Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy

David Houle, post-doctorate fellow at the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), will present a brief introduction to Canadian politics and an overview of the current 2015 federal election set to unfold on October 19, 2015. The presentation will be followed by an informal discussion.  

Mayor George Heartwell will talk about challenges and successes of implementing sustainable practices within the City of Grand Rapids.Free and open to the public.

This webinar was presented on October 1, 2015.  It can be viewed online and the Powerpoint presentation can also be downloaded as a PDF file.Citizens Research Council of Micigan (CRC) and the University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) invite you to join us for a webinar on trends in Michigan local government fiscal health.Michigan local governments were hit hard by the Great Recession, and their recovery since has been uneven. What is the state of local fiscal health today, who is improving, who declining, and where are trends pointing for the future? Please join the Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRC) and the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy for a free webinar to explore these and related issues.After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

CLOSUP welcomes guest speaker Ian Rowlands to discuss policies and politics of renewable electricity in Ontario, Canada. This lecture will examine the ways in which electricity generated by renewable resources (like solar and wind) have been encouraged in the province of Ontario (Canada) during the past 20 years.  

Michael Pagano, Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will discuss comparative research aimed to help better inform city leaders, public policy makers, and government officials in making fiscal policy decisions. 

Dr. Shelley Metzenbaum talks about the excitement of working in government and how one person can make a difference using the tools of outcomes-focused goals and measurement to illuminate, motivate, and communicate.

Oil and gas development has increased substantially in the United States over the past decade, largely associated with shale resources. This increase has important implications for local government’s financial capacity to provide quality services to citizens. This talk will provide an overview of the major revenues and service demands (i.e., costs) associated with new oil and gas development for local governments, along with the net fiscal impact to date for county and municipal governments across ten oil and gas plays in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.

The often-unnoticed actor in environmental policy is the state regulator—the Lilliputian. Together, these Lilliputians comprise the foundation of environmental regulation...

A presentation by the Michigan Public Policy Survey Program Managers, Tom Ivacko and Debra Horner.

This event is being hosted by the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

The event is free and open to the public. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the event video. About the event The students of Ford School's Public Policy 456/756 class, along with their instructor and current Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, have organized a Town Hall gathering of the four Ann Arbor 2014 Mayoral candidates to take place on Wednesday April 16 from 1:10pm-2:30pm in Annenberg Auditorium of the Gerald R.

Join CLOSUP and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy for a Policy Talks @ the Ford School lecture featuring Kevyn Orr, one year after the start of his appointment as Emergency Manager of the City of Detroit.

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Discussants: Ian Beniston, Deputy Director, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation Hunter Morrison, Director, Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium Initiative John Russo, Visiting Research Fellow, Virginia Tech University's Metropolitan Institute (Arlington) Moderators: Margaret Dewar, Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan June Manning Thomas, Centennial Professor, Urban and Regional Planning

Free and open to the public. Read the working paper See the presentation slides Speaker: George Fulton, Director, Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, Department of Economics, Research Professor, Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy, University of Michigan About the Speaker: George A. Fulton received his Ph.D.

Free and open to the public. Lunch provided. Speaker: Susan Christopherson, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University See the presentation from the event: A Distinctive US Approach to Shale Gas Development? Abstract: Vertical drilling for natural gas, using at times another form of hydraulic fracturing, is permitted and has occurred for many years in the Marcellus Shale states.

Speaker: Kenneth E. Warner Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health and Professor of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health About the lecture: The anti-smoking campaign has been arguably the most effective public health initiative in the U.S. in the past half century. Still, smoking remains the nation's leading cause of preventable disease and premature death.

The University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), the Detroit School Series, and the Department of Urban Planning are sponsoring a private screening of the recent documentary about the challenges facing Detroit fire fighters. About the documentary At a time when the number of abandoned homes continues to increase along with the number of fires within the city, the number of fire fighters in Detroit continues to shrink.

Free and open to the public (pizza provided). Bob Inglis, Executive Director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative based at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. About the presenter: Inglis founded and launched the national, grassroots organization Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI) in July 2012.

Speaker: Peter Annin, Managing Director, Environmental Change Initiative at University of Notre Dame About the lecture: This presentation delves into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Arizona. Through the prism of the past, this talk analyzes the future of Great Lakes water diversion schemes, which now rests on the Great Lakes Compact released by the eight Great Lakes governors in December 2005.

Presenting Rip Rapson, President & CEO of the Kresge Foundation Free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow in the hallway outside of room 250. About the speaker: Rip Rapson is president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation, a $3.1 billion private foundation based in metropolitan Detroit and founded by S.S. Kresge in 1924.

Light reception to follow. Free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please RSVP at 616-254-0384 or [email protected]. Join the conversation on Twitter: #fordschoolgrandrapids About the event The Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) will discuss findings from the Michigan Public Policy Survey, which asked leaders from 1,329 of Michigan's local governments to report on the future of public services in their jurisdictions in the a

Open to the Public Dr. Henry Pollack, Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the University of Michigan, and Tom Clynes, contributing editor at Popular Science, will deliver the keynote speech for the Fourth Annual U.S.-Canada Policy Conference, hosted by the Domestic Policy Corps and the International Policy Students Association. The 2013 conference, entitled "Planning for 2050: North American Policy for the Future of the Arctic," will focus on U.S. and Canadian Arctic policy, including issues related to the environment, national security, energy, and commerce.

Special screening of State of Emergency, a new documentary play inspired by Michigan's controversial Emergency Manager Law. On Saturday, February 23 at 7:00 pm, we will live-stream the performance (taking place in Flint) in Rackham's 4th floor amphitheatre.

Presenting the findings on the system of funding of local government. About the Michigan Public Policy Survey The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) is a program of state-wide surveys of local government leaders in Michigan. The MPPS is designed to fill an important information gap in the policymaking process.

Free and open to the public: Reception to follow. The Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT) will bring together key Massachusetts and Michigan business leaders along with University of Michigan experts to explore lessons from Massachusetts' experience with health reform and what may be ahead as the Affordable Care Act is implemented in Michigan. Join us for an interactive panel discussion including: Thomas Buchmueller

Presenters: Margaret Dewar, Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan June Manning Thomas, Centennial Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan Commentator: John Gallagher, Author, Writer, Detroit Free Press About the panel: Many American cities, especially those in the Northeast and Midwest, have lost jobs and population for decades.

Michigan Townships Association (MTA) Annual Conference – findings on Citizen Engagement in Michigan Townships

Join the conversation on Twitter: #blackbluedocumentary The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Center for Public Policy in Diverse Societies will host a screening of the documentary titled Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game, followed by a panel discussion featuring former Senator Buzz Thomas (grandson of Willis Ward) and Steve Ford (son of President Gerald R.

Free and Open to the Public Panelists: Christopher Borick, Director, Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion Jacquelyn Pless, Energy Policy Associate, National Conference of State Legislatures Erich Schwartzel, Editor of Pipeline, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Moderator: Barry Rabe, Director, Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) See the presentations from the event: by Christopher Borick