Mayor Heartwell and the State of the City Address 2010

Since 2004, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell has made it a point to give a speech to the community on the State of the City. Several hundred people gathered this morning to have breakfast and to hear both what the City has accomplished in the past year and what direction the Mayor would like to see it take.

In previous State of the City addresses, the Mayor claimed some of his visions, or proposals, have been controversial. The “controversial” proposals he mentions are – greater city/public school partnership, streetcars, a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, tax capturing, and a community sustainability project.

“Look at the amazing things we have done together in this town,” said Heartwell. The Mayor claimed that Grand Rapids is recognized as the strongest economy in Michigan, although he did not provide a source to support such a claim. He also said that Fortune magazine acknowledges Grand Rapids as one of the best cities in the country at recovering from the current recession. Heartwell doesn’t say what criterion Fortune Magazine used to make that determination, but it is interesting that he used a corporate journal as a source to support the performance of the Grand Rapids economy.

A brief acknowledgement that not all is well

Before he addressed the greater accomplishments of 2009, the Mayor did mention that not all is well in Grand Rapids. He said there was double digit unemployment, failing state tax revenues, a high drop out rate for high school students, diminished budgets, and failing minority and female businesses in the area. However, this is where the unpleasant realities ended and the positive comments took over.

By glossing over the severe hardships that thousands of people face in Grand Rapids minimized the seriousness of their situation. The annual Kids Count Report released earlier this month acknowledges that 2 out of every 5 kids in Kent County lives in poverty. A few weeks later it was reported that a new Brookings Institute study showed that Grand Rapids had the highest increase in poverty rates. According to the study, 24%, or one quarter of the population is living in poverty. The Mayor also did not acknowledge the amount of jobs that the city has eliminated due to budget cuts, which was somewhat of a slight to those individuals and families.

Now on to the good stuff

Heartwell said that 2009 will be known as the year of Green Grand Rapids.  He claimed that some 1800 people participated in the process and planning meetings and then took it one step further to form independent groups and coalitions to work on various projects like Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, the Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, and the Grand Rapids White Water group. We have written about the Green Grand Rapids initiative in the past with some critical assessment, which is always important considering how much positive attention the city gets for its efforts in sustainability.

Another highlight of the year according to Heartwell was the federal stimulus money for ($110 million) that came to Grand Rapids. The Mayor said the city was able to “hire more cops, use it for transit, home weatherization, K-12 education and neighborhood energy initiatives.” Interesting that he mentions that the city hired several police officers with the federal stimulus money, but failed to mention that more officers lost their jobs because of budget cuts. The Mayor also mentioned that he was in DC last week for US Mayors Conference and is convinced that the stimulus money showed that the economy is indeed on the rise. In fact, Heartwell told the audience that, “we shouldn’t let anyone convince us otherwise.”

In addition, Heartwell mentioned that the city and county have collaborated on some property in Grand Rapids that will mutually benefit the new Kent County Social Services building on Jefferson/Franklin and improve the neighborhood where the old facility was located on Franklin/Madison.

Now for the future

The Mayor had basically two main proposals for the next year. First, he talked about how the children are the future of Grand Rapids and to demonstrate that he announced a new initiative called The Mayor’s 50. The initiative is designed to have 50 local companies partner with the City of Grand Rapids to provide meaningful employment for 50 youth.

This is another example of private/public partnership, but it begs the question why the city feels it has to play a role in helping businesses find employees? Doesn’t this fly in the face of free market principals, which doesn’t want the government to interfere with business? However, the Mayor does not shy away from these kinds of partnerships and even prominently acknowledged the corporate donations that made the breakfast at today’s event possible – AT&T, Amway, Amway Plaza Hotel, Consumers energy, DeVos Place, Huntington Bank, 5/3 Bank, Mercantile Bank, RDV Corporation, Rockford Construction.

However, the issue that Mayor Heartwell addressed most was him emphasis on intergovernmental cooperation. Heartwell said that greater consolidation of local government bodies will be the dominant theme of the near future. Heartwell said that the present budget crisis is forcing governments to find new ways to do things, but he also acknowledged that this has already been happening in Kent County.  

According to a report from the Citizens Research Council, Grand Rapids and the surrounding communities are already engaged in at least 150 cooperative ventures. However, Heartwell said that these collaborations between governments must increase. In fact, the Mayor went one step further and proposed that all instead of having six cities, why not just have one?

Heartwell said countywide consolidation would make the area the 23^rd largest city in the country. It would give the new government political clout, attract corporations, and gain greater access to federal monies.  Heartwell said, “The greatest gift we could leave for our grandchildren would be a consolidated government.” For a moment I thought I was listening to a speech from former US President Ronald Reagan. Heartwell did not talk about the details of what a consolidated government would look like, but if one were to look at this through an international lens you could easily say that what the Mayor is proposing is very similar to the Structural Adjustment Programs that the IMF/World Bank imposes on poor countries.

The Mayor concluded with upbeat rhetoric and was given a standing ovation at the end. As I sat there I couldn’t help but think about what all of this will mean. But it seemed to me that the call for consolidation in government not only gives greater control to the private sector, but it takes away the autonomy of communities.

Heartwell implored citizens to take a more active role in the democracy, but how does one do that when governments consolidate and the private sector enters into the equation on a larger scale? These are important questions that must be asked and all of us who live in this area must take it upon ourselves to make sure that with these kinds of questions there is greater transparency and accountability with the local government.