Michigan 10.0: A 'cool' Muskegon is a work in progress with a need to educate young people

June 20, 2010
by Dave Alexander
Muskegon Chronicle

MUSKEGON -- As Muskegon and other Michigan cities struggle to become "cool," what they need are small business owners like Jeremy and Jamie Paquin.

The Paquins arrived four years ago and opened Mia & Grace downtown in 2008 -- arguably one of the best examples of a "cool cities" business in Muskegon. The upscale and edgy farm-to-table restaurant at 1133 Third captures the spirit of what every city seeks.

"On the cool scale, we're doing fair in Muskegon. ... We're moving forward," Jeremy Paquin said of a town he and his wife made their own after culinary school and brief stints in Houston and Austin, Texas.

The couple bought an old building on Third Street, renovated the upstairs as their home and three other apartments, and created Mia & Grace on the street level.

Cool cities are seen as urban areas that attract educated, young adults seeking the energy of downtown living. Such cities provide a diverse population, cultural experiences, an active nightlife and downtown living in a walkable community.

In most minds, Muskegon is not a cool city yet, but a work in progress. Some argue the only true cool city in Michigan is Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, although many cities have cool elements.

The Paquins say they have seen progress in Muskegon, which they point out has a downtown lakefront, national-caliber art museum, and several independent businesses and housing options.

"A good portion of Muskegon sees the progression and is championing the changes," Paquin said of the transformation of Muskegon's downtown from the former Muskegon Mall days to the redevelopment of a new "city center" emanating from the corner of Third Street and West Western Avenue.

"We are the wave of the future," the 30-something restaurant owner said. "It is a generational thing. We need to look forward and not backward."

Muskegon is a cooler city today than 10 years ago, when the failed downtown mall dominated the landscape.

With the Muskegon Mall demolished and removed, the city center has emerged with a new sports bar, furniture gallery, nightclub, two office buildings and Baker College's Culinary Institute of Michigan. A traffic circle has been constructed at Third Street and West Western Avenue and a major public artwork placed in its center.

But community efforts to make Muskegon cool have stalled as the recession halted private development downtown and dried up public funding for community improvements.

Muskegon also has some demographic roadblocks to overcome. Although Muskegon County has a significant population of 18- to 34-year olds -- 40,000 -- it languishes when it comes to their education. Of those ages 25 to 34, only 14.1 percent of Muskegon County residents have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 33 percent in the Grand Rapids area, 38.7 percent in Chicago and 51.3 percent in Ann Arbor, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Talent seeking cities elsewhere

Stopping the brain drain of millennials drawn to vibrant urban centers and making Michigan a magnet for creative minds is a hot topic. Although Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and other cities have bolstered promotional efforts to retain and attract these bright, mobile 20- and 30-somethings, there also is an inescapable reality: The Great Lakes State has been less than great in creating job opportunities these professionals demand.

Ultimately, it might come down to improving the job climate, especially for high-tech and higher-paying careers that drive a state's economy. But experts also say that's not enough: Many college grads now choose where they want to live first, putting "place" above "job" in deciding their future.

"You can't imagine the number of kids who go to Chicago and initially just wait tables. It's not just the job. Place matters," says Lou Glazer, president of Ann Arbor's Michigan Future Inc., a nonprofit think tank that produced the 2008 report, "Young Talent in the Great Lakes: How Michigan is Faring." "Young professionals increasingly are concentrating in central cities. We need central cities to work to stay in the game."

That means snaring that talent right out of college.

"Mobility goes down with age and kids. They move to the city out of college, fall in love, have kids and raise those kids in Chicago's suburbs, not ours, and that's the challenge," Glazer says.

Muskegon: Great potential

Young risk-takers are attracted to cities that encourage entrepreneurial business owners with dreams and a willingness to expend sweat equity, the Paquins say.

"Unique retailers and restaurants separate cool cities from regular ones," Paquin said. "It's the independent businesses that bring the uniqueness to a city. They provide things you can't find anywhere else."

Jen Cross is trying to create one of those experiences with her opening of Continuity, a new retail shop at 1115 Third, near Mia & Grace, hoping to share the same customers.

Continuity opened a week and a half ago as an outlet for "antique, vintage and renewed goods" from furniture to home decor and personal items. It joins other independent downtown retailers such as Hegg's Furniture; Earthly Kneads; Sun, Wind & Rain; The Cheese Lady; Clay Avenue Cellars; and Jilly's Gallery.

Cross, 29, created her business after working five years for the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce. The graduate of Mona Shores and Western Michigan University traveled the nation and world before settling in her hometown.

"This place has more potential than any of the places I have visited or lived," Cross said, pointing to the water, value-priced properties and the recent momentum downtown. "Attracting and retaining our young people is so key."

MCC expansion would boost arts

Cross and the Paquins say the next step, beyond opening more unique, independent businesses, is to bolster arts and education.

That is exactly what Muskegon Community College President Dale Nesbary has in mind as he plans to have his institution join Baker College of Muskegon in expanding downtown. An ongoing MCC master planning process is expected to conclude that the growing college needs more space.

Nesbary said he'd like to see MCC create a visual and performing arts center downtown, where he says there needs to be more to "do and see."

"What we need is a central location for those involved in the arts," the college president said.

"Downtown Muskegon is doing better than it was and better than just OK," Nesbary said. "But it is not doing as well as it can. MCC plans to help."

Dan Rinsema-Sybenga -- former director of the downtown development group Muskegon Main Street and an ongoing downtown volunteer -- said small business development and educational institutions are critical for development.

"I think the direction has been set and now it's a matter of fulfilling a dream," Rinsema-Sybenga said. "That's going to take some time."

Entertainment and events can more quickly produce results in a downtown, he said. Club Envy, the Muskegon Athletic Club (the MAC) and Racquets Downtown Grill have energized downtown at night, while events such as Taste of Muskegon, the Lumberjacks hockey tryouts and Miss Michigan Scholarship Pageant are drawing people.

"People living downtown love to be able to walk to these activities and events," Rinsema-Sybenga said, citing events such as Parties in the Park, Muskegon Bike Time and Shoreline Spectacular.

'Get cooler or get poorer'

The stakes are high for downtowns like Muskegon's.

Michigan Future's 2008 report concluded metro Detroit and Grand Rapids must do better in attracting millennials, because "unless Michigan, compared to the country, gets younger and better-educated, we will continue to get poorer."

It's a lesson Muskegon leaders take to heart.

As much as Muskegon has worked on the physical redevelopment of its downtown the past half dozen years, developing a younger and higher-educated work force tops the community agenda, Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Larsen said.

"The physical transformation of downtown has been noticed by those who visit," Larsen said. "And if it weren't for the current economic conditions, we'd already have met some of our other goals."

Larsen said Muskegon's goal remains being a cool city.

"We want a multi-cultural, young, educated population living and using our downtown," she said.