Earlier this month, the politicos did a groundbreaking for the $44 million I-94/Westnedge Avenue road widening project. Vice President Joe Biden espoused the view that “we are quite literally paving the road to recovery right here in Kalamazoo.” From one lifelong Democrat to another: Say it ain’t so, Joe! $44 million won’t do it, and this project – while offering temporary construction jobs – is just another “plug the dike” tactic as Michigan searches for political leadership that will offer a sound long-term strategy for economic growth in Michigan.

Widening a freeway interchange isn’t the answer when the public indicates that it is getting a little fed up with huge malls and big box stores (think Circuit City or Linens ‘n Things, both among a growing number of retail bankruptcies). New highway expansion is not an indicator of economic growth. As the population grows, the Westnedge Mall will eventually go dark as upscale retailers leapfrog to the newest and wealthiest neighborhood further out from the city. We need livable communities where people prefer one car rather than a three-car garage, maybe even a community where people don’t have to get in a car every day. Why not invest the $44 million for the Westnedge interchange into light rail, buses or even bike paths?

Here’s another example of a misguided approach. The many “think tanks” in Michigan point to a pot of gold – the yellow brick road of biotechnology. Biotech companies have turned a profit in only one year out of 40. Since most of us don’t understand this complex science, it makes for good political spin – and, unfortunately, false hopes for the future. Ann Arbor will likely have its share of these “clean jobs,” thanks to the importance of the University of Michigan and the emphasis it is putting on biotechnology. Unfortunately, these local jobs will not make a significant difference to Michigan’s economic future. Michigan cannot effectively compete for the biotech dollars with wealthier states that are already years ahead politically and technologically in this field. Get over it. It makes good politics, but it ain’t going to happen.

The Republicans, led by Ann Arbor resident Ron Weiser (who’s chairman of the state’s Republican Party and one of about five Ann Arbor Republicans), will likely decide who the next governor is. Look for Weiser and his team to provide the much-needed long-term strategy to generate permanent job growth in Michigan. That strategy will likely take advantage of what Michigan does best. For example, Michigan is second only to California in agricultural diversity. So why aren’t we second in food processing jobs? Let’s turn rust bucket empty manufacturing facilities into farms.

What about putting more money into tourism? There is a body of water, lake, river or stream within 6 miles of any spot in Michigan. As most of you know, our state has the largest body of fresh water in the world – so why do exiting college graduates look upon Michigan as a smokestack and not as a lighthouse, as they start their new careers in states with a much more positive image?

We have more skilled transportation engineers in southeast Michigan than any other state. If we can’t produce cars cost effectively, at least we should be able to design and engineer transportation systems as well as anybody else. We need a strategy that will create more permanent employment in Michigan. It doesn’t have to be centered on clean, well-paid professional jobs. What’s wrong with tractors, a little dirt, beach sand, and Michigan designed transportation systems? Why not offload deep water cargo at Monroe and use rail transportation, thereby saving three days or more of ship traffic offloading at expensive land sites in Chicago? Land is relatively cheap in Monroe for an inventory distribution hub between Europe and the Midwest. (Savannah, with cheap land, is the third largest seaport in the U.S., as Caterpillar and John Deere warehouses, among many others, serve as a distribution center for the South to Europe and South America.)

We need an overall long-term strategy that uses Michigan’s natural competitive advantages to build new permanent jobs for our children and their children. Such a strategy is not built on ground-breakings, ribbon-cuttings, unfocused short-term tactics (patches), media headlines and sound bites. We need a person with a vision and a strategy that is willing to get his or her hands dirty and lead this state out of a hole. It will likely require a person willing to serve only one term. Turning this ship around has a maximum political shelf life of about 4 years, but comes with our lifelong thanks for the sacrifice.

About the writer: Del Dunbar, a CPA and partner with Dunbar & Martel, has lived in Ann Arbor since the 1960s.

Phil Power talks to UM students on Friday afternoon as part of the MPowered lecture series on entrepreneurship.

Here’s what Phil Power believes: “There is nothing in life that is more challenging or more of an art form than being an entrepreneur.”

The former UM regent and newspaper publisher was talking to a group of University of Michigan students on Friday afternoon, giving them some insights on his own experiences founding Hometown Communications Network as well as his newest venture in social entrepreneurism, the Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan. His talk was part of a series hosted by MPowered, a student entrepreneur group.

Power said he’d read Friday’s Detroit News article reporting that more than half of UM’s graduates leave the state after graduation. People have told him there’s nothing here for them in Michigan, he said, “which I think is a load of bull.”

This state is a great place for entrepreneurs, Power said, in large part because major market discontinuities (which he defined as “when things are really screwed up”) are creating opportunities. “Michigan is a perfect example today of wholesale market discontinuity,” he said, specifically in the auto and newspaper industries.

Michigan also has a rich history of inventive ideas spawning business ventures, he said, much of it occurring at the turn of the last century. Dow, Upjohn, Kellogg, Ford and Hudson’s are the most high-profile examples – each started small and grew into major corporations. “Entrepreneurship DNA is in our bones,” Power said.

Social entrepreneurship, too, has a history in this state, he said. Back in the 1960s, UM graduate students Alan and Judith Guskin founded the group Americans Committed to World Responsibility, which Power joined. He was also editor of the Michigan Daily at the time, and published a letter the Guskins wrote that called on other students to join them in serving abroad for their country, Power said. The letter was picked up by other media, and eventually made its way back to John F. Kennedy, who was running for president. Power said this ultimately led Kennedy to establish the Peace Corps after he was elected.

The point of his story, Power said, was not to talk about what limited role he played in this chain of events, but rather to show that “in social entrepreneurship, nothing is more powerful than a bright idea whose time has come.”

Students await the start of Phil Power's talk on Friday at the Stamps Auditorium on UM's North Campus.

Power sees himself as a social entrepreneur. In 2004 he sold his chain of newspapers, which serve suburban markets, to Gannett – noting that this was just prior to the industry’s collapse, and “it is much, much better to be lucky than smart.” A Democrat, he said he was disturbed by increasingly fractious partisan politics in Lansing, and told his wife, “I will be goddamned if we move to Florida and let the sand flow between our toes while our state goes to hell.”

So he founded the Center for Michigan as a bipartisan effort to develop and advocate for policy changes, pressing both political parties to move toward the center. He said he has no interest in forming a third party or running for governor – “if I did, my wife would slit my throat” – but believes the center can be instrumental in finding solutions without being bound by ideological strictures.

He describes the center as a “think and do tank,” because thinking without doing is pointless, and “as the mayor of Detroit has discovered, doing without thinking gets you into a great deal of trouble.” The group began by hosting a series of conferences focused on specific topics, including tax reform and human investment. Power said an example of human investment is the Kalamazoo Promise, a program that pays tuition to state colleges and universities for any Kalamazoo resident who graduates from high school.

The next step was to start doing, Power said, and the center did that by starting community conversations, holding small group meetings around the state to discuss the vision for Michigan, and strategies for achieving that vision. The idea is to create a citizens movement from the ground up, developing common ground and common sense solutions, he said. They held 180 of these meetings in 2007 and 2008, engaging 2,000 people. From those discussions they compiled and published a document – Michigan’s Defining Moment – which is also the name of the center’s broader effort to push for change.

They’re holding additional community conversations over the next year or so, and plan to create action groups around topics that participants identify as priorities. The effort also involves developing policies and lobbying lawmakers in Lansing to enact legislative changes based on these policy recommendations.

The 2010 elections will be a watershed moment, Power said, as term limits will result in a massive change of power in Lansing. Michigan is at a hinge in its history, he said. The state can unify around a shared vision for its future, “or we can be Mississippi with cold weather,” he said. “I believe the choice is relatively simple.”