{"id":3674,"date":"2021-08-20T07:34:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T11:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2021-08-20T07:34:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T11:34:19","slug":"cmon-think-people-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3674","title":{"rendered":"C&#8217;mon Think People, Think!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/JPA305.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"412\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/JPA305.jpg\" alt=\"C'mon Think People, Think!\" class=\"wp-image-3675\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/JPA305.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/JPA305-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Details from the 2020 US Census were released last week, and while Michigan as a whole did better than the last decade, we didn&#8217;t do great. Meager growth in population was not enough to avoid losing a congressional seat. Equally important, low population growth means less federal support, which means less money for us. And while some slow-growth states like Kentucky seem to be adept at pulling in more resources than they contribute to these United States, that&#8217;s never been a core competency for Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What to do? What to do? Well, answers may lay in the stats. Let&#8217;s start on the rural side. All of the UP&#8217;s counties lost population (with Luce Country down 19.5%). Except for one \u2014 Houghton County, which managed to gain 2%, largely in thanks to the city of Houghton, which is home to my alma mater, Michigan Tech and the students it attracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was an even wider variance among Michigan cities. Dearborn gained 12% while Flint dropped 20.7% of its population. In a more apples-to-apples comparison, the Detroit enclave of Highland Park lost 23.8% of its people, while neighboring enclave Hamtramck gained 26.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s a common denominator? The counties and cities that gained did so by attracting immigrants \u2014 newcomers looking to establish new lives and grow communities, many not native-born US citizens, some refugees seeking a chance at a decent and safe life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how can Michigan best grow its population (I mean, before everybody gets thirsty and comes here looking for plentiful fresh water)? The same way we grew before: through waves of immigration and migration. And I can&#8217;t think of a group of people more eager and perfectly suited to become new Michiganders than the refugees currently motivated to escape from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/michigan-government\/census-2020-look-population-changes-your-michigan-community\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/post\/2020-census-update-what-are-michigans-biggest-population-changes-past-decade\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Details from the 2020 US Census were released last week, and while Michigan as a whole did better than the last decade, we didn&#8217;t do great. Meager growth in population was not enough to avoid losing a congressional seat. Equally important, low population growth means less federal support, which means less money for us. And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3676,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3674\/revisions\/3676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}