VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

(VOD editor: I noted numerous workers, including low-paid Subway employees, complaining at the start of this year about huge chunks missing from their take-home pay. Below is at least a partial explanation.)

FACT CHECK: OBAMA ON THE ‘FISCAL CLIFF’ DEAL 

Robert Farley, FactCheck, USA TODAT

January 5, 2013

• Most Americans will pay more in taxes in 2013 because of the expiration of a payroll tax cut.
• Obama’s claim that the deal will reduce the deficit depends on one’s baseline assumption
• Video could make some think they won’t see a tax increase unless they make more than $400,000
  

  Subway workers in Detroit said they fell off fiscal cliff in their 2013 paychecks, while Subway went up on its prices.

In a Web video, President Barack Obama leaves out some key facts about the fiscal cliff deal, possibly leaving the wrong impression about its impact on taxpayers and the deficit.

Obama boasts that “middle-class families” will not have to “pay upwards of $2,000 more in taxes this year.” That’s accurate for income taxes, but Obama doesn’t mention that the deal allowed a payroll tax cut to expire. About 77% of taxpayers will pay more in taxes this year — nearly $1,200 more for those earning between $75,000 and $100,000, a group that fits squarely in Obama’s broad definition of middle class.

Bush signing his tax cut for the rich legislation.

Obama says the agreement “will reduce the deficit.” In fact, the deficit will increase by about $4 trillion over the next 10 years because of the extension of the Bush tax cuts for all but those in the top 1% of taxpayers. The deal will “reduce the deficit” only compared with what it would have been if the Bush tax cuts had been extended for everyone.

All the president’s talk about preserving middle-class tax cuts in the just-passed bill to avert the so-called fiscal cliff may give one the impression that, except for the wealthy, people will be paying the same amount in taxes this year as last. But that’s not correct. Left out of Obama’s analysis is that a temporary, two-year reduction in Social Security payroll taxes was allowed to expire. As a result, most people will actually pay more in taxes this year.

FULL COVERAGE: ‘The Fiscal Cliff’

In some cases, Obama has been clear that the fiscal cliff deal means an extension of lower income tax rates for middle-income earners. For example, he told reporters on Jan. 1 that under the new law more than 98% of Americans “will not see their income taxes go up.”

He made no mention of payroll taxes in that press briefing. Nor is there a mention in the White House fact sheet about the fiscal cliff deal.

And in a campaign-style video sent out to supporters, Obama says only that the deal spared middle-income households from a bruising tax hike.

Obama, Jan. 2: You know my top priority has been preventing a tax hike that could have hit 98% of all Americans in 2013. Because the last thing middle-class families can afford right now would be to pay upwards of $2,000 more in taxes this year.

It’s true that the deal spares middle-income earners the worst of the fiscal cliff tax hikes. The law is likely to raise $620 billion in new high-income revenues, mostly by allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire for individuals making more than $400,000 and couples making more than $450,000 a year (that affects 1% of Americans, not 2%, as Obama said). But for people below that income threshold, the income tax rate will remain the same.

That’s certainly a big deal. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected that if all of the expiring tax cuts were allowed to go away, the nation would probably slide into a recession and the unemployment rate would rise to 9.1%.

But Obama’s video — in which he leaves out the qualifier income tax — may lead many to believe that if they don’t earn upward of $400,000, they will not see a tax increase in 2013. And they may be surprised when they get their first paycheck this year to see that it is a bit lighter. That’s because a two-year reduction in the Social Security payroll tax — that pesky FICA line on your paycheck — was allowed to expire.

As a result, those with income between $40,000 and $50,000 would pay an additional $574 in payroll taxes in 2013, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Those with household income between $75,000 and $100,000 (still solidly middle-class by Obama’s definition) would pay an additional $1,194 in 2013. Allowing the payroll tax to go back up to 6.2% from 4.2% will mean an average tax hike for all Americans of $721 over the course of 2013. That’s $60 a month. Continue reading →

Kimberly McCarthy

By Michael Graczyk       January 29, 2013  AP

• 11 of 12 jurors white

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The first woman scheduled to be executed in the U.S. since 2010 won a reprieve Tuesday, mere hours before she was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber.

State District Judge Larry Mitchell, in Dallas, rescheduled Kimberly McCarthy’s punishment for April 3 so lawyers for the former nursing home therapist could have more time to pursue an appeal focused on whether her predominantly white jury was improperly selected on the basis of race. McCarthy is black.

Dallas County prosecutors, who initially contested the motion to reschedule, chose to not appeal the ruling.

District Attorney Craig Watkins said the 60-day delay was “appropriate.” If no irregularities are discovered, he said he’d move forward with the execution.

“We want to make sure everything is done correctly,” he said.

McCarthy’s defense attorney Maurie Levin.

The 51-year-old McCarthy was convicted and sent to death row for the 1997 stabbing, beating and robbery of a 71-year-old neighbor. She learned of the reprieve less than five hours before she was scheduled for lethal injection, already in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit.

“I’m happy right now over that,” she told prison agency spokesman John Hurt. “There’s still work to be done on my case.”

Hurt said McCarthy was in good spirits and “didn’t seem tense or nervous” even before she learned she would live.

A Dallas County jury convicted her of killing neighbor Dorothy Booth at the retired college psychology professor’s home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. 

“Of the twelve jurors seated at trial, all were white, except one, and eligible non-white jurors were excluded from serving by the state. … These facts must be understood in the context of the troubling and long-standing history of racial discrimination in jury selection in Dallas County, including at the time of Ms. McCarthy’s trial,” Levin said.

Investigators said Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and candelabra. Booth’s finger also was severed so McCarthy could take her wedding ring. It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, who’d been addicted to crack cocaine.

McCarthy would have been the 13th woman executed in the U.S. and the fourth in Texas, the nation’s busiest death penalty state, since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. In that same time period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide.

Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics compiled from 1980 through 2008 show women make up about 10 percent of homicide offenders nationwide. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 3,146 people were on the nation’s death rows as of Oct. 1, and only 63 – 2 percent – were women.

First Woman In U.S. to Be Executed Since 2005

 By Jordan Smith, Fri., Jan. 25, 2013  Austin Chronicle

Kimberly McCarthy, set to be executed in Texas today, Jan. 29, 2013,

On Jan. 29 the state [of Texas] is scheduled to carry out its 493rd execution since reinstatement of the death penalty, the first of eight already scheduled for 2013. Kimberly Lagayle McCarthy would be the first woman executed in Texas since 2005.

McCarthy, previously married to New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1997 robbery and stabbing murder of her neighbor, 71-year-old retired college professor Dorothy Booth. According to the state, McCarthy had a crack cocaine problem and used a ploy – a request to borrow sugar – to gain entrance to Booth’s home. Once inside, the state says, she immediately attacked Booth, stabbing her five times and cutting off her finger so she could steal Booth’s ring. McCarthy also took Booth’s car and credit cards and stole several other items from the home, all of which she pawned off for drugs, she told police.

McCarthy’s original 1998 conviction was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled that the trial court violated McCarthy’s due process and right against self-incrimination by admitting into evidence a statement McCarthy made to police after she had “unambiguously invoked her right to legal counsel,” according to a July 2012 opinion from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. McCarthy was retried and again sentenced to die.

Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Although the act of committing a murder in the course of robbery is what made McCarthy’s a death-eligible case, it seems likely that her jury may have been more inclined to invoke the ultimate punishment after prosecutors offered evidence during the punishment phase of McCarthy’s trial that she may have been responsible for the murders of two other elderly women, an 81-year-old and an 85-year-old, a decade before, also in an effort to find money for drugs. Whether McCarthy did actually commit those murders remains an open question; she has never been tried for either crime.

McCarthy’s last federal appeal was denied in July 2012, and a writ of certiorari filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to block her execution, was denied in the second week of January.

Petition on Change.Org at

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-kimberly-mccarthy

The death penalty has been abolished by 106 nations, 30 countries since 1990.
Amnesty International reports that over half the nations in the world have now
abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

“The family, friends and supporters of Kimberly McCarthy are petitioning Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole in effort to save Kimberly from being put to death by the State of Texas. Kimberly suffered from a severe addiction to crack cocaine in the 1990’s, and her life went into a downward spiral, into the underworld of drugs. Her association with the wrong people coupled with her out of control drug use became a lethal combination which led to tragedy. Prior to her drug use Kimberly had no criminal record and was in the field of helping and healing the sick as an occupational therapist! When she was introduced to drugs her life took a dark and destructive turn that led to tragedy! A tragedy that she lives with daily and is deeply remorseful for. Over the years Kimberly’s faith in God has strengthened. Her spirit and personality touch each and every person she encounters. We are asking that Kimberly’s sentence be commuted. That the State of Texas show mercy!! Killing Kimberly will not bring the victim back. It will only create more suffering and heartache. More victims. She could be such a positive influence to others. God can use her to touch the lives of other women headed down the road to destruction.

Council cop removes Nancy Montgomery afer she demanded to know details of original Belle Isle deed, and opposed state “lease.” Cop Council Member James Tate ordered her explusion.

Committee majority votes down lease, but ‘public’ hearing to be held Mon. Jan 28 at 2 p.m., Council vote Tues. Jan. 29 at 10 a.m.

Council has failed to do due diligence on title search of island; it may not belong to the city government, but remain a “public commons”

City cannot “lease” what it does not own

 By Diane Bukowski 

Jan. 26, 2013 

Council committee chair James Tate, longtime cop He in one of three Council members, including Charles Pugh and Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., who have repeatedly traveled to Lansing to meet with State Gov. Rick Snyder and Treasurer Andy Dillon to carry out their wishes.

DETROIT – The City Council Rogue Six appear hell-bent on approving a state land grab of  Detroit’s most precious jewel, Belle Isle, despite a committee’s 2-1 vote Jan. 24 against a 30-90 year state “lease” of the island. Council members Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson, who sit on the Neighborhood and Community Services Committee, voted “No,” outweighing Committee Chairman James Tate’s sole “yes” vote.

The public passionately supported Kenyatta and Watson, boiling over in anger, only to have police force many out at Tate’s order. They condemned the Council Six for giving away most of the city’s assets, even comparing them to the “Anti-Christ’ and telling them they had “sold their souls to the Devil.”

Tate announced that the committee will hold a “public” hearing on the proposal Monday at 2 p.m. in Council chambers. He specifically excluded use of the Council auditorium, claiming the public has not been properly “respectful” to the Council. (VOD has repeatedly objected that this violates the state Open Meetings Act, as the public is forced to wait in the hallway if the few seats in Chambers are full.) 

Tate said he expects to bring the proposal to the full Council Tues. Jan 29 at its regular 10 a.m. meeting in chambers. However, the City Clerk has since announced the meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in order to include a discussion of a state-proposed Public Lighting Authority.

Council members JoAnn Watson and Kwame Kenyatta also strenously opposed the Hantz Farms land grab at public hearing Dec. 10, 2012.

Council Rule 9.14 states, “Matters assigned to a Formal Session or to the Committee of the Whole shall require a majority of the members of a committee in order to be sent to the Formal Session, as introduced or amended by the committee.”

Kenyatta and Watson boycotted a presentation by state officials and George Jackson of the corporate-run Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) following the committee meeting, leaving no quorum for other Council members attending to discuss the proposal.

(See earlier VOD story at  http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/23/bing-and-detroit-council-set-to-give-belle-isle-to-state-let-the-people-vote-council-meets-jan-24-1-p-m-jan-28-29/  for details of “lease.” Officials including State Department of Natural Resources Chair Keith Creaugh, DEGC chair George Jackson, and others essentially reiterated those details during their presentation.) 

Waterfork Oaks Water Park in Oakland County. DEGC has refused to consider local investor’s proposal for one on Belle Isle. said Councilmember Kwame Kenyatta.

Kenyatta prefaced his motion to deny the “lease” proposal with a trenchant declaration. 

“There has not been a fair hearing of what the city needs to do with Belle Isle,” Kenyatta said. “We have had a number of proposals and need to put out a request for proposal (RFP). I got call from the same people who put a multi-million proposal on table. But no one from Jackson’s office has contacted them. There is another proposal for an entrance fee which would stay in Detroit. [Under the state proposal], the fee is not used for Belle Isle.  There has been a $600,000 infusion of grants for Belle Isle, plus a water park proposal, with substantial investors right here in the city who are ready to support this proposal.” 

Gov. Snyder (center), shown with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing (l) and Oakland Co. Exec. L. Brooks Patterson, now dominates Detroit.

Kenyatta continued, “You say it’s about revenue—I say it’s about something else. [Former] Mayor [Coleman] Young was opposed to a fee, but at least if we have a fee, let it come back to the city . . . . This is not a takeaway, it’s a giveaway. We have not done everything possible to bring revenue for Belle Isle. You haven’t tried. You’d rather turn it over to someone else.” 

Kenyatta said the state of Michigan has “never shown any love for the people of Detroit,” instead wanting to take away departments like Workforce Development, D-DOT, Public Lighting and Water. 

Kids do the hustle at SEIU union party on Belle Isle July, 2012.

“This is about the people,” he said. “The city is not going to die over $6 million [currently expended to maintain Belle Isle] or go into bankruptcy, but we will go into moral bankruptcy if this is approved. By the end of this year, this Mayor won’t be in office. Have a little courage and commitment, this is greater than a budget deficit. Our sons and daughters go to this park; it is owned by the people of Detroit. We may not be here in 30 0r 90 years, but the people and children will still be here, they will outlive us. [Keeping Belle Isle] will not break the bank, but this proposal will break the Detroiters’ spirit of and bankrupt the people.”

 He added, “We don’t work for the state, we work for the people that put us here, for the children, the elders, we have a duty to perform due diligence. If we do this, shame on us, this will be a disgrace to ourselves and to this body of leadership.” 

State DNR Director Kenneth Creagh expounds on BI takeover Jan. 24, claiming verbally state will consider spending $20 million in bonds.

In the “lease proposal,” the state has not committed to any specific monetary amount of improvement. Sfate DNR  Director Kenneth Creagh verbally threw out a figure of $20 million in bonds during the Jan. 24 meeting, but it is nowhere in the lease document, It is miniscule in comparison to the annual $6 million the city spends on the island, which amounts to $180 million over 30 years, and a half-billion dollars, $540 million, over 90 years. 

“I thank Councilman Kenyatta for his wonderful stand on behalf of the people of Detroit,” Councilwoman Watson chimed in. “Belle Isle is a jewel, part of our heritage, our culture. It has been a haven for our babies; it should not become a haven for the rich. This giveaway is also illegal since the state owes the city money.” 

Depiction of anti-Christ fooling followers.

Detroiters present angrily condemned the Six for even considering the proposal, and called for a people’s vote. As usual, some were forced to wait in the hallway because the chambers were filled. 

“Why are we here, why are we even discussing this,” asked Chris Griffiths, 81, a respected city activist whose husband was Ernie Griffiths, a substance abuse counselor at the now defunct Detroit Health Department. “The charter says we can’t enter into an agreement with someone who owes the city. The Council Six are like disciples of the Anti-Christ, and you are going to have hell to pay.” 

Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins primly responded, “It is ridiculous to call anybody sitting at this table the anti-Christ.” Someone in the audience replied, “If the shoe fits, wear it.” 

Chris Griffiths excoriates Council for giving away Detroit assets.

The Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary defines “Anti-Christ” as “a great antagonist expected to fill the world with wickedness but to be conquered forever by Christ at his second coming.”  The Epistles of John connect usage of the term to helping Christians “discern true teachers: by their ethics, their proclamation of Jesus in the flesh, and by their love.” 

Councilman Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. got into shouting matches with two members of the audience, taking issue with a speaker who condemned his mayoral administration’s sale of the water department’s Oakland Macomb County Interceptor without a vote of the people. 

Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. evidently hasn’t read City Charter which forbids SALE of assets of DWSD, D-DOT and PLD.

“We didn’t give it away, we  sold it because it collapsed on us twice, it was not an asset, it was a liability.” He referred to the 14 Mile Rd. collapse of the interceptor in Sterling Heights in 2004 after the city hired private inspectors. 

The City Charter, however, contains the following language,  “The City shall not sell or in any way dispose of any property needed to continue the operation of any city-owned public utility furnishing water and sewerage service, unless approved by a majority of city voters voting on the question at a regular or special election.” 

Identical language appears in the Charter with regard to D-DOT and the Public Lighting Department, both of which the state legislature has now subsumed into “authorities” with the approval of the Council. 

Jocelyn Harris of the Jefferson Chalmers Citizens District Council (CDC), whose neighborhoods border the Detroit River, said the CDC voted unanimously against the lease. 

Jocelyn Harris on Jefferson Chalmers CDC says they voted against Belle Isle “lease.”

“I have lived on the riverfront for a long time,” Harris said. “There is a wealth of knowledge and ability in Detroit [to take care of Belle Isle]. All I could hear [during official testimony] was a police state on Belle Isle. Our young people look for opportunities to enjoy themselves there. I see a great possibility of that not happening in the future. The State of Michigan does not have a track record in favor of Detroit.” 

Before being forcibly removed by Council police at Tate’s direction, Nancy Montgomery (at top of story) declared, “Belle Isle was deeded to the citizens of Detroit. You are not allowing a legal opportunity for us to vote on this. No one can tell me you cannot find that deed. The people pay property taxes; are you going to reduce our property taxes [if you give away Belle Isle?] The state wants the Belle Isle endowment from Washington DC, too. There are no guarantees for jobs for Detroiters in this lease.”

The Council’s Research and Analysis Division (RAD) earlier warned that a property title search of Belle Isle should be done to ensure that the city has title to the whole island without restrictions. So far, VOD has not seen such a report. 

Records reviewed by VOD so far include a handwritten deed executed by Alexander M. Campau for his portion of Belle Isle, dated Feb. 18, 1879, for $50,000. However, it is made payable to George C. Langdon, not to the City of Detroit. Langdon was Mayor of the City, but the deed (see below) does not refer to him in that capacity. If the City does not have full title to the island, it has no authority to lease it.  

VOD is researching the remaining deeds, located at Liber 17, folios 605, 612, and 617 and Liber 221, folios 152, 154 and 159 according to historical records including Clarence Burton’s History of Belle Isle, part of his book, The History of Detroit, 1701-1922.  There is also a deed recorded for the land between East Jefferson and the Detroit River at the approach to Belle, located at Liber 290 Folio 145. 

According to Burton’s history, land on Belle Isle was granted to Campau and others by the King of England before the Revolutionary War. Whether such grants can be considered valid today could certainly be legally questionable. 

Burton’s History of Belle Isle also confirms what University of Michigan Prof. Tiya Miles says in her article, posted on VOD at  http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/26/belle-isle-is-black-land/.             ,

“In the 1700s, Ojibwe groups shared access to the island, which they called White Swan (Waabizi or Wanabizi in the Anishinaabe language) with French settlers. In the French colonial period, Hog Island (Isle aux Cochons), as Belle Isle was then known, was used as a public commons where settlers loosed their livestock, mainly hogs, to roam freely.” 

French explorers arrive at Ojibwe settlement in Sault Ste. Marie

During that era, according to Burton’s history, Detroit residents repeatedly beat back efforts by individuals to lay claim to the island. If the City has no authority to lease Belle Isle, it is logical that it should be returned to its time-honored status as a public commons not under control of the state OR the City Council Rogue Six.

Also later during that era, according to Burton’s history, Chief Pontiac rose up with his people and slaughtered many English invaders of the area, including those living on Belle Isle.

Click on RAD BI for three documents the Council’s Research and Analysis Division has given to City Council from Sept. 2012 through Jan. 2013, which raise numerous questions including the need for a title search.

Click on Belle Isle Public Hearing 01-28-13 for City Clerk’s notice of public hearing to be held by the Neighborhood and Community Services Committee at 2 p.m. Mon. Jan. 28, 2013.

Click on

Click on CC cal01-29-13 – COW – Public Lighting Authority for notice of discussion at 9 A.M. on Public Lighting Authority proposed by state. The Notice, just disseminated Jan. 28,  indicates Committee of the Whole begins at 9 a.m.

Click on Belle Isle 1 26 12 VOD for formatted print0ut of this story in PDF.

Tom Barrow and son.

Place Issue on August Ballot for Decision by Residents and Not Just Six People

Respected community group, Citizens for Detroit’s Future, headed by prominent Detroit accountant and former mayoral hopeful Tom Barrow, in letters to members of the Detroit City Council called on members to reject outright the proposed State lease ceding control of Belle Isle to conservative state interests or place the matter on the August Ballot for a decision by the city’s residents.

“Belle Isle belongs to all of the people of Detroit, not just a mayor and six council people. It is the residents who must decide their jewel’s fate,” said Barrow. “Despite multiple alternate proposals surrounding Belle Isle, including one detailed submission by Citizens for Detroit’s Future calling for a city/suburban controlled Belle Isle Park Authority, none have been considered or vetted except the governor’s plan.”

The success of this grand robbery is dependent on organizing an “inside job” and having allies to keep a “back door” open for an efficient undetected raid. Already electorally compromised in 2009, (the County Board of Canvassers held that nearly 60,000 ballots cast for mayor could not be recounted including the entire class of Absentee Voters, because seals on cases had been changed after election night), the Mayor and six council members seemingly operate openly against the overwhelming voices of their constituents, vote against city resident’s interests, make collective decisions in violation of the Open Meetings Act and the City’s Charter, and meet privately to agree and sign off on deals with no public hearing or notification.

Unfortunately, left to the Council of Six, the ceding of Belle Isle will be a done deal. It is as much so as the forced hiring of Miller Canfield and the sale of hundreds of east side acres to a Hantz Farms Group despite massive overwhelming community opposition. Other than Detroit’s Water System, which will certainly be next, the ceding of Belle isle will be the apex to a well-orchestrated less-than-transparent plan to strip Detroit of its valuable assets and resources.

“If there ever was a robbery in broad daylight for which we need the police, it is ‘The Great Detroit Jewel Heist’ the mother of them all, a theft which will not be forgiven” said Barrow.

Koch Brothers.

CFDF cautions state interests about over-reach as the taking of Detroiter’s Belle Isle will be seen by many city residents as racially motivated and drive a REAL wedge between Detroit and its neighbors.

But race, as overarching a concern as any in matters of Detroit, is over-shadowed by the specter of the billionaires (Koch brothers, Walton and Devos families) who quietly orchestrate moves like these which include voter suppression, emergency managers, and right-to-work laws, all that build upon a worldview that profit-oriented elite business and political interests control our democracy at their whim.

Ralliers at Cadillac Place demand “Let the People Vote’ on PA 4.

City officials’ brazen lawlessness and weakness emboldens the state’s governor and the billionaires to run roughshod over the Detroit citizenry using the cover of votes by the Six. In effect, our “selected” Mayor and Council of Six, act as “loyal employees” to collaborate and conspire openly with outsiders to rob the city’s residents.

A question which must be asked is where are Detroit’s highly touted mayoral hopefuls? They seemingly always sit quiet whenever a fight needs Commanders and Generals, when their community cries out for its defenders, where are they with their swords and shields? Where are our state legislators with their raised voices of protest and determination to right wrongs when sheep clothed enemies come at us? Stand up!! Being silent will not make them like you and not make them stop coming at us. With whom do you stand, Detroiters or its Destroyers?

From Hood Research

January 14, 2013

contact@HoodResearch.org

The proposed contract or lease that is again being scheduled for a vote by city council is bad for Detroit. This is the mayor’s office and the city recreation department stating that they don’t have the competence to care for city parks.

City workers and members of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists from across the U.S. picket the CAYMC May 27, 2010.

What’s being proposed in the lease?

• The city will pay the state to cut the grass and shovel the snow, while the city will be forced to lay off more city workers.
• The city will continue to pay for the lights, the lighting, the electric wiring and the light poles on Belle Isle.
• The city will continue to pay for the water and sewage on Belle Isle. The city will pay for the state to water the grass.
• This is worse than the consent agreement; when introduced to council, over half of the lease document was missing and unknown.
• 

  Photo from Grand Prix makes clear that state wants Belle Isle for its own reasons.

  The state will take ownership of property and roads. With this ownership comes the millions in state road funding.

• This is the same as the city council signing a blank check. A check when cashed will put the city further into debt.
• The city already has and controls all dollars used or meant for Belle Isle. Why would the city give that money away?
• The city’s deficit will rise and park services around the city will fall. Revenue generated by Belle Isle is now used at all parks, future Grand Prix and Hydroplane race income will now go to the state.
• The state is not using state money for Belle Isle. The state is not giving money to the city. The state is taking our money for state use. The city will not have money to use on other parks as a result of this deal.
• The state should fund Belle Isle if Belle Isle is intended to be a state park. All other state parks in the state are state funded. Belle Isle will continue to be funded by the city.
  

  State’s view of Belle Isle under “lease”: white people kept “safe” by state trooper. (State photo.)

• The state will call Belle Isle a state park, charge a $10 entry fee [which will go to the state’s general parks fund, not Belle Isle.] Take Detroit’s revenue sharing to maintain the island and force the city to cover existing costs.

This is a sale under the terms of a contract masquerading as a lease. This is a fraud. The state is not doing anything that Detroit cannot already do. The state takes city money and then pushes for emergency managers and a continuation of the consent agreement. Detroit’s city council should reject the state’s illegal unfunded mandate regarding Belle Isle. This is not just a NO vote on this proposal; this should be a NO to the consideration of such a deal by the city council.

Snyder and Dillon want Detroit to pay them to take control of Belle Isle.

Maybe the real answer is a new mayor and a new set of council members to oversee our parks.

Rally to save Belle isle Sept. 22, 2012: BLACK POWER!!

An Emergency Manager Would Put Belle Isle at Risk

Professor Tiya Miles

By Tiya Miles

Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

Published on Huffington Post Jan. 24, 2012     

 (VOD: this article was written a year ago but raises still valid points about the ownership of Belle Isle. It does not speak to the issue of a state “lease,” which had not materialized at that time, but to the issue of private ownership, something that has been antithetical to the nature of Belle Isle since the 1700’s, says Professor Miles. However, under Michigan’s current governance, a “lease” to the state is dangerously close to private ownership.)

Marchers on Snyder’s house demand a fight against racism, Jan. 16, 2012.

When protestors from the Occupy for Democracy group rallied outside of Governor Rick Snyder’s Ann Arbor home on Martin Luther King Day, they called attention to an alarming fact. If the governor appoints an Emergency Manager for Detroit, he will give someone the power to fire city officials, sell city assets, and break city contracts. By this act the governor would, in essence, strip numerous Black elected officials of their authority to govern and their power to protect the natural resources and trust of the city. Such an outcome would be damaging to the democratic principle of equal access to representation that citizens of this nation have fought so hard for.

Detroit’s most precious jewel, Belle Isle.

And there is another, more subtle threat to the democratic ethos of the city that could materialize if Detroit’s officials were to be thus disempowered: the seizure of common land. Every newspaper account that I have read on Detroit’s fiscal crisis notes that if an emergency manager were to be assigned, a potential outcome would be the sale of Belle Isle, that splendid stretch of floating land between the U.S. and Canada kept by the city for the common good.

A dazzling 982-acre island park overlooking the Detroit River, Belle Isle is unique among the many famous urban parks developed by major cities like New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati in the late 1800s. It is the largest municipal island park in the country, and it harbors views across international borders. Within its abundant grounds, Belle Isle shelters 230 acres of old growth forest with a variety of 200-year-old tree specimens. The island is also a fresh water conservancy due to its river home and ample lakes.

Michigan Ojibwe tribe members gathering ingredients for maple syrup in the 1700’s. Both they and French settlers, who traded with them, considered Belle Isle common land.

When the city purchased the island from private hands in 1879, a major appeal of the location was the abundance of fresh water, which could be sheltered from industrial manufacturers and protected for future public use. This sense of preserving Belle Isle for the public good stretches back, in fact, to its earliest recorded history. In the 1700s, Ojibwe groups shared access to the island, which they called White Swan (Waabizi or Wanabizi in the Anishinaabe language) with French settlers. In the French colonial period, Hog Island (Isle aux Cochons), as Belle Isle was then known, was used as a public commons where settlers loosed their livestock, mainly hogs, to roam freely.

Family re-union picnic on Belle Isle July, 2012.

After Belle Isle became a city park and gained its current name, residents and tourists enjoyed the island as a recreational destination. In the 1940s and 1950s, Black east-siders made Belle Isle their own by gathering at the park for socials and church picnics. Mistinguette Smith, founder of the Black/Land Project, who recently visited Detroit to interview Black women about their views of land, found that Belle Isle was a focal point of these women’s stories. For Black women in the city, memories of good times on Belle Isle — walking along the river’s edge with friends, wearing shorts and holding ice cream cones — capture a period of contentment rich with the joys of community. This feeling of pleasure, pride, and connection with the crown jewel of the city’s parks is something that Detroiters cannot afford to lose.

Black children enjoying Belle Isle in 1955. Photo by Robert Frank.

If Detroit is a black city, then Belle Isle is black land. It is precious, peaceful, protected land held in trust for the people of the city. Land is the basis for human livelihood and prosperity. And yet, across this nation and for centuries, African Americans have had valuable land stripped out from under us– think of those 40 acres that never materialized after the Civil War, of the many black families who lost farms to illegal deals and swindles after Reconstruction, of the Geechee and Gullah communities on the sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina who lost their land to resort development, and of the struggling residents of Detroit who are losing their own backyards to foreclosure.

Family picnics near Belle Isle beach with view of downtown Detroit July, 2012.

The loss of Belle Isle to private purchasers, beholden only to themselves, would be a sad addition to this lamentable list. After a sale of that magical isle with its majestic trees and shimmering waters — condos, casinos, exclusive clubs and gated communities are unlikely to be too far behind.

As a public place owned by the city, a commons enjoyed by all residents and visitors, Belle Isle is priceless. I dare say that Detroit’s properly elected government officials know this. But what about a wildly empowered emergency manager whom Governor Snyder might impose? I cannot be so sure.

Mayor Dave Bing (r) stands at attention as Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (center) discusses proposed state “lease” of Belle Isle Sept. 12., 2012. At left is George Jackson, CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and to Bing’s right is Keith Craig of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources/VOD photo

 Council meets Thurs. Jan. 24 @ 1 p.m. and Mon. Jan. 28, votes Jan. 29     Proposed “lease” changes are insignificant, no help to Detroit                              State gets all revenue, grants, pays no rent, no improvement $$ guarantee  City pays expenses, bonds, debt; no jobs or contracts guaranteed

By Diane Bukowski 

January 23, 2013 

DETROIT – The Detroit City Council “Rogue Six” are conspiring to give the city’s most gorgeous jewel, Belle Isle, to the state by Jan. 29, fast-tracking a proposed “lease” with no cost to the state at hearings Jan. 24 and 28. Their tactics are identical to those used in the Hantz Farms land grab. 

Detroit City Council Rogue Six: Ken Cockrel, Jr., Saunteel Jenkins, Gary Brown, Charles Pugh, Andre Spivey, James Tate

VOD has obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, already signed by Recreation Department Director Patricia Minter, and Acting Corporation Counsel Edward Keelean., who has replaced Krystal Crittedon, fired by the Rogue Six. Click on Belle Isle proposal 1 17 13  to read entire proposal. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson at Council hearing on Belle Isle Sept. 25, 2012.

“The cover sheet from the Purchasing Department labels this as revenue, with 100 percent state-funding,” Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said at a Council meeting Jan. 22. 

“The value of Belle Isle has been appraised at least at $280 million, which is being totally ignored,” Watson continued. “This is the same kind of faulty logic that led to the giveaway of Cobo Hall. Belle Isle is a jewel, but here comes an alleged contract, basically saying the value of Belle Isle is nothing, just give it to the state to operate with the city still paying all the bills and getting no revenue. What kind of shadow government is running the city today? 

One group has proposed turning Belle Isle into an independent commonwealth, with skyscraper condos and other amenities for the wealthy.

“The state says it already has the majority of the City Council. The Council is not operating with all nine members,” Watson contended. “There is still a law on the books that says the city can’t enter into a contract if the contractor owes the City money. The state still owes us over $240 million. You can get rid of Krystal Crittendon, but you can’t get rid of the law. Somebody has decided they want to turn Belle Isle into a playground for the rich.” 

Councilman James Tate is  chair of the Neighborhood and Community Services Committee, set to meet with the entire Council, the state, George Jackson of the Economic Growth Corporation, and the Detroit Police Department Thursday, Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. (Click on Neighborhood, Community Services Committe 1-24-13 agenda.) He contended a “working group” of three along with the outside representatives spent long hours to revise last year’s proposal. 

Council member James Tate at Council hearing Aug. 7, 2012 after PA 4 was placed on ballot.

“Our goal was  to put together a proposal that would have the City of Detroit’s best interest at heart,” he said. “I want to give each member of this body a chance for input on Thurday, then have a public hearing on Monday. I suggested we vote Jan. 29 and put this thing to bed, vote it up or down. There were some items  we and State each wanted, but weren’t able to get, but the group did the best we could.” 

In fact, the proposed lease, compared to the lease presented last year, has very insignificant and condescending changes which still don’t provide the city with any revenue, guaranteed jobs or Detroit-based business participation, and nothing in lease payments. The state still claims the cost of its maintenance of Belle Isle is sufficient to compensate for lease payments, but still promises no set figure that it will spend on Belle Isle improvements. The “lease” remains at 30 years, with two possible 30 year extensions.

 The entrance fee, which many previously believed would be set aside for park improvements, is still the $10 a year state pass for all parks, with no guarantees that any of it will be set aside for Belle Isle. There appears to be some conflict between Tate and the State regarding whether the state police will patrol the island, which the Council at first said it would discuss in closed session.

However, after additional discussion, the Council, afraid of public reaction and challenges under the Open Meetings Act, said all sessions on Belle Isle would be open to the public.

The chart below describe provisions of the original “lease,” which still remain in the current lease. Click on Belle-isle-lease-VOD3 to read VOD’s story on the original proposal, which contains a link to the previous version of the “lease.”

 The Council did vote for interim city designation of Belle Isle as a “historic site.” It is already on the register of National Historic Places. (Click on BI historic designation for text of resolution, submitted by Councilwoman Watson.)

Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, however, at first opposed the vote.

Coucilwoman Saunteel Jenkins.

“I support the study, but have concerns with an interim designation. There are federally-funded repairs to the MacArthur bridge on the agenda today, plus I have concers\ns  concerns because whatever happens [with a historic designation] it would limit our ability to carry out the plan.”

She appeared to be concerned that the proposed lease might be blocked by the designation.

Jenkins later introduced a discussion of the number of lawsuit settlements on the agenda for the day, most of them for police brutality. She claimed cases such as one involving a house break-in by a youth benefit the “criminals” in the city.

Rafael Jones, 14, leads march for Justice for Aiyana and Charles Jones April 23, 2012 at Frank Murphy hall, with grandmother Mertilla Jones (l), aunt LaKrystal Sanders (r). Charles Jones is being held without bail on trumped up charges while 7-year-old Aiyana’s klller, Detroit cop Joseph Weekley, is free on personal bond. No other police officials involved in the raid on her home May 16, 2012 have been charged.

An enthusiastic discussion ensued, during which every Council member chimed in regarding the problem of “youth violence” and “crime” in Detroit as if they are the city’s primary concerns. No one put any blame on the police department and rampant ongoing brutality.

No one discussed what many Detroiters have termed the “lawlessness” of city and state officials, particularly violations of the Open Meetings Act by City Council over the last year, as hundreds of Detroiters have been forced to stand in the hallway unable to see or hear vital Council meetings on the Consent and Milestone Agreements and other issues.

Most mayoral candidates so far have made “crime” the focus of their campaigns, instead of the steady de-construction of Detroit by criminal politicans, banks, and mortgage companies.

One Detroiter told VOD, “Why isn’t it up to the people to vote on what happens to Belle Isle?” Detroit Tyrone Travis has cited state law which states a popular vote is required on most matters the state legislature deals with.

“Pastors, community leaders and citizens, has the time come to take to the streets and shut Detroit down–no cars in, no cars out?,” asked former mayoral candidate and community activist Jerroll Sanders in a column on her Facebook page furing last year’s discussion of the Belle Isle “lease.”

Jerroll Sanders

“The taking of assets in Detroit is racism prima facie,” Sanders said. “In less than seven years, Michigan State officials, colluding with selected members of Detroit’s City Council, the City’s current and former mayors, and powerful backers, seized Detroit’s billion dollar art institute, billion dollar waterfront convention facility, prime golf courses, thousands of acreage of camp and park land, billion dollar water assets, billion dollar historical museum assets, as well as countless other properties and conferred them to suburban and personal corporate interests, often without providing one dime in return.”

Bele Isle is part of the heritage of Detroit”s children, who have been deprived of virtually everything else, including jobs, schools, recreation centers, and just treatment by the police and courts.
STOP THE TAKEOVER!

 Related VOD articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/17/council-sabotages-oct-18-public-hearing-on-belle-isle-lease/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/17/city-council-members-favorable-to-revised-lease-sept-25/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/27/peoples-rally-hands-off-belle-isle-council-hearing-thurs-oct-4-1-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/18/hands-off-belle-isle-rally-and-march-sat-sept-22-12-noon-casino/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/18/councilwoman-watson-hears-citizens-on-belle-isle-rally-at-belle-isle-casino-sat-sept-22-12-noon-council-hearing-tues-sept-25-1-pm/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/15/90-yr-belle-isle-lease-entry-fees-go-to-state-fedstate-cops-to-patrol-council-hearing-mon-sept/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/14/belle-isle-in-detroit-is-our-last-dance/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/08/05/save-belle-isle-save-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/30/occupy-belle-isle-stop-the-takeover-of-detroit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/30/belle-isle-belongs-to-us-2/

Detroit and Highland Park students and parents participating in the Journey for Justice campaign will testify in Washington D.C. about nationwide discrimination against students of color in the public schools. School board members Elena Herrada (2nd from left) and Tawanna Simpson (r) are in front row.

 VOD: story on press conference with comments is forthcoming shortly. 

Students who are traveling to Washington stand during press conference at Dexter Elmhurst Center Jan. 23, 2013.

Students and parents listen intently to speakers. At left is Tom Stephens of the National Lawyers Guild who also apoke and will be going on the trip.

Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover is a coordinator of the J4J campaign.

School Board president Lamar Lemmons speaks at press conference.

Maiyoua Vang, co-coordinator of Washington trip.

Jorge Parras (r), GM Colombian worker on hunger strike with 200 others after being fired for being injured on the job, outside the 2013 Detroit Auto Show at Cobo Hall.

                                                                                                                                                                200 GM workers from Colombian plant on hunger strike to protest firing of workers injured on job, as elite celebrate at auto show

U.S. autoworkers protest wages, conditions; Detroiters protest poverty and Right to Work law 

By Diane Bukowski 

January 21, 2013 

Statue of Detroit hero Joe Louis, fists at the ready, turns back on wealthy elite attending “Charity” preview of auto show Jan. 18, 2013.

DETROIT – During the 2013 Detroit auto show, the international media, executives from big corporations and banks, politicians with dollar signs in their eyes, and other assorted  wealthy white folks in backless evening gowns and shoes on stilts, black tie and tails have flooded downtown Detroit like it was the wealthy country of Monaco.

“We really get the feel that there is even more activity than there has been over the past five or six years,” Michael O’Callaghan, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the [Detroit Convention and Visitors] bureau, told the Detroit News.. “The show will bring somewhere between $300 million, $400 million to southeast Michigan. Those dollars are gigantic, especially in January.  . . . At Metro Detroit hotels, the increased revenue over the two-week period is in excess of $33 million.”

Larry Simon (l) of Simon’s BBQ, ejected from Cobo Hall after regionalization.

The figures do not include the majority of Black and resident-owned businesses from Detroit. The few Black owned-businesses which had franchises inside Cobo Hall, where the auto show was held, lost them after Cobo Hall was regionalized under the administration of then interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.

VOD spotted City Council President Charles Pugh and a friend at the gala “charity” preview Jan. 18, whose attendance was likely 90 percent white, and managed to catch a shot of him on the run. He repeatedly ducked away as VOD tried to photograph him. Not surprising, since the Big Three, along with mortgage companies and privatizers, have been largely responsible for the devastation of Detroit, moving well-paid unionized jobs away from the city to the South and overseas.

City Council President Charles Pugh shows up at Auto Show charity preview. He repeatedly ducked VOD camera afterwards.

Like Pugh and the rest of the Council’s Rogue Six, the daily media has ignored the reality of Detroit, the poorest major city in the country, where 51 percent of Detroit public schools children live below the poverty rate, and the unemployment rate continues to skyrocket. 

Like those who refuse to see homeless people on the streets, well-heeled auto show attendees pointedly ignored protests by laid-off and increasingly impoverished auto workers and Detroiters. GM was touted by the daily media as king of the auto show. 

Autoworkers Caravan at Auto Show Jan. 14, 2013.

A GM worker from Colombia who has been on hunger strike for 55 days because GM fired him and 200 co-workers after they became disabled due to injuries on the job was the focus of the first protest, sponsored by the Autoworkers Caravan, on Jan. 13 and 14. The only media  present, other than those from the progressive left , was an Argentinian reporter. 

Jorge Parras of Colombia, on hunger strike for 55 days.

“I have a spinal injury,” Jorge Parras, the single father of a five-year-old daughter, told VOD as he sat on a chair, covered with blankets.  Due to his hunger strike, he said, he is experiencing “a lot of headaches, a lot of nausea, pain all over my body, extreme cold, and debilitation.” 

“We hope for a prompt solution because our families are going through extremely difficult times,” Parras said. “Our children, our comrades have been evicted from their homes, and are hungry and desperate. This is why we take such drastic measures.” 

He thanked everyone for their support and asked all union members and workers to add theirs. Statements have already been issued by workers in Brazil and Germany. Parras has been in the U.S. for five months. Parras attended demonstrations against Right to Work legislation in Lansing in December, and also traveled with a national delegation by bus to protest the School of the Americas, the CIA’s terrorist training center. 

Former UAW Local 160 Pres.Norbin Thompson expresses solidarity with Colombian hunger strikers.

Many of the hunger strikers sewed their mouths shut until infection set in, to shame GM. The workers include 200 who have lost their jobs at GM’s Colomotores assembly plant due to work-related injuries. Prior to starting the hunger strike, they set up a tent encampment at the U.S. Embassy. To date, despite mediation, GM only agreed to a financial settlement of $500,000 to 12 workers, and refused to re-hire any workers. The workers refused the settlement and have continued their hunger strike, vowing not to end it until their demands are met. 

“Due to poor working conditions, ASOTRECOL (Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colombia), suffer many medical problems including herniated discs, carpal tunnel, tendonitis, chronic ringing in the ears, spinal injuries and cancer,” according to the Autoworkers Caravan newsletter. 

Autoworkers Caravan included members of Beat Back Right to Work, which is mobilizing for a general strike to stop the war on working and poor people.

“ASTRECOL is demanding that GM admit its responsibility, improve health and safety, compensate them for being let go, and rehire them for jobs they can perform. They also want GM to recognize their union. Their encampment, now in its 410^th day, aims to pressure the U.S. government, [then] a 20 percent owner – to force GM to honor their demands.” 

The Autoworkers Caravan also petitioned United Auto Workers International President  Bob King to intervene in the situation, and held a demonstration in front of GM’s headquarters on East Jefferson last August. As a result, UAW VP Joe Ashton and UAW health and safety reps went to Colomotores, to no avail. King was not present at the press conference in front of the Auto Show, but instead went to court to get permission to hold a protest demanding that the UAW be able to organize Nissan plants in the South. 

Members of Good Jobs Now! and NAN outside auto show Jan. 18, 2013.

Former UAW Local 160 President Norbin Thompson also spoke at the press conference in support of Parras and his comrades. He said he drank water only for 22 days to support the hunger strike. 

“Their struggle resonates because we go through the same things here, but not as severe,” Thompson said. “There is a parallel system of how corporations run here and there. GM has all the capital, the workers have none. We ought to be able to control at least whether out jobs injure us. We are asking for nothing but justice. What is happening in Colombia is migrating here. The workers cannot continue to endure this.” 

For updates, and to sign a pledge of support, go to http://www.witnessforpeace.org and http://www.asotrecol.com. 

Good Joba Now! and NAN protest at auto show Jan. 18, 2013.

Martha Grevatt, a UAW worker for 25 years who currently works at the GM Warren Stamping Plant, addressed the concerns of her co-workers across the U.S. 

“GM went into bankruptcy in 2007 and came out in 2011,” she said. “Workers wanted to make gains as a result, but we have not. We have had no wage increase since 2006; we no longer have cost-of-living allowances; we have an unequal and divisive two-tier wage schedule. Hiring new hourly workers with these concessions has been more advantageous to the companies.” 

Elite “ladies” appear shocked as workers and poor invade Auto Show with legal oberver (in green hat) Jan. 18, 2013.

She added, “We don’t get overtime on Saturdays; overtime only comes after 40 hours in the week. We have outrageous new work schedules which don’t allow us to choose weekends off, which hurts workers who have been forced to move elsewhere to follow their jobs, because they can’t go home to see their families regularly. Since 1979, 267 auto plants have closed in the U.S., half of them since 2004.” 

Father and child were among protesters who entered auto show Jan. 18, 2013.

On Friday, Jan. 18, members of Good Jobs Now and the National Action Network loudly protested outside the auto show as busloads of elegantly dressed people were dropped off at the “charity” preview, to gather around the Cobo Hall statue of Joe Louis, his fists at the ready, drink free champagne and watch luxurious new cars roar up and down the lobby. 

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and the Republican heads of both houses of the state legislature, responsible for making Michigan a Right to Work (for less) state, along with Detroit mayoral candidate Mike Duggan, were in attendance. 

Mike Duggan, who wants to be Detroit’s first white mayor since before Coleman Young, joshes with his lackeys at Auto Show Jan. 18, 2013.

Protesters loudly chanted against Snyder and Right to Work, banging drums and using bullhorns, as attendees scurried inside. Police roped off auto access to Cobo Hall for several blocks, but the protesters took possession of the streets across from Cobo anyway. 

They included a large number of Black youth and very informally (and warmly) dressed adults, who decided after enduring the bitter cold for a while to make their presence known inside. They marched across the street to Cobo Hall and invaded the gala as shocked attendees gaped and showed their fright. They mingled with the rich white elite, roving through the lobby without police interference, until Rev. Charles Williams II concluded the protest with a prayer group.

Rev. Chas. Wms. II leads prayer at end of invasion. He explicitly warned demonstrators not to “turn over tables,” etc.