Partisan politics destroys plenty of quality government intiatives

I had to laugh yesterday at the aforementioned conference when Chris Leinberger was talking about how great the State of Michigan is for having the MI Place initiative to promote place-based community improvement initiatives.

I don't think he was familiar with the similar initiative by the previous governor, called "Cool Cities," which was junked by the current administration when they came into office.

-- Michigan Cool Cities Initiative Case Study, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
-- "Where are they now? Catch up on what happened to those Cool Cities grantees," Grand Rapids Press
-- "Cool cities still a valid idea," Mlive

Muskegon Chronicle image.

Similarly, in Massachusetts, Democratic Governor Deval Patrick junked the smart growth initiatives of the previous Governor (Republican Mitt Romney), and Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich did the same thing in Maryland, when he succeeded a Democratic Governor.