One of the oldest communities in northern Michigan has kicked off their summer programming sessions, talking about important issues around Petoskey.

The Bay View Association has seen it’s members come back for the summer season in the past week, but their discussion sessions are open to everyone.

While they are an inclusive community themselves, throughout the last couple of years they’ve been working on getting more involved in the community of Petoskey as a whole.

Yesterday, during their first presentation of the year, they talked about the lack of affordable housing in the city.

“Everything ties into it,” said Mike Spencer, Executive Director of the Bay View Association. “Transportation, the economy, trying to get businesses who need employees a place to live affordably, and that’s not a challenge just in Emmet County but all over northern Michigan.”

Bay View plans on having more presentations throughout the summer on a variety of topics in regards to the area.