The Mayor as CEO

Got some time? Check out Aaron M. Renn's latest over at Forbes. "The Mayor as CEO" argues that cities may benefit from a different leadership perspective -- thinking about your municipality as a brand.

While the article is not about Detroit per se, it mentions our lovely city:

Core cities are structurally high-cost producers. They need to find a market and product for which people are willing to pay at least some premium, in terms of crime or schools, if not in money. Being a low-cost provider doesn't help you if you're the civic equivalent of a buggy whip manufacturer. Too many urban cores have a surplus of land and houses they can't even give away--look at Detroit.

Renn is an urban success strategist. On his site, The Urbanophile, he describes himself as "a writer on a mission to help America's cities thrive in the 21st century global economy." His particular focus is the oft-overlooked cities of the Midwest.

Read the whole Forbes thing here.