Benton Harbor’s new developments seen as bright spots

Benton Harbor has known just as much economic adversity as hard-bitten Flint and has seen even more social unrest. Seven months ago, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow used Benton Harbor as the poster child of what was wrong with Michigan as she railed against the state’s emergency financial manager law, MLive reports. Lost in the national argument were the region’s achievements, Marcus Robinson, president and chief executive of the non-profit Consortium of Community Development.

Excerpt:

Local businesses dominate a blocks-long arts district, and the city’s music and entertainment scene that is beginning to rival Detroit in the 1960s, Robinson said. Planners placed a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course that will host PGA Senior Tour Championship events in 2012 and 2014 so that guests were funneled through the city. Benton Harbor also has a thriving medical community and a stable manufacturer in Whirpool, which also is a benefactor to the community.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: MLive