Governor Snyder: it’s not working Three new municipalities are now under consideration for an Emergency Manager: Lincoln Park, Royal Oak Township, and Highland Park. If Highland Park goes, it will be its second time around and it will be the third city to come out of financial crisis under an Emergency Manager only to go back under an Emergency Manager […]

You’re not helping. Not at all. Flint is a city that is slowly working to crawl its way out of the crater left behind when automakers left and the manufacturing sector imploded. Bit by bit, one step at a time, city leaders are bringing the city back with a strong vision for the future. Then stuff like this happens: Flint […]

A rock on one side and a hard place on the other Last year, the Detroit Institute of Arts had over a half million visitors. The museum is a huge tourist draw and an anchor for the area of Detroit that surrounds it. The cost to the city of Detroit for this priceless collection of art is exactly zero dollars. […]

Hallelujah! Photo credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog I’ve written before about the amazing Hamtown Farms urban farm/garden in Hamtramck. The farm, which occupies vacant lots in Michigan’s most densely populated city, was a bright spot in a town that is struggling and under the control of an Emergency Manager. Although she had the power to save the farm […]

#SaveMI, #SaveHamtownFarms Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Late last month, I wrote about the amazing Hamtown Farms urban farm in Hamtramck, Michigan. The farm sits on city land that had been vacant for decades. Now that the city is legally able to begin selling off their empty lots, Cathy Square, the Emergency Manager in Hamtramck has swept […]

“The laws right now are written to mete out punishment to local officials, but there need to be clear partnership requirements for the state to address fiscal stress.” Flint, Michigan is rare in that it has not had just one Emergency Manager. It has had four different managers and the current “emergency” is the second one for the former manufacturing […]

“We had hundreds of people involved. There was a real community appetite for this process…they wanted their voice to be heard and they were prepared to come out and be a part of it.” NOTE: Part 2 of this interview can be found HERE. When Dayne Walling was elected to be the mayor of the struggling city of Flint in […]

Cor·po·rat·ism (noun) – \ˈkȯr-p(ə-)rə-ˌti-zəm\ – The organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction. [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] After I reported on NERD Fund donor CVS Caremark receiving a multi-million dollar prescription drug benefit contract with […]

Isn’t this EXACTLY why Kwame Kilpatrick is sitting in jail? [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] NOTE: This story has been updated HERE. When Kwame Kilpatrick went to jail this year on corruption charges, it was because he basically used the city of Detroit as a personal ATM machine to dispense money to his friends. […]

Sometimes what’s best for a city doesn’t have a price tag on it

Back 2011, Michael Davis, Julie Swartz, Evan Major, and Jeffrey Doe formed a vision for an urban farm and community garden on group of five city-owned lots in Hamtramck, Michigan that had sat abandoned for thirty years. The lots were unable to be sold due to pending litigation so they approached Mayor Karen Majewski. Later that year, they were issued a permit under the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program to use the lots for a period of five years. Over the next two years, they transformed the lots into a farm with garden plots and fruit trees, including an almost unheard of fruit called the Paw-Paw which was originally native to Michigan.

Then, in June of this year, came the Emergency Manager. It’s Hamtramck’s second EM and, when Cathy Square, entered the picture, the future of the project became uncertain.

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This is why NERD Fund opacity is such a BFD Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog NOTE: This story has been updated HERE and HERE. I (and so many others) have talked a LOT about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s NERD Fund, financed by unknown corporate entities and wealthy individuals. Because they have been paying for Detroit Emergency Manager […]