Now there’s a sappy title. What can I say. Angie and her partner Cam came up to visit this past weekend and it is true that aquantences come and go but friends span a lifetime. I had not seen or spoken to Angie for nearly 10 years but we were able to pick up pretty much right were we left off. All the reasons we were good friends back in the day are all the reasons we can continue to get along fine now as adults. We did the whole nine yards up here in Leelanau. The beaches, the Sand Dunes, Peterson Park, Glen Arbor, the Light House, Suttons Bay…it was fun to show them around and imerse them in my world for a few days. They are on a whilwind tour around Lake Michigan, likely relaxing somewhere in the UP by now. Tomorrow I’ll be posting a new gallery to my Facebook album and I’ll be uploading to my photography web site with new photos of their visit. Check them out. The computer is uploading photos now so I need to close this down for the night. I’ll write another entry tomorrow.
Tags: friends, Leelanau, Summer
OK folks, what is wrong with this map below? Look at Traverse City area and then look at the Maple City gas station price. Keep in mind that Maple city is 20 miles from Traverse City which absolutely CAN NOT be considered a difficult distance for any hauler to travel outside a metro area. There is NO reason the price of gas should be $0.15 higher out here compared with TC. I’ve become a regular contributor to www.michigangasprices.com and I frequently update prices of gas in Leelanau County as I see them. Don’t buy your gas out here folks under any circumstance. Don’t even buy your convenience foods out here. Those of you who do are BEING RIPPED OFF BIG TIME!!!! You can move the map around by clicking on it and holding down your mouse button.
Tags: foolish, gas prices, rip off
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.
Tags: Acme Township, cherry blossoms, Meijer, Smart Growth, Spring
The saga of Sugarloaf continues here in Leelanau. God it just never ends. The web keeps getting thicker. The individual who signed an option to purchase has backed out at least for the time being. There was a 90 day rule which he rightfully stated was not enough time to complete due diligence. How anyone could possibly untangle the mess that is Sugarloaf in 90 days is beyond me. Anyhow, that potential buyer is still interested in the resort but so much more research has to be done to see if it’s even worth his time. He was pretty smart to back out. Sugarloaf needs someone with a HUGE amount of capitol to invest OR they just need to rip the shit down and turn it into a park.
I’ve just given up on Sugarloaf and I think many other people in this county have too. It’s not that we don’t want to see it come back to life, it’s that so many people have tried and failed miserably. It’s clear that the county could give a shit and the township just doesn’t have the capitol or the resources to help. So, like so many other things in Leelanau, the resort will continue to rot away becuase nobody really wants to make a 110% effort to do something about it. I guess I wouldn’t care as much if I didn’t live right across the street.
There is too much complacency in Leelanau. One of my political rants for Leelanau is the overly apparent lack of vision this county has for it’s future. It is primarily a county of retired, seasonal residents, many of whom have quite a bit of money. Those of us that live here year around and are younger, don’t have the capitol to have an influence where you have to pay in order matter. Elitism is OVERLY EVIDENT in Leelanau. When township boards have bare quorum meetings during the winter becuase the majority of the people sitting on those boards are at their other homes out of state, it means there is a huge problem with the way things are being run. Why bother even having a body such as that if you are only having productive meetings 3 or 4 times a year????
Tangents. This county suffers from a serious lack of young people who actually give a shit about what things will be like in 20 years. Many of the counties resident’s won’t be alive in 20 years so why would they bother caring about what things will be like in 20 years? This is NOT a slam by the way, it is simply a statement of fact. I’m not concerned that you older folks don’t care, I’m concerned that you older folks won’t give up your seats on the county boards to younger people who actually DO give a shit and want to push changes. I’m concerned that EVERY time someone suggests a positive step in the right direction, someone gets in the way and fucks it all up becuase change is too difficult or too expensive. This county has a HUGE fucking tax base, rather than embezzling it why not put that tax base to good use and do something productive?
This county needs to start considering what it is and what it isn’t. Figure it out already and quit DOING NOTHING!
Tags: Elitism, investments, Leelanau, Quorum, Sugarloaf, taxes
