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
Yesterday, MLive posted an article entitled, Grand Rapids leaders face calls to drop charges after pro-Palestinian protesters arrested.
The article is pretty straight forward on what happened at a recent Palestine Solidarity protest in downtown Grand Rapids and why the group was calling on GR City officials to drop charges against people. However, the reporter included comments from Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom about why they arrested four people during last week’s protest. In one part, the MLive article states:
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said his department often uses discretion in enforcing that rule, giving more leniency to protests that are spontaneous, like the march that happened after the city released body camera footage of the killing of Patrick Lyoya in April 2022 by a now-former Grand Rapids police officer.
I’m sorry, the example that Winstrom gave here wasn’t discretion, it was because they knew that if the GRPD had tried to prevent people from marching the streets right after the public saw the footage of then officer Christopher Schurr shoot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head while sitting on top of him, things would have escalated even further.
The MLive article then states:
He (Winstrom) mentioned an instance when protesters marched through a neighborhood near Martin Luther King Park, blocking off traffic and an ambulance that he said was attempting to get through.
This statement here, that the march to Rep. Scholten’s home because she is complicit in genocide, did NOT prevent an ambulance from getting through, since at that point the ambulance had come from the north entrance side of the street next to MLK Park and the protest had stopped a few houses south of where the ambulance needed to go. I know, I was there doing crowd safety. Chief Winstrom didn’t show up until later, which means his comment is an outright lie!
In addition, what Chief Winstrom failed to acknowledge in his comments about what happened late last year at MLK Park, is that he sent 10 GRPD cruisers to that protest and at the very end they arrested the person who was driving a safety car behind the march in order to keep people safe and prevent a motorist from ramming into the marchers. This has been a standard tactic that marches have at least since what happened in Charlottesville in 2017, when a white supremacist drove into the crowd of people who were protesting the white supremacist rally, killing one person.
In fact, Chief Winstrom instructed his cops to do the same thing during a march to demand justice for Patrick Lyoya just last month, which also included targeting two BIPOC activists and charging them with misdemeanors and in one case a felony weeks after the march took place, which I wrote about in my recent article, The criminalization of dissent in Grand Rapids.
Near the end of the MLive article Winstrom states: “It’s not just about their First Amendment rights; just because you have a right to speak doesn’t mean you have the right to communicate your message in an illegal way to people who aren’t interested in hearing it. You don’t have a right to be heard that way.” How the hell does Winstrom know who wants to hear the message from people demanding justice? He doesn’t, so Winstrom should just shut the hell up.
Marching in the streets is not illegal, but the City of Grand Rapids and Chief Winstrom has decided it is. What is really at issue is that the City of Grand Rapids doesn’t want people disrupting business as usual, especially in downtown Grand Rapids. And lets be clear about who is putting pressure on the City of Grand Rapids and the GRPD for criminalizing dissent. The people who run this city, those who own most of the property downtown, the GR Chamber of Commerce and those who have family names on some of the buildings, are the ones who do not want any kind of disruption to take place, especially since it disrupts their ability to increase their profits.
What do you get when journalism panders to wealthy interests? You get an uninformed public who buys into dominant narratives created by those with economic and political power.
Over the past few days, the organization Grand Action 2.0 has likely been celebrating the local commercial news coverage of the latest downtown development project that will attract more tourists, the 12,000 seat outdoor Amphitheater.
The May 20th article from MLive truly demonstrates how local journalism has embraced Neoliberal Capitalism, where the voices of the rich and powerful are centered and not a critical murmur can be found.
The May 20th MLive article includes pithy comments from Dick DeVos and Mayor Biss, then shifts to the long-dreamed of idea for the amphitheater and the creation of Grand Action 2.0, the very group that made the outdoor concert venue a reality.
The other major theme in the MLive article is how the public is lead to believe that this public/private partnership will really benefit the public. However, even within the article itself, you can find an important truth. The cost of the new downtown Amphitheater is expected to be $184 million. Of that, $114 million would come from public sources and $70 million from private sources.
We learn in the MLive piece that State Legislators got the State of Michigan to re-direct public tax dollars to the Amphitheater project. We also learn how much the county and the City of Grand Rapids has kicked in, and as Dick DeVos says, the next phase of fleecing the public will be the Hotel Tax ballot initiative, which people will get to vote on in August.
It really is a marvel to see the private sector – Grand Action 2.0, get the public sector – state and local government, to turn over so much money for a development project, which will primarily benefit the people who run Grand Action 2.0 and their friends. The public has had no say in how their tax dollars are being used for the Amphitheater. Yes, the public will get to vote on the Hotel Tax in the August Primary Election, but they don’t have a say in how the money generated from the tax will be used. It really is astounding how those in power can get elected officials to put so much effort into making the Amphitheater a reality.
The question I have at this point is, why can’t elected officials go the extra mile to use public money that would truly benefit the public? Image if $114 million was spent on providing housing for the most vulnerable in this city. $114 million could provide 456 families with a new home at a cost of $250,000 each. If we wanted to look at the cost of rent, with a lower end in this market at $1200 a month, which is $14,400 a year, then $114 million could provide 10,000 people with no rental costs for a year. Image how much relief that would provide to people who are constantly struggling to survive. It would not only provide people tremendous economic relief, but it would also mean less physical and emotion stress for people. Plus, it would mean that renters who have money to spend on something else, like consumers items, which the bloody Capitalist love to hear.
MLive then posted two additional articles, one entitled, 5 things to know about $184M Grand Rapids amphitheater, which is sort of a crib notes version of the original story, plus another article centering more of the voices of those who make up the Grand Rapids Power Structure.
When are we ever going to see journalism in this city that will not just pander to those in power, but center the voices of working class people, communities of color and people who have been negatively impacted from all of the downtown development projects that have happened in the last 30 years? When are we gonna see local journalism that explores the idea that if we can raise $184 Million for an entertainment venue, why can’t we raise the same level of funds to make sure that the residents of this city have their basic needs met. The answer should be obvious – there are no profits to be made when people get their basic needs met.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 