Escanaba City Council Meeting (August 17th, 2023): Street Sweepers, Pot Hole Bleepers and Nomad Peepers!

The Crossing Sweeper
1860's
Seymour Joseph Guy

We keep our roads smooth and clean in this town! Much of the meeting's deliberation revolved around cleaning up, improving recreational access and fixing the pot holes (Pot holes are a natural part of life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.). At the Escanaba City Council meeting, you can hear the conversational tantalizing tid bits such as new pickle ball courts, repaving Stephensen Avenue, cleaning contracts, street sweepers and the like as positive steps of improving a town. If anything, the local leadership are ensuring the city's appeal to locals and visitors is positive and inviting.

According to American Express's 2023 Global Travel Trends Report, 68% of respondents pride themselves on finding lesser known places before they become popular. Thus, it could be possible Escanaba emerges as a vacation and digital nomad hot spot that maintains broad appeal as a recreational get-away destination. See Adventure-Venture Tourism.

(Some of success is based on where the message of this town are shared and in what venues. This is where understand site stats and demographics help. Digital nomads have their favorite sites, the wealthy of California beach combers have their own sites and NY socialites have their own sites. Grabbing and maintaining their attention is a balance creating and maintaining interest.)

Perhaps with a little luck the town could attract some of the wealthier, younger, and virtual crowd that ponder a world outside of NY and California (Study 2023 Wealthy Young Adults Moving From Big Cities). Covid has changed some of the trends and people now enjoy extended stays in places much like Escanaba (Marina, recreation, restaurants, bands, etc.)

As you watch this meeting think about some of the possibilities for such a rural coastal type town with a hint of a recreational hipster vibe. Escanaba has multiple underdeveloped attributes that are unique and beneficial to reconnecting the town to the global economy. A few signs of that reemergence are the attraction of a billion dollars in investments, hundreds of millions in infrastructure improvements, increased tourism/marina traffic, and many more fun events that are drawing a crowd. 

As you watch the meeting there are few questions to keep in mind,

1. Does an initial spark investment by international industry and government lead to additional investments from other stakeholders?

2. There has been an increase in the frequency of events, bands, recreation, vacationers and investments in hotels. From an economic perspective, how might such events/activities lead to attraction and retention of human capital?

3. What are some of the best ways the town and county can hedge their uniqueness of location and industry to create competitive advantages (i.e. a custom transactional cluster)?

August 17th Agenda.