City Views

	Bradford Ryder
	Grand Rapids gets Smart Growth.

The Institute is intensifying its focus on urban issues by forming two new important groups to help guide our work: The West Michigan Regional Leadership Council and the Detroit Area Leadership Council. In each region we recruited ten top citizen leaders reflecting a wide spectrum of perspectives. Executive Director Hans Voss is working with Charlene Crowell (who splits her time between our Lansing office and several new Detroit projects), Andy Guy (our Grand Rapids man), and several Institute board members from those regions.

Eye-Opening Roadshow
Encouraged by the galloping success of last summer’s “Eye-Opener” gatherings at our Beulah headquarters, which blended gourmet coffee with presentations from our staff about their projects, we are taking the concept on the road to two pleasant spots in Leelanau County. Kajara’s Bridge in Lake Leelanau and Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor will house this summer’s Eye-Openers on, respectively, June 29 and July 20. Jim Lively and Johanna Miller, who lead our Leelanau Smart Growth Coalition Project, will host these coffee klatches featuring presentations on Empire’s New Neighborhood development, the Institute’s New Entrepreneurial Agriculture program, and several hot local land use election issues. For more information, click the Eye-Opener logos at www.mlui.org or dial up Mary Ellen Pattyn at 231-882-4723.

Plan Ahead
When you include the Michigan Land Use Institute in your will, you create a personal legacy that supports goals crucial to succeeding generations: Preserving Michigan’s beauty and bounty, revitalizing urban life, and building a more economically secure future for your family, friends, and fellow citizens. Reaching those goals will be extraordinarily challenging and will certainly take years, but including the Institute in your estate plans is easy and takes at most a few hours. And there are many ways to do this, including naming an exact gift amount, specifying a certain percentage of your estate, or naming the Institute as a beneficiary of all or part of a trust, retirement plan, insurance policy, or bank account. To find out more about these options, call Betsy Alles, development director, at 231-882-4723, ext. 24. There is also some information at www.mlui.org/planned.asp.

Lookin’ Good

People often tell us how much they love our Web site’s contents, look, and layout. Well, hold onto your mouse, Klaus: www.mlui.org is about to get even better. Webmaster Doug Rose, Art Director Gail Dennis, and Deputy Director Keith Schneider are redesigning our site; with staff input it is evolving a more inviting look that will provide easier information access. The renovation, which may be unveiled this summer, will help you get to know us through individualized homes pages for each of our projects and project directors. Our 10 to 12 in-depth news articles per month are attracting about 50,000 visits a month and earned us another Planetizen.com “Best of the Web” award.

Automatic Giving
You can now give automatically at the Institute’s Web site and become a monthly Institute supporter. Check out this new feature at www.mlui.org/join.asp by clicking on the Donate icon. To our delight, more of you are choosing one of these online options to support our work. We like that because it reduces our operating costs and puts more of your money to work making Smart Growth a reality in Michigan.