MichMash County Close-up: Macomb County
Cheyna Roth puts the spotlight on Macomb County and is joined by Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel.
Macomb County Executive Mark Hackell speaks with Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today at the 2023 Mackinac Policy Conference
For the third edition of County Close-up, MichMash zooms into Michigan’s third most populous county: Macomb County.
County Executive Mark Hackel sits down with Cheyna Roth to talk about the importance of marketing, the county’s focus on food insecurity and their investment into mental health in jail.
In this episode
- How Macomb County has been able to have population growth in the midst of Michigan looking to increase their overall population.
- Macomb County’s focus on food insecurity and establishing mental health programs in the county jail.
- County Executive Mark Hackel declaring Macomb County the “Defense Capital of the United States”
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Hackel believes the main thing that makes Macomb County appealing is how inclusive the area is.“I think over time, there have been many assets that we brought to the table to get people to realize this is a stronger region because Macomb County has finally gotten their politics set aside.”
Hackel is referencing how Macomb County went to an executive form of government 12 years ago, which has allowed city officials to focus on things like population growth. Interestingly, 1 out of 10 Macomb County residents are foreign born according to Hackel.
Michigan’s overall population is declining, though Macomb County’s population has grown by 4.74% from 2012-2022 according to World Population Review. Hackel believes it’s because of how welcoming Macomb County is
“There is a mantra that we started about 12 years ago — ‘Make Macomb your home.’ The reason for that is to get people to realize that there is a value added to living in Macomb County…we had to market that. But marketing and branding isn’t something we would be able to do alone. We need our support in the region and I think you’re starting to see more of an emphasis on that.”
Listen to the entire episode using the media player above.
More from MichMash
- Macomb County addressing mental health with jail improvements
- Macomb County Democrats discuss their plans for the next legislative session
- Detroit Today: Transit, mental health and regionalism on the minds of county executives
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