Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of July 14th
It has been 9 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
‘Horrific Massacre’: Israel Bombs Gaza School Used as Refugee Camp, Killing Dozens
Despite Gaza War Crimes Accusations, Biden Sends Israel More 500-Pound Bombs
Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7
Israeli Campaign against Gaza may have Killed 186,000 or More — 8% of Population: The Lancet
THE COMPANIES MAKING IT EASY TO BUY IN A WEST BANK SETTLEMENT
Gaza facing “most dangerous days” of the genocide
Their Goal Is Total Ethnic Cleansing: Mustafa Barghouti on Israel’s Expulsion Order for Gaza City
Analysis & History
We Must Understand Israel as a Settler-Colonial State
Israeli Historian: This Is Exactly What Genocide Looks Like
Local Events and Actions
Sign this Action Alert demanding that the City of Grand Rapids Divest from companies profiting from the Israeli Occupation, Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli genocide.
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, July 17, 12pm – 1pm, Monument Park
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/citi-banking-on-genocide/
There is a tremendous amount of social media chatter about Project 2025, a project that was hatched by the longtime conservative groups know as the Heritage Foundation.
Most of the social media posts about Project 2025 uses the all too often fear tactic, painting a picture that democracy will end. Granted, a great deal of what Project 2025 is advocating would be horrible, but we need to look at Project 2025 through a historical lens.
The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973, with a large injection of funding coming from beer magnate Joseph Coors. Coors and other Capitalists who embraced far right thinking were getting better organized in the 1970s, which included the Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. (See Russ Bellant’s book, The Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism.)
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was seeking to defeat sitting President Jimmy Carter, the Heritage Foundation had crafted a similar platform for Reagan, known as the Mandate for Leadership. The 1980 version of the Mandate for Leadership was 1,100 pages long and “was described by United Press International back then as “a blueprint for grabbing the government by its frayed New Deal lapels and shaking out 48 years of liberal policy.”
The Reagan Administration not only pushed national politics to the right, it forced the Democrats to do the same. Under the leadership of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the Democrats also began to abandon traditional New Deal policies and embrace Reagan era policies, such as the Clinton Administration adopting the end of welfare known as The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Around the same time, The Clinton Administration adopted the Crime Bill, which was crafted by then Senator Joe Biden, known as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, along with the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which ended Federal Communications Commissions regulations and resulted in media consolidation so complete that only six corporations control most of what we watch and hear. The point being that all politics shifted to the right with the Reagan Administration and that brings us to the present with what is referred to as Project 2025. These policies that were adopted under Clinton were part of the Reagan era Mandate for Change policies that the Heritage Foundation wanted to see implemented.
The Trump Administration utilized the Mandate for Leadership platform crafted by the Heritage Foundation during his Administration, which is what Project 2025 is also known as. Therefore, it is important that we understand that Project 2025 is the natural outcome of a policy platform that has shifted to the right for the past 40 plus years, just as all electoral politics has shifted to the right. As Black Agenda Report editor Margaret Kimberley has said, “Project 2025 is just the latest in a series of conservative think pieces which outlines how republicans should wield presidential power. The outrage surrounding it ignores democrats’ collusion with republican policies when they are in office and is a cynical effort to scare especially Black voters into continuing support for the Biden/Harris ticket.”
The DeVos connection to the Heritage Foundation and the Project 2025 Advisory Board
Another major omission in the fear-driven cries for people to look at Project 2025 is the lack of any conversation about the long standing relationship between the DeVos family and the Heritage Foundation. One would think that this would draw the ire of liberals and Democrats, but I have yet to see any discussion about the relationships between the Heritage Foundation and the most powerful family in West Michigan, the DeVos family.
The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation were major contributors to the Heritage Foundation for decades, providing millions to the far right think tank. When Rich DeVos died in 2018, the Heritage Foundation wrote a tribute to the the far right/Christian Right billionaire.
However, Rich DeVos was not the only contributor to the Heritage Foundation, since many of his sons would also provide money and ideological support for the think tank. In 2002, Dick DeVos gave a speech to the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. In that speech DeVos lays out a strategy for attacking and undermining public education. Here is a video of that speech:
Ten years later Dick DeVos was being interviewed by the Heritage Foundation after Michigan became a Right to Work state, where the Mackinac Center for Public Policy led the charge, with substantial funding from the DeVos family. Here is that interview:
Then there is the issue of the more than 100 Advisory Board organizations listed as supporting Project 2025, which you can find here. What is instructive about this list are the dozens of groups that the DeVos family has had a direct connection to, whether it has been funding, sitting on their board of directors, policy work or collaborating with them. Here are just a few examples of the direct connection of the DeVos family to the organizations that endorse Project 2025
Alliance Defending Freedom – Funding, policy work and collaboration
American Center for Law and Justice – Funding
American Family Association – Policy Work
American Legislative Exchange Council – Policy Work and collaboration
Center for Immigration Studies – Policy Work
Claremont Institute – Funding
Coalition for a Prosperous America – Policy Work
Eagle Forum – Policy Work and collaboration
Family Policy Alliance – Policy Work
Family Research Council – Funding, Policy Work and Board of Directors
The Heartland Institute – Funding and Policy Work
Hillsdale College – Policy Work and collaboration
Independent Women’s Forum – Policy Work and collaboration
Dr. James Dobson Family Institute – Policy Work and collaboration
Mackinac Center for Public Policy – Board of Directors, Funding, Policy Work and collaboration
Texas Public Policy Foundation – Policy Work
Turning Point USA – Policy Work and collaboration
Young Americans Foundation – Funding, Policy Work and collaboration
In this moment in history it is vitally important that we take a long view of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025. The proliferation of memes and other sound bite reactions to Project 2025 does do anything other than to promote fear-based reactions. If we are to defeat such policy platforms, then we need to develop movements and structures that promote collective liberation and the dismantling of systems of power and oppression. Simply voting Blue won’t do that, since all electoral politics has shifted to the right.
Yesterday, MLive posted a story about the four candidates running for a seat in the 1st Ward, a seat that will be vacated by John O’Conner at the end of 2024.
The article provides some introductory information about each of the four candidates, with links to their campaign websites. However, the bulk of the article includes candidate responses to 4 questions that were compiled by the League of Women Voters. The four questions are:
- What in your experience makes you the most qualified candidate for this position?
- What are your goals should you be elected and how will you work to accomplish them with currently limited resources?
- What are the most important challenges facing our community, and how do you propose to address them?
- What will you do to support a vibrant economy in our community?
In many ways, these question are the typical types of questions that are asked by groups like the League of Women Voters, often vague or so broad that it doesn’t often address the most pressing issues that communities are dealing with. I will respond to each question and discuss some of the responses, along with what was not said and why all of these candidates are promoting variations of business as usual.
Question #1 – Asking people why they are the most qualified was already answer to some degree when MLive provided a summary of each candidate’s resume. None of their answers are compelling, in that they all say things like “listening to the community,” being a long-time or life-long resident of the 1st Ward and being “a voice for the people.” These are all vaguely meaningless, since none of them have every been elected previously.
Question #2 – Again, the answers are broad, without any real qualifiers, except for a few examples. People can say they want safe neighborhoods and more housing, but no one is really offering any new ideas or ideas that are outside of the mainstream. For instance, when it comes to housing the candidates say they want more affordable housing, but only within the current housing market framework. No one was talking about ending massive subsidies to developers or the so-called transformational project and use those millions for affordable housing. In addition, none of the candidates talked about the need for rent control of a renters bill of rights to deal with the outrages cost of rent in this city. Dean Pacific said he wants more cops for the GRPD, but the MLive article fails to inform readers and potential voters that Pacific had already received $12,500 from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association PAC in April.
Question #3 – Responses to this question varied, but they all still stuck to acceptable responses that don’t really challenge or change how to address major issues in Grand Rapids, like housing, economic disparities and policing issues. One candidate said more community policing, which is just code for more of the same and doesn’t address the root causes of issues, like more resources going to the community. Again, the responses to housing are the standard market-based solutions, such as “additional housing units at all price points.” This is a false solution that not only avoids talking about the massive wealth gap in this city, plus there is no acknowledgement of social housing, which is one of the many demands coming from the statewide coalition known as The Rent is Too Damn High.
Question #4 – Here the responses are frustratingly framed within the Capitalist system, such as the city needs more entrepreneurs, find money for start up businesses, or expand neighborhood business districts. Again, this is business as usual thinking that will not address the massive wealth gap that exists in Grand Rapids. Not one candidate talked about paying people a living wage, which would be like $35 as hour. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says that Grand Rapidians need to make $25.50 an hour in order to afford the average rent costs in this city. All the candidate talks about job creation, but never mention wages or the increased cost of living. Lastly, no candidate addresses the so called Public/Private partnerships in this city which really means the private sector gets richer, but uses public money for their pet projects.
After reading the responses from candidates I was not only frustrated but disappointed that none of them engaged in radical imagination, nor did they center the thousands of families who are struggling to just survive, especially in a city that elevates business people and rarely acknowledges the working class people who do all the work. I still believe in the social movement phrase that came out of the Global South that another world is possible, but it won’t happen through electoral politics, especially with candidates that don’t have the courage to challenge systems of power and oppression.
Understanding the GR Power Structure – Part III: Families and people who have tremendous influence in Grand Rapids
In Part I of this series I began an updated version of a Grand Rapids Power Analysis, which lays out the ground work for what the Grand Rapids Power Structure looks like and what it means for this community.
When I use the phrase, the Grand Rapids Power Structure and who has power, it is important to note that I mean power over. A local power analysis is designed to investigate who has power over – who oppresses, exploits and engages in policy that benefits them to the exclusion of everyone else – the majority of people living in Grand Rapids.
In Part II of this series on the Grand Rapids Power Structure, I looked at the DeVos family, which I argue is the most powerful family in this city, in terms of economics, politics, social and cultural dynamics.
In Part III of the series I want to look at some other families and individuals that also wield tremendous power in this city, economically, politically and socially.
As with my first series on the GR Power Structure, which was done in 2018, several people of influence have died. Besides Rich DeVos, Peter Secchia also died in recent years, so the families and people I include in the 2024 version of the Grand Rapids Power Structure will be somewhat different.
The families that have tremendous influence in Grand Rapids besides the DeVos family, would certainly be the Meijer and the Van Andel families. Hank, Doug and Mark Meijer are each worth $5.5 billion, which makes their collective worth $16.5 billion. Not far behind are Steven and David Van Andel, in terms of wealth and influence.
Other people who have significant influence in Grand Rapids, both in terms of their economic and political influence are Michael Jandernoa (42 North Partners) , John Kennedy (CEO of Autocam), Mike VanGessel (CEO of Rockford Construction), J.C. Huizenga (CEO of National Heritage Academies), Jeff Connolly (Blue Cross Blue Shield of MI), Doug Small (President & CEO of Experience Grand Rapids), Michael Verhulst (Verhulst Ventures and Pure Architects), Birgit Klohs (New Community Transformation Fund), Randy Thelen (President of The Right Place Inc.) and Rick Baker (CEO of Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce). This is not an exhaustive list, but as you will see in the graphic above these people are also tied into numerous institutions in Grand Rapids, providing them with tremendous access and influence.
Interlocking Systems of Power
Besides the wealth that many of the people I have named have, they also have significant influence because of position they hold with an organization or the businesses that they own or their role as a leader in those businesses.
In the graphic above, you can see some of these people and their involvement with organizations that also have tremendous influence in Grand Rapids, a topic I will explore in Part IV. These members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure are part of an interlocking system of power, with organizations that provide them with access and influence over the Grand Rapids economy, politics, plus social and cultural dynamics.
In addition to their involvement with these interlocking systems of power, most of the members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure also influence local and state politics with their deep pockets in the form of campaign contributions. Just from 2022, look at these previous GRIID posts and you can see which members of the local power structure were buying political influence.
Grand Rapids 2022 First Ward GR City Commission
Grand Rapids 2022 Third Ward GR City Commission
Grand Rapids 2022 Second Ward GR City Commission
Kent County 2022 Commission races
One last area of influence for some of the members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure has to do with the fact that they use their foundations to both influence outcomes and silence potential critics from the social services sector. Here are some of the foundations that members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure own and operate.
The David and Carol Van Andel Foundation
The Steve and Amy Van Andel Foundation
While these members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure don’t have the kind of influence that the DeVos family does, they still use their money and their positions to influence political, economic, social and cultural outcomes in Grand Rapids that not only helps them to maintain power, but to prevent organized movements from challenging their power. In Part IV, I will look at the organizations that the members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure have a role in, specifically the Board of Directors, with a focus on what these organizations do.
One aspect of the work that I have been doing with the Urban Core Collective (UCC) is monitoring the local commercial news media. The areas of focus for the news monitoring has been to look at the coverage around the issues areas that UCC is working on – the Grand Rapids Public Schools, Public Safety, Climate Justice and their new Democracy Initiative.
Here is the data for the four news agencies I have been monitoring since January 1st through July 6th:
As you can see from the data, policing/public safety dominates local news coverage over areas of public education, climate justice and local democracy. There are several reasons why crime coverage is far more likely than the other three areas.
- It is easier to produce crime coverage, since it is already a packaged story, driven by images and narrative. Flashing police lights and police tape make make for stories that are easy to fill in the blanks.
- The local news media relies almost exclusively on the GRPD or the local judicial system as sources of information on crime and public safety.
- The local news media rarely asks probing questions or investigates the claims from the police or the courts, especially since they have internalized the belief that the police and the courts actually serve the public interest.
- It is also worth pointing out that in all of the 313 policing/public safety stories over the past 6 months, there have only been 8 stories about community-based groups doing crime prevention work. Lastly, of all these 313 stories that center mostly crime, there were only 10 stories about the GRPD actually preventing crime, which means in most of the stories the GRPD showed up after a crime had been committed. This should tell us something about the real function of the GRPD.
Beyond the data it is also important to look at the kinds of stories done and the narratives they are using in the local commercial news media. In the coverage of Climate Justice (32 stories total) in only one of those stories was phrase climate change used. There was one story where the phrase “climate related phenomenon” was used and the term “global warming” was used only once. This means in the bulk of the climate coverage – which centered mostly on the mild winter and the increased heat in May and June – there was rarely any direct correlation between the weather and climate change.
On the matter of local elections and local democracy, the coverage was even less than on Climate Change. For as much as the public talks about the importance of participating in local elections, the news media doesn’t seem to embrace this reality. For the upcoming August 6th Primary Ballot there are numerous political races that should be getting attention, such as the Mayoral race in Grand Rapids and the 1st and 3rd Ward races in Grand Rapids. There have only been a few stories about the Grand Rapids Mayoral race, such as a few stories about campaign financing and a few about candidates speaking with some sectors of the community. What we have not seen in the local news is any coverage about the platforms of the Grand Rapids Mayoral candidates, which is ultimately the most relevant information.
There have been no stories about candidates running for the 1st and 3rd Wards in Grand Rapids so far, which is deeply problematic, especially since in both races there will be two new city commissioners, since the standing commissioners are term limited.
Lastly, the only other local election coverage has been about ballot initiatives and most of those stories have been about the hotel tax proposal. Unfortunately, with the increased hotel tax stories the public has only heard from those who support the proposal. Not surprising, many of the people endorsing the increased hotel tax proposal, which will be used to fund the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium and the Aquarium, are also the same people who will be the primary economic beneficiaries of these development projects.
On the matter of local news reporting on the Grand Rapids Public Schools, while there are more stories on this topic than on Climate or local elections, much of the coverage is still not useful for the public’s understanding of GRPS policy decisions.
The GRPS coverage was a mix of stories about school snow days, school closings and stories that were about a specific program or project that involved in the GRPS. There were very few stories about GRPS policy decisions and even less about community organizing efforts to improve the Grand Rapids Public School system.
The decision of local news agencies to focus more on feel good stories as opposed to centering GRPS policy and budget decisions doesn’t promote community engagement. If we want people to be informed and involved in the Grand Rapids Public Schools the local commercial news media needs to spend more time on investigating and reporting on how school policies impact outcomes for students.
Since the late 1980’s I have been involved in monitoring and documenting how the local news media has been reporting on issues that are critical to the community. After 35 years I can attest to the fact that the local news media mostly fails the public in reporting on matters that are of vital importance to this community. If we want to see more people engaged in community issues, then we also need to demand that the local news media needs to report on critical community issues and actually serve the public interest instead of merely entertaining us.
Within the past 2 weeks I have received two different mailers endorsing the is usually referred to as the Hotel Tax ballot initiative that will appear on the August 6th Primary Ballot.
One of the mailers came from the committee that is responsible for promoting the Hotel Tax ballot initiative, the Destination Kent Committee. According to their website, the Destination Kent Committee was formed earlier this year with the following members:
Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss – voted for ordinances in 2023 to criminalize the unhoused, has consistently voted for massive subsidies and tax breaks for developers, has opposed community calls to reduce funding for the GRPD, has been a recipient of the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association PAC and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce PAC, known as Friends of West Michigan Business.
Kara Wood of Grand Action 2.0 – used to work on economic development for the City of Grand Rapids and started at Grand Action 2.0 in 2022. Grand Action was created by the DeVos family and other members of the GR Power Structure to get the city and county to use public funds to finance projects like the Van Andel Arena, the Convention Center, the Downtown Market and now the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium and the proposed Aquarium.
Joshua Lunger from the Grand Rapids Chamber – is the VP of Government Affairs for the Chamber, which means he is a paid lobbyist who spends his time getting local and state politicians to adopt policies that benefit business interests. Lunger was the architect of the push to criminalize the unhoused in downtown Grand Rapids, which the City adopted in 2023.
John Helmholdt of SeyferthPR – has previously worked as director of communications for the Grand Rapids Public Schools, along with working for Republican State Senator Glenn Steil Sr. Helmholdt also endorsed the ordinance adopted last year in Grand Rapids that criminalizes the unhoused.
Bill Jackson of McAlvey Merchant & Associates – Bill was the first Director of the West Michigan Policy Forum, which has worked to eliminate the Michigan Business Tax, made Michigan a Right to Work State from 2012 – 2022, has worked to keep Michigan’s minimum wage low and has worked to undermine public sector unions. McAlvey Merchant & Associates is also a Michigan lobbyist group.
Bob Herr as treasurer – Bob Herr also sits on the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Grand Rapids and is the Chairman of the Downtown Improvement District.
The other mailer, which was the standard glossy political mailer, but was an 8.5 by 11 inch mailer, came from the Grand Rapids Kent County Convention Arena Authority (CAA). It is no surprise that the CAA sent out their own mailer in favor of the 3% increase in the hotel tax, especially when you consider who sits on their board and the fact that the CAA had previously benefited from the use of public funds for the venues that they manage, which will include the Amphitheater once it is completed.
Dissecting Talking Points
The Destination Kent Committee has been using several primary talking points to try to convince the public to vote for the 3% hotel tax increase on August 6th. Here are a few of those talking points:
- The venues that will be the beneficiaries of the 3% hotel tax increase will have an economic impact that will generate $1 billion in economic impact and create 1,200 plus jobs. While $1 billion might be spent because of these new venues, that almost always means that the bulk of those profits will go to those who already have deep pockets. When people come to the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium or the Aquarium, they will have to pay for parking, which will mean more revenue for Ellis Parking or the City of Grand Rapids, neither of which really benefits the general public. Most of the hotels that people will stay at in the downtown area are owned by the DeVos family and the restaurants and bars that people will go to will benefit those businesses, but will not translate into increased wages for those who wait tables, wash dishes, tend bar, janitorial crews, etc.
- The 1,200 plus jobs that are cited is an estimate at best or is more likely way off. Then there is the fact that most of these jobs will not pay a living wage with good benefits. These jobs might also be part-time or temporary. Using the job creation argument is an old Capitalist Class mantra, but more often then not it means lower wage jobs and temp jobs.
- Another talking point is that the 3% hotel tax increase is a modest increase. For many people it is a modest increase, but for thousands that are housing insecure, staying in a hotel for a day, a week or a month could be costly. There are lots of people who stay in hotels/motels for the weekly rate, since they don’t have more permanent housing. The 3% hotel tax would be a burden on those who have limited housing options and stay in motels for a week at a time or more.
- One last talking point is that the increased hotel tax would be for “community owned assets.” This is just an outright lie. The community will not own the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium or the Aquarium, just like they don’t currently own the Convention Center the Van Andel Arena or the Downtown Market. These are privately owned and privately managed venues, which generate a shit ton of money for those who already control a great deal of the economy in Kent County.
As I have stated previously, why don’t the people and the organizations who are pushing for the increased hotel tax pay for the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium and the Aquarium themselves. Not only can they afford it, they will be reaping the benefits every time people purchase tickets at these venues and primarily spend their money in and near the downtown area.
More importantly, according to the Destination Kent Committee, 1 year after the increased hotel tax would generate $24 million dollars. Imagine if $24 million were put to providing social housing for families, rental assistance for tenants, addressing food insecurity, improved health care and more environmental justice outcomes for the people who already live in this city and are struggling to survive. When are we going to put the lives of Kent County residents ahead of the tourists who visit this community?
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of July 7th
It has been 9 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
‘A Full-Fledged War Crime’: Israel Condemned Over New Human Shield Footage
Israel Has Forcibly Displaced 1.9 Million Palestinians in Gaza
US Troops are Quitting the Military Over Gaza
‘The Land Theft Continues’: Israel Announces Biggest West Bank Seizure in Over 30 Years
FREE SPEECH UNDER FIRE: HOW ISRAEL’S TECH GUARD IS KILLING FREE SPEECH ONLINE
As Israel Refuses to End Genocide in Gaza, Threat of War With Hezbollah Looms
‘Complicit in the Genocide’: First Muslim Biden Appointee Resigns Over Gaza
“This Must End”: Israel Orders New Mass Evacuation, Continuing Attacks on Gaza Health System
Analysis & History
UNDERSTANDING ISRAEL’S “SYSTEM OF DOMINATION”
Local Events and Actions
Sign this Action Alert demanding that the City of Grand Rapids Divest from companies profiting from the Israeli Occupation, Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli genocide.
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, July 10, 6pm – 7pm, Monument Park
Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids is hosting an insightful rally led by veterans supporting an end to the genocide in Palestine on Sunday, July 14 at 5 pm at Veterans Memorial Park (101 Fulton, next door to Monument Park) in Grand Rapids, MI
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/citi-banking-on-genocide/
Foundation Watch: The Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation
In any case, the hidden hand of foundations can control the course of social change and deflect anger to targets other than elite power.”
– Joan Roelofs, author of the book, Foundations and Public Policy
For the past 10 years, GRIID has been monitoring foundations in West Michigan, particularly the large family foundations that those who are part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure have created. Our monitoring of local foundations has been part of our larger critique of the Non-Profit Industrial complex in Grand Rapids.
Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation
Edgar and Elsa Prince are the parents of Erik Prince and Betsy DeVos. Although Edgar has been dead for several years, the foundation that is in his wife and his name, continues the legacy of funding the Religious and Political Right. The Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation began in 1979, and currently has $2,830,899 in assets. The information that follows is based on the 990 document for 2022, where the foundation distributed $1,650,650 to the five categories I have been using throughout the series on local foundations. You can find this information on GuideStar.org just by typing in the Edgar & Elsa Prince Foundation.
Religious Right
- Christian Leadership Institute $25,000
- American Values $30,000
- Gateways to Better Education $30,000
- Women’s Rights Without Frontiers $20,000
- Pregnancy Resource Center $10,000
- Alliance Defending Freedom $50,000
- Protect Life Michigan $73,400
- Wycliff Bible Translators $10,000
- Focus on the Family $1,500
The Alliance for Defending Freedom is a Conservative Christian group of lawyers that defends religious groups around anti-LGBT policies and other religious right issues. They are a far right version of what the ACLU is. American values is a group that was started by Gary Power, which put their emphasis on fighting against abortion and defending Israel.
Political Right and Think Tanks
- Freedom Alliance $30,000
- Media Research Center $20,000
- Council for National Policy $15,000
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy $10,000
- Rutherford Institute $25,000
- Mom’s for America $5,000
Freedom Alliance is an entity that was founded by convicted Iran Contra scandal participant Col. Oliver North. The Media Research Center is a right wing media “watchdog” group run by president and founder Brent Bozell. It is predominately funded by larger right-wing foundations. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a right-wing pressure group based in Michigan. Founded in 1987, it is the largest state-level “think tank” in the nation. It was established by right-wing activists to promote “free market,” pro-business policies. Moms for America is a group of women that fights against Critical Race Theory in schools, opposes the Movement for Black Lives, was involved in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection, plus the Southern Poverty Law Center designates them as a Hate Group.
Education Institutions
- Holland Christian Schools $110,000
- Potter’s House Christian School $12,500
- Zuni Christian Mission School $20,000
- Allendale Christian Schools $30,000
- Hope College $5,000
DeVos-owned, created or connected groups
- Christian Leadership Institute $25,000
- West Michigan Aviation Academy $122,500
Groups receiving Hush money
- Wedgewood Christian Youth and Family Services $20,000
- Family Promise $20,000
These groups all provide some sort of social service. There are root causes to all of these issues, but these groups are not likely to address root causes and larger systems of oppression. When the Prince family foundation makes contributions, this will increase the likelihood that systems of oppression will not be addressed by these organization, which is why we call it hush money.
You can clearly see that the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation primarily funds the Religious Right and the Political Right, even though sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the two. The Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation is a perfect way for the family to hide some of their wealth from taxation, but allows them to use it just like direct political contributions, often working in tandem with campaign contributions.
The Gentrification of a neighborhood is now nearly complete, but MLive doesn’t bother to acknowledge that fact
“Interest in market-rate housing on the southern edge of Downtown is driven by the location.” Mike Coyne CEO of Cella Building Company
On Sunday, MLive posted an article with the headline, “First units in new 58-unit ‘all electric’ apartment building to open in late August.”
The article celebrates the addition of 58 new market-rate apartments on the corner of Wealthy and Division, just south of Downtown Grand Rapids. More importantly, the article centers the perspective of the CEO of the development company, Mike Coyne, who is the only source used in this story. The MLive article is problematic in several areas, besides only citing the developer the journalist fails to discuss the significance of market-rate housing vs more affordable housing, the amount of public money used in this project without public input, and the fact that there is no historical context to house this project came about in that neighborhood.
Historical Context
(For transparency purposes, I lived in the neighborhood on LaGrave from 1984 – 2012. This allowed me a first hand experience of how the neighborhood had changed.)
The history of the neighborhood where the new 58 market-rate units constructed by the Cella Building Company is conveniently omitted. The neighborhood that the new development sits in used to be called the Forgotten Corner Neighborhood.
A century ago that neighborhood was occupied by Europeans immigrants. However, after WWII, many of those residents began to move out of the area and into the suburbs. Many of the new residents were African American, many of whom had migrated from the South to Michigan in search of a better life. However, some of the European immigrants still owned many of the homes, which were now disproportionately rental units.
In the summer of 1967, this neighborhood became the epicenter of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. The 1967 riot included the destruction of a few businesses, but mostly rental units which became targets since white absentee landlords were the owners. Several houses were either burned or left in disrepair for decades, right up to the time when I moved there in 1984.
By the early 80s, most of the residents in the Forgotten Corner Neighborhood were Black and Latinx. Beginning in the late 1980s, downtown Grand Rapids began to see a major injection of money and development projects, which included the expansion of what was then St. Mary’s Hospital. As with all commercial development projects, parking becomes a central issue. St. Mary’s and Mary Free Bed Hospitals began purchasing land south of Wealthy into the Forgotten Corner Neighborhood, primarily for the construction of surface parking lots.
Seeing the writing on the wall, residents in the Forgotten Corner Neighborhood decided to organize to prevent further encroachment, along with the increased possibility of gentrification, which had already begun in the 1990s in the Wealthy St. corridor. ICCF had also moved into that neighborhood and once they found out that residents were organizing they decided to get involved and eventually undermined the desires of residents, some of whom had lived in the neighborhood since the late 1950s.
Between 2003 and 2010 there was no movement on the part of ICCF, or so those of us who lived in the neighborhood had thought so. Out of nowhere, there appeared a front page story in the Grand Rapids Press, with the CEO of ICCF talking about what they were calling the Tapestry Square. ICCF had bought up all the vacant land in the 400 & 500 blocks of LaGrave, Sheldon and Division and then began approaching landlords and homeowners in the area. By the end of 2010, the remaining houses on the 400 block of Sheldon had been bought by ICCF, with apartment dwellers having to vacate and home owners selling their property.
This behind the scenes land grab was not what residents were told at the last large neighborhood meeting with ICCF. In the 2002 Wealthy – Jefferson Development Initiative, it stated, “All current home owners will be able to continue to enjoy their homes, including some form of protection against tax increases that could threaten their ownership in the future.” The residents, who participated in the 2000 and 2002 planning sessions, were also assured that they would not have to leave and that new development would be built around existing property. Clearly, ICCF had other plans.
Before I moved out of the neighborhood in 2012, MLive continued to ignore this history and only focus on the new development projects.I wrote about the MLive omissions twice on December 2nd and December 4th of 2012.
Unaffordable Housing that used public subsidies
The most recent MLive article about the 58 market-rate housing units does state that the cost will range from $1,299 to $2,099, with 38 one-bedroom units, six studios and 14 two-bedrooms. The studio apartments will no doubt be the $1,299 price and the two-bedroom at the $2,099 price. MLive does not tell us what the 38 one-bedroom units will cost, but they will likely be between $1500 and $1800 a month. These costs are prohibitive for many people, especially for those who are part of the working class poor, which makes up thousands of people in Grand Rapids. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, for people to afford the average rent in Grand Rapids, they would need to earn $25.50 an hour. And since minimum wages in Michigan is $10.33, there will be lots of people who will not be able to afford the cost of rent at the new Cella Building Company apartments on Wealthy & Division.
Lastly, the MLive article does note that the Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $3 million Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan for the project, along with the city of Grand Rapids also approving a $1.3 million reimbursement over 14 years from its brownfield program to help offset the cost of developing contaminated, functionally obsolete properties.
In the end, developers used public money to create rental units that are unaffordable to large sectors of the population in Grand Rapids, even though millions of public dollars were used to subsidize the Cella Building Company apartments.
This could be the last of the gentrification process that has been happening in the Forgotten Corners Neighborhood, where most of the residents were displaced over time, were unaware of the development plans by ICCF for roughly a decade and and then removed from history by the ongoing reporting of MLive and the other commercial media sources. Hopefully, this post will make it more difficult to relegate the decades-long gentrification process to the dustbin of history.
This print below was created by Christi Wiltenburg.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of July 1st
It has been more than 8 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
Israeli Officials Hiding Data About Forced Starvation of Gaza Prisoners: Report
Biden Releasing Part of Bombs Shipment to Israel That Was Paused Over Rafah Raid
ISRAEL’S WAR ON GAZA IS THE DEADLIEST CONFLICT ON RECORD FOR JOURNALISTS
Israel Is Bombing “Safe Zones” for Refugees in Gaza
21,000 Children Are Missing in Gaza, on Top of Over 15,000 Killed by Israel
TOP US LAW SCHOOLS PRESENT UNDENIABLE EVIDENCE OF ISRAEL’S GAZA GENOCIDE
Israeli Military Has Killed 500 Gaza Healthcare Workers—Two a Day Since Assault Began
The ‘Israel Lobby’ Works for the US Military Industrial Complex
Analysis & History
Armed Vs. Peaceful Resistance – What You Need to Know about Muqawama in Gaza
Settler Violence = State Violence
AUTOMATED APARTHEID: WALKING THROUGH HEBRON SMART CITY
Local Events and Actions
Sign this Action Alert demanding that the City of Grand Rapids Divest from companies profiting from the Israeli Occupation, Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli genocide.
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, July 3, 12pm – 1pm, Monument Park
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/field-tested-elbit-systems-2024-update/
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 