Alexander Alusheff

Lansing State Journal

LANSING – How innovative is Lansing?

The Lansing State Journal asked experts to rate the city in five areas — education, use of technology, job creation and economic development, sustainability and infrastructure — to get a better idea of where the region excels and where it needs improvement.

Read on to see how Lansing scores.

Job creation and economy

The Lansing region consistently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state. As of January, it was 4.1 percent, the third lowest behind Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor at 3.2 and 2.9 percent, respectively.

“2015 was the sixth consecutive year that unemployment declined,” said Luke Bunge, economic analyst at the Department of Technology, Management and Budget. “It’s from a wide diversity of industries; it’s good to see.”

Bunge said 3,500 jobs were added in Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties in 2015. Of those, 900 jobs were added in manufacturing, 500 of which were from GM reinstating the second shift for Camaro production at Lansing Grand River Assembly.

Lansing’s economy is supported by its diverse employers, including the state government, insurance sector, automotive industry and Michigan State University, said Kurt Weiss, DTMB spokesman.

Organizations such as the Lansing Economic Area Partnership and MSU’s Spartan Innovations are paving the way for local job growth through the creation of business incubators and accelerators that provide the necessary resources to bolster start-ups.

Grade: A

Sustainability

The Lansing Board of Water & Light is proposing to build the state’s largest solar array in Delta Township.

Slated for a 186-acre plot, the project could generate up to approximately 35,000 megawatt hours annually, which is enough to generate power for 3,500 homes. BWL also plans to build 1,000 solar panels at Burcham Park in East Lansing. And in September, MSU’s Board of Trustees approved a plan to outfit five of its parking lots with solar panel parking bays.

“We’re making progress to become more sustainable,” said John Kinch, the executive director of Michigan Energy Options and member of East Lansing’s Commission on the Environment.

Kinch highlighted the city’s Live Green Lansing Initiative, which promotes the adoption of green technologies and practices throughout the region, and the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system that would connect Lansing, East Lansing and Okemos as good sustainable programs.

The buses would be fuel-efficient hybrids that could encourage more people to leave their cars at home, reducing carbon emissions, Kinch said.

“It says a lot about our values,” said Julie Powers, executive director of the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition and member of the Mid-Michigan Program for Greater Sustainability, of the recent strides in alternative energy made by BWL. “A wise region invests in a variety of energy options.”

BWL has eight wind turbines in Gratiot County and a hydropower turbine in Lansing’s Moores Park. Powers said BWL needs to continue to look at whichenergy options are practical to add to the area. She added that there are small wind turbines on City Hall and the Lansing Center and more probably could be added to the Michigan Avenue corridor, which she said is a natural wind tunnel.

Grade: B

Education

Michigan State University is among the leaders of innovation in the state.

U.S. News and World Report ranks 41 of MSU’s graduate programs, undergraduate programs and colleges in the top 50 of its education lists. Six of those programs and colleges take the No. 1 spot.

“Being innovative is critical to attracting external funding for research and better faculty,” said Don Heller, former dean of MSU’s College of Education and now provost of the University of San Francisco. “Over the last five years, there’s been a strong emphasis on increasing research dollars. Any kind of economic activity on part of the university has a spillover.”

MSU is building the $730 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a particle accelerator that will lead to a better understanding of fundamental questions about the nature of matter and how the elements were formed. LEAP is hoping to grow the particle acceleration industry around the facility, attracting businesses that support research efforts or companies such as medical isotope producer Niowave.

“As the research profile expands, a lot of money is spent in the local economy,” said Heller, who left MSU in December.

Lansing Community College is experiencing its own growth. It’s planning to build a $6 million Veterans Resource Center to help veterans better transition into an education environment. The college has been a leader in programs that help military medics transition into civilian health professions.

The college has agreements with more than 50 universities in the country, including Davenport University and Western Michigan University, that allow more credits to transfer in certain programs than would otherwise be the case.

Grade: A

Infrastructure

Roads in the Lansing region are like roads in much of the state: bad.

“We know the roads downtown here are awful,” said Ron Brenke, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan. “But there are long-term plans to work on that.”

Road funding predominantly comes from the state and from local millages. Michigan underfunded the transportation system for many years, Brenke said, and residents aren’t too keen on raising their taxes to pay for fixing the roads.

The transportation plan passed last year that increased funding by $452 million in the 2017 fiscal year is a decent start, he said. It will put a little more money in city and county coffers to fix many of the pothole-laced roads that crisscross the region.

While the roads are in poor condition, Brenke said Lansing has a high-quality water system. By 2017, Lansing’s BWL will have replaced all lead service lines in its service area. There were 14,000 such lines when it started replacing them in 2004.

“I think Lansing is one of the better cities when it comes to water quality,” he said.

Grade: C

Use of technology

Social media doesn’t cut it anymore for a city to connect with its residents.

A lot of cities are turning to app development, smart parking and electric vehicle charging stations to allow people to better take advantage of resources.

Lansing has adopted some of these strategies, including a BWL outage map app, a city guide app from the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau, the use of Twitter and Facebook by emergency departments, and three car electric charging stations, but these are “frankly a drop in the bucket,” said Linda Daichendt, executive director of the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan, in an email. MTAM is a non-profit trade association for mobile and wireless technology industries that aims to increase the use of those technologies in services provided by businesses, cities and the state.

Diachendt provided examples of some of the technology Detroit is incorporating into everyday life. They include the city’s mobile app “Improve Detroit,” which allows people to report water problems, abandoned buildings, potholes and broken traffic signals; and solar-powered parking kiosks that require license plate numbers.

Other examples include adaptive traffic signals, implementing smart energy kiosks in buildings that show how much power is being used and smart street lights that adjust light levels to the needs of people. Lansing already has implemented smart street lights, according to the Smart Cities Council, an organization that promotes the move toward digital technology use in cities.

To spread the awareness of the benefits of mobile and digital technology, MTAM launched Mobile Monday Michigan chapters in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

“Lansing has been improving really quickly,” said Leo Dion, organizer for Mobile Monday Lansing and owner of BrightDigit, a website and app development company in Lansing. “But there’s a lot of opportunity to educate folks in Lansing about it. We need to expose different businesses to ways mobile can be used.”

Grade: B

Overall grade: B-

Contact Alexander Alusheff at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.