Michigan is such a great State. It doesn't matter if you live in the west, southeast or north. So many great things to do and so much great scenery to travel from one region to another.
Friday morning my wife and I left early (6am) for a trip to Gaylord. The weather was rainy and dreary when we left Brighton, but we hit some open sky and sunlight just north of Bay City. It was an amazing transformation of mood. I had a meeting at 11am that was an excuse for a short vacation. A 2pm tee time had already been booked. Normally, I forego I-75 for the 27 route, but that day I decided to take I-75. My wife doesn't really like huge bridges, but she took Zilwaukee in stride. We stopped in Standish and had a great breakfast at Wheeler's, then proceeded on our trip.
We had enough time to look around Gaylord before my short business meeting at Treetops. I met up with the rest of our group in the lobby and half of our four couples could actually check-in even though it was around 10:30. Of course, my room was not ready, but then again I hadn't expected it to be.
Our business concluded, we had time for a quick lunch before golfing the Traditions course. The original Treetops course, it was designed to be junior golfer friendly and I was amazed that you could pull up adjacent to each and every tee box. I mean right next to it. Open an inviting is how I would describe this course. Even I didn't lose a single golf ball. My score was less than illustrious, but I'm seriously behind my golf pace of 2010. At this time last year I had played almost 30 times. This was my third outing for this year.
Friday evening the group got together for dinner at the Big Buck Brewery. The Red Ear Ale was smooth and tasty. My wife enjoyed her pale ale. I was somewhat disappointed in the 10 oz prime rib dinner. I really should have asked the waitress for her recommendation. In the past I've been very pleased with their burger and sandwiches.
We finished off our short stay with a round of golf on the 9 hole par 3 course, ThreeTops. A cute play on words. The entire course is up and down - literally. Elevated tee with sunken green, sunken tee with elevated green, or elevated tee and green with a deep valley betwixt. I've never played anywhere with so many extreme up and down lies. If you didn't hit the green it was a challenge. I ended up losing one ball, too.
Our group checked out after this round and headed back home. In contrast to the trip up, I drove straight through on the way back. I had a serious case of the 'drowsies' going after reaching the half way point and did have to make a quick stop south of Birch Run. The Arbie's drive through provided a shot of alertness with a Jamocha Shake and the rest of the trip was uneventful.
It was great to see that the construction projects were not active for the Holiday weekend and we literally cruised in both directions. It would have been nice to spend another night 'up north', perhaps at Mackinaw City or Traverse City, but the almost constant recent rain at home and my lack of garden maintenance required me to get back and face real-world responsibilities.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Hey, What About Me?
A lot of big news in the last couple of days. OBL finally caught and justice administered by Navy Seals and a quick burial at sea, US Intelligence pouring over a trove of captured documents. US Army Corps of Engineers treats Illinois to a night time display while destroying a Mississippi River levee to save Cairo,IL from flooding. Canadian Conservatives win big and the BQ separatists seem to be reduced to a non-issue.
And from Detroit, the cry is raised, "Hey, What About Me?" OK, not quite literally, but that's the sense of it.
Mayor Dave Bing is trying to rejuvenate the city, and had offered abandoned homes for sale to policemen for $1,000 to get them to move back. What good would that do? Well, it would help eliminate some vacant homes, hopefully start to stabilize neighborhoods, and put the properties back on the tax rolls for just a few things. Cities don't just happen 'downtown' or in the Greektowns or at the casinos, or the sports arenas. Their roots are in the neighborhoods. And Detroit has some pretty bad neighborhoods. Many look more like a war zone than anything else.
So now we have citizens saying, "Great, but what about me? What will you do for me? Lower my taxes?" This sense of entitlement is the root of a lot of problems in big cities and in America. Yes, Detroit has a close to obscene tax rate (65 mils). Some folks in the really nice areas like Boston-Edision or Indian Village pay a lot of money ($7,000 happens a lot in those areas). But in the other neighborhoods, that's not the case.
I checked my childhood neighborhood (Delray in SW Detroit). A lot of those folks are paying between $450-$900/yr of taxes. Nicer areas in NW Detroit can pay up to around $3,000/yr. It depends on the value of your house. My quick check is neither exhaustive nor qualitative, but I didn't se one single property that had a taxable value (TV) the same as the State Equalized Value (SEV), they were all sustantially lower on the TV.
Folks, it took DECADES for Detroit to get into its current predicament. It may take another DECADE to see momentum build in a turnaround. Do what you can do to make it a better place. Band together with neighbors, clean up the trash, encourage police to return to the city and you'll start to see better emergency response times and things turn around. It won't happen overnight. But if you give up except to fight the little bright spots like this program, it may never happen. And in the meantime, your neighbors that have the ability to move to the suburbs will do so.
And from Detroit, the cry is raised, "Hey, What About Me?" OK, not quite literally, but that's the sense of it.
Mayor Dave Bing is trying to rejuvenate the city, and had offered abandoned homes for sale to policemen for $1,000 to get them to move back. What good would that do? Well, it would help eliminate some vacant homes, hopefully start to stabilize neighborhoods, and put the properties back on the tax rolls for just a few things. Cities don't just happen 'downtown' or in the Greektowns or at the casinos, or the sports arenas. Their roots are in the neighborhoods. And Detroit has some pretty bad neighborhoods. Many look more like a war zone than anything else.
So now we have citizens saying, "Great, but what about me? What will you do for me? Lower my taxes?" This sense of entitlement is the root of a lot of problems in big cities and in America. Yes, Detroit has a close to obscene tax rate (65 mils). Some folks in the really nice areas like Boston-Edision or Indian Village pay a lot of money ($7,000 happens a lot in those areas). But in the other neighborhoods, that's not the case.
I checked my childhood neighborhood (Delray in SW Detroit). A lot of those folks are paying between $450-$900/yr of taxes. Nicer areas in NW Detroit can pay up to around $3,000/yr. It depends on the value of your house. My quick check is neither exhaustive nor qualitative, but I didn't se one single property that had a taxable value (TV) the same as the State Equalized Value (SEV), they were all sustantially lower on the TV.
Folks, it took DECADES for Detroit to get into its current predicament. It may take another DECADE to see momentum build in a turnaround. Do what you can do to make it a better place. Band together with neighbors, clean up the trash, encourage police to return to the city and you'll start to see better emergency response times and things turn around. It won't happen overnight. But if you give up except to fight the little bright spots like this program, it may never happen. And in the meantime, your neighbors that have the ability to move to the suburbs will do so.
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