Tag: Chicago

Once upon a time.

Mayor Janice Daniels in December of 2011 led the opposition in the Troy City Council for an $8.5 million train depot for good reason.  Her opposition to a project that would be built with free money was framed with an understanding that nothing is truly free.  Even after the project was stripped down a month later, and re-presented for a couple million less, she held her ground, and looked at the bigger picture.  Ongoing expenses make the continuing use of the pusher-man's product not nearly as euphoric as when it was offered for free.

The Troy City Council didn't get it, and the vote for the effort was shifted. Even in the face of the citizen commentary that was recorded as 11-7 in opposition to the transit center.  As RightMichigan.com poster Rougman pointed out at the time, its $5,500/sq ft cost was stripped down to $3,100/sq ft (a travesty for its cheapness) and the gold plated accoutrements would have to be withheld.

"By shaving off 400 square feet the project's cost has been lowered significantly. That was some expensive square footage there--roughly coming in at $5,500 per square foot. The smaller and redrawn project will cost a mere $3,100 per square foot which I find absolutely alarming...what kind of slum are these bureaucrats trying to push over on us? No gold toilet seats? No granite counter tops?"

I was a finalist, then won, and split the prize with Chetly Zarko for the watchdog award at the Sam Adams Alliance event as mentioned previously.

The other two finalists Rob Port of Minot ND, and Sherry Loar of Petoskey were both worthy of this award, so its with a greater sense of humility that I accepted it.  Its really a big deal. Rob runs a watchdog type blog which is like a combination of the Blog Prof's site, and RightMichigan.com.  Sherry took the lead as the plaintiff fighting the forced unionization scam, who sacrificed both monetarily and psychologically in dealing with the collusive measure brought about by the last administration and their union cronies.

I was in very respect worthy company.

I should note that I am not the greatest speaker, and I do not travel with dueling teleprompters. So this award might well be seen as the greatest speaking fee I should ever expect to see.  I guess that is OK, as long as I can keep the pen to the page (so to speak) to entertain and inform.

Two things I must note.

Tolls

and

Traffic.

In its inability to offer rule exclusions necessary for the building of berms needed to prevent the oil from reaching sensitive areas, the Obama administration doomed those sensitive areas to an ugly death state for many years to come.  And with its political connections and the Chicago interests willing to ignore the destruction of our natural resources here in the great lakes, the president has now earned yet another star for ignorance and incompetent leadership.  The Free press reports the carp are here:

"Several members of Congress were notified today of the find. The creature, found by commercial fishermen looking for carp as part of wider carp hunting missions, was 34.6 inches long and weighed just under 20 pounds.

This is the first time anyone has found an Asian carp, live or dead, beyond an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Lockport. The nearest carp to the barrier was a dead one found last December after a massive poisoning of the shipping canal. "

"We have a tremendously talented and skilled workforce. We're very productive in this state." - Michigan House Speaker (and Gubernatorial Candidate) Andy Dillon

"Rescuing troubled companies and saving Michigan jobs." Sounds like a sure fire message you want to spread in a state mired in its own depression.

As it turns out, it's easier said than done.

It is a big deal.. We have a limited time to do something ultimately, or the nature of our great lakes region will be altered negatively forever.  Its estimated the one part of Michigan's economy that remains could be damaged quite literally making the state non-viable. Damage to the economy estimated in the tens of $Billions for Michigan alone.

The effect of doing nothing has its consequence.  Its there in front of us. We have watched it like a plague growing northward from the Mississippi.

So why are we facing opposition>?