With the overall economic downturn in Michigan, many cities in Michigan have shown severe planning issues including distressed downtowns, abandoned commercial buildings, obsolete
residential neighborhoods, unmanaged old streets that need to be rehabilitated, and so on. To overcome these planning issues, the state has made great strides. The representative examples of those
efforts are Master Plan Projects in many Michigan cities, the Michigan Main Street Program,
Brownfield Redevelopment, and various incentive programs which encourage economic activities
in the cities.