Earlier this week, Governor Granholm announced that the City of Scottville has earned this year’s Cool Cities Michigan Main Street designation. As the Ludington Daily News reported, this is a really big deal, as being named a Michigan Main Street means Scottville will get five years of focus from state housing and community and economic development experts to attract new businesses (and jobs) to Scottville’s central business district. The Michigan Main Street program is part of the governor’s Cool Cities Initiative, a program to build vibrant, energetic cities that attract jobs, people and opportunity.

Moreover, the Cool Cities initiative has attracted support from across the political spectrum. At Monday’s community celebration, State Representative David Palsrok eloquently captured just what this program means to the city and residents of Scottville: “In the history of Scottville, this announcement and the beginning of this process will be a new chapter.” Representative Palsrok added that everyone who cares about Scottville now becomes an author of this new chapter.

Of course, not everyone is so enthusiastic. State Senator Michelle McManus, for example, has attacked the program as “socially engineered coolness.” And the right-wing blog RightMichigan (the top-listed blog of the Michigan Republican Party) was quick to diminish Scottville’s good well-earned honor, arguing that the announcement of what Palsrok rightfully called “a new chapter” for Scottville was nothing more than “details details.” This unfortunately is in line with Michigan Republican Party chair Saul Anuzis, who describes himself as a “Cool Cities Critic” and brags about “throwing cold water” on the program that awarded Scottville this opportunity to build a better future. (Yes, this is the same Saul Anuzis who earlier this year called for cuts to the wildly successful Pure Michigan tourism promotion campaign.)

What McManus, Anuzis and the zealots at RightMichigan don’t realize, however, is that in a world that cares more about results than Republican orthodoxy, this is very good news indeed. But don’t take my word for it – ask the people of Scottville. If this was just “socially engineered coolness,’ would 35 members of the world famous Scottville Clown Band really have shown up to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority offices to push for the honor, leading one MSHDA official to comment that “the Main Street program hasn’t been the same since?” It’s time for McManus and Co. to stop blocking the path to a brighter future for Michigan.