Pause on Hemlock Park, Housing Shortage, (Alyssa) Pilot Flying High, Upper Michigan Today Expanding, WBUP Sold, Questionable Restaurant Reviews, and Where Are the Doctors?
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
TAP THE BRAKES on the Hemlock Park housing development on 553, out toward Marquette Mountain…”We’re working with the city on a new direction,” says Bethany Cody, Veridea’s residential real estate director. “The project is still going forward. We just want to make sure we get it right.” Trees have been cleared for a road in the development, but otherwise, building has been paused for now…Are escalating materials and labor costs an issue? That’s part of it, Cody says. She expects the new plans to be solidified soon.
Hemlock Park was being billed as a new neighborhood consisting of 60-70 townhomes and bungalows, with a playground and nature preserve, a convenient 10 minutes from downtown…Starting price for the units was originally thought to be maybe $300,000. Affordable. But that was before the materials and labor inflation.
A further note: the city is spending $2 million for new streets, lighting, sidewalks, water and sewer lines at the development, so the project has to proceed one way or another…We should know more about it in the months ahead.
OUR MUCH TALKED-ABOUT housing shortage is more than just a Marquette phenomenon…As reported in Rural Insights, 59% of officials in the UP’s towns, villages and townships say they have too few single family homes, and 61% say they need more multi-family housing, as well…Those numbers have risen rapidly in the last six years…The apparent reason: Developers and builders, facing rising costs, are reluctant to move forward with their projects.
“I’M FASCINATED WITH flying and I just love to travel.” That’s Digs co-owner Alyssa Digneit talking about her recent decision to take flying lessons…She’s completed 20 hours of flying with an instructor and recently took her first one-hour solo flight…No problems, total confidence…Her instructor has taught her how to deal with stalls and emergency landings…She’s hoping to get her private pilot’s license by the end of the year…Oh, and Alyssa’s maiden name? Pilot.
IT’S CERTAINLY NOT a fly-by-night festival…The Fresh Coast Film Festival is now seven years old. It’s coming up October 19-22…Four days to watch 85 films at 5 venues in town, along with 13 outdoor adventures. “The support from this community has been great,” says festival co-founder Bugsy Sailor. “We want this festival to become a cornerstone in Marquette.”…The festival features documentaries celebrating the outdoors, the culture, and the resilient spirit of the people in the UP and the Upper Midwest.
UPPER MICHIGAN TODAY, the locally produced talk show on Fox UP, will be expanding to an hour on October 16th. It’ll run from 9-10am. The show, which first went on the air over a year ago, features Elizabeth Peterson and Tia Trudgeon talking about events in the UP and across the nation, interviewing guests, and frequently leaving the TV studio for little adventures…Informative, entertaining stuff…"The extra half hour will give them an opportunity to go deeper into stories,” says station GM Rick Rhoades. “The impact the show has had on ratings and revenue has been dramatic.” Rhoades says we can expect more locally produced shows from TV6 and Fox UP in the years ahead for one simple reason—viewers and advertisers like them.
MEANTIME, ANOTHER LOCAL station, WBUP, is being bought by Morgan Murphy Media, a family-owned chain of TV and radio stations…The purchase deal also includes two other TV stations and 5 radio stations…The deal’s expected to go through by the end of the year…The impact on WBUP? GM Jeff Harju is optimistic: “It’ll be business as usual,” he says, “but we’re really looking forward to working with them because they’ll have more resources to work with.”
IT’S HARD TO be optimistic about our government these days…1) A shutdown of the federal government, being urged by a small but stubborn group of Congressmen and women, looms ahead…2) A former President and leading candidate for the 2024 nomination is facing, oh, about a zillion indictments…and 3) Congress is threatening impeachment of our current, elderly President who’s likely to face the indicted former President in next year’s presidential election. Not a pretty picture for the world’s leading democracy...
No surprise, then, that trust in the government is near a 70 year low, according to a Pew survey. Only 16% of us say they trust the federal government most of the time…According to the survey, most of us say we feel “exhausted” when thinking about politics…Yeah, that sounds about right.
WHAT CAN WE make of restaurant reviews? You know, the Internet reviews written by everyday diners…A case in point: Google ratings of Horizons Steakhouse, high atop the Island Resort and Casino, have been dismal. 3.2 out of 5.0. Not good at all…Some diners raved about the food, service, and ambience, but others blasted it…Our experience? Exquisite, delicious, attentive. Among the very best meals we’ve had in the UP…Conclusion: Horizons must be suffering from inconsistency with its staff.
FAST FOOD? YECCH! That might be the reaction of many of us have had. But…McDonalds coffee? We’re almost embarrassed to say this, but it’s good. Consistently good. And it’s cheap.
SO, THE PATIENT is concerned about a recently prescribed medication he’s been taking. Something doesn’t seem quite right…He calls his doctor’s office and asks for an appointment. The response? “Sorry, the doctor is all booked up until January.” Say what?!…Regrets from the office are expressed with the promise that they’ll try to find an opening somehow, sometime…The dumbfounded patient (who’d been with the doctor for nearly two decades) hangs up and calls two other doctors’ offices. Any possibility of switching doctors? he asks. No is the reply, the doctors aren’t taking any more patients, they’re all filled up…(Sigh)…Fortunately, two days later, the original doctor’s office calls back—they can squeeze in the longtime patient in a couple of weeks…Better than nothing, but still, it makes you wonder what’s going on with our health care system.
WE’RE SHORT ON doctors, it seems, but we’re also short on nurses, on teachers, on cops, on retail, restaurant and hotel workers…Unemployment remains under 4%…Where the heck have all our workers gone?
POEM OF THE WEEK
A Time to Talk
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
—Robert Frost
Re: WBUP - "Business as usual" is what got them to the state they're in now. "Business as usual" is what eventually caused long-time employees who were holding the place together to jump ship, mostly due to low pay, no raises for years, and no end in sight for either one of those situations, and an overwhelming workload because the entire company is horribly understaffed. Now it's being run locally by a bunch of rookies who are trying to figure it out as they go, with hiring practices that are basically "you have a pulse? You're hired." Current ownership would cry poverty when asked to fix something or give someone a raise, yet managed to put together $90k to win a radio license at an FCC auction for the Houghton area. The last thing WBUP needs is "Business as usual." They need a complete overhaul with competent people in upper management if they hope to compete with the other stations. I wish them the best. I really do. I hope MMM is up to the challenge of turning the market's 2nd oldest TV station (almost 30 years) around into something.
To understand what is happening with regards to the doctors and overall employment issues as well as political issues mentioned and overall societal, economic, and geopolitical issues, several books will give a great deal of insight.
1) The Fourth Turning by Strauss & Howe
2) Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
3) The Crash Course by Chris Martenson
4) The Five Stages of Collapse by Dmitri Orlov
The "fun" is only starting. This article gives some hint as to the momentum that is starting.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/27/costco-is-selling-gold-bars-and-they-are-selling-out-within-a-few-hours.html
P.S. It isn't anthropogenic climate change. That's a red herring. I have to laugh when I see commercials where Apple executives are telling Mother Nature of their plans to remove all carbon from the atmosphere by such-and-such date. Really? Pray tell, what are all the plants going to utilize for photosynthesis? Then there's the talk about greenhouse gases where they conveniently seem to forget about water vapor, one of the most ubiquitous greenhouse gases. The underwater volcanic explosion in Tonga put an enormous amount of water vapor into the atmosphere that will take years to clear. Pollution is definitely a problem but carbon dioxide is not. Plant life (and in turn animal life) has thrived on the planet during the times of highest carbon dioxide. Sun cycles and magnetic pole movement are a definite problem but I don't see mankind as having any solutions to controlling volcanic explosions, sun cycles, and magnetic pole migration. We can control debt, however, but seem largely uninterested in doing so. Let the good times roll until ...