LANSING, Mich. — Area business leaders are sharing a new report that takes a look at how Lansing stacks up against similar cities across the country.
It's an effort to help improve the region’s economy and quality of life for residents.
“It's about advancing prosperity in the region in a sustainable way and in order to do that we need to know where we stand," said Victoria Meadows of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership.
The first State of the Lansing Region Benchmarking Report is aimed at giving businesses an in-depth look at how Lansing is doing in several areas.
The report was commissioned by the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Lansing Economic Area Partnership.
The research started back in 2019 but the project was delayed because of the pandemic.
“It was probably like a six-month time frame from data collection to getting it to a point where it was ready to roll out but unfortunately, we had a little bit of a blip there with 12 months of having to deal with some of the COVID economic issues," said Tim Daman of the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The report looks at data from 11 other cities from 2014 through 2018 and uses 42 metrics.
Some of the cities studied include Columbus, Ohio, and Durham, North Carolina.
It zeroed in on a few major areas including affordability, long-term economic growth, population growth, educational attainment, private sector growth.
Daman said some of the findings were surprising to him.
“We may not be in the top position right now but we’re increasing so that was a great surprise for us is that we saw the arrow moving in the right direction," he said.
Daman says Lansing ranks near the top when it comes to the insurance sector, manufacturing, and healthcare but falls flat in private sector growth. Compared to similar areas, relatively few businesses and employers call the area home.
Meadows says it's clear the city has lots of work to do but that the report is a great starting point to build a blueprint for change.
“This is a tool for learning. It's an opportunity to do something different than we’ve done in the past," she said.
This is the first State of the Lansing Region Benchmarking Report.
Organizers say they are planning to monitor the region’s progress and release two additional studies in the next few years.
We have the full report here:
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