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

Gwen Mingo (r) talks with Jimmy Cole at Call 'em Out Dinner Feb. 2010

 DETROIT – Some who attended Mayor Dave Bing’s community forums on his “Detroit Works” plan were skeptical of his assurance that citizens would participate in the planning of Detroit. They noted that Bing did not place on his official advisory board representatives of Citizens District Councils (CDC’s). 

Gwendoline Mingo, who heads the Coordinating Council of all Detroit district councils, said state law, which established these councils, requires all Michigan cities to consult CDC’s on any “urban renewal” plan for their areas. She cited Michigan Public Act 344 of 1947, known as the “Blighted Area Rehabiliation Act.” (see below). 

P.A. 344 of 1947 reads in part: 

“The local official responsible for preparation of the development plan within the district area shall periodically consult with and advise the citizens’ district council regarding all aspects of the plan, including the development of new housing for relocation purposes located either inside or outside of the development area. The consultation shall begin before any final decisions by any local planning agency or local legislative body regarding the development plan other than the designation of the development area.   

 

 

The consultation shall continue throughout the various stages of the development plan, including the final implementation of the plan. The local officials responsible for the development of the plan shall incorporate into the development plan the desires and suggestions of the citizens’ district council to the extent feasible. A local commission, public agency, or local legislative body of any municipality shall not approve any development plan for a development area unless there has previously been consultation between the citizens’ district council and the local officials responsible for the development plan. A record of the meetings, including information and data presented, shall be maintained and included in official presentation of the proposed development plan to the local legislative body. 

 

The chief executive officer of the municipality shall give the citizens’ district council written notice of any contemplated zoning change, hearing, or condemnation proceedings within the district area. The notice shall be given at least 20 days before the effective date of the change or the date of the hearing or proceedings. Upon receiving a request from the citizens’ district council, the local legislative body shall hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning change or condemnation proceedings. Each citizens’ district councilmay call upon any city department for information.”

“What are they going to do about the millions of dollars allocated by the federal government [under Obama’s recovery act], because they promised to improve the quality of life for poor people and seniors,” Mingo asked. 

She said past mayors had “embezzled the money” and she fears the Bing administration plans will fall into the same pattern.

Mingo is still pursuing a lawsuit brought by the residents of Brush Park against the city for its demolition of that neighborhood to benefit corporate developers. 

Historic Brush Park homes

“People said they were going to help us and they did not help,” she said. “The work they said they were going to do they did not do. They got people out of their neighborhoods, as they could give the land to rich developers at low cost or for free, with no property taxes for 12 years. 

“That’s why it is necessary for elected district councils to protect the rights of citizens and make sure state and federal money to help the residents is not misappropriated.” 

Karen Marie Dumas, who leads the Mayor’s public relations department, denied the citizens’ district councils are being pushed aside.  Continue reading →

Bishop Charles Ellis praying for auto bail-out

Mayor Dave Bing held his first “community forum” on “restructuring” Detroit at Ellis’s palatial temple at Seven Mile and Telegraph, Sept. 14. Ellis also owns and operates the Rogell golf course, which previously belonged to the city, and is negotiating to take over four other public courses. He runs two charter schools and a senior apartment complex among other revenue-producing enterprises

In Dec. 2008, Bishop Ellis conducted a well-publicized prayer service calling on Congress to vote for the multi-billion dollar auto industry bail-out. 

 “ . . .If the auto industry gets their bail-out, they are going to FIRE thousands of workers to survive a little while longer until they need another taxpayer bailout,” said ‘Professor Tracey’ on a local blog. “Bishop Ellis and his flock needed to hold a prayer service for new jobs OUTSIDE of the auto industry . . . . not something that will keep white auto executives collecting bonuses for failing at their jobs! . . . .the very idea of holding a prayer service for the auto industry when so many black folks are losing their homes, dying in Iraq, struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol, languishing in prisons, not getting a quality education, not saving for the future, not safe in their own homes, etc. What a waste!”!”

Phillip Cooley

CO-CHAIR: Philip Cooley, owner Slow’s Bar BQ, developer

“Since launching the perpetually packed Slows five years ago, Cooley has morphed into one of the city’s most-visible urban activists . . . .Up for grabs, however, is whether longtime Detroiters will buy into the progressive agenda of this small-town transplant and his like-minded allies — mostly young, white and suburban-raised — and their affection for the city’s Rome-like ruins.” (Detroit News 5/6/10.)

Cooley and his brother established O’Connor Development Group, LLC in 2004, a real estate agency located in the same building as Slow’s. Today, O’Connor Development . . . .also owns about eight commercial and residential properties in Detroit,” says Crain’s. “Several of the properties have been renovated and are rental loft apartments while other properties are in the development stage.” In that article, Cooley called Detroit “a blank canvas.”

Several years ago, Cooley and a group of Corktown newcomers posted a controversial email establishing committees to transform the area:

(excerpt) “Team Bagley Market: These folks will start organizing complaints against Bagley Market, as well as rogue acts of bad will. We hope to make their operation as difficult as possible until the day when we can afford to swoop in and buy them out to open our own specialty grocery;The Bermuda Triangle: This includes . . . activism to stop the free handouts in our neighborhood that facilitate the drugs, crime and general malcontent that thrives from St Peters to the Train Station to the Mission on Michigan. Phil and I are hoping to go talk to the people at the church next week and will give an update. We’ll try being nice first.”

Allegedly, Cooley et. al. backed off and began cooperating with Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman of St. Peters, which sponsors a soup kitchen, as well as Charles Sorel, brother-in-law of Michigan Citizen publisher Catherine Kelly, and founder of another white-frequented bistro, Le Petit Zinc.

Lydia Gutierrez

CO-CHAIR Lydia Gutierrez, Mexican Foods LLC, SWDBA

Crain’s: “The president and CEO of Detroit-based Hacienda Mexican Foods LLC oversees three facilities, 80-plus employees and a company with $8 million to $10 million in revenue. Gutierrez and her late husband Ricardo started Hacienda, a manufacturer and distributor of Mexican food products, 22 years ago.” 

Crain’s quotes Gutierrez regarding some of her concerns:“What kinds of businesses will help to fuel more business in Corktown, what’s going on in Bagley, and how does that connect with Riverfront Conservancy, the greenway, the (Ambassador) Bridge, downtown Detroit?”

The Southwest Detroit Business Association joined in the One Detroit coalition of Mexican, Asian and Arab-American business owners who helped defeat the initial proposal for a city-funded African Town in 2006, despite the fact that the city has invested millions in the neighborhood known as Mexican Town.  

Alice Thompson

Alice Thompson, Executive Director, Black Family Development,  member Change for Better Schools 

 Black Family Development is a non-profit that raked in $28.9 million in revenues during 2008. According to recent grant applications, it works closely with the Skillman Foundation and their Good Neighborhoods/Good Schools Initiatives.

In a grant application linking the Osborn and Clark Park neighborhoods, BFDI is partnering with DPS, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the Detroit Parent Network, Child Trends, Southwest Solutions, Inc. and City Year. Matching funds are expected from the Skillman, W. K. Kellogg, and Kresge Foundations.

Osborn High School and Clark Park Elementary are expected to be torn down and replaced by K-14 campuses under DPS Czar Robert Bobb’s $500.5 million bond issue.

Thompson is a member of “Change for Better Schools,” the coalition that tried unsuccessfully to get a proposal for Bing’s mayoral control of DPS on this November’s ballot.  .     

Heaster Wheeler to right of Dave Bing at ALPACT dinner

Heaster Wheeler, Exec. Director Detroit NAACP

Wheeler works closely with Rev. Wendell Anthony, who recently hosted a forum featuring speakers from numerous law enforcement agencies, addressing crime in Detroit. Wheeler himself serves on the board of ALPACT (Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust), at a time of rising numbers of killings by police regionally. ALPACT was founded in the wake of 9/11, saying “all Americans are feeling a mix of pain and agony, patriotism and unity.” Its stated goal is challenge rising “bigotry and hate.”

Its first meeting in Detroit, featuring then Mayor Dennis Archer and numerous law enforcement officials as speakers, was swamped by victims of police brutality from metro Detroit who denounced the panelists. Protesters from the family of Imam Luqman Abdullah, killed by the Detroit FBI in a raid last November, and their supporters demonstrated outside an ALPACT dinner held at the RenCen only weeks after the Imam’s death. Detroit FBI head Andrew Agenda and attorney Nabil Ayad co-chaired the dinner, which featured U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as a speaker. 

To date, neither the federal nor state governments have released any conclusions about their investigations of the Imam’s virtual execution (he was shot 21 times). Twelve members of his mosque, which ministered to the needs of residents of one of Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods, still face charges based on conversations reported by FBI informants. 

Wheeler also sits on the board of People and Land (PAL), “an organization focused on growth and change in Michigan, funded by the W.K. Kellog Foundation, according to its website.    Continue reading →

Parents, students supporters occupy Whittier School in Chicago

From the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) 

Dozens of parents, students and members of the community, organized by the Whittier Parents’ Committee, have been occupying the Whittier Dual Language School’s field house, in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. since Sept. 15. 

The Whittier Parents’ Committee is opposing the demolition of the field house, at a cost of $345,000, and demanding that the funds be used to remodel the field house.  The Parents’ Committee demands that a school library be placed in the remodeled field house and that much needed school programs be expanded.   Instead, the Chicago School Board wants to create a soccer field on the field house land to be used to be used by a nearby private school! 

The occupation continues to grow in strength, with hundreds of supporters stopping by every day to deliver food, water, and other supplies. There have been several attempts by the Chicago Police to break up the occupation, without success. 

Whitter occupation has brought broad media coverage

Background from the Parents’ Committee 

The Whittier Parents’ Committee is staging a sit-in to fight against the demolition of the Whittier Dual Language School’s field house (la Casita), in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The sit-in has been widely reported as the struggle of a community against the blind austerity cuts instituted by a cash-strapped school board. But in fact this struggle brings to light larger and more contentious issues in Chicago and nationally: control over Tax Increment Funding and the top-down reshaping of public education.

The Whittier Parents’ Committee has been organizing for seven years to push Pilsen alderman Daniel Solis to allocate some of the estimated $1 billion in Mayor Daley’s TIF coffers to their school for a school expansion – he finally agreed to give $1.4million of TIF funds for school renovation. Cynically, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has earmarked a part of this money for the destruction of the school’s field house, which has been used for years as a center for community organizing and services. This would directly undermine the ability of the Whittier community to organize and struggle for educational rights. Parents are demanding to be part of the decision-making process.

CPS has been conducting an extreme makeover of public education: privatization, demolitions, school closures and turnarounds, massive firings of seasoned teachers have been part of the large-scale redesign of public education. Public funds are being used to renovate schools that are privatized, while low income neighborhood schools are being starved of the most basic resources. The fight over the survival of this little field house is an important one in the larger struggles around educational rights, community self-determination and control over public land and institutions.  

Please sign the online petition in support of the Whittier Occupation by clinking on this link: http://www.petitiononline.com/whittier/petition.html

Continue reading →

UCHC and Michigan Legal services operate a joint mortgage foreclosure prevention project. This Grandmont homeowner lost her home to a predatory lender when she lost her job with American Axle. When she came to the UCHC/MLS project she was working as an Americorps volunteer and she and her son were facing eviction in 36th District Court. Through our mortgage foreclosure project she was able to obtain a buy out and not only did not lose her home, but now owns it FREE OF ANY MORTGAGE!

CDBG hearing brings protests

By Diane Bukowski 

DETROIT – Advocates for non-profit organizations that serve the homeless, youth, seniors, domestic violence victims and others protested  recommendations to cut funds to their programs during a Sept 21 City Council hearing.. Many of the programs have been funded for decades through the Community Development Block Grant/Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (CDBG/NOF), administered by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Such denials usually result in further cuts to organizations, who frequently use them as matches for funding from other sources. 

For this fiscal year, the city received over $40 million in CDBG funds alone. 

The Council’s City Planning Commission is recommending the cuts despite Mayor Dave Bing’s assertion to HUD that priorities in CDBG/NOF funding “are primarily for housing (homeless shelters/housing and home repair), development, and services for the homeless, youth and elderly. These decisions were based on projects submitted during the City’s CDBG proposal process, department recommendations, on-going or new development activities in the City, as well as priorities developed and considered during the proposal review process.” 

The statement is included in the city’s 2011 HUD Consolidated Action Plan. 

Marilyn Mullane, Exec. Dir. Michigan Legal Services

Marilyn Mullane, director of Michigan Legal Services (MLS), told the Council that the CPC recommended that MLS receive no funds because a back page was allegedly missing from one of three copies of the MLS application. 

MLS has provided free legal services for low-income families, including foreclosure prevention, and assistance in regaining child custody, divorce, bankruptcy, legal issues facing returning prisoners, and other matters, for over 30 years. 

“We don’t know what happens to our applications once the city receives them,” Mullane said. “The page could have accidentally been left in the envelope when city staff took it out. This is not a process that applies to for-profit organizations who procure contracts from the city. HUD allows technical defects to be corrected after they receive those applications.” 

Mullane said earlier that approximately 75 percent of the denials to all organizations were due to similar technicalities. 

Youth from Young Detroit Builders receive job training, education and counseling services

The Council has recommended that the United Community Housing Coalition (UCHC) receive a 50 percent cut in funding. 

“This year, we saved 4600 occupied homes from foreclosure,” UCHC director Ted Phillips told Council members. “We do more eviction defense work than any other agency in the city.”

 He said that UCHC, in existence for 33 years, sponsors several homeless placement programs and a landlord-tenant clinic that provides free legal services to defendants in 36^th District Court. Judges from 36^th District Court frequently refer defendants to UCHC for assistance. Contact numbers for the organization are included on court notices.  Continue reading →

Fires on Moenart Street Photo by Ian and Andrew Perrotta

Click Inferno on Moenart Street to access the video on Youtube.

This footage of the September 7 fires in the Moenart Street area of Detroit ( see link to video above) was taken by Ian and Andrew Perrotta, residents of the east side neighborhood. The two brothers, one of whom was once a firefighter, tried to extinguish the blaze that started in a neighbor’s garage. When they had done all they could, they decided to document the fire.

Anxiety and frustration gripped neighbors as high winds fanned the flames, causing the fire to spread quickly. The fire department and 911 were called numerous times by residents, but residents watched in desperation for more than an hour before the first truck came.

The fires quickly spread from the garage to the house in front Photo by Ian and Andrew Perrotta

Detroit was hit simultaneously by several raging firestorms that afternoon, which taxed the fire department’s ability to respond, due to massive budget cuts. Winds reaching 50 miles per hour that day caused poorly maintained power lines to go down, at least 750 in total.

Moenart Street residents said that the fire was a result of a power line that went down the day before. To find out more or to get involved with the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs, see link to CAUS at right on VOD website.

Residents on Detroit’s east side rejected Mayor Dave Bing’s claim that recent fires were a “natural disaster.” They said a small fire caused by a downed power line grew out of control because the underfunded fire department did not respond for at least an hour.

What remained of three houses the next day

After the September 7 windstorm brought down 750 power lines, fires engulfed 85 structures in the city of Detroit, including 29 occupied homes. In the days leading up to the fires, energy company DTE ignored repeated warnings from residents about dangerously malfunctioning electrical equipment.

According to residents on Moenart Street, a fire that swept through their block was started by a line that had actually come down the previous day. Three houses were completely destroyed, a fourth house was severely damaged, and at least six garages burned down. One block away on Bloom Street, another house was destroyed and several garages burned down.

The flames quickly spread from the garage to the house in front.

Moenart Street neighbors Tasha Butler, Andrew Perrotta, Ola and James Randolph Photo courtesy CAUS/wsws.org

“The fire started on the garage of my neighbor across the street,” Mr. Lee, said James Randolph, whose house was also damaged by the fire. “By the time the fire department arrived, the fire was out of control. Mr. Lee said the line was on the garage. He said he called DTE but they never came out.”

Tasha Butler, James’ daughter, added, “They said there was a line on the back of the house that was there on Monday. The   fire took place on Tesday.Their comments  echo statements by the Hargrave family on Robinwood Street. In that case, DTE also failed to respond to repeated calls about problems with the electrical lines.

Margaret, another resident, said, “It is not true that this was a natural disaster. I was on the porch when the fire erupted. We could smell that something was burning. We went to see where the fire was coming from and saw that it was because of the line.” Continue reading →

Rev. David Bullock speaks at press conference on illegal foreclosures, Rev. Rowe at his left, attorney Palmore and plaintiff Yvonne Cross at his right

DETROIT – A federal case set for a class action certification hearing Oct. 14 at 2 p.m., before U.S. District Court Judge Marianne Battani, could invalidate the foreclosures of more than 80,000 Wayne County residents while Warren Evans was Sheriff. So says attorney Chiketa Palmore, who along with Attorney Paul Nicoletti is representing 46 plaintiffs who say Evans’ office issued legally invalid sheriff’s deeds to take their homes. 

The suit, Sherie Williams, Yvonne Cross, et. al.  v. Wayne County Sheriff, has gained the support of Rev. Edwin Rowe of Central United Methodist Church,  Rev. David Bullock, Detroit Rainbow:PUSH leader,  and others who held a press conference at Rowe’s church Sept. 10. 

It contends that Evans never authorized six Wayne County employees to act as Deputy Sheriffs in certifying the sheriff’s deeds. In some cases, no auctions leading to the deeds were conducted. The defendants are Evans, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, the County Board of Commissioners, and Wayne County itself. 

“Our case is based on a hypertechnicality, but we are saying that if homeowners and taxpayers are held to the black letter of the law, public officials should be held to the same standard,” Palmore said. 

Former Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans

“If a homeowner goes one day past the six-month redemption period to pay taxes to reclaim their home, they lose their home. There’s no gray area, no wiggle reoom. Evans ignored a provision of the law which says that he himself must authorize the deed. Allegedly, he verbally told his undersheriff to appoint six or employees to do so, but there are no written documents to that effect. He issued a written affidavit after we filed suit, but that is after the fact.” 

The lawsuit specifies that Evans did not sign or authorize appointments of Deputy Sheriff, record them with the Wayne County Clerk, issue oaths of office to the erstwhile Deputies, or post the statutory bonds required. 

In some cases, says the suit, “The Sheriff’s sale was not conducted at the time and place stated in the Sheriff’s Deed that was subsequently recorded with the Wayne County Register o Deeds.” 

Palmore said District Court judges and a bankruptcy judge have issued decisions on their side in other areas of the country, while there have also been decision to the contrary. But she said, these are non-precedental decisions. U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani, who is hearing the case, will have the opportunity to render her own opinion Oct. 14. 

Palmore said the county is claiming “harmless error” in the case. 

“But you can’t get to ‘harmless error’ until you get past the point of the sheriff’s deed being invalid,” she contended. “How do you unring the bell?” 

Yvonne Cross with evicted belongings two years ago

The lawsuit charges fraud, gross negligence, taking without just compensation, and civil conspiracy, among other  allegations. Under terms of the Michigan Consumers’ Act, Nicoletti said earlier, property owners may be awarded compensatory damages, including costs of loss of the home’s contents and subsequent vandalism of the homes. 

In some cases where homes have not been damaged or vandalized, Palmore said, the plaintiffs may be able to move back into their properties pending re-institution of foreclosure proceedings. 

The county filed a motion to dismiss the case in July, claiming “that plaintiffs have either (1) failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted;(2) defendants are entitled to judgment on the pleadings; or (3) there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”  Continue reading →

Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly is sworn to represent all citizens regardless of race or economic status

FROM: CORNELL E. SQUIRES

TO: Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly

MICHGAN SUPREME COURT

Dear Chief Justice Kelly : 

 My civil lawsuit that was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court on August 12, 2009, now that a year have passed, I have been bombarded with ,Ethnic Bias and Racial Discrimination and  Willful  Refusal  to  enforce  and  honor  the  Michigan law   in the  Courtroom  of  Judge Kathleen MacDonald.  I filed my civil lawsuit in my attempt to get redress for a civil wrong committed  against  me   by  white  Defendants.  

Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McDonald

However, on  Friday  August 13 , 2010.  Judge Kathleen MacDonald  refused  to   allow  my  written  Motion  for  Reconsideration  – to  be  heard  in  open Court in  the  Wayne County  Circuit  Court  in  the  Civil  Action  of  Cornell  E  Squires vs  Carl  Arnett  et  al,  under  Case # 09-019877-PD. As a matter of fact every motion in my case that went before Judge Kathleen Mac Donald was denied–all 8 motions I filed before her. .

On “MOTIONS HEARINGS” days on Friday I noticed that Judge MACDONALD would always rule in favor the parties with the attorneys with no regard to any material facts the non attorney would present in her court!   She has a history of discrimination toward all non lawyer litigants that ever had cases before her.  I found particularly that in African American civil cases  Judge KATHLEEN MACDONALD always denied every non-lawyer litigant’s motion if an attorney represents the other party. Her record speaks for herself and its shows 99 .9% of all African American non lawyers’ Motions are denied in her courtroom.  

The only motion that‘s been granted was when Judge Macdonald was on a medical leave of absence.  My case has been in litigation for a year and a half, with only one motion granted in my favor. It was granted by acting Judge John D. O’HAIR in May 2010  O’Hair is a retired prosecutor acting judge for Kathleen Macdonald while she is on a leave of absence.   Continue reading →

Mistersky Power Plant

By Marshall Powell, from Detroit Uncovered

Detroit soon will jettison its Public Lighting Department, according to a city hall insider. 

“Detroit will be out of the public lighting business by the time your business is done,” Charles Beckham told Detroit Charter Commissioners, who must finish their work by the end of 2012. 

Beckham, Mayor Bing’s former chief administrative officer, was the guest speaker at a Commission meeting Sept. 14. He was invited to discuss the City’s enterprise departments, described as those that generate relatively significant revenue such as the municipal parking, building and safety, and water and sewerage departments. 

No stranger to Detroit politics, having been part of the good and sad of it, Beckham was Water and Sewerage director under Coleman A. Young, later joined the Kilpatrick administration and helped run Mayor Bing’s 2009 campaign. Beckham served as the Mayor’s chief administrative officer until he resigned in May. 

City workers protest privatization of PLD, loss of jobs for residents May 27

“The move is not to necessarily sell public lighting. That’s always controversial,” Beckham said. “These assets in the public lighting department cannot be sold without the approval of voters,” he said referring to the “old and antiquated” equipment at Detroit’s Mistersky Power Plant. 

Russ Bellant, a retired city worker, agrees with Beckham but only to a point. Citizens readily voice opposition to selling city assets but in this case that’s not the threat, Bellant said.  DTE never wanted to buy Misterksy, according to Bellant. “They just wanted it to go out of business to eliminate the competition.” 

“Although the PLD can’t be sold, it can be dismantled,” Bellant says. He contends that dismantling the PLD is exactly what mayors have been doing for the last 50 years. “Mayors have been under a lot of pressure and persuasion from the downtown business community, including DTE.” 

Bellant says Mayor Bing is stripping Public Lighting of its ability to generate revenue.  “What Bing is doing is he’s implementing the death of the public lighting department.” 

Bellant says the Water and Sewerage Department and Wayne State University are no longer PLD customers.

“Wayne State was a multi-million dollar a year customer. If you have these sources as customers, you can sell bonds. People who sell bonds know these folks are going to pay their bills.” Consequently, Bellant considers empty and shortsighted arguments that the city can’t support the PLD.

 Beckham disagrees. “We could save a lot of money by shutting down Mistersky and buying all our energy from DTE,” he told those attending the meeting held at the Fellowship Chapel church on the City’s west side. 

Shortly after taking office, Mayor Bing announced plans to decommission Mistersky within 90 days in favor of buying energy for DTE. The city currently buys 75 percent of its energy from DTE, according to Beckham. Mistersky is still up and running, although Beckham described it as feeble and lacking capacity to serve the city’s needs. Continue reading →