e power of being live and in-person

Spring is here and along with the annual feeling of renewal comes the hope that in-person events will continue to recover what was lost in the pandemic.

e Tigers returned to Comerica Park a few days ago. Bruce Springsteen recently played to a packed Little Caesars Arena. And later this month the Michigan Panthers of the revived USFL will make their debut at Ford Field.

More than three years after the pandemic wreaked havoc on our lives and brought unprecedented disruption to in-person gatherings, there are certainly signs of normalcy as we move down the path of recovery.

One segment, however, that has been slower to bounce back is the performing arts.

While many Detroit-area organizations have seen vast improvement in attendance, and the accompanying revenue from ticket sales, many performing arts organizations are still shy of their 2019 pre-pandemic levels. ere are a few theories why, Crain’s Detroit senior reporter Sherri Welch recently wrote. One is that many of us have gotten comfortable, perhaps a little too comfortable, with being entertained at home via streaming programs. Another is that people are waiting to buy tickets or avoiding full-season subscriptions, worried they might get sick or some other complicating factor will come up that could a ect their attendance.

“ e issue of re-engagement for so many arts groups is one that continues to evolve,” ere are brand new, available manufactured homes for sale in clean, safe, welcoming communities all over Michigan, starting at less than $75,000, with ample nancing and warranties available. ese homes are built with the same materials as site-built homes, only in a controlled environment, where construction quality is superior to what can be done outdoors. Since 1976, construction of these homes has been regulated by stringent federal laws ensuring their quality. Further, new homes are constructed in a manner that their appearance is compatible with local architecture and can be essentially indistinguishable from site-built homes. ere just isn’t enough supply to meet the existing demand. It’s a problem that state leaders know well, as the governor’s “Statewide Housing Plan” lays out goals of making tens of thousands of new homes available to Michigan families over the next few years to keep up with demand, fuel growth, and address this crisis. e last thing we need is more government crackdowns on housing supply. When it’s been tried in markets large and small all over the country, so-called rent control has shown time and again that it only exacerbates a housing crisis. You don’t x a supply-side problem by cracking down on the available supply — but that’s exactly what new government mandated limits on rent would do. e biggest thing the state can do to spark even more of this kind of growth and address the housing crisis is to incentivize local governments to embrace pro-growth zoning policies to attract more housing options.

Detroit Opera President and CEO Wayne Brown told Welch.

While health and safety of course are paramount, we encourage patrons of the performing arts to re-engage with these organizations. eir vibrancy is critical to the fabric of the quality of life and economic vitality of Southeast Michigan.

In the area of conventions and corporate events, many of Michigan’s largest facilities are seeing a similar trend. Locations such as Huntington Place and Suburban Collection Showplace are pointing to strong areas of growth, Crain’s Detroit reporter Rachel Watson noted for a recent story on that industry.

While Huntington Place’s revenue last year was well below 2019 levels because fewer manufacturers participated in the North American International Auto Show, some non-automotive conventions were big hits. ree tech-related events broke non-auto pro tability records in 2022: a 3D printing conference called RAPID + TCT hosted by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Automate show by A3, and KubeCon, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s annual conference.

“In 2022, coming out of the pandemic, we had the three most pro table (non-auto) shows in the history of the convention center, so there was some real great progress from that standpoint, and then certainly those shows are scheduled to come back (in future years),” Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, told Watson.

Indeed, this is a sign of hope for the future. In an age of Zoom calls and AI chatbots, still nothing beats in-person, human connection — whether it’s attending the Detroit Opera or learning about 3D printing.

Our cities, suburbs and even rural areas are facing the same housing con ict as the rest of the country, and it’s one driven by a lack of a ordable, quality renting and ownership options. is is an issue of simple supply and demand.

State policy should be aimed at setting up our state for long-term growth and success, and Michigan should always be a place where everyone can a ord to live, work, and raise a family. Policymakers should not be seduced by the false promises of Not In My Backyard acolytes, who claim that placing new burdens on developers and the construction industry will somehow lift all boats. Research shows that again and again, rent control and other anti-supply policies lower overall property values while discouraging homeownership.

Even worse, sometimes zoning restrictions speci cally exclude manufactured homes in a local community, ensuring that people wishing to live in that community will be forced to pay arti cially high prices for no good reason.

Michigan’s manufactured housing industry is helping build toward the governor’s goals by providing thousands of new homes for families every year, even through the height of the pandemic. e manufactured housing industry provided 12,404 new homes in Michigan since January 2020, despite many local governments standing in the way of the development of these critically needed housing options with restrictive zoning policies. ese aren’t just rental opportunities. Manufactured homes provide a ordable homeownership opportunities for families all over this state — thousands more, every year.

In order to address a ordability and increase the available housing supply, we need to relax zoning restrictions to help our state grow, increase homeownership equity across race, ethnic and socio-economic groups, and increase homeownership among low- and middle-income households. at’s how we build a state where everyone can a ord to live and thrive.