip capacity in downtown areas have some options. Smaller cities, with shorter average trip lengths, should be able to reduce congestion by converting one-way streets into two-way streets (with a couple options for left turns). Larger cities, with longer trip distances, should consider a shift to two-way systems that ban left turns entirely. "-On Point: Whiskey: The History And Today’s Industry
[as we wait for TC Whiskey to open at Cass and Fourteenth]
-PhysOrg: Transportation research finds roundabouts are the way to go for drivers of any age
lots of good things in this article.
"Drivers using the roundabout were classified into one of seven age groups: younger than 20, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70 and older. The researchers studied whether age, gender and cell phone use impacted the minimum time interval when an approaching driver could safely join the flow of traffic. They concluded a roundabout is a viable solution for intersections, regardless of their proximity to schools and retirement housing." ...In the three years prior to the opening of the roundabout, nine crashes were reported at the intersection; four resulted in injuries and hospitalization was required in three instances. Damages associated with the collisions totaled $300,000, says Garder. In 2008–2009, three crashes were reported on the roundabout, none of which resulted in injuries. Damages associated with the accidents totaled $8,800, he says. The researchers computed that a driver who travels straight through 10 similar roundabouts daily versus 10 signalized intersections would annually save 14 gallons of gas. If every licensed driver in the country did the same, Garder says 2.7 billion gallons of gas would be saved annually."-DrinkMichigan: Recap: Traverse City Microbrew and Music Festival
In the end, the cold was no obstacle for us and the Traverse City Microbrew and Music Festival met or exceeded our wildest expectations-MLive: Craft beer panelists: Tax credits have helped Michigan breweries grow
"..Brewery Vivant in a retrofitted 1900s historic funeral home in the East Hills neighborhood business district, said he nearly inked deals in Traverse City and Ann Arbor before the Grand Rapids space captured his attention."-GearJunkie: Minneapolis ponders 'Greenway' street conversion (no cars allowed)
"Minneapolis... is working to develop plans to convert a low-traffic street in north Minneapolis to a no-cars-allowed “linear park.”-Freakonomics: Parking Is Hell [podcast]
Everybody likes free parking, including me, probably you. But just because the driver doesn’t pay for it doesn’t mean that the cost goes away. If you don’t pay for parking your car, somebody else has to pay for it. And that somebody is everybody. We pay for free parking in the prices of the goods we buy at places where the parking is free. And we pay for parking as residents when we get free parking with our housing. We pay for it as taxpayers. Increasingly, I think we’re paying for it in terms of the environmental harm that it causes.-Wa CityPaper: There Is No War on Cars - So why do we keep hearing so much about it?
-BW: Why Americans Are Driving Less Each Year -> article is based on report from AdvisorPerpectives.com with nice charts like this one: Vehicle Miles Driven: Population-Adjusted Hits Yet Another Post-Crisis Low
-MyNorth: Miracle on Traverse City's Front Street: As Michigan collapsed around it, Traverse City flourished in the new millennium. We take a look at the how.
-MyNorth: US-31 Program Makes Significant Progress
-PRWeb: "Virtual Birding Trail" Helps Traverse City Visitors Find Feathered Friends
-Wired: The entire human population would only take up 7% of Lake Michigan
-MomentumMag: How Bicycles Bring Business - The Infographic
-Resilience.org: Energy Payback of Roof Mounted Photovoltaic Cells
[a meta-analysis of studies to determine if solar panels created more energy than they consumed to manufacture and if so, how long that took. Answer = 2-8 years]-appearing soon at a Craft Brewer near you: Michigan Mobile Canning
-R-E Forum by Commander Joe Buzzela: Serving Traverse City was a pleasure -> related by Rachel North @MyNorth: the vital importance of the change of command at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City
-Liz Olson @HuffPo: Barefoot Freedom: Summertime in Northern Michigan
-Ticker: Northern Michigan Wineries in the Crystal Ball “We need 500 more acres of grapes to satisfy demand locally,”
-WHYY: Penn study finds safety in cities, more risk in rural areas
-Institute of Transportation Engineers: meta-analysis of multi-way stops [pdf] (via Michigan State Police Field Update) The research found that, overwhelmingly, multi-way stop signs do NOT control speed except under very limited conditions. The research shows that the concerns about unwarranted stop signs are well founded.
-Edward Glaeser in the Boston Globe: Parking minimums squander space, money, and the environment
-TheAtlantic: The Unsettling Link Between Sprawl and Suicide [higher youth suicide in less dense areas. Pattern seen all over the world]
-Planetizen/Michael Lewyn: The Side Effects of Property Taxes [NIMBYism]
-FilmingPeopleIsEasy: Best Film Festival Ever?
I left Traverse City hoping that I would make another movie soon only so I might have another chance to go back to Traverse City.-ModernFarmer: 5 Public Libraries That Have Gone to Seed (Libraries)
-StrongTowns: Is traffic always bad?
Fifth Avenue in New York, Market Street in San Francisco, Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills are all congested, but people keep coming back to shop or hang out. Maybe we should view congestion, in the urban context at least, as a symptom of success
-Martin Prosperity: Tourism as a magnet for creativity: Insights for creative class attraction in a tourism-based region
-PRWeb: Traverse City Tourism Posts 4.5 Percent Annual Growth Since 2006
-MLive: Rick Haglund: Is success spoiling booming Traverse City?
-MLive: Newly-Opened Traverse City Brewery Committed to Environmental Protection
-Modern Farmer: Global Guide to Local: Traverse City, MI
-NYT: Rentals That Let You Fly the Coop [Traverse City based Rent-A-Chicken is mentioned] -
-PSMag: Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Is Still Living at Home With Their Parents [this is why we need Accessory Dwelling Units allowed by right]
-NPR: In A Small Town With Big Events, Some Are Tiring Of Tourism
-the rapidian: Why Grand Rapids is skewing Y: Grand Rapids's amenities for Generation Y are far more comprehensive and designed to be so.
-Reddit: I am Joe Short, Founder of Short's Brewing Company. AMA
-Milwaukee Avenue Historic District: Minneapolis Seward Neighborhood's unique walker's paradise [this is a Minneapolis neighborhood that turned a street into a wide walkway in the 1970's. Today it is one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods.]
Also, see: Value of Closing a Street? 31 Percent.
-I've long followed the communities of Steamboat Springs, CO and Bend, OR to see how they enhance livability, now might have to add Eastport, ME to the list.
TheAtlantic: Building a Museum: Report From Down East
-What do stock analyst and traffic engineers have in common? Answer: neither one knows how to predict the future
-Why is the St Francis church parking lot big enough to cover Thirlby Field?
In 2012, tourism generated over 3.3 million visitor trips to this Michigan resort community, producing nearly $1.2 billion in direct spending and supporting (directly and indirectly) more than 12,000 jobs across the Traverse City area – about 30 percent of all employment in the region -- and contributing about $67 million in state use and sales taxes.-Leelanau.com: Juicy tourism information from Traverse City Tourism
-MLive: Rick Haglund: Is success spoiling booming Traverse City?
-MLive: Newly-Opened Traverse City Brewery Committed to Environmental Protection
Pete explained that one of the main reasons he and his family decided to move to Traverse City from Pennsylvania (where Pete opened his first brewery) is the widespread public support of the environment. “The Traverse City area and its people embody and put into practice what our family values: environmental protection and a strong sense of community responsibility. We looked at a lot of different places to move, we selected Traverse City, and we have never looked back.”-TravelOregon: The Business Case for Being Bike Friendly [video]
-Modern Farmer: Global Guide to Local: Traverse City, MI
-NYT: Rentals That Let You Fly the Coop [Traverse City based Rent-A-Chicken is mentioned] -
-PSMag: Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Is Still Living at Home With Their Parents [this is why we need Accessory Dwelling Units allowed by right]
-NPR: In A Small Town With Big Events, Some Are Tiring Of Tourism
-the rapidian: Why Grand Rapids is skewing Y: Grand Rapids's amenities for Generation Y are far more comprehensive and designed to be so.
-Reddit: I am Joe Short, Founder of Short's Brewing Company. AMA
-Milwaukee Avenue Historic District: Minneapolis Seward Neighborhood's unique walker's paradise [this is a Minneapolis neighborhood that turned a street into a wide walkway in the 1970's. Today it is one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods.]
Also, see: Value of Closing a Street? 31 Percent.
-I've long followed the communities of Steamboat Springs, CO and Bend, OR to see how they enhance livability, now might have to add Eastport, ME to the list.
TheAtlantic: Building a Museum: Report From Down East
-What do stock analyst and traffic engineers have in common? Answer: neither one knows how to predict the future
-Why is the St Francis church parking lot big enough to cover Thirlby Field?
