(C) Wisconsin Watch
This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and is unaltered.
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Michigan's Western Upper Peninsula towns empty out, look to Wisconsin for lessons [1]
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Date: 2023-07
Michigan ranks 49th in population growth since 1990, ahead of only West Virginia. Its stagnating population impacts the state’s ability to attract new businesses and for existing companies to expand. It’s part of the reason Michigan workers earn less and housing values are lower than the national average. With demographers projecting population decline in the coming decades, those problems are likely to get worse unless state leaders can figure out how to reverse the trend.
One place to look for lessons is eight hours away from Lansing, in the villages that dot the hemlock and sugar maple forests of the Michigan-Wisconsin border. There, residents say a more concerted focus on tourism and infrastructure, such as internet and in the electrical grid, and a choice by Wisconsin to spend suitcases of federal COVID dollars to support businesses have helped prop up Wisconsin border county population while their Michigan neighbors are losing people.
‘What makes us special?’
Wisconsin itself is below the national average in population growth, ranked 33rd among the 50 states since 1990. But if Michigan had grown at the same rate as Wisconsin rate since 1990, it would have an additional 1.1 million residents, the equivalent of close to another Oakland County in additional students, workers and taxpayers.
Always sparsely populated, the Upper Peninsula has suffered the sharpest decline in the state in recent decades. Industries that power the economy in the western U.P. — mining and lumber — have dwindled or disappeared.
Businesses have closed, and those that remain struggle to find employees to stay open. In the town of Ontonagon, downtown storefronts “look like a smile with a lot of missing teeth,” said Rich Ernest, director of the local chamber of commerce.
There is little industry on the Wisconsin-side of the border, either, but those counties are holding steady in population or growing.
For example, Michigan’s Ironwood has lost 7 percent of its population since 2010 (dropping from 5,389 residents to 5,007), while its sister city a mile away, Wisconsin’s Hurley, increased 2 percent (1,535 to 1,560). Michigan’s Menominee retreated 1.4 percent, while across the Interstate Bridge, sister city Marinette, Wis., edged up 1.4 percent.
Differences are more stark between Ontonagon County (down 14 percent) and Wisconsin’s Vilas County (up 7.5 percent) since 2010.
Barb Kilmer, manager of the Ontonagon Herald newspaper, said her county, which includes part of the Ottawa National Forest and Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, is trying to increase tourism, but it’s been a slow process.
“We have lakes, but everyone has lakes,” Kilmer said of the region. “What makes us special?”
50 miles to buy shoes
Kilmer graduated from Ontonagon High School in 1986, in a class of 86 seniors. Kilmer opened up a recent edition of the Herald that published photos of the 2023 graduates, all 25 of them.
“When I was growing up, there was a lumber yard and a furniture store,” Kilmer said. “You could buy a pair of shoes in town.”
Now, residents must drive 50 miles to Houghton to the nearest shoe store or fast-food restaurant. “There’s nothing here but bars and churches,” Kilmer said.
Eagle River, Wis., has a similar year-round population as Ontonagon (1,600, compared to Ontonagon’s 1,200), but its main street (Wall Street) is vibrant, with rows of boutiques and specialty shops. Posters advertise a “Sip and Shop Wine Walk,” just a few blocks from a community arts center and the Northwoods Children’s Museum.
Owner Jim Gleich is doing a brisk business at the shop he owns, Minocqua Popcorn & Puffs. When his shop opened four years ago, “20 percent, maybe 30 percent of the storefronts were empty,” Gleich said, looking down the street. “Hooked and Tagged is new, the cigar shop is new, Rustic Allure is new, the pet shop is new. It’s completely full now.”
Eagle River has always had some tourist business because it is near a popular chain of lakes. But the town really took off with an aggressive state grant program for small businesses: Main Street Bounceback Grants provided up to $10,000 to small businesses that were opening or expanding. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has a staff of small business specialists who assist businesses in filling out the paperwork for the grants.
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[1] Url:
https://www.bridgemi.com/business-watch/western-upper-peninsula-towns-empty-out-look-wisconsin-lessons
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