The final State of the City address by Mayor Bliss: What is her real legacy?

On Thursday night, Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss delivered her final State of the City speech to a crowd of supporters at an invitation only event in the Fulton Street Farmers Market. You can read the Mayor’s speech here.

I want to provide a counter-narrative to what the Mayor of Grand Rapids had to say and challenge many of her claims she made during her speech. However, I first want to address how the local commercial news reported on the Mayor’s speech.

Stenographers to Power

In his book, Stenographers to Power: Media and Propaganda, David Barsamian interviews several media scholars and practitioners who discuss the issue of how the commercial media in the US tends to act as stenographers for those in power instead of challenging what they say and do. Just recording what people who hold positions of power isn’t enough, journalism should verify their claims and challenge those same claims, especially with counter sources and narratives.

All of the major daily commercial news outlets “reported” on the Mayor’s State of the City speech. I put the word reported in quotes because they primarily acted as stenographer, rather than reporters.

For example, all three TV stations (WOODTV8, WZZM13 and WXMI 17)  covered the event, but all three simply provided a summary of what the Mayor said, and never verified, questioned or challenged what she said. The MLive article also was a form of stenography, just a more refined version reflected in the headline, 4 takeaways from Grand Rapids mayor’s final State of the City address. 

The MLive article is reflective of how local commercial news agencies don’t hold people in power accountable. In the beginning of the MLive story it was all celebratory commentary, which is not surprising, since this was an invitation only event, so naturally the Mayor’s office only invited people who are loyalists. 

However, the article focused on 4 issues – the upcoming Hotel Tax ballot initiative, Addressing homelessness, past and future accomplishments and tree planting. 

Hotel Tax – It should be no surprise that Bliss supports the Hotel Tax, which GRIID has written about.  As I stated in that post: Don’t be fooled by yet another scam to get the public to pay for more of the development projects that are owned and operated by members of the Capitalist Class in Kent County. Let them pay for these projects. They have more than enough money to cover the cost of soccer stadiums, amphitheaters and aquariums. Don’t be fooled by the narrative that they want to provide entertainment opportunities for the public. They want to get the public to pay for their downtown profit-making playground. 

Addressing homelessness (the Mayor’s language) – On this issue the Mayor primarily spoke about public/private partnerships or providing funding to Community Rebuilders. However, the issue of the unhoused, indeed of housing insecurity, is much more complex. More importantly, what Bliss embraces is a false solution to the housing crisis, which is essentially a market-based solution, which will never address the housing crisis, but it does not deal with root causes. For example, look at the proposal from Grand Action 2.0 to build apartment complexes by the Amphitheater and the soccer stadium. The market-based model says, use $318 million in Brownfield Redevelopment Authority money, which is public money, but the apartment buildings will be privately owned. Plus the cost of the apartments in prohibitive to lots of people, as I noted in a recent article.

Past and future accomplishments – under this section, the Mayor is primarily talking about development projects, buildings and neighborhood revitalization, which is many cases has led to gentrification and resident displacement. 

Plant the future – Mayor Bliss ends with the celebration of adding to the tree canopy in Grand Rapids. This has been one positive outcome in recent years, but these sorts of things always come at a cost, which I noted in a post in 2016.

During the Mayor’s Tree Planting event, one saw Peter Secchia being photographed with Grand Rapids Mayor, Rosalyn Bliss. In the photo here, you can see Secchia with the mayor, but what is more interesting is that they are holding Thank You cards expressing gratitude for Rich and Helen DeVos. Why did the city find it necessary to say thank you to the local oligarch’s? 

Secchia did participate in the tree planting event, but more importantly he was engaging if the politics of access. During the last campaign for mayor in Grand Rapids, Secchia, along with several other members of the local power structure (JC Huizenga, Kate Wolters, Scott Brew, Bill Bowling, Robert Woodhouse, Sam Cummings, Doug DeVos, Steve Van Andel, Scott Bowen, Dan Bowen, Sharon Bowen, Mark Breon, Friends of West Michigan Business, Ray Kisor, Mark Murray, Scott Wierda, Thomas Cronkright, Josh May, Lawrence Duthler, Arnold Mikon, Mark Sellers, Realtors Political Action Committee, GR Firefighters Union, GR Police Officers Labor Council all contributed between $500 and $5000 to Bliss’s campaign, according to Campaign Finance records through Kent County. 

An incomplete record of the oppressive or anti-justice actions by Mayor Bliss since the she first ran for Mayor

• In early February of 2016, some members of the group Healing Children of Conflict met with Mayor Bliss to see if she would endorse a City effort to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation and Israeli Apartheid. The campaign began in October of 2015. Mayor Bliss refused.
• In March of 2016, GVSU students, who were supporting the bus union campaign for a new contract, were being targeted by the GRPD and Mayor Bliss supported this.
• In late March of 2016, the United Farm Workers sent a letter to Mayor Bliss condemning her participation in the annual Cesar Chavez march, but not supporting bus union workers and allowing the cops to harass GVSU students.
• In April of 2017, GRPD officers pulled guns on several Black youth because they “fit a description.”
• On May 1st, 2017, Movimiento Cosecha held a march on May Day, with clear demands from political leaders. Mayor Bliss did not participate but the GRPD showed up to threaten and harass the 2,000 who marched.
• In May of 2017, 100 Black men came to a Grand Rapids City Commission meeting calling for a state of emergency regarding systemic racism in Grand Rapids. No action was taken by the City.
• In October of 2017, Movimiento Cosecha took part in a solidarity action with the bus driver’s union to demand a new and fair contract during a City Commission meeting. They were ignored by Bliss and the City Commissioners.
• In December of 2017, an 11 year old Black girl was handcuffed and detained by the GRPD.
• In May of 2018, Movimiento Cosecha once again had a large march from Roosevelt Park to downtown Grand Rapids. Again, Mayor Bliss did not participate and the GRPD had a massive show of force that again tried to dictate the direction of the march route.
• In late 2018, a GRPD cop who was off duty, saw a story on TV about a man – Jilmar Romos Gomez, who was suffering PTSD and started a fire at Spectrum Health. The GRPD cop called ICE and said that this man was an undocumented immigrant, when he fact he was a former Marine. Under Mayor Bliss’s leadership Captain VanderKooi was never held accountable for this incident over a two year period. 
• In February of 2019, immigrant justice activists disrupted the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting, because Mayor Bliss would not allow the same amount of time to community members that the Chief of Police was given to defend Captain VanderKooi.
• In March of 2019, a coalition of groups held a press conference with a list of demands around the GRPD and the lack of accountability regarding their actions against Black and Latinx communities.
• May 2019 march by Cosecha, was once again not attended by Mayor Bliss, plus the GRPD were now threatening people if they marched in the streets.
• GRIID obtained FOIA documents regarding the GRPD’s monitoring, spying, harassment and intimidation leading up to the 2019 May Day march.
• In May of 2020, Grand Rapids also had a George Floyd protest that erupted with thousands of people in the streets and the response from the GRPD was repressive. Mayor Bliss called for a State of Emergency, brought in the Michigan National Guard and instituted a curfew for downtown Grand Rapids. There was an effort to Defund the GRPD in late June/early July, which the Mayor derailed and numerous other repressive tactics used by the GRPD to target activists. You can check out our visual timeline of all this.
• In July of 2020, Defund the GRPD protested in front of the home of Mayor Bliss. (Pictured here below) She was not there, as she primarilY stays with her partner in Caledonia, which was verified by several of her neighbors who came out to talk with those protesting. 

• In November of 2020, the community organized a campaign to defeat the GRPD from obtaining Shot Spotter technology. Mayor Bliss voted for it.
• In late December of 2020, Mayor Bliss gave the GRPD the green light to evict unhoused people who set up an encampment at Heartside Park.
• In April of 2021, the City of Grand Rapids sent out a Press Release saying that anyone protesting the outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial would be arrested.
• In May, the group Defund the GRPD was organizing to pressure the City of Grand Rapids to not only reduce funding for the GRPD, but to allow more public input on how public money would be used in the City Budget for 2022. In early May, the City held a one hour virtual town hall meeting on the 2022 Budget, which was an insult to those who have been organizing around how public money would be used.  Defund the GRPD had posted their own demands on what they wanted to see happen with the funds, as well as the process for determining the 2022 City Budget. Defund the GRPD also organized people to call in during the City Commission meeting later in May, right before they voted on the 2022 Budget.
• Throughout much of 2021, the group Justice for Black Lives were targeted for demanding Police accountability in Grand Rapids.
• In November, at a protest following a not guilty verdict for Kyle Rittenhouse, several JFBL activists were arrested again, after the protest had finished. Once again, JFBL held a press conference to respond to the arrests and to counter the claims made by the GRPD. 
• On April 4, 2022, the GRPD shot and killed Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head, execution style. Mayor Bliss has done nothing to further justice for the family of Patrick Lyoya, but has repeatedly allowed the GRPD to target activists who are demanding justice.
• In late December 2022, the Chamber of Commerce wanted to impose ordinances that would essentially criminalize the unhoused. During the last Grand Rapids City Commission meeting for 2022, Mayo Bliss and the other commissioners refused to denounce the Chamber’s proposal.
• Throughout 2023, Mayor Bliss fully supported the GRPD’s desire to purchase and use drones, plus she fully endorsed the Grand Rapids ordinances that has criminalized the unhoused in this city.
• After the brutal Israeli assault in Gaza, GR residents tried to get the City of Grand Rapids to pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and to call on members of Congress from Michigan to not use federal tax money that does to Israel but to use those funds to benefit our community. Mayor Bliss and the other commissioners said calling for a resolution is not what they do.

This is just a partial list of the ways in which Mayor Bliss has opposed efforts to promote justice, especially efforts that were led by BIPOC organizers. The legacy of Mayor Bliss is fundamentally rooted in servitude to the Grand Rapids Power Structure and in opposition to movements demanding social justice amidst systemic racism in Grand Rapids, the ongoing housing crisis and the lack of accountability with the GRPD.