At last week’s Mackinac Policy Conference Gov. Whitmer presented a False Solution to the housing crisis
Every year the Mackinac Policy Conference happens, bringing together politicians and various elites from around the state. You can see the list of speakers during the conference last week, a conference that was organized by the Detroit Chamber of Commerce.
This was the setting for comments from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, comments she made about housing. MLive reported on what Gov. Whitmer had to say last week, providing some context and then a comment from Whitmer:
Whitmer, speaking Wednesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, said the new goal – an increase of 53% – will help make home ownership more affordable by increasing supply.
“By raising our statewide housing goal to 115,000 units, we will build more housing to drive down costs and ensure every Michigander has a safe, affordable place to call home,” Whitmer said.
What Whitmer presented to a room full of politicians and private sector elites was essentially a false solution. False solutions are those that do not actually address the problem at hand substantially but deceive people into believing that they do, while at the same time triggering other serious problems.
The market, meaning the system of Capitalism, will never be able to solve the housing crisis, primarily because housing operates within a Capitalist system. This has been true throughout US history and became painfully clear during the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis. In fact, if we follow Whitmer’s recipe for housing, the crisis will only get worse, since under a market-based housing model, the crisis will be perpetual.
Now, I don’t know if Governor Whitmer actually believes that the Capitalist market will actually solve the problem or if she knew that this is what the business people, the powerful people who were in the room wanted to hear. For the Governor to say it for the people in the room makes complete sense, since many of them were large campaign donors that helped her get elected.
So, what would a real solution look like? What we need to see at the state level is one of the demands laid out by the Rent is Too Damn High coalition. This coalition is proposing the state spend $4 billion for social housing in FY25 state budget. The Rent is Too Damn High calls this Social Housing.
“Social housing is a public option for housing that is permanently affordable, protected from the private market, and publicly owned by the government or under democratic community control by non-profit and cooperative entities. Around the world, robust social housing programs have ended affordable housing shortages; expanded democratic accountability and equitable housing access; and raised populations out of poverty and into prosperity.” Social housing is built to house people well, rather than deliver a profit to developers & managers. States and municipalities in the US are initiating social housing programs anchored by a new generation of public-sector housing development agencies.
We support a $4 billion state infusion into social housing, to be administered regionally by public developers. This amount could directly support approximately 40-50,000 new social housing units, which would make significant progress towards the state-established goal of building 75,000 total new homes over the next 5 years.”
Adopting a solution to the housing crisis by funding social housing with public funds would be widely embraced and it would take away the profitability of some of the housing market. In addition, it would send a message to the public that housing is primarily a right and not a mechanism to make profits for developers or part of speculative capital, which ultimately drives the cost of housing.
Lastly, it is worth noting that the sponsors of the Mackinac Policy Conference was a broad representation of Corporate America, which you can see here. Clearly the conference is designed for those with deep pockets and easy access to politicians, not regular people, working people, communities of color and those most affected by the housing crisis. Big Gretch once again demonstrated who she owes her allegiance.
Last night some 30 high school students came to the Grand Rapids Public School Board meeting to make several demands.
The Student Association for Leadership and Transformation (SALT), which is essentially a student union met at Martin Luther King Jr. Park before the school board meeting to talk about their action, to affirm their commitment to the work they all set out to do, and to conducted interviews with several of the local news media outlets.
When the time came, the SALT students marched from MLK Park to the Grand Rapids Public School Administration building, carry signs and shouting out chants that reflected the four demands they were going to present. The four demands they presented are:
- Immediately increase the Grand Rapids Education Association staff and teacher salary to the county average. As GRPS students, many of us have been impacted by the teacher shortage in recent years. To feel supported, we need consistent teachers who can develop an engaged learning environment and build long-term relationships with us. Right now, teacher pay in GRPS is low compared to other districts, which makes it hard to maintain current teachers, much less replace folks who are retiring or fill vacancies. Increased compensation would encourage more qualified, certified, and culturally appropriate teachers to want to work in GRPS, and help create a positive experience for us. It would also support both the mental health of us as students and our teachers- teacher working conditions are student learning conditions. We want to learn in an environment where our teachers are cared for so they can better care for us.
- Terminate the virtual learning contract with Elevate K-12 and invest in certified teachers. Many of our peers fell behind during the COVID-19 pandemic with virtual learning. Currently, about $5M is being spent on virtual teachers and staff monitoring the classroom that should be re-invested in long-term qualified staff and educators. We need in-person teachers who can understand the local context of our schools and help us feel connected to our school community. We need teachers who have classrooms we can stop by between classes or after school for one-on-one support and advice, which isn’t possible with virtual teachers.
- Implement 1 hour daily of non-core instruction (i.e. PE, music, art, language) for elementary students. When we were in elementary school, we loved going to specials like gym and music. We believe all GRPS elementary students deserve access to these kinds of learning opportunities because they allow us to express ourselves in different ways- ways that can’t always be captured with a pen and paper. These classes help us discover our skills and passions, build community with other students and learn to work together and resolve conflicts, and support our confidence early on. This time also allows our teachers to have planning and preparation time, which helps them feel less overworked and more able to help younger students learn.
- Immediate transparency of the GRPS and GREA bargaining process. SALT students have noted how in other districts and places community members are allowed to attend the conversations, which we think is a great idea for community and district engagement. We have noticed that we aren’t often included in decisions that impact our learning and school experience- and neither are our families or other adults in the community who care about us. We would like to see union negotiations be more public, so that everyone can understand how these decisions are being made. We know that transparency and accountability are values that GRPS would like to model, and this is an example of a way that could happen, and would also be an important learning and advocacy opportunity for us as students. Transparency on the GREA and GRPS bargaining process enables student and community support around district decisions and promotes community engagement and accessibility.
The SALT students arrive at the school board meeting a full 30 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time. The GRPS School Board President stated that there were a lot of people who had submitted public comment cards, but then said that since so many had, they were going to reduce public comment time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes for each person. This action seemed rather arbitrary and unethical.
Despite the reduction in public comment time, the students who got up to speak were amazing and inspiring. In fact, they sounded like seasoned union members, since they use words like bargaining power, negotiations, wage increases and one student even referred to the GRPS’s overuse of substitute teachers and virtual teachers as scabs. Just listen to the comments of one of the students, Gabe Jauw, who also acted as one of the media spokespersons for this action.
More than a dozen other students got up to speak, sometimes repeating the demands, but mostly speaking from their hearts and their lived experience as students, particularly about the value of having a teacher available to them in person and not on a screen. There were also several parents and other community members who addressed some of the same issues, and several people affirmed the words of the students.
These students kept saying all during the meeting that they are the future, which of course they most certainly are. Now, I don’t know if the GRPS School Board members were truly listening or taking their message to heart, but I do know that any of the students who are part of SALT certainly will have the capacity to do great things in life. Unfortunately, on one of the 4 demands presented by the SALT students, the GRPS board voted 5 – 3 to renew a $2.4 million contract with the company providing virtual education.
Financing the corporate expansion of Fossil Fuel companies: New report says Line 5 operator Enbridge tops the list
The notorious fossil fuel corporation Enbridge, was one of the main culprits in a new report published by the Indigenous Environmental Network, entitled, Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Finance Report 2024.
The report provides some pretty sobering findings, such as:
- The 60 biggest banks globally committed $705 B USD to companies conducting business in fossil fuels in 2023, bringing the total since the Paris agreement to $6.9 Trillion.
- These banks committed $347 billion in 2023 and $3.3 trillion total since 2016 to expansion companies – those companies that the Global Oil & Gas Exit List and the Global Coal Exit List report having expansion plans.
- In 2023, JPMorgan Chase ranks #1 as the worst financier of fossil fuels. The bank increased its financing from $38.7 billion in 2022 to $40.8 billion in 2023.
The introduction of the report provides us with an important way of thinking about the urgency of massive reduction in the use of fossil fuels, which includes an end to the financing of more fossil fuel exploration, along with the expansion of new fossil fuel pipelines. The introduction states:
The fossil fuel industry continues doing its best to ignore the facts, evidenced by their reckless expansion plans (see p. 52) and rollbacks on their already weak climate commitments. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels increased in 2023, following increases in 2022.
And 2023 was the hottest year on record, with an average global surface temperature 1.4°C above 19th century averages.
Climate impacts are intensifying: 2023 saw heat waves, droughts, stronger storms, atmospheric rivers, flooding, record low global sea ice, tropical cyclones, and a global wildfire crisis. These impacts could quadruple heat deaths and create food insecurity for over half a billion people on the planet.
Unless action is taken now, it’s estimated that climate change will kill an additional 250,000 people annually, especially in areas deprived of adaptive infrastructure. Without drastic cuts in fossil fuels, the climate will reach a catastrophic 3°C of warming by 2100.
The report lists the fossil fuel corporations that have the largest expansion plans and right at the top is the Canadian-based corporation Enbridge, which operates Line 5 in Michigan and is attempting to build a tunnel under the Great Lakes for part of the Line 5 pipeline. Enbridge received bank financing to the tune of $35 Billion to expand their empire and perpetuate fossil fuel consumption and increasing the climate crisis.
When Gretchen Whitmer first campaigned to be the Governor of Michigan in 2018, she promised to shut down the Enbridge operated Line 5. Whitmer, like so many politicians, has not kept that promise to dismantle the necessary infrastructure that perpetuates fossil fuel consumption.
The only feasible was to stop fossil fuel corporations and the banks that finance them is to engage in massive campaigns of direct action to shut them down. We know that this can work. The Indigenous Environmental Network documented the impact of direct action campaigns – primarily led by Indigenous people – stating in a 2021 report: “Indigenous-led resistance campaigns against pipelines in the US and Canada have reduced greenhouse gas pollution by at least 25% annually since these campaigns began.” Maybe we need to learn from those on the front lines of the resistance and start embracing the collective power we could have if we chose to use direct action before it’s too late.
An archival history of the early political organizing efforts by the Grand Rapids LGBTQ community – Part I
As we documented in our 2011 film on the history of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids, there were various ways that people supported each other and created community in the very homophobic climate of West Michigan.
However, by 1987 more and more people within the LGBTQ community began to realize that they would need to join the larger national movement and get politically organized to demand their own rights in Grand Rapids. In October of 1987, several people from Grand Rapids decided to attend the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
You can see in the photos above that Grand Rapids was represented in that march, which included bringing their own banner. Being at that march also signaled to those who attended from Grand Rapids, that they need to get organized and create a movement in the heteronormative culture that is West Michigan.
Shortly after the 1987 march on Washington, people in Grand Rapids began to have meetings to talk about the creation of the what would become the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, also known as The Network. Most of the meetings to form The Network took place in the home of Jeff Swanson and Dennis Komack, pictured here below.
With the creation of the Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, the members decided that organizing a Pride Celebration would be their first public act. The Lesbian and Gay Community Network of Western Michigan, along with Dignity and Aradia organized the first ever Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids in June of 1988. The event featured speakers, poetry, music and numerous Lesbian and Gay organizations, which were tabling at the event. The Pride Celebration was held at the old Monroe Amphitheater in downtown Grand Rapids.
In Part II, I will explore the documented correspondence between The Network and the Mayor of Grand Rapids regarding the first years of the Pride Celebration in Grand Rapids.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of June 2nd
It has been almost 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
Israel Is Starving Gazan Children to Death
Biden admits Israel’s defeat in Gaza
Following ICJ and ICC Actions, Sanctions and Arms Embargo Are Crucial Next Steps
Beyond two state solution – Why recognizing the State of Palestine is important
To Continue The Gaza Genocide, Israel And The US Must Destroy The Laws Of War
Congress’ Dangerous Dance: Defending Israel or the First Amendment
Biden’s Bloody-Red Line in Rafah
Block the Boat: End maritime arms transfer to Israel
Analysis & History
“I Was Shocked”: Meet the State Dept. Official Who Quit After Report Denies Israel Blocking Gaza Aid
Why a military embargo is needed – (an excellent detailed investigation of the various weapons being provided to Israel, mostly from the US. Make sure you click on the word next in the lower right hand corner of this link)
Local Events and Actions
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, June 5 12pm – 1pm, Monument Park
https://www.facebook.com/events/460837339687317?ref=newsfeed
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/original-villages-of-gazas-refugees/
This is the introduction to my latest book, Radical Grand Rapids: Places, dates, actions and people. This book is a companion to my A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I hope to have it printed and available this September, so stay tuned!
Introduction
The word radical has numerous meanings, but one of the most important is, to get to the root of something.
With the title, Radical Grand Rapids, I want to get to the root of things, both in terms of highlighting major aspects of the history of this city — Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism and White Supremacy — plus I want to share stories of when organized people took action to address systems of power and oppression. This is what I mean by getting to the root of something, getting to the root of oppression.
The book is divided into four sections, places, dates, actions and people. With these four sections, I want to briefly illuminate how organized people have fought back against oppression and organized money.
In his insightful book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, radical historian James Loewen takes us on an enlightening tour of the US and examines historical markers in big cities and small towns to examine the lens through which history is presented.
Grand Rapids also has many historical markers, especially in the downtown area, most of which have been sanctioned by Grand Rapids City officials or by other entities that are reflective of those who run this city. I challenge some of those historical markers, but I also share stories that can change how we see spaces in Grand Rapids. I want people to know that organized actions have taken places in these spaces, actions that were radical, in order to give people a new way of experiencing those spaces as places of resistance and liberation.
In her book, Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation, Ruth Wilson Gilmore says, “Abolition geography starts from the homely premise that freedom is a place.” Building on Wilson’s notion of abolition geographies, we can then understand the importance of mapping the political, social, and economic terrain of Grand Rapids. Therefore, I am arguing that freedom and liberation can be a place, but it can also be about dates, actions, and people.
I am only including forty places, dates, actions and people in this short book, since many more stories of the powerful and radically imaginative actions that people have taken in Grand Rapids over the past two centuries are explored in my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I want show people, especially young people, that when we take radical actions, we open spaces for people, and we allow them to radically imagine that another world is possible.
Radical Grand Rapids also includes images from various actions, documents, and archival resources that communicate their own stories and messages beyond the printed word.
I hope that people will be inspired by the stories in this book and then make some of their own, thus building on the rich tradition of radical organizing that has been part of this mostly suppressed and radical history of what we call home.
Photo credit: Barb Lester – from a protest at the Gerald R. Ford building in downtown Grand Rapids in the mid-1980s.
West Michigan Far Right Watch: GR Chamber of Commerce, the Acton Institute and the Great Lakes Education Project
In this week’s edition of West Michigan Far Right Watch, we look at 3 separate groups and what they are up to.
We begin with the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, which hosted another event with State Legislators. The GR Chamber of Commerce does this event throughout the year, since they are always pushing their own policy agenda and because they provide lots of campaign contributions to candidates or incumbents that will be on the upcoming 2024 ballot.
In the picture above, you can see that it involves Kara Wood, the Executive Director of Grand Action 2.0, John Helmholt, with SeyferthPR, who is heading up the Destination Kent Committee, and Josh Lunger, the VP of government affairs for the Chamber.
The presentation at the recent Legislators Luncheon, by Wood, Lunger and Helmholt, was to present information to the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce members on the upcoming hotel tax ballot initiative, which will be on the August Primary. The Destination Kent Committee has already filed with the County Clerk as the entity that will be accepting campaign contributions to get the hotel tax increase passed in August, something I wrote about in early May. The fact that Grand Action, SeyferthPR and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce wants this ballot initiative to pass should be cause for concern from people, indeed it should be enough reason to not support the ballot initiative in August. These are the same people who crafted and endorsed the GR Chamber of Commerce ordinance proposal in late 2022, which would criminalize the unhoused, plus these groups also then endorsed the City of Grand Rapids ordinances that did criminalize the unhoused in 2023.
The second example comes from a recent article that appeared on the Acton Institute’s website, entitled, Fighting for the Church in a Time of Crisis: The Barmen Declaration.
Surprisingly, the article promotes the Confessing Church, which was a sector of Christian Churches in Germany that opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The Acton article references the Barmen Theological Declaration and even mentions the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as examples of what the Christian community should do to oppose and resist the Nazis. Some of you might be aware of the fact that Bonhoeffer was arrested for his role in the plot to assassinate Hitler, but may not know about his larger role within the Confessing Church, which he wrote about and can be found in the book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Letters and Papers from Prison. Another excellent source on the Confessing Church was published locally by Eerdmans entitled, The Third Reich and the Christian Churches: A Documentary Account of Christian Resistance and Complicity During the Nazi Era.
I found myself agreeing with much of what was included in this Acton Institute article, but was confounded by the deep contradiction this article presented when put next to the overall ideological purpose of the far right think tank known as the Acton Institute. Most of what I have written about the Acton Institute over the past 30 years demonstrates that the Acton Institute would not have stood with the Confessing Church in Germany during the Nazi era, rather they would have complicit in the heinous crimes then, just as they do now by hating on the Movement for Black Lives, organized labor, LGBTQ justice, reproductive justice, as well as celebrating the economic system of Capitalism. 
The last group I wanted to mention was the Betsy DeVos created group, the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). In a recent post, GLEP announces a list of candidates they are endorsing because of their position on education, which aligns with the right wing, anti-Public Education framework that Betsy DeVos has been promoting for the past 4 decades.
If you have been following the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union (GRATU) on social media lately, then you are aware of what we have been doing with a tenant that has suffered the violence and trauma of an eviction.
For the past several years GRATU has been working with one particular tenant that has been threatened with eviction repeatedly. In addition to the constant threat of eviction, this tenant has dealt with a landlord who would not meet aspects of the lease agreement, such as taking care of the lawn, snow removal or trash removal in a timely fashion. On top of that, the landlord failed to make repairs when the tenant made them know to the landlord, and in many cases waited months until dealing with the problem.
Once the landlord finally got around to fixing basic things like a sink, they would then charge the repair costs to the tenant, even though it was not part of the lease.
Over the past two years GRATU has written letters to the landlord asking them to be responsible and not retaliate against the tenant. GRATU has also done pressure campaigns, which involved getting as many people as possible to send Emails or make phone calls to the landlord, in order to pressure them to meet the demands that the tenant crafted.
In addition, GRATU has done court support for the tenant, which often is just being present for someone who has to go before a judge to either plead their case for what has been happening or because the landlord had begun eviction proceedings. In the last court appearance of this tenant, they had friends and a member of GRATU present, both for support and to offer testimony to support the claims of exploitation and intimidation from the landlord. The judge refused to allow other people to speak and said that the case was closed.
At this point it is important to note that, including all of the eviction threats, failure to make repairs and failure to fulfill their end of the lease agreement, the landlord had also raised the cost of rent by $450 a month in recent years. At a mediation between the tenant and the landlord earlier this year, when asked why the landlord had jacked up the rental costs so much, she simply said, “because the market says I can charge this much.”
The tenant has had a fairly fixed income, so how do landlords and the courts expect people to pay skyrocketing rental fees, when their personal income is not increasing at the same rate?
Alarmed at what the judge said and the fact that the landlord had filed another eviction case with this tenant, the tenant asked GRATU to organize a protest at the home of the landlord.
On April 30th, about 15 people showed up to support the tenant and participate in a protest at the landlord’s home, which GRIID posted about here. What was interesting about the protest was that the neighbors didn’t know that their neighbor was a landlord and some of the neighbors thought that the house the landlord lived in was a rental property, especially since they were not taking care of the property, which had high grass, weeds, a car in the driveway with a flat tire and a garage that was filled with stuff and partially open. The landlord came home during the protest and right away called the Kentwood Police, which could do nothing because the protest was on the sidewalk.
In the afternoon of May 20th, someone from the court came to the tenant’s residence and posted a notice to vacate, but the notice did not provide the legally required time to allow the tenant to vacate the property. (Notice can be seen here on the right)
GRATU then put out a call to people to provide some eviction defense. The tenant, who was now very afraid of what was happening, decided that they no longer wanted to live in a property owned by this landlord. The tenant asked if GRATU could help them move. GRATU agreed to assisting the tenant with moving, beginning on the morning of the notice to vacate.
GRATU volunteers and the tenant were packing things up and loading them onto a U-Haul truck, when the same person from the court who posted the notice to vacate showed up. This person, who was rude and combative said that the tenant needed to be out immediately, before the movers who worked for the landlord came and put the tenants things by the curb. The person from the court could clearly see that people were there and moving items into the U-Haul truck, but that did not matter to him. He decided to be petty and called the landlord.
Within 30 minutes of the confrontation with the court employee, people who worked for the landlord showed up and began taking stuff out of the house and placing them in the grass near the edge of the street. These people could have just as easily put these items in the U-Haul, but chose not to and yet another retaliatory action. This retaliation went on for several hours and even before the tenant got all of their property out of the home they had lived in for 10 years, the landlord had their workers change the locks on the property, even though the tenant had not removed all of their items from the home.
Despite this awful display of retaliation and vindictiveness, the tenant with GRATU volunteers were able to get everything out later that day.
Infuriated, the tenant asked GRATU to organize another protest a week later. Not as many people were able to attend a second protest at the landlord’s home, they did make yard signs and left them in the front lawn with messages like Eviction is Violence, Rent Control Now, Josephine Cole is a Slumlord and Don’t Ever Rent from Josephine Cole.
GRATU even created a Mutual Aid request for the tenant, to provide some economic relief for the tenant who was forcibly evicted because the courts sided with an exploitative landlord who had an awful track record of not caring for her properties.
While the outcome was traumatic and violent, GRATU volunteers did an amazing job of demonstrating solidarity with a tenant that was being evicted. For those of us who do solidarity and Mutual Aid work we often say, “We take care of each other.” In fact, what the GRATU volunteers did with this tenant was a demonstration of housing justice. While those in power are demanding more housing, they do nothing to support the thousands of tenants in Grand Rapids who are housing insecure and facing constant harassment from landlords, including threats of eviction. The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union chooses to practice housing solidarity and housing justice.
If you are a tenant that is experiencing the same kind of issues or you know someone who is, please have them contact the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union at gratunion@gmail.com.
On Sunday MLive posted an article with the following headline, $318M incentive plan for high-rise towers, downtown venues OK’d by Grand Rapids board.
The “board” that the MLive reporter refers to is the Grand Rapids City Commissioners. The Grand Rapids Mayor and the six City Commissioners voted unanimously to provide $318 million of incentives, through what is known as the Transformational Brownfield plan, which was the exact amount requested by Grand Action 2.0.
The Grand Rapids City Commission voted unanimously to approve a $318 Million incentive – which is code for subsidy – to an organization that is comprised of the economically and politically most powerful people/families in West Michigan, along with people who have relationships with those with power and often do their bidding. You can watch the very brief discussion they had at this link. The discussion about approving the $318 million subsidy to Grand Action 2.0 begins at 14:40 in and ends at 15:50.
Of the 735 units, only 146 would be affordable, and the notion that those 146 apartments are affordable is questionable at best, but for this writer Grand Action 2.0’s notion of affordable is insulting. Included here above is a graphic provided to the City Commissioners in the agenda packet listing the so-called affordable apartments that will be built next to the Amphitheater and the soccer stadium. How are these number actually affordable for most people who are struggling to survive? Clearly, as I noted in a post two weeks ago when MLive first reported on the $318 million subsidy, Grand Action 2.0 doesn’t want low income people to live in these apartments.
Now that the Grand Rapids City Commission has unanimously signed off on the incentive plan, the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) must do the same. The MSF is the public funding arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As you can see, the board members of the Michigan Strategic Fund are primarily from the private financial sector, along with a few members of the Michigan government. Notice that Randy Thelen, the president and CEO of The Right Place, Inc., also sits on this board. Thelen will surely voted yes to use more public money to subsidize unaffordable housing that Grand Action 2.0 has proposed, especially since 10 of the board members of The Right Place Inc. also sit on the board of Grand Action 2.0. The centers of power in this city are so god damn incestuous, or what is known as interlocking systems of power.
But Wait, there’s more!
It is important to note that the Grand Action 2.0 Amphitheater and Soccer Stadium apartment projects are not only relying on the $318 Million Transformational Brownfield plan, they also listed in the agenda packet for last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting likely additional subsidies.
Economic Development staff have been working with Grand Action to submit a grant application requesting up to $1 million from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to support demolition and environmental cleanup costs associated with the amphitheater development. Pending review by EGLE, a request to approve the grant submission would be presented to the board at its next meeting.
The residential components of the project both meet the requirements for the Neighborhood Enterprise Zone exemption, which may be considered by the City as the projects develop further. Based on projections, the NEZ could provide up to $24 million of tax savings for the amphitheater apartments, and $6.8 million of tax savings for the stadium district tower, each over a period of 15 years.
If these other tax incentives and grants are approved, then Grand Action 2.0 will get an additional $31.8 million, bringing the total cost to the public $349.8 million. Don’t you just love it when the public pays for projects that are crafted by the Capitalist Class, projects they could easily afford themselves?
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of May 27th
It has been almost 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
Hundreds of Palestinian Doctors Disappeared Into Israeli Detention
Israel’s Priority Is Killing Gazans, Not Freeing Hostages
From Strikes to Encampments, Faculty Join Campus Movement for a Free Palestine
Israel’s War Is Not About Bringing Down Hamas
Biden’s Response to Israel’s ICC Prosecution Is an Attack on International Law
Top Ten Ways to Soften a Genocide
Israel’s Response to ICJ Order to Halt Rafah Assault? More Bombing
Analysis & History
The Dead End of Liberal American Zionism
Nakba Resurrected – How the Gaza Resistance Ended Segmentation of Palestine
Local Events and Actions
Power to Palestine: Weekly Rally in Grand Rapids
Wednesday, May 29 from 6pm – 7pm, Monument Park
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/#visuals
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 