Covid might be over before East Lansing’s downtown mask mandate ends. Dr. Marty Makary a surgeon and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health argued in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial that it will be “mostly gone” by April. City council this week extended the ban to May 16.
I’d planned to log on to the council meeting to object, but why bother. The decision had been made.
If I’d participated, I’d have … Read more →
The City of East Lansing has set up a program that allows you to purchase a “Downtown East Lansing” gift card online , which can then be used at a number of local East Lansing businesses.
“Downtown East Lansing offers many of your favorite retailers, restaurants and professional service providers. Use this gift card at all participating merchant locations! This Holiday Season purchase gift cards and receive free bonus gifts. Buy $25 or more and get a $10 bonus gift; Buy $50 or more and get a $20 … Read more →
Since MSU’s announcement yesterday that all undergrad classes will be online, I have heard from three different long-time East Lansing friends something along the lines of this: “Maybe this year will be the year of the grown-up downtown? And we have to save local businesses!”
So I have an idea of how to combine these! Let’s put together an organic, decentralized series of fun things to do to bring people downtown that we can do with masks and social-distancing, and encourage people to participate … Read more →
Back around 2007, when I first realized there was something rotten in the City of East Lansing and started complaining about Staton’s arrogant unwillingness to deal with neighborhood problems, I had a conversation with an activist in the local Democratic Party who said, “Staton, Meadows, and McGinnty.” McGinnty was then city attorney, and Yeadon did the scut work of plea bargaining MIPs, etc. This was shortly after Meadows had left Council for State Representative (after Whitmer had moved on to Senate). The feeling was … Read more →
I’m going to write a couple of posts regarding the firing of Yeadon and resignations, from a historical perspective.
First, I want to review the financial argument for an in-house city attorney (city employee). When we did the petition drive, the primary motive was to get rid of the law firm that had had the contract for a long time, because of the many reasons that law firm had failed the public interest.
But we did also make the case that an in-house attorney would save … Read more →
There’s good financial news emerging on the Center City District project — the strict cost-control measures put in place by now-Mayor Ruth Beier and her colleagues on Council in 2017 turn out to be stricter than we had realized. In 2017, the TIF was effectively reduced by Council from a $56M cap to a $50M cap!
Combined with the new valuation method from tax assessor David Lee for big apartment buildings, this means that the Center City TIF will pay off years earlier than … Read more →
As for Covid-19 locally, so far so good for our area following the George Floyd protests and the Harper’s outbreak.
This chart comes from the Ingham County Health Department and in the aftermath of both the protests and the bar outbreak, there hasn’t been a serious spike in hospitalizations or ICU usage.
Locally, we’re seeing a lot more tests, more incidences but steady hospitalizations.
http://www.hd.ingham.org/Portals/HD/Home/Documents/cd/coronavirus/ICHDCOVIDstats.pdf
It’s well known that viruses tend to burn out after awhile and hopefully, that’s what our local data … Read more →
What happened at the BRA yesterday? ELi has my report up , but I would sum it up this way:
We were outgunned. And we were paying for the other side’s weapons.
What my reporting team saw yesterday is what we see at so many meetings. People representing our side – in this case, BRA members Jim Croom, Jeff Smith, and Aaron Stephens – ask really reasonable questions and express reasonable skepticism.
But then, in the end, they vote “yes” without adequate protections for us. In the fog of … Read more →
I have steadily reported for East Lansing Info on the Center City District project from the day it was introduced, on many occasions with my colleague Chris Root. We have spent a lot of time using FOIA to document what has happened (and not happened) with regard to the public financing of this project. Today I sent the attached letter (below) to the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority about their meeting which happens tomorrow (Thursday, July 9) at noon. I share it with readers of Public Response … Read more →
I see in ELi that some members of Council are (finally) questioning the continued use of the bond attorney. I would add, they also need to get rid of Baird as the city’s bond agent.
Better yet, time to stop allowing DDA/BRA to issue bonds and to stop allowing the city to issue bonds unless approved by voters. Just a reminder, the DPW building was built without voter-approved bonds (with cost overrun) after voters were promised, in approving sale of the old building, there would be no … Read more →
