Over $1 Billion in public money for recent projects and the Convention Arena Authority wants the public to pay for another hotel
Last Friday, MLive posted a story with the headline, Push for publicly financed convention hotel back under consideration in Grand Rapids.
On the heels of providing $565 million in tax incentives to the billionaire families of DeVos and Van Andel, this just seems like a slap in the public’s face. And of course they have been talking about it for some time, but always without the public being made aware of or consulted if they want their tax dollars to go towards the expansion of the convention center, plus another hotel for convention attendees.
Then there is the fact that the Convention Arena Authority (CAA) has already hired a consultant to tell them that they are “turning away a lot of business” because of a lack of space.
Rick Winn was also quoted in the saying, “We need to expand the (convention) center. We need to stay competitive.” At least the MLive reporter acknowledged that Winn, who is the chair of the CAA, but is also the president of Grand Rapids-based AHC Hospitality, which manages the Amway Grand Plaza, JW Marriott and other downtown hotels. The MLive reporter did fail to say that AHC Hospitality is owned by the DeVos family.
The estimated cost of the Convention Center hotel is estimated to be $282 million. However, the article provides no estimate for how much public funding would cover of the total cost.
I went back and looked at some of the more high profiled downtown Grand Rapids projects in recent years to see how much the public is funding and here is what I came up with:
- At least $100 million in public money for the Amphitheater.
- $318 Million for the 2 apartment buildings that will be next to the Amphitheater and the Soccer Stadium
- $100 million for Soccer Stadium
- $565 million in tax incentives/subsidies for the DeVos/Vandel 3 towers project on Fulton and Market.
This means that the total of just these projects comes to $1,083,000,000. This means that the public has provided over $1 Billion in funding for projects just in the last few years.
One question we should all be asking ourselves is, what has been, or will be, the public benefit of over $1 Billion in these publicly funded projects? How many jobs will be created that pay a living wage to people? And I’m not talking about construction jobs, since those are over once these projects are completed. Some might argue that we will attend concerts and soccer games. But how affordable will they be to the working class people who are already struggling to make ends meet? We know that the CAA just signed a 25 year contract with Live Nation to books shows at the amphitheater, despite the fact that Live Nation charges extremely high ticket fees because of the near monopoly ownership of Ticketmaster.
Another argument is that all of these venues will attract more tourists, which brings more money into the city. Well, how about we think about that for a second. Yes, tourists spend their money when they visit GR, but a large portion of what they spend is on hotels, parking, entertainment venues, restaurants and bars. Sure, the owners of those businesses will benefit, but most of those businesses are already doing well and they don’t tend to pay people a living wage. Tourist driven economics is simply another variation of trickle down economics and we all know that is essentially a lie. Trickle down economics is a lie, especially when you include the fact that over $1 Billion of public dollars will be going to cover the cost of just a few projects, which is not trickle up economics, but a river flow up to the business class that is already filthy rich.
At this point we really need to pay attention to any committee meetings that might happen, where they are discussing the expansion of the Convention Center and we need to pressure our City and County officials to make sure they are transparent and alerting the public when this matter is being discussed. If we are going to resist more public funding for projects that will benefit the Capitalist Class, then we need to be in the know and we need to be organized with clear demands. One of the demands should be, when are the City and the County going to commit to using $1 Billion for housing or other basic needs in this community.
Doug DeVos exposes his class privilege in video talking about “How to Help Everyone Thrive and Prosper”
In August, I wrote about the group called Thrive and Prosper, where I said the group is a concrete manifestation of West Michigan Nice. I went on to say:
Therefore, the label of West Michigan Nice could aptly be given to the recently created group known as Thrive and Prosper. Yes, Thrive and Prosper. Sounds like a get rich quick scheme or a cult or just simply the logical outcome of how Grand Rapids deals with everything.
More recently, in a conversation I was having with a local religious leader, they were saying that Thrive and Prosper was essentially a DeVos front group. This sentiment was confirmed when I had looked at Doug DeVos’ podcast page called I Believe. On the page it was promoting a mini-series of videos from the, “Believe in Our City” event that was organized by Thrive and Prosper in the summer.
There are a total of 7 episodes, with numerous speakers, but the 3rd episode features Doug DeVos speaking about, “How to Help Everyone Thrive and Prosper.”
The video with Doug DeVos is about 22 minutes long, which you can watch here, but I will provide you with some highlights so you don’t have to sift through the bullshit.
One theme that DeVos spoke about was what he called the Abundance mentality. For DeVos, abundance mentality means that we don’t have to stop something from happening when looking at what else is happening that is problematic.He said that just because there are problems in some parts of the city, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t build up other parts of the city.
Of course this is hypocritical, since the DeVos family has primarily been about building up the downtown area of Grand Rapids, while other parts of the city are neglected. Doug DeVos has spent millions in the Boston Square neighborhood and then set up the AmplifyGR project to impose the DeVos family values on an entire neighborhood, which GRIID has written about since AmplifyGR went public in 2017.
DeVos then went on to talk about how as a city we are often unsettled. The Amway CEO explained what he meant by be unsettled, stating, “We saw that in our own community, about 4 years ago. We saw that here, very unsettled. We started experiencing some of the mob, some of the rioting and some of the lawlessness that don’t really comport with a civil society.”
These comments from DeVos clearly demonstrate his class privilege, since what happened with the uprising in 2020 was rooted not only in how the police murder and repress Black communities, but how there is deep seated structural injustice and exploitation that people like DeVos are removed from and responsible for. The DeVos family is the best example of the growing wealth gap in Grand Rapids, where a small number of people are benefiting from the labor and suffering of the majority of the population.
Doug DeVos further demonstrated his class privilege by saying of the 2020 uprising in Grand Rapids, “Certainly protests are fine, but peaceful.” It is instructive how those with political and economic power are always preaching that our outrage and our frustration with systemic oppression is only legitimate when it is peaceful. The irony of this is that when those with private power or the state use force against those protesting, it is always necessary and reasonable. Violence that flows down from the top is legitimate, but when violence flows from the bottom of society it is always condemned.
The billionaire DeVos continued to reflect on how you deal with being unsettled, by sharing a story from the 1990s. DeVos talked about the Plaza Towers, which were not constructed well and was deeply problematic. He said there were two options, tear it down or rebuild. Jay Van Andel was at a meeting where the fate of the Plaza Towers were being discussed where he said, “we don’t blow things up, we build things up.” DeVos was using this story to say when there is a problem, you don’t blow up the institution or throw it away, you reform it and work from within. Sage advice from billionaires.
Another theme that DeVos wanted to stress was the need to come up with a vision. In this case, the Amway executive talked about downtown Grand Rapids, turning it around took vision, a vision that was nurtured by Grand Action. Of course Doug DeVos would say this, since his family has been the primary beneficiaries of the downtown development projects.
There were also references to the Amway business model, but through a top down view, nothing remotely honest about the Amway business model being a pyramid scheme.
Amway business model, independent business owners – pyramid scheme, it’s your vision.
There were other fluffy statement and glittering generalities, but Doug DeVos then wrapped up his comments by asking, “What are you going to do? That is your homework? What are you going to make it better in this city?”
Such sentiment is of course code for – how can you build wealth and then expand your wealth over a lifetime? Once you have begun to build wealth, use some of that money to buy politicians who will push public policies that benefit the Capitalist Class while hurting everyone else. The next step is to start a foundation and give a small amount of your wealth to promote individual responsibility and assist people who are struggling because of the economic and political policies that you benefit from. Your charity wins you PR points and shields you from being scrutinized for helping to create the social and economic problems to begin with.
This is just one of the videos from the Thrive and Prosper gathering in the summer of 2024. GRIID will deconstruct others in the coming weeks.
Cosecha Michigan begins a hunger strike, while Democrats fail to keep promises and the Michigan Freedom Fund practices xenophobia
Earlier today, Movimiento Cosecha Michigan held a Press Conference in Lansing to announce the kick-off of a hunger strike at the Capitol. The Press Release reads:
Undocumented Michiganders need access to driver’s licenses now. Movimiento Cosecha Michigan has been leading direct actions to demand that state legislators pass the Licenses for All bills without further delay.
On Tuesday, December 10th, Movimiento Cosecha Michigan members and supporters will begin a HUNGER STRIKE until the Michigan Legislature approves the Drive S.A.F.E. bills.
Governor Whitmer and Democratic leadership have publicly expressed their support for these bills. However, their continued inaction in moving these bills out of committee and bringing them to a vote highlights why many Michiganders distrust the Democratic Party’s leadership.
Movimiento Cosecha Michigan will hold a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to announce the hunger strike and introduce the individuals who are putting their health and well-being on the line for justice. Undocumented Michiganders deserve the right to drive without fear, and it is time for elected officials to deliver on their promises
The Press Conference just happened, which you can watch here. As of right now, members of Movimiento Cosecha Michigan will be engaging in a hunger strike until the Democratic Party controlled State Legislature decides to pass the Drive S.A.F.E. bills. The Michigan Democrats have been promising for several years to pass the Drive S.A.F.E. bills, but after they lose control of the State Legislature in January, they will not be able to keep that promise, which is why Movimiento Cosecha Michigan wants them to pass these bills NOW!
Unfortunately, there are also organizations that are actively opposing the Drive S.A.F.E. bills, groups that are in no way allies to the immigrant community.
One example of a group opposing driver’s licenses for undocumented people is the DeVos-created, DeVos-funded organization known as the Michigan Freedom Fund. The Michigan Freedom Fund is essentially a GOP front group, which not only opposes undocumented people from having driver’s licenses, they have been using racist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant language in action alerts they are sending out to people telling them to not vote for the Drive S.A.F.E. bills. On the right is an action alert that the Michigan Freedom Fund has been sending out, where they specifically use xenophobic language, referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegal.”
Movimiento Cosecha Michigan needs your support to get the Drive S.A.F.E. bills passed. Contact you State Representative and State Senator immediately by going to this link to find out more details about the Drive S.A.F.E. bills and to find your State Representative and State Senator.
Last Friday, MLive reported that the Kent County Commission 10 – 7 in favor of a 25 year contract with Live Nation, the near monopoly live concert venue corporation.
The MLive story does provide an overview of how the vote went down, quote several of the commissioners, some who voted for and some who voted against. When it came to the cost of the 25 year contract, there was no clear response, other than there will be an annual fee and an incentive fee based on performance. However, when asked about the total cost of the 25 year contract, there was no transparency.
Another issue was how Live Nation became the company that was considered for the contract. Rick Winn, the Chair of the Convention Arena Authority (CAA), was quoted as saying, Live Nation has “been the major promoter of all acts in the arena for twenty something years.” The MLive article failed to mention that Winn is the President of AHC Hospitality, the DeVos owned company that runs several hotels and other hospitality venues.
However, the most problematic aspect of the MLive article was the fact that the only sources cited regarding the federal lawsuit against Live Nation was a lawyer with Dickinson Wright who works with the CAA and stated it may take 10 years for the federal lawsuit to be decided. The other source cited regarding the federal lawsuit was Live Nation itself, which is deeply problematic, since there are no sources cited that argues in the affirmative for the lawsuit.
If you want to read a summary of the lawsuit, just go to this link. The issues the lawsuit raises are worth listing, but it is worth noting that Live Nation also purchased Ticket Master, which is sort of at the root of the issue:
- Live Nation-Ticketmaster exploits its longtime relationship with Oak View Group, a potential competitor-turned-partner that has described itself as a “hammer” and “protect[or]” for Live Nation.
- Retaliating Against Potential Entrants
- Threatening and Retaliating Against Venues that Work with Rivals
- Locking Out Competition with Exclusionary Contracts
- Blocking Venues from Using Multiple Ticketers
- Restricting Artists’ Access to Venues
- Acquiring Competitors and Competitive Threats
In a 2022 article in The Nation, the writer provides some useful background information on the monopoly nature of Live Nation.
Today Ticketmaster controls even more of the music and entertainment industries than it did then. In 2010, the company merged with Live Nation, which owns concert venues and manages leading artists. This combination of ticketing and promotion enables a very specific kind of market abuse: Live Nation can retaliate against venues that don’t use Ticketmaster. The company can, as analysts from the American Economic Liberties Project described it, condition “the availability of its performers to independent venues on those venues using Ticketmaster’s ticketing services.”
When the merger was being approved, the Department of Justice understood the potential for abuse, and it required Live Nation to enter into a 10-year consent decree not to pressure venues in this manner. But the company, as many predicted, often ignored its own promises, and the DOJ extended the decree by five and a half more years. As it found in 2019, “Live Nation repeatedly and over the course of several years engaged in conduct that, in the Department’s view, violated” the prohibition on “retaliating against concert venues for using another ticketing company.”
That brings us to today. We know that one symptom of excessive market power is technological and innovative backwardness. There’s no reason to improve one’s products when you have the market locked down. It’s telling that as technology has revolutionized everything and brought down costs for services over the past decades, this corner of our economy has remained stagnant and far too profitable for owners. As the American Economic Liberties Project pointed out, “Tickets are expensive, and the added service charges can double the final price. Direct ticket sales for popular concerts are often sold out within minutes, but then they are somehow available secondhand for over 50 percent more than the original price. Simply put, Ticketmaster provides bad service at outrageous prices.”
One would think that MLive would have included some of these concerns and this analysis. Instead, MLive simply cited Live Nation’s dismissive comments about the lawsuit.
So what does this mean for the cost of tickets for events that will be held at the Amphitheater? It is somewhat early to tell, but given the monopolistic nature of Live Nation/Ticketmaster, people should expect prices to be high. This means despite the use of millions in public dollars subsidizing the Amphitheater, there will likely be lots of local residents who will not be able to afford the cost of most concerts. As many of us have been saying all along, the Amphitheater will make money for the already rich, while costing the public millions, which is exactly why Grand Action 2.0 made the Amphitheater a priority in the first place.
In one of his last acts as Grand Rapids City Commissioner, First Ward Commission Jon O’Connor has recommend that F. Douglas Mileski be added to the Grand Rapids Police Civilian Appeal Board.
According to his Linkedin page, Mileski states that he is an:
Experienced Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the real estate industry. Skilled in Arbitration, Real Property, Construction Law, Real Estate Transactions, and Corporate Law. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a Bachelor of Arts and a law degree (J.D.) from Michigan State University.
Like Commissioner O’Connor, Mileski is a bar/restaurant owner and a supporter of the GRPD. A post on Mileski’s Facebook page for June 16, 2020, when the Grand Rapids City Commission was getting lots of pressure from the community to reduce the funding of the GRPD, he wrote:
City Commission discussed defunding GRPD today. This commissioner lays out the goal. The office of Oversight and Accountability is a REAL problem. It is not like an Internal Affairs office. It is more like the PC police. Any commissioner or Mayor that supports a NINE MILLION DOLLAR budget cut to GRPD needs to be voted out of, or recalled from, office.
Another indication of where Mileski stands on critical issues has to do with he comment in May of 2020, while addressing the Stay at Home policy that Gov. Whitmer put in place. Here Mileski states:
The selfishness and submissiveness of those that virtue signal that the stay at home order has anything to do with science or concern for society is appalling. We are all grown ups capable of assessing risk. F*** the nanny state and stop being fascist in threatening our livelihoods when we disagree. Stay home if you feel safer but do not presume that it is ok to quarantine the healthy. In this country, you govern with the consent of the governed. You do not rule. Good night.
It is interesting to note, that just two days after Mileski wrote these comments, I attended a rally held in downtown Grand Rapids in defiance of the Stay at Home order, a rally held by the American Patriot Council. Several members of the American Patriot Council were involved in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection in DC.
Adding Mileski to the Grand Rapids Police Civilian Appeal Board is significant, especially when you consider the current composition of the board. The Grand Rapids Police Civilian Appeal Board is currently made up of 8 members (still 1 vacancy), with 4 white men, 1 white female, 1 multi-racial female, 1 African American female and 1 African American male.
With Mileski, there are now two overtly pro-cop members of the Grand Rapids Police Civilian Appeal Board, Mileski and Dean Pacific. Pacific received $12,500 from the GRPD union, while running for the First Ward Commissioner seat in the November Election and made it part of his strategy to attack his opponent because they supported defunding the GRPD. .
The fact that Commissioner O’Connor recommended Mileski comes as no surprise. O’Conner has endorse pro-GRPD policies every year he has sat on the City Commission, he sits on the Public Safety Committee, which allows him to use his pro-cop leverage, and he has received $7,000 from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association during various campaigns for City Commission.
Corporate Crime vs Street Crime: How Grand Rapids news distorts and racializes crime
Last week, all four daily news agencies in Grand Rapids – MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM13 and WXMI 17 – reported on a story about a former CEO who was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay nearly $6 million in restitution to investors he defrauded.
However, in all four of the local daily news outlets, there wasn’t the same outrage over what the former CEO did as compared to those who engage in street level crime. This double standard is common in news reporting and has been for decades, both in terms of class and race.
There have been few stories of corporate or white collar crimes in the local news in 2024. Comparatively, street level crime inundates the local news coverage. On top of the frequency of street level crime, the local news agencies often use the images of suspects, with WOODTV8 being the leader in using images of crime suspects. In the above graphic is a collection of images from WOODTV8 crime coverage that I have collected for 2024. As you can see most of them are Black and Brown suspects. The same use of images does not apply to corporate crime, since there were no images of the ex-CEO in any of the 4 local news stories I monitored, despite the fact that he had defrauded investors $6 million.
On the matter of class difference between street and corporate crime, the local news is not only dominated by street crime coverage, they don’t use the same kind of narratives when reporting on street level crime as opposed to corporate crime.
In Marie Gottschalk’s book, “Race, Power, and Punishment: Crime in the Streets and Crime in the Suites”, she highlights several ways in which this double standard exists.
- Even when legal and extralegal variables are held constant, white-collar offenders tend to be less likely to be sentenced and receive shorter sentences than street crime offenders.
- Social status may have an impact on sentencing decisions, as white-collar offenders who commit crimes usually committed by the upper-class are less likely to be sentenced to prison than white-collar offenders who commit crimes usually committed by the lower-class.
- Scandals that expose the crimes of white-collar and the economic elite, such as Enron, result in higher sentences for white-collar offenders.
- Access to resources may help high-status white-collar offenders bypass criminal justice interventions such as the usage of legal loopholes.
These are also many of the same conclusions that the watchdog group, Corporate Crime Reporter has been documenting for several decades.
In terms of social cost, according to the FBI, corporate crime costs the US $300 billion a year.
The double standards I have pointed out not only have devastating social consequences, but psychological consequences as well. The news media’s constant use of Black and Brown crime suspect images perpetuates the belief that Black and Brown people engage in more crime, which is not accurate. When it comes to sentencing, Black and Brown people are disproportionately put in jail or prison for the reasons that Marie Gottschalk cites in her book mentioned above.
Lastly, what is considered criminal in US law also skews how we understand crime and violence. For instance, paying people poverty-level wages is not illegal, but like most of the corporate pollution that exists is not a crime. I would argue that these are forms of structural violence, which are unfortunately normalized in US society.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of December 8th
It has been 14 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
‘Genocide’ vs. ‘Bigger Genocide’ in Gaza: Time to Decolonize Our Minds
Israel and the West’s War on Itself
DOCUMENTS CONTRADICT GOOGLE’S CLAIMS ABOUT ITS PROJECT NIMBUS CONTRACT WITH ISRAEL
These Billionaires Subsidize the Israeli Military Through a US Nonprofit
‘This Is Genocide,’ Amnesty International Says of Israel’s Death Machine in Gaza
Israel attacks north Gaza hospital for fifth time
THE WHITE HOUSE GAVE ISRAEL COORDINATES TO SAVE AN AMERICAN’S FAMILY. THEN ISRAEL BOMBED THEM AGAIN
Analysis & History
“You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza
Image used in this post is from the Amnesty International Report
We need people to be part of Rapid Response to ICE work here in Kent County, as requested by the undocumented immigrant community
After the first Trump Administration began in 2017, Grand Rapids did have a an organized GR Rapid Response to ICE group, that could respond to calls from people in the undocumented community and mobilize people in an attempt to prevent ICE from arresting and detaining people.
GR Rapid Response to ICE always worked in conjunction with Movimiento Cosecha GR, since they wanted to make sure that the ally work, often referred to the defensive aspect of immigrant justice work, was making sure that what we were doing was aligned with what the undocumented community wanted. To read a summary of this work between 2017 and 2019, read the article linked here.
Now, with the threat of mass deportations by the incoming Trump Administration, GR Rapid Response to ICE is getting organized again. GR Rapids Response to ICE will be working directly and under the guidance of Movimiento Cosecha GR to make sure we are always following the leader of the undocumented community.
The goals are to have a new google number that the undocumented community can call when they suspect ICE is at their home, their place of work, the children’s school or anywhere else in the community. Calls will then be taken by any of the 5 people who are on the google number, so that someone can take the message. Once a message is taken, someone will send an alert out through multiple platforms to mobilize people with the intent of preventing ICE from taking anyone.
When people are mobilized to prevent ICE from taking people, we will also need people who can document what is happening and possibly livestream the intervention against ICE.
If we are unable to prevent ICE from taking people, then the second primarily component of GR Rapid Response to ICE will be to begin the Mutual Aid component. The Mutual Aid component of Rapid Response to ICE involved providing food, clothing, medical care, transportation or financial assistance to the families impacted by ICE violence. What we know from previous experience is the person or persons taken by ICE are disproportionately income earners, which means that many immigrant families will no longer have an income source. This is why Mutual Aid is so important as the second strategy.
In preparation for the incoming Trump Administration and the threat of mass deportation, there will be a GR Rapid Response to ICE training on Saturday, December 14 beginning at noon. The training will take place at La Nueva Esperanza church located at 1005 Evergreen Street SE, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. People who plan on attending should plan on 2 hours for the training. For details of this training go to this link. For future trainings, please check the Facebook page of Movimiento Cosecha GR https://www.facebook.com/cosechagr.
On Tuesday morning, MLive posted an article by journalist Brian McVicar, entitled, With billions in assets, should DeVos and Van Andel families qualify for big tax incentive?
The article was deeply problematic from the get go, providing lots of space to GR City Officials and the development spokesperson hired to manage the DeVos/Van Andel development project, which will build 3 towers on the Fulton & Market lot on the south end of downtown Grand Rapids.
The article does provide some local oppositional voices, like Kent County Commissioner Ivan Diaz and the group Together West Michigan. Diaz was questioning then logic in providing the DeVos/Vandel project with such a large amount of tax breaks, while Together West Michigan wanted to see the billionaire families give more money to the City’s Affordable Housing Fund.
When the article first appeared on MLive at 8:31am on Tuesday, December 3rd, the journalist had failed to mention the most substantial opposition effort, which was led by the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union (GRATU). I sent Brian McVicar a message that said, “Brian, regarding your 12/3 article, you did not include the Grand Rapids Area Tenent Union opposition to this project, which has been the primary group involved. GRATU has generated over 1000 letters to GR City officials opposing the $565 million in tax incentives and other issues related to the project, which you can find here.”
The link I included was a GRATU Action Alert, which had sent over 1,000 letters to Grand Rapids City officials, with the following three demands:
- No to the $565 million in tax breaks to two billionaire families.
- Truly affordable rental fees for the nearly 600 apartments there were part of the 3 tower plan.
- Instead of the DeVos/Van Andel families providing a mere $425,000 annually to the GR Affordable Housing Fund over a 20 year period, should give $5 million a year for the next 20 years.
The MLive journalist Brian McVicar wrote back in the morning saying, “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Jeff. My apologies for failing to include this. I will update the story and let readers know that the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union has also opposed the project’s subsidy request.”
Apparently, McVicar didn’t read the GRATU Action Alert, since it didn’t just mention the “subsidy request.”
I checked the MLive piece several times and at 3:17pm on Tuesday, I send another message to McVicar saying, “Brian, I just checked the article and did not see any updates referencing the GRATU opposition letters. Am I missing something?” McVicar’s responded back at 4:38pm by saying, “Nope, you’re definitely not missing anything. I’m tied up right now with the story on today’s commission meeting but will update my story as soon as I’m able.”
McVicars did finally update the article at 5:37pm, but only included this sentence: “The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union had also spoken out against the project.” This weak update, just 90 minutes before the City voted to approve the massive tax breaks and other aspects of the project, was not only unacceptable, it was insulting.
Imagine if local news agencies had reported on the three GRATU demands that were included in their Action Alert. Imagine if they reported that over 1,000 letters were sent to GR City officials from community members expressing their opposition. It is my belief that if they larger public knew there was a more organized effort that addressed several facets of the DeVos/Van Andel development project, even more people would have decided to oppose the project.
This example is reason #83 for why we need independent media in this city and why we need to develop Movement Media (media that comes out of the movements for systemic change) in Grand Rapids. Clearly, we cannot rely on the commercial news agencies in this city, as they simply parrot the dominant narratives from those in power.
No one really knows if the incoming Trump Administration will be able to actually be able to implement a mass deportation campaign in this country.
The logistics and the cost of such an endeavor will be extremely difficult. However, what will be even more difficult for any government effort to engage in mass deportation will be how much resistance there will be. Imagine if there were thousands of faith communities, schools, non-profits and other institutions that publicly declared their opposition to the threat of mass deportation and their willingness to offer Sanctuary.
I know what kind of commitment and risk it takes to declare your community as a sanctuary for those whom the government deems as “illegal.” In 1986, the community I was living in, Koinonia House, declared itself a sanctuary for Central American political refugees that were fleeing the US sponsored counter-insurgency wars.
One major aspect of becoming a Sanctuary was the need for those seeking to declare themselves a Sanctuary to obtain support from the community, especially in the form of letters. Such letters were a sign that Koinonia House would indeed be trusted with doing the work and it signaled to the federal authorities that those who signed the letters stood with the members of the Grand Rapids Sanctuary. After soliciting letters, Koinonia House received nearly two dozen endorsements from churches, community organizations, university groups, individuals and parents with whom we had developed a relationship with.
The Central American Sanctuary Movement had two main goals. First, was the commitment to offer a safe place for people to live who were fleeing political violence. The second part of the work was to try to influence public opinion and eventually change the national policy around US support for the counter-insurgency wars in Central America.
We never fully knew how much we were under surveillance, but within the first month of offering Sanctuary to the Guatemalans that had arrived, two FBI agents showed up one day at our door. Not knowing who they were, the Guatemalans let them in. I was upstairs doing some work, when one of the Guatemalans came to get me. The FBI agents introduced themselves and then said, “So, what’s going on here?” I responded by saying, “Since you are FBI, we have to assume that you know exactly what is going on here. However, if you don’t have a warrant, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Right at that moment there were several friends who had stopped by, so we invited them in and told said in a loud voice that the FBI agents were here to harass and intimidate us. Fortunately, the FBI agents left. This was a clear lesson about the importance of being public about the Sanctuary work and how being public and visible could prevent us from being arrested and the Guatemalans from being deported.
During the first Trump Administration, a church in Wyoming, Michigan, Joy Like a River, declared itself a sanctuary in 2018. This was certainly welcomed news, but it was also the only church to declare itself a sanctuary, out of roughly 800 churches that exist in the Grand Rapids area.
With the incoming Trump Administration’s threat of mass deportation, we will need lots of churches willing to be a sanctuary, whether or not they publicly declare themselves one or not. It certainly sends a message to the immigrant community about how serious congregations and other institutions are when it comes to what they are willing to do and willing to risk to support those most vulnerable to deportation.
When churches declare themselves a sanctuary, they are making a commitment to provide safe haven for undocumented immigrants. This doesn’t mean that undocumented immigrants have to stay in the church, it just means that the church community is taking on that responsibility. Members of the congregation can house people however they are able to, but the congregation is making a commitment to providing safe haven for those seeking sanctuary. Here are some toolkits for churches that are interested in being a Sanctuary Church:
- https://pda.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/pda/pdfs/toolkit_for_churches_accompanying_asylum_seekers_2024%5B56%5D.pdf
- https://www.uua.org/files/documents/starkcharles/0810_road_new_sanctuary.pdf
- https://neumc-email.brtapp.com/files/fileshare/sanctuary+movement+toolkit+(umc).pdf
- https://www.interfaithimmigration.org/resources/toolkits/
In addition to churches, schools can also be sanctuaries, which means that they do not allow ICE on the school premises and will not cooperate with any law enforcement agency that is targeting undocumented immigrants or their children. The GR Rapid Response to Ice group put together this useful Sanctuary toolkit for schools during the first Trump Administration, in English and in Spanish.
Non-profits and even businesses can take a put stance against ICE, by announcing their solidarity with undocumented immigrants and posting some sort of signage in a window or near the entrance to their building that says – We welcome immigrants here, but no ICE agents or cops can enter.
Imagine what kind of message this sends the immigrant community, where churches, schools, non-profits, local businesses and other institutions take a public stance to be safe spaces for immigrants and to publicly declare that they will not cooperate with ICE or any other law enforcement agencies that is seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants. This is the kind of solidarity we need. This is one way we can resist the Trump Administration’s threat of mass deportation.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 