Leelanau Whippersnapper

Spring Has Arrived

Here in Leelanau, there is only 1 sure way to know that spring has arrived.  Cherry Blossoms.  The sweet cherry trees are in full bloom up here right now and I was fortunate today to have an awesome day off to take some pictures.  Be sure to visit the new gallery on leelanauphotography.com for the full spread.  I spent the day today driving around Leelanau taking pictures and then the rest of my day at the cottage sitting on the deck enjoying cool breeze of spring.

Got a lot on my mind right now, can’t put much of it on this blog.  I’m ready to get out of this house and get on with my life.  Amazing how difficult that concept has been lately.  Anyhow, stay tuned, I may try to push my landlord to allow me out of my lease early.  If not, I’m sure I can tolerate living out here until August but with gas prices now at a new high (it was $4.09 in Maple City today…the highest price in the county) it’s becomming VERY expensive to commute 60 miles a day.  I am slowing weeding through shit.  In fact, when I’m doing writing this, I’m going to clean out another closet and try to see what I can get rid of.  I’ve kept a bunch of things hoping that I could eventually sell them on eBay.  Well, that’s just not going to happen.  I don’t have time right now to fuck with it.  Oh well, someone shopping at Good Will might appreciate getting a good deal of a lot of this crap.  One man’s junk is another mans treasure I guess.

Meijer was in the news here today.  They were fined something like $189,000 for breaking campaign finance rules set by the state of Michigan.  Serves them right.  I have a big problem with what Meijer tried to do (influence an election and subsequent recall of a township board that opposed Meijer’s plans to build a new store) and I absolutely agree with the price they are paying for breaking the law.  HOWEVER, I also sympathize with Meijer.  First, they own the property where they wanted to build a new store in Acme Township (outside of Traverse City).  They have for years.  Second, this area has clearly demonstrated OVER AND OVER again that another store like Meijer is not only needed but BADLY needed.  The Traverse City Meijer is one of the busiest stores in the entire company, the volume they do is crazy!  People come to shop at that Meijer from ALL OVER Northern Michigan.  Certianly Meijer is IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY and another store would help them achieve that goal.  It is the desire and purpose of ALL retail businesses to MAKE MONEY (that is a concept too many people always seem to forget).  Acme Township was an ideal location because it was conveniently located on the opposite end of town from the existing Meijer.  The problem was that certain factions in the community did not want a big box store to come in a “spoil” the charm of their little community.  Never mind that Meijer was bending over backwards to design a store that would “fit in” to the landscape.  OK, here is where I have the problem.  Acme is a SUBURB of Traverse City.  It is not some little village in the middle of nowhere, it nearly bursts at the seams in the summer with a population that easily doubles or triples in size with tourists and summer residents who ALL come here from big cities down state and who ALL shop at Meijer downstate.  Acme (along with Traverse City) HORRIBLY under serves it’s residents by preventing business operations that people CLEARLY want (via zoning and exceptionally poor planning).  If people hated Meijer so much, why do people travel from ALL OVER NORTHERN MICHIGAN to shop there???????  Here is my suggestion:  I think Meijer should shut down their Traverse City operations entirely and pull right on out of here.  Their new Petoskey store will serve the area.  For a good year or two people will have to shop at Tom’s and Glens (or drive 80 miles north to Petoskey) and people will have to pay substantially more for their groceries than they would have at Meijer.  People will get sick of that shit really fast.  THEN, Zoning laws will be changed to allow Walmart to move in with their Super Center (since they will play the political game right and kiss lots of ass).  Once Walmart is in they will DEVASTATE the Mom and Pop shops that had been doing decent business since Meijer left.  People will shop at Walmart since it’s their only option to save money on commodities that they need to have in order to survive. (Come on folks, follow the history of what happens when Walmart comes to town).  Tom’s, Glen’s, and Olsen’s and the other tiny stores will all go out of business leaving only Walmart and then Traverse City can become another sleazy, run down,  middle American town with nothing to offer but a huge walmart store and a pretty view of the bay.  None of the smaller businesses will have any reason to exist since everyone can get what they want from Walmart….DO YOU SEE WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS??????

Grow the fuck up Acme Township. Why do people in this area kick themselves in the ass over and over???  Get over the fact that GROWTH HAPPENS, in 20 years you WILL have some sort of Super Center in your “little village”.  Look, I like the fact that it’s quiet up here but I hate the fact that people are so fucking stubborn.  There is growth and then there is SMART GROWTH.  Why is the latter so fucking difficult for you all to figure out????  This is why I’m not in Politics.  I would offend too many people becuase I am too black and white.  This issue is clear cut in my mind and I don’t understand why other people can’t follow the logic.  I don’t care about your emotions, I care about your ability to think about things reasonably and deliberately.  Here is the question that Acme needs to answer which through this ENTIRE thing they have failed to answer (hell they haven’t even figured out how to ask it yet):  If you will not allow Meijer (or whatever other big box store) in to your community than WHO WILL YOU ALLOW AND WHY WILL YOU ALLOW THEM AND NOT OTHERS??? That is the question they have ALL failed to answer.  When and IF Acme Township can answer that question they will start on an appropriate SMART GROWTH path.  Until then, they will fight many more of these battles.