Nobody is perfect, mayor Dave Bing included. And making arguments for the need to downsize what was once America’s fastest growing city is, well, nothing short of radical. No surprise, people are getting angry and confused at a proposal that will re-locate residents and will change the structure of the city as we know it. It’s not going to be easy, but if we want any shot at saving Detroit, it has to be done. Continue Reading
With a city government that is strapped for cash, has no idea how to spur economic development and has been given clown noses to wear at commission meetings, it’s no wonder Mount Clemens is in the mess that it is. There is no perfect solution for these (and the other issues facing the city), but if we do not start taking steps in the right direction soon, then the city will go downhill, and fast. Think South Warren fast. A big underlying issue is that the people are not represented in city government; they have no say in what happens.By switching out system from electing all city commissioners at large to a ward system that will allow for neighborhoods to be more represented, give the voters a better choice, and encourage more people to vote and to run for office.
A ward system, for those who don’t know, is where the city is divided up into parts, and each part is represented in government by an elected individual. If there are parts A, B, C, and D then people from Ward A can only vote for a candidate who lives in ward A, and so fourth. This is exactly what activist and former mayoral candidate Gloria Haller is proposing, thus far it has gotten public support from former school board member Joe Rheker and sitting board member Larry Humphrey, while getting opposition from Mayor Barb Dempsey.
Much of this is the fault of the people themselves. If you don’t vote, then you are held prisoner by those that do (of course, not voting because you have no candidate you want to vote for is completely different). And there are even less people who are willing to step up to the plate and run for political office.
This issue borderlines cronyism, where a section of the city breeds all the people who will run it. How bad is it? There is only one elected official in Mount Clemens who lives north of Cass Avenue: School Board President Earl Rickman.
This map shows where the Mayor, the City Commission, and the School Board members live.
The southern 2 neighborhoods control the whole city of Mount Clemens
This map is taken directly from the new Master Plan of Mount Clemens. This is the neighborhood map, and from what I can tell by itself, is very accurate. Neighborhoods 7 and 10 (which also correspond with current voting precincts 2 and 9) run the entire show.
Driving through these areas, it’s not hard to see where this is different from the rest of the city. These are the nicest neighborhoods in town, and the people that live there are likely to be the most successful, college educated and have a little extra cash in the bank. Others who live in these neighborhoods include long time Mount Clemens High School Principal Nelson Jackson, Charter Commission President Jake Femmineneo, and former Congressional Democratic Whip David Bonior.
Due to the nature of these ares, it’s not surprising that these people are more likely to vote and more likely to run for office themselves. Voter data all across the country will give similar stories: higher income and better education almost always lead to higher voter turnout.
Due to the small voter turnout in Commission and School Board elections, there is absolutely no need to run a city-wide campaign if you are seeking office. If you win precincts 2 and 9 (on election day and the absentee), you’ve just won the election. I know this first hand, I won 14 of 17 precincts last year when I ran for school board and still lost the election, having lost precincts 2 and 9 and tied in precinct 1. This means that when you run a campaign, knocking on doors all over the city means nothing.
We have a culture where only 2 neighborhoods elect the officials. With all these politicians in the same area, it’s no wonder that they breed more politicians from the same neighborhoods. And when your friends and neighbors are all running for something, you get to know them pretty well, even if you already didn’t.
When election time rolls around, someone from neighborhood 7 will see a name on the ballot he recognizes. Maybe it’s his friend or long-time neighbor. Maybe he’s knocked on your door to talk to you about the campaign or you’ve gotten something in the mail from his committee. Over the years you might have seen this candidate washing their car or doing their own landscaping, maybe even playing ball with the kids and the family dog on the front lawn.Maybe your kids are friends with theirs, and they walked to school together, or even dated! Either way, it’s a community within a community. And this is someone you know either through reputation or just because you’ve seen them out and about and know they’re a “good person”.
That same person in neighborhood 7 might also see another name on the ballot. Someone who knocked on their door once or twice during the campaign. You’ve never met them beforehand, and you don’t know what kind of person they are. They seem very nice and very well intentioned, but aside from a quick conversation and a little reading, you know nothing about this candidate’s character, how he conducts his life, or anything else other than what he wants you to know.
When election day comes, guess who is going to get the vote?
Meanwhile, why would someone from neighborhood 9 even consider voting on election day? They may see a handful of names on the ballot, where none of which have knocked on their door or given them any information. If they are an informed voter they may have read their profile in the C&G paper or Macomb Daily and seen their website if they have one, but that’s it. And odds are, they are someone from the other side of town, who lives in a very different part of Mount Clemens than you do. So different in fact, that if you were shown pictures of the different neighborhoods side by side, you would never know that it’s the same city. It’s easy for people to not vote when they don’t feel represented, and that’s exactly what happens.
For someone who wants to make a difference, running an election is difficult if you don’t live in the right neighborhood. The people that statistically always vote will be harder to win over when they don’t already know you. Especially when one of their neighbors in on the ballot. And when you see all of your neighbors putting up yard signs for the local guy, you start to think “well these guys are all like me, and this is who they like, so this candidate must be my kind of guy”.
The machine just generates more cogs. The candidates ignore the rest of the city, as they don’t have to answer to them. It matters not what they do as long as they appease their neighbors.
By putting the city into a ward system, we eliminate this. This will allow people from different neighborhoods to elect someone who they know, who they may have known for a long time. This will allow the candidate to take their message right to the people, instead of trying to impress folks from the “rich side of town” into voting for them over one of their neighbors. This will entice more people to run for commission as the campaigns will be easier to manage with a smaller geographical area and less expensive to run with a smaller voter base to work with.
At meetings, this will bring new, fresh perspectives to the table. Mount Clemens, despite being small, is not small the way that Armada, Romeo, or Oxford is small. We are one of the most diverse cities in Macomb County, with different ethnic groups, races, ages, incomes, lifestyles and viewpoints. Because of this, we are underrepresented across the board. And as the old saying goes, “No Taxation without Representation”.
This will also make sure that there is no cronyism in board appointments or replacements: people will be elected by their neighbors come special election or anything else. For example, take a look at the map again. Towards the bottom there are 2 shapes that overlap, one of those is a newly appointed school board member and the other is a siting elected board member. I am not making accusations against the qualifications of newly appointed school board member Laura Kropp. But I will say that it surprises me not one bit that despite being the voter’s 2nd choice to sit on the board last May, I was passed up for appointment that was given to a sitting board member. And while I have no evidence to support this theory, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit of she was “asked” by her neighbor to apply for the appointment, so the board could use the opportunity to pass me over.
Opponents of the Ward plan say that it will force the new commissioners to only serve their neighborhoods, as opposed to the city at large. This point is downright laughable. If the current commissioners are doing their best to work for Mount Clemens as a whole then the system needs obvious reform. Because right now, it isn’t working.
Let me say that again: the current system is NOT working. Businesses are closing up left and right, neighborhoods are in decline, and people are moving out. The current elected officials have failed us.
The more realistic story is that they are not serving the community at large, but their own little community within a community: Seminole Hills and the Wilson School Area. Precincts 2 and 9. Neighborhoods 7 and 10. Whatever you want to call it, it’s the southwest end of town and it runs the show.
Because of this, there is no accountability. All you have to do to win is be from that area and show your neighbors that you’re like they are. No matter what way you want to look at it, the city is suffering, the people are underrepresented, and the people have little say in anything that happens. Their cries at board meetings can be ignored, because the commissioners know that if the angry person behind the mic gets everyone he knows to vote against you, you still have a strong base.
The one thing about the Haller Ward Plan that I do not like is the raising of pay for the elected officials. People are driven to public service for things other than the pay, and the better campaign platforms that can be developed as well as the chance of knowing that they can win an election will be more than enough to get more people to seek public office. The other small thing would be that the school board should be included in this as well.
With that being said, it’s time for a change. A Ward system would give better accountability, different viewpoints at the table, and allow government to be what it was meant to be: of the people, by the people, and for the people. Instead of a few elite neighborhoods that have power over the rest of the city with no accountability overall for their actions.
Let’s take this step to save our city and bring responsible government to Mount Clemens.
Yesterday, while a dark and stormy sky had settled over the “Renaissance” Center in downtown Detroit, General Motors filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While for many in Detroit, this means a simple “We’re fucked”, the nice folks on TV were trying to hide their urge to an hero by saying that this was a new beginning, that GM will come back stronger and more poised to take a better market share. Realistically, if there ever was a good reason to an hero, crashing a company like GM is a pretty has got to be up there.
While it’s anybody’s guess if GM will actually survive this debacle, we have to question how it can happen when they have screwed up so badly in the past. To make matters worse, the people who are trying hardest to reassure us that everything will be OK are from the government, who have lied to us about all sorts of things for the past over 9000 years. Not to mention that they keep telling us that they have no interest in running the company, despite already installing a new CEO.
Either way, here’s a look back at a bunch of absurdly dumb shit GM has done to end up where they are. Lots of industries have issues with labor, costs, government regulations, and more. When we throw the excuses aside, we see lots of places where General Motors (and Chrysler), could have done much better.
Don’t make a fleet of “different” vehicles that are exactly the same.
Behold, the Chevy S10!
Also Available in Black
Behold, the radically different GNC Sonoma!
Ooh yah, I'm bad
It truely is amazing how ridiculous it is. It’s the SAME DAMN TRUCK. Turn one into an SUV, call it the Chevy Blazer. Turn the other into an SUV, and it’s the GMC Jimmy. It’s absurd to sell minimally different versions of the same product to try to accomodate everyone everywhere at any time. It would be if Coke started selling 12, 16, 20, 22, 24, 28, and 32 oz bottles of Coca Cola. We would laugh to see that on the grocery store shelves, but somehow GM (and the other members of the Detroit 3 are just as guilty) thought this was not only acceptable, but appropriate.
The Chevrolet S-10 was a compactpickup truck from the Chevrolet marque of General Motors. When it was first introduced in 1982, the GMC version was known as the S-15 and later renamed the GMC Sonoma. A high-performance version was released in 1991 and given the name of GMC Syclone. The truck was also sold by Isuzu as the Hombre from 1996 through 2000. There was also an SUV version, the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer/GMC S-15 Jimmy. An electric version was leased as a fleet vehicle in 1997 and 1998. Together, these trucks are often referred to as the S-series. In 2004, the S-series was replaced by new models: the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Isuzu i-Series.
It should come as no surprise that the GMC Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Isuzu i-Series are all, the exact same truck. Ever had someone at Best Buy try to explain the difference between a HP ze6514 and ze6514-a in a way that makes you even remotely give a shit? Yah, me neither. This is no exception.
Leases? You’ve got to be kidding me.
Here’s a radical concept: Allow people to pay a chunk of money upfront to rent a car for a few years provided they give it back in as perfect of shape as they can and keep it under a certain mileage without paying some kind of costly fees. Yah, that’s the American Dream.
For as long as there have been cars there have been people who have wanted to own cars. This kind of pseudo-ownership is crap on all levels. You give the people a car that they don’t really own, stick the deal with terms, conditions and clauses making it hard to work with and wonder why they are unhappy. The dealers get these things back and have to try and sell a “Pre-Leased Vehicle” which is code to the general public for “A car somebody drove the hell out of because they knew they were giving it back soon”. You can easily abuse the engine and the trans on a car as long as you know that you won’t have to deal with the actual problem when it arrises. You will have had given the car back by then!
To top it off, the financial arms of the manufacturer get hit by making enticing loan offers to people who will never be able to afford them. This in turn, also created problems for the car dealers.
Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, I remember seeing stuff like this on TV all the time. Mel Farr was hit by liens against Ford because people couldn’t pay for their cars.
Don’t design cars that are ugly as hell and expect people to be exited.
…I will never forget the gasp that audience made. Holy hell! This car could not have been more instantly hated if it had a Swastika tattoo on its forehead.
-Time Magazine’s 50 Worst Cars of All Time in 2007 from a reporter who was in the audience at the unveiling.
Gee, can you guess what car it was?
Pussy Magnet Sold Separately
The horrible brainchild of a piss-poor attempt to appeal to the Generation-X, Hippie Nuevo, Burning Man crowd was the result of “Design By Committee” and having absolutely 0 clue what your audience wants. This car was so bad that GM needed to sell 30,000 of these puppies a year to break even and they never even hit 28,000. The ultimate lowpoint was in 2007, where 25 new Azteks were sold. Not thousands, just 25. I can’t imagine how they sold so many.
I’m sure that the video shown at the unveiling was pretty similar to this one.
If it was even that exciting. The Aztek is so bad that it’s often compared with the AMC Gremlin, The Pacer StationWagons, The Chevy Chevette, and of course who can forget the Ford Edsel.
Over the past 25 years, we’ve seen some terrible car designs come out of Detroit.
For example:
Badass 1964 Ford Mustang
The 84 Mustang: 20 years is a long-ass time
Finally Ford got their shit together…about another 20 years later.
2010 Mustang GT
After you destroy such an iconic brand, is there really any real recovery? You just have to find out. The new Cameros, Mustangs, Challengers, Chargers, etc. are all starting to do well. People want cars that look like real cars.
Look at this:
SSRRRRRRRRawr!
What the hell is that? It’s as though the El Camino manufacturing plant and design team were revived and moved to Ferdnale. This car is garbage. It’s terrible when you try to re-do the El Camino and fail miserably.
The El Camino SS: More awesome than you
I could go on and on about the GMC Envoy, the Chevy Equinox, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Ford Flex, or any other abomination, but I think you’ve all had enough. I know I have.
If it doesn’t make money, DON’T DO IT!
GM took a German brand and started to sell cars based on it’s design in the United States under a different name, different production plants, and made almost entirely out of plastic, aluminum, and styrophone. That’s right, saturn was born in 1993 and has never once turned a profit.
For cars that are plentiful, you’d think that they would have sold at some point in their lives. But something got lost in the translation overseas of Opel to Saturn. Worse yet was GM trying to make these cars exciting when they end up in the “Under $3,000″ section at your local used car dealer pretty quick. It’s as though they were trying to deliberately steal the Dodge Neon’s market share
So much fail compacted into such a small space
But as the big three tried so hard to churn these out, they also did it at a loss across the board. So many sedan and small car sales were taken at a loss while they relied on Trucks and SUVs to keep the company going. Nonetheless, gas prices spike and bigger cars are no longer popular. There goes the money train, all aboard!
Forget Innovation, what we have is good enough.
With the way people like Castrol and Penzoil talk about their products, you’d think there was more R&D in synthetic oils than in the machines themselves.
Ultimately, the car has been much the same for quite some time. We’ve made great strides in many areas, but realistically speaking, Detroit has falled flat on innovation, focusing too much on holding on to what we had instead of being on the forefront of the next big thing. GM should have expanded into other areas of manufacturing, really be the motor that powers everything, not just cars.
Failing to truely adopt to new electric, hydrogen, or even ethanol products until recently is a joke. Check out this video of Jack Nicholson with his Hydro-Powered Chevy….in 1978!
Fucking 1978! And of course, the prototype was in California, not Michigan. The unwillingness of Detroit to adapt to new technologies and push these on consumers has been a total nightmare for their development. Instead of leading the way, they now trail behind, with GM’s only real hopes in this department lying in the Chevy Volt.
In 1978, they prototyped the Hydrogen powered Chevy. In 2010 or 2011, we’ll see the first electric Chevy. How does it take you over 30 years to go backwards?
Just because you have the biggest dick in the room doesn’t mean you act like it.
Or that it will always be that way. If you have the balls to say that you shouldn’t be allowed to fail because you’re too big, then obviously you’re not too big at all. What a joke. For years GM ignored customer complaints, new technology and foreign competition as just minor things to deal with on the road to success. Now, they’re seeing it first hand. Their market share has been swept out from underneath them, putting the consumers in an uncomfortable position: buy an inferior domestic product or buy a less expensive, superior foreign product and piss off my neighbors. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see what was coming, just the need to pull your head out of your ass for a few minutes.
Things got way too slow, and nobody had the foresight to realize the trends of the future or to see that the good times just wouldn’t last forever. Especially when we’ve seen Chrysler have to get bailed out before. Now, they just get passed around like the red-headed step child of the auto world. From Germany to Canada and now Italy, who knows if the car maker will ever find a real home, or just end up like Packard and AMC.
Which would be a shame, since I really want a new Dodge Challenger.
Ooh so Sexy
But alas, we shall see where the cards lie. Maybe nobody will become an hero after all.
