The Institute's corps of top journalists and editors covered the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial campaign. See their thorough, probing reporting of what the candidates said about Smart Growth, transportation, agriculture, and the environment.
Enough Roads
Sunday, November 03, 2002 Two Roads to Relieve Congestion
If Democrat Jennifer Granholm is elected governor on Tuesday, Michigan can anticipate less congestion because roads will be in much better condition and there will be more choices for getting around. If Republican Dick Posthumus is elected his pro-highway policies — which he is convinced will reduce congestion — could instead accelerate the exodus from Michigan's cities, increase sprawl, and produce more traffic, say experts.
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Dick Posthumus and Jennifer Granholm have taken steps to appear green.
Thursday, October 31, 2002 On Environment, Activism vs. Incentives
With the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial campaign in its final days, the quality of Michigan's environment and natural resources is playing a more influential role in the outcome than in any other race for governor in the nation. The security of the Great Lakes, the loss of farmland and wild spaces to sprawl, and how to prevent fecal contamination in water are priorities for Michigan voters, according to polls by both campaigns.
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Protest at Nestle's bottling plant in Mescota County
Thursday, October 24, 2002 Despite Abundance, New Talk About Limits
Until two years ago, Mecosta County was notable for nothing more or less than the decent state university campus here and 40,000 generally well-behaved Midwesterners who regularly attend church and send their children off to school on yellow buses. They never for a moment worried that the clean, fresh water flowing past their homes or from their taps would ever run dry. Mecosta County, after all, sits squarely in the middle of the largest supply of fresh water on earth.
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Candidates need to recognize entrepreneurial farmers
Sunday, October 20, 2002 Dick Posthumus Thinks Small Farms Are Dead in Michigan?
Dick Posthumus, the Republican candidate for governor, startled more than Michigan's farm community last month when he unveiled his economic plan and then candidly declared that small farms have no future in Michigan. In apparently nailing a "Keep Out" sign for small farmers on the door of his potential administration, Mr. Posthumus risks eroding his support in Michigan’s farm community.
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Natural Rivers Act effective in safeguarding undeveloped rivers
Monday, October 14, 2002 Posthumus Vows to Extend Protections for Wild Rivers
Less than a month before Election Day debate about public policy has taken a back seat to personality attacks by each candidate. Surprisingly, environmental issues have emerged as an aspect of the negative campaigning, particularly the quality and security of the state's fresh water.
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Ron Steiner, agricultural entrepreneur
Tuesday, October 08, 2002 New Farm Futures
True entrepreneurial spirit made Ron Steiner a successful custom computer marketer in an industry that PC giants like Dell and Hewlett Packard were coming to dominate. Boundless, free-market energy still sparkles like a brand new coin in his blue eyes as Mr. Steiner, 61, talks about his latest enterprise: selling agriculture to communities that have stopped tending their farming roots and to a state that hasn’t paid much economic development attention to its orchards, croplands, food processors, or small farms.
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Downtown Grand Rapids
Thursday, October 03, 2002 Is It A Good Place?
Grand Rapids, MI — In perhaps the most visible evidence yet that curbing sprawl and investing in cities is considered a mainstream idea in Michigan, the state Chamber of Commerce and its local partners held a two-day conference here last month that focused on the link between thriving metropolitan centers and a secure economy.
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Westport Wineries in Massachusetts
Wednesday, September 18, 2002 In Kent County, Stirring A Plan To Protect Farmland
Grand Rapids, MI — A plan to permanently protect 93,000 acres of agricultural land over the next decade, one of the most ambitious local farmland preservation programs in the nation, is gaining momentum here in Kent County as local leaders embrace a new approach to better manage urban development and keep farmers in business.
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Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus
Thursday, June 20, 2002 After Neglect, A Welcome Consensus on the Environment
In the last decade of the 20th century, Michigan appeared to care so little for its natural gifts that multinational food companies were actually paid millions to take the state's valuable fresh water, energy companies were secretly subsidized to exploit natural gas reserves, thousands of acres of public domain were traded or sold away, and tens of billions of gallons of raw sewage poured into the Great Lakes.
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Cities worthy of a walk
Thursday, May 23, 2002 A Rare Call for Stronger Cities
DETROIT — Responding to growing grassroots clamor for the state to address long-ignored metropolitan problems, former Governor Jim Blanchard, a Democrat who's running again for high office, has proposed a 50-point urban agenda to that seeks to ensure the state's neglected cities become attractive communities, not seedy places to avoid.
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Dick Posthumus
Wednesday, May 01, 2002 Posthumus’ "Marshall Plan" for Great Lakes Gains Definition
HARBOR SPRINGS, MI — Nearly six months after he deliberately distanced himself from Michigan Governor John Engler by elevating the environment as an issue and calling for a "Marshall Plan" to protect the Great Lakes, Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus has spelled out the broad outlines of the program.
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Saturday, April 27, 2002 In His Own Words
HARBOR SPRINGS, MI – I was born and raised on a farm where the Coldwater River ran right through. It’s a great trout stream. If anybody here is from down by Canterbury Township you know a little bit about it. Today my wife Pam and I are riparian owners on a lake called Indian Lake in Osceola County. So, my interests are right there where you’re at.
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Attorney General Jennifer Granholm
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 Granholm’s Great Lakes Initiative
GRAND RAPIDS, MI — In a bid to distinguish herself as the champion of the Great Lakes, Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, who leads her Democratic gubernatorial rivals in public opinion polls, has introduced a 10-point plan to improve and protect the largest system of fresh surface water on earth.
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