Why Downtowns Matter

 

When the Downtown Transformation Plan was launched in downtown Battle Creek, in 2008, People groaned aloud, “Oh no, not another downtown boondoggle.”  The problem with that well-worn attitude was that this plan really was fundamentally different.

 

For one thing, it emphasized and planned around expanded employment in the downtown.  A concentration of significant purchasing power in a compact urban setting ought to stimulate retail and service sector development. 

 

So, the repeated Kellogg investments, the Global Food Protection Institute, and Covance, among others, have put more employed people in downtown locations than I have seen in forty years.  Unlike previous downtown strategies, the Downtown Transformation Plan has a nucleus of strong purchasing power upon which to continue building.

 

I am not, now, going to go into some of the compelling reasons why we had to launch the downtown initiative, but like it or not, downtowns have a vital role in the life of American municipalities.  As we move farther into the 21^st Century, downtowns are rapidly regaining relevance as contributors to a community’s idea generation processes and contributors to the local economy.

A former Mayor of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, once said it most succinctly, when he observed that, “Downtowns are the signatures of their communities”.  That observation put downtowns in the community growth equation.

 

Downtown is that part of the community with which the outsider is most likely to experience their point of first contact.  As the point of first contact, downtowns have a powerful shaping influence on how those outsiders may see the rest of the community.  Thus, it is important that downtowns be safe, clean, and accessible.

 

So, if the health care system is trying to recruit a specialist or a company is trying to recruit a scientist, the downtown will play an important role in how these potential residents see the rest of the community.

 

There has always been a place in the human mind for a central gathering place where information is shared, news is passed on, and people gather for events.  This concept has advanced a long way from the community watering hole to a 24/7 downtown where human activity is omnipresent.

 

Battle Creek has a long way to go, but one can easily argue that the downtown is in the best shape in years and well positioned with a thematic development theme around food protection and safety.  These are areas where Battle Creek has a tremendous strategic competency, given the area’s continuing strong association with the food production sector.

 

The addition of the Math Science Center will send another positive message to the outsider that education is valued in Battle Creek.  The addition of students in the downtown, already an important part of the downtown mix, continues to pump a youthful element into the urban redevelopment matrix.

 

When one contemplates the grim numbers about the declining numbers of physicians or math teachers or science teachers, Battle Creek needs as many saleable assets as it can muster.  Downtown is becoming the genuine face of the community. 

 

That face could be even more refreshed and appealing if the community could get its head together on what to do about blight.  Even though I am now far removed from those discussions these days, I cannot help but think that a lot less blight and a lot more green space would complete the circle.

Chicago

Subject: Should the U.S. pull out of Chicago?

Chicago: 446 school age children shot so far this year with strongest gun laws in country – media silent By Clash Daily / 19 December 2012 The cesspool known as Chicago probably has the toughest gun laws in the country, yet despite all the shootings, murders, and bloodshed, you never hear a peep about this from the corrupt state run media. In Chicago, there have been 446 school age children shot in leftist utopia run by Rahm Emanuel and that produced Obama, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, etc. 62 school aged children have actually been killed by crazed nuts in Chicago so far this year. So why isn’t this news worthy? Isit because it would embarrass those anti second amendment nuts who brag about Chicago’s tough gun laws? Is it because most of the kids who were shot and killed were minorities? Or is it because the corrupt media doesn’t want to show Chicago in a bad light? THE LIST OF MURDERED SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN 201218 YEARS OLD- 15 17 YEARS OLD- 16 16 YEARS OLD- 16 15 YEARS OLD- 6 14 YEARS OLD- 4 13 YEARS OLD- 2 12 YEARS OLD- 1 7 YEARS OLD- 1 6 YEARS OLD- 1 446 School Age Children Shot in Chicago so Far This YearTHE LIST OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN SHOT IN 2012 18 year old- 110 17 year old- 99 16 year old- 89 15 year old- 62 14 year old- 39 13 year old- 21 12 year old- 10 11 year old- 2 10 year old- 3 9 year old- 1 7 year old- 3 6 year old- 2 5 year old- 1 4 year old- 1 3 year old- 1 1 year old- 2 So why isn’t this news worthy? The leadership in Illinois - all Democrats. President: Barack Hussein Obama Senator: Dick Durbin House Representative: Jesse Jackson Jr. Governor: Pat Quinn House leader: Mike Madigan Atty. Gen.: Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike) Mayor: Rahm Emanuel Chicago school system rated one of the worst in the country. State pension fund $78 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% - highest in country. A culture of corruption that would make a Louisiana politician blush with envy.

The Wars within the Union Movement

With the exception of the re-election of President Obama, very little has gone well for the unions in 2012.  Even the re-election of Obama may mean little as the previous four years have seen administrative rulings favorable to unions, but a total zero for legislative progress.  Unions sought card check legislation which would have made the process of organizing new workers much easier, but that never went anywhere.  One would have thought the unions might have wanted to swing for the fences with a President and Congress totally in their corner from 2008-2010.  Swinging for the fences might have met amending the Taft Hartley Act to discourage right-to-work legislation at the state level. 

Aside from all this, the effectiveness of the union movement has been compromised or eroded by two very significant wars going on within the union movement.

The first is a struggle for a new identity.  When one looks at the legislative agenda of the American Labor Movement from the early 20^th Century, you cannot help but conclude that very few movements in American history have been as successful as the unions in getting their agenda enacted.  Whether it was the right to bargain collectively, the elimination of child labor, boosting workplace safety, or providing a safety net for the disabled worker, these protections came to reality because of the success and strength of the unions.

In fact, today, one could say the success of the union movement was so complete that it was literally left without a flag to fly or a cause to champion.  While I am sure such occasions have taken place, I am not aware of comprehensive union futuring taking place.  Surely, there are issues in the electronic workplace, the tightening health care markets, the nature of project work teams, and how to contact and organize the locationally indifferent workers—now 60% of the U.S. workforce, with which unions ought to be concerned.

So there is a war for identity.  What should unions stand for in the 21^st Century?

The second war within organized labor is the divergence of interests between public and private sector unions.  The growth rates are different.  Private sector unions are experiencing membership declines while public sector unions are experiencing membership increases—now to the extent that their influence is an overriding factor in national union leadership and policymaking.

There is a growing feeling among private sector unions that they have not benefitted from the ascent of the public sector unions.  For one thing, many factors drive the costs of public services, but increased labor costs in the public sector are shouldered by taxpayers, some of whom are private sector union families trying to get by in especially unsettling times.

Even though we have seen massive demonstrations where all unions stand, apparently united, for collective bargaining and workers’ rights, one would be hard pressed to show the similarities between a unionized university faculty member and a unionized ironworker, 10 stories up, in freezing weather.  Or the working conditions of a staff support executive secretary with a coal miner.  Moreover, there have been increased incidents where public sector unions have taken positions that actually hurt private sector unions.  Public sector unions, opposing the re-opening of certain mines in northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, have contributed directly to the hurt suffered by out-of-work private sector union families.

These wildly divergent work orientations foster divergent points of view and organizational interests.  Wrapping them together in a few broad slogans and phrases is not enough glue for what the movement needs to press forward.  And they certainly are not enough to foster a vision of the 21^st Century workplace and how to protect and advance those who toil within.

Another Holiday without Kinder Eggs

What can Mexican, Canadian, Kenyan, and most other children of the world have that U.S. children cannot have?  The answer is especially painful this time of year:  Kinder Eggs.  Of course, U.S. children cannot have Kinder Eggs any time of the year, holidays notwithstanding.  And thus, children living in the United States are being deprived of a global experience.

A Kinder Egg is a chocolate treat with a small toy embedded inside.  With European origins, produced, I believe, in Germany, Italy, and Austria, and with European processes, the chocolate is outstanding, but it is that little embedded toy that constitutes the Great Satan to U.S. authorities.

The toy is considered to be a “non-nutritive object” and therefore, it is illegal by U.S. law.  In fact, legal justification for such classifications and resultant policy actions may be found in the 1938 Food and Drug Act.   Besides containing a “non-nutritive object”, consumer advocates point out there is a real danger of children choking on the toy.

What is it about children in the U.S. that makes them excessively prone to choking on small toys?  U.S. children share about 10,000 miles of borders, north and south, with Canadian and Mexican children who, evidently, are not prone to excessive choking.  In fact, it appears that only children in the U.S. choke on small toys and must be protected.  The rest of the world has decided that the product is safe and that their children do not choke on things as readily as U.S. children.  So what is it about our children that make them so different in the proposed consumption of chocolate eggs?

If you travel to Europe, do not even think about bringing Kinder Eggs back with you.  Your fine for the attempted smuggling of Kinder Eggs could range up to $25,000.  That is serious.  You might as well try to smuggle an AK assault rifle into the country, given the consequences.

25,000 to 35,000 Kinder Eggs are seized at U.S. ports every year.  This impressive intercept activity no doubt protects our children from dangers associated with the flagitious degenerates in Big Chocolate. 

It seems like we are getting so adept at seizing Kinder Eggs that it might be time to figure out ways that we could drop Kinder Eggs into the pockets of suspected terrorists seeking to come to this country.  Or into containers of “knock off” electronics hoping to escape the attention of port enforcement officials.  Being associated with a Kinder Egg in a border area is not a good thing.  I wonder if, in our War on Kinder Eggs, we have stopped to think how such a dreaded product could possibly be our friend and ally.  Flooding our enemies and potential lawbreakers with Kinder Eggs just might be the missing strategy to fix all our unfair trade and immigration problems.

By the way, what is a little regulation, without strange anomalies?  Choco Treasures and King’s Cake contain “non-nutritive” products, but somehow escape the official stigma cast upon the poor Kinder Egg.

What do you think will happen when they find out about fortune cookies?

 

 

   

San Francisco, the Nude Ordinance, and the Limits of Expression

A friend recently remarked that she was headed to California and “back to the 21^st Century”.  Given all the hue, cry, and gnashing of teeth over the repeal of San Francisco’s nude ordinance, one would have thought she was headed back to prehistoric times, when humanoids wore skins and not much else.

San Francisco, several years ago, adopted an ordinance allowing one to be nude in public.  There were certain conditions, but basically one could head out to the local coffee shop au natural.  But then, San Francisco encountered the excesses of the new ordinance, among which were naked activists staging a “nude-in” near a line of school children, waiting to see “the Sound of Music”.  Classy.

Other incidents in the heavily gay Castro district of San Francisco soon convinced the residents that the nude activists were to the ordinance what James Egan Holmes or Jared Loughner were to gun ownership.  The tourists weren’t much better as they prowled the streets of the Castro looking for photo opportunities involving themselves and the nearest naked miscreant, sitting right smack in the middle of a public sidewalk.

When it became too much, many gay men protested the outrageous behavior to their elected Supervisor.  The result was a 6-5 vote to repeal the ordinance.  That set off the usual, well worn, overly abused civil rights rhetoric such as “freedom”, “bigotry”, “intolerance”, “fascism”, and “hate”.  Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney must have been rolling in their graves.

I am certain there is a far greater evil than the repeal of the nude ordinance.  That would be the complete diminution of and disrespect for courageous people who were blow torched in the remote forests of the Segregated South, because they sought equal service at a lunch counter or the right to vote.

The nude activists charged, with great consternation, that repeal of the nude ordinance would “Peoria-tize” San Francisco, a comparison, I am sure that will not cause the Peoria Chamber of Commerce to lose any sleep.

The late philosopher, Christopher Hitchens, remarked that gay marriage was not a radicalization of society, but an embourgoisement of the gay lifestyle.  The fact that gay men led the charge against the nude ordinance because they found the outrageous behavior to be antithetical to family values and the healthy upbringing of children certainly confers much credence on the observations of Hitchens. 

But we still need to note that the 6-5 vote is clear indication that San Francisco is not anywhere near Peoria, or Planet Earth, for that matter, when it comes to culture, manners, or expression. If I were in Peoria, I wouldn’t sweat it either.

And so, while children are enslaved in factories in Southeast Asia and the Middle East teeters on yet another round of mass murder, the nude activists are planning to resume their fight for “freedom”, “justice”, “diversity”, “tolerance”, and my personal favorite, “social justice”.

All of which brings to mind something my mother used to say: “There’s nothing in this country that can’t be cured by a good famine”.

A Big Bronx Cheer for the National Hockey League

When billionaire owners and millionaire players get to fighting with each other, the real casualties are the little people underneath their big feet.  The little people being the hot dog vendor, the beer vendor, the shop owners, and other small enterprises that depend upon an active professional sports league to operate as they say they will.  The small businesses and vendors are lost behind the blaze of headlines, “Parties abruptly break off talks” or “impasse continues”.

And so it goes with the National Hockey League—four work stoppages in the past twelve years.  Four different episodes of stomping on small businesses and loyal fans.

Even though I am a borderline rabid Detroit Red Wings fan, I have had it with the selfish pigs that make up the National Hockey League.  As a long time economic development practitioner, I am appalled by the damage being done to the people who have livelihoods that depend upon the billionaires and millionaires doing their jobs.

I would think that hockey fans are sick and tired of being taken for granted or that we would not notice what they are doing to small businesses and working people.  As the most recent work stoppage began, the head honchos proclaimed their fans were the most loyal of all sports fans and that no matter what happened, the fans “would come back.”

This is the same blatant arrogance that demands public dollars to build stadiums and arena or else.  The “or else” means the franchise will be relocated to another city full of suckers.  Imagine Glendale, Arizona—hardly a hotbed of hockey fans, but nonetheless, the home of the Phoenix Coyotes.  The taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for this magnificent new arena.  Since promises of ticket sales and concessions would produce the revenue necessary to service the debt on the arena, a work stoppage means that this revenue will not be available.  It seems like it is more than time for fans to vote with their feet.

If you are a starved hockey fan in Michigan, I have a recommendation for you.  In addition to several minor league franchises, our state is home to some of the best college hockey in the nation.  The University of Michigan was a pre-season favorite to win the NCAA national championship.  Little Ferris State University is not so little in college hockey circles as it played Boston College in the national championship game in April of this year.  My own Western Michigan University Hockey Broncos are nationally ranked.  And, as Michigan State University fans know, their hockey program is on the rise.

This is good quality sports entertainment.  Although the students can be a bit rambunctious, the games are still exciting and up close.  With these options in hand, who needs the National Hockey League and their blatant disregard and disrespect for their fans and their vendors?  It already costs an arm and a leg to attend a National Hockey League game. As much as I love Mike Ilitch and what he has done for downtown Detroit, the Tigers, and the Red Wings, enough is enough.  And I am truly sorry about that.

Respect commands itself, but there is no respect.  It is time to tell these people to take a hike.  Go Broncos!