Brian, when I first came to Marquette in the 1970's, the mayor was female, Holly Greer, the head of the county board was female, Sally May, the prosecuting attorney was female, Pat Micklow, the TV6 anchor was female, Karen Rademacher, and President John Jamrich at NMU was working with those women to start the Women's Center first housed at NMU. We've always been a progressive community for women (the U.P.'s first plastic surgeon Dr. Constance Arnold) and minorities,(Drs. Bush Ahmad and Adam Brish) but not just because of their gender or race, but because they were here to make it a better place. All the more reason I continue to love where we live!
Born and raised in the Queen City of the North, I have come back to visit family and friends every few years over the past four decades. To say Marquette has changed in an understatement. Back in the mid-1980s every third house seemed to be for sale - cheap. Jobs were scarce, and the prevailing mood was doom and gloom. Nowadays the joint is jumping, to which I say “live long and prosper.”
Along with the removal of, “the two power plants that once acted as unsightly bookends on Marquette’s shoreline…” have also become the removal of jobs, a portion of Michigan’s energy independence, and a substantial local tax income. It’s up to each of us to determine if that exchange was fair or not.
Unfortunately there are some misgivings, misinformation and misrepresentation of others & their statements or positions in this article. It happens to start with the opening lines....
"A few of us will bemoan [the fact that MQT isn't what it used to be]. Most will not." This statement couldn't be more polar opposite from reality. Those who prefer things from before far outnumber those who prefer them now. This is evident while engaging with almost anyone who is old enough to have been here "before". And sorry - but a bunch of 20-somethings who are still growing up and figuring out their _own_ places in life not only lack the capacity to figure it out for an entire city - but also aren't even in a position to offer a qualified opinion as they weren't even (or were just barely) alive at that time. Consequently - their voice cannot be counted in this assessment.
It was noticed that the comparison and remembrances in the article jumped from the industrious period from the 40's, 50's and 60's - straight to today, while skipping over the mid 70's to mid 90's entirely, and the disastrous decade starting in the mid 90's. The claim made in that act was also that "Marquette has grown up" - and that the criteria for doing so is apparently nothing more than having coffee shops, pot shops, breweries, art galleries and a wine bar - all contributories to this "social center" label that has been mystically and inappropriately applied to the city - at least for a few months out of the year.
That's patent ridiculousness - and is once again almost the polar opposite of the reality of what constitutes "growing up". Being a "social center" does not make a community thrive, nor does it age well - especially when there are no teeth to back it up. A handful of university and medical elites, combined with a couple of local, 3rd-generation business owners (who haven't put in the work) that meet at those "grown up" locations a few weeks a year with all of the out-of-town well-to-doers (whose lakefront townhouses sit empty 11 months out of the year) sipping over-priced wine and faux designer coffee, pointing at and critiquing art which they know nothing about while congratulating each other on being masters of the universe does not give said teeth or any credence to the idea of being "grown up".
Marquette has always been the governmental center of the UP - despite it's tiny size in the scope of state and national politics. In many respects it is to the UP like what Chicago thinks it is to the state of Illinois - but on a far more microscopic scale. It occupies a tiny corner of a vast state full of good, hard-working people... but just like Chicago - it likes to sling its thing around and act like it speaks for the entirety of the state (if the UP were a state) while ignoring the majority of the people of the land. Truth be told - the city government has been despised by the residents of the city and the rest of the UP for decades - and it has consistently acted against the best interests of the citizens and residents who have called this area home for generations. This is what led to the mass exodus from the city and county in the 3 years after the base closed, with a slight recovery for 2012-2014 and a steady decline in the decade since. Insufficient and ineffective city and county governments driving the region further down the drain, combined with absolutely poor representation at the state and federal levels. Thankfully now with Karl in office - the UP will get the attention, recognition and weight on the state and national scales that it needs and deserves, and will have someone who truly believes in his soul of the strength and people of the UP as a whole - and not just one little city suffering from an identity crisis and has poor local government.
That recovery which began in 2010 was fueled by local residents, but was then capped off in 2014 by a sudden switch to massive tourism. This unnecessarily and artificially drove prices through the roof for everything under the sun, kick-started the "social center atmosphere" and once again began driving and pricing generational residents out of the region. The vision being pushed for that of a social center hinging largely on tourism which only brings money into the region for a few months of the year, with the city government trying its damdest to turn MQT into another Traverse City (which has limited accessible & visible shoreline), Mackinac Island or (wretch) Disney World - despite not having any of the resources or regional or national clout & attraction to accomplish such a thing. This resulted in residents staying away from the touristy parts of town, others leaving outright, and the myriad of shops and businesses along the lakefront, Third and Washington opening, closing and changing every 18-36 months as one after another tries and fails to sustain itself on "social center" and tourist business alone - while not being able to properly pay their staff, who cannot afford the artificially overpriced housing in the region - causing them to leave, too.
Sure - Marquette is being discovered by more and more visitors every year... but that is all they are - VISITORS. They are not the residents. They are not the generations of families that built this town from the railroads and ports days, through the patriotic and economically thriving (and stable) military and university days and who are now being pushed out by the overpriced and tourism days. Marquette has forgotten its own forest of residents for the trees of a few extra dollars and tourism notoriety. Those visitors are just that, though - just visitors. They have no attachments here. They have no vested interest. They come in, do their thing, spend a few dollars, make and leave their mess - and then they leave. They don't give a damn what happens here once they do, and they have no understanding of the impact they cause when they are here, or the aftershocks and aftermath to the community and its residents afterwards. The mayor's comments regarding tourism in the article are completely tone-deaf. She ignores the facts that the locals don't want tourism, and is displaying straight up ignorance about the large number of restaurants and shops that do fail here and shut their doors every single year. They really need to install revolving doors on both the front and back of all the shops along 3rd and Washington to make it just as easy to move in and move out as it would be go go in and out as a customer.
I might note that this was not a problem from 1974 through 1993. The city and county were stable and growing, stores stayed open in familiar locations and flourished, prices, real estate and crime were exceptionally low and the elitists were kept at bay thanks to the blue-collared nature of the city and surrounding region. All that combined with the base - Marquette County saw 150 million (in 1990 dollars - that'd be over 350 today) a year being pumped into the economy. That's a far cry less than the 250 a year coming in now. Without a doubt that period of time was the best for the city and central UP.
Holsworth's observations as equally as tone-deaf as Hanley's - stating that only nowadays can they go hunting in the morning and stop somewhere for a beer in the afternoon. Definitely not a Yooper, that one. This has been a long-standing practice in the central UP for generations. It did not at all require Marquette becoming a touristy, "cosmopolitan", "social center" of a town. Half the people in any given bar or restaurant anywhere in the UP were decked out in hunting or fishing gear and could have told you those exact words 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years ago.
I could go on and on, picking apart points of this biased, debacle of an article that is not founded in any sense of reality and only reflects a utopian vision clouded by dollar signs of tourism and pot haze, driven by the miniscule number of business and social elites this town has to offer. But the long story short is that the whole damn things is one giant ruse - and all the residents can see it clear as day. We've been sending clear messages and warnings to the city and county governments and they keep ignoring it in favor of the old guy in the stream with a dollar bill attached to the end of a fly-line - you know - that one that you always see on TV? "Ooooh - you almost had it!".
So for some time now - the long-standing residents have been speaking with their feet. The exodus continues - after the brief reprieve 12 years ago. Pushed out by soaring and unsustainable real estate prices along with costs of living, pushed out of their favorite local spots by tourists and poor local government policy decisions who recklessly spend the money gifted to them by the detached and uninvested tourists.
Keep this nonsense up and soon you will have nobody to staff the cutesy, cosmopolitan shops - and the downtown area will turn into a purely seasonal region. It will end up like Mackinac, Traverse, and even Door County. Everything will shut down until next year, and all the residents will be living in Harvey, Sands, Crossroads, Negaunee and Ishpeming. Downtown will be a ghost town most of the year - save for the businesses and housing NMU can sustain (though keep in mind how much on-location enrollment continues to plummet every year).
Does that really sound like a town that has "Grown Up"?
Brian, when I first came to Marquette in the 1970's, the mayor was female, Holly Greer, the head of the county board was female, Sally May, the prosecuting attorney was female, Pat Micklow, the TV6 anchor was female, Karen Rademacher, and President John Jamrich at NMU was working with those women to start the Women's Center first housed at NMU. We've always been a progressive community for women (the U.P.'s first plastic surgeon Dr. Constance Arnold) and minorities,(Drs. Bush Ahmad and Adam Brish) but not just because of their gender or race, but because they were here to make it a better place. All the more reason I continue to love where we live!
It’s always about money!
Born and raised in the Queen City of the North, I have come back to visit family and friends every few years over the past four decades. To say Marquette has changed in an understatement. Back in the mid-1980s every third house seemed to be for sale - cheap. Jobs were scarce, and the prevailing mood was doom and gloom. Nowadays the joint is jumping, to which I say “live long and prosper.”
Along with the removal of, “the two power plants that once acted as unsightly bookends on Marquette’s shoreline…” have also become the removal of jobs, a portion of Michigan’s energy independence, and a substantial local tax income. It’s up to each of us to determine if that exchange was fair or not.
Unfortunately there are some misgivings, misinformation and misrepresentation of others & their statements or positions in this article. It happens to start with the opening lines....
"A few of us will bemoan [the fact that MQT isn't what it used to be]. Most will not." This statement couldn't be more polar opposite from reality. Those who prefer things from before far outnumber those who prefer them now. This is evident while engaging with almost anyone who is old enough to have been here "before". And sorry - but a bunch of 20-somethings who are still growing up and figuring out their _own_ places in life not only lack the capacity to figure it out for an entire city - but also aren't even in a position to offer a qualified opinion as they weren't even (or were just barely) alive at that time. Consequently - their voice cannot be counted in this assessment.
It was noticed that the comparison and remembrances in the article jumped from the industrious period from the 40's, 50's and 60's - straight to today, while skipping over the mid 70's to mid 90's entirely, and the disastrous decade starting in the mid 90's. The claim made in that act was also that "Marquette has grown up" - and that the criteria for doing so is apparently nothing more than having coffee shops, pot shops, breweries, art galleries and a wine bar - all contributories to this "social center" label that has been mystically and inappropriately applied to the city - at least for a few months out of the year.
That's patent ridiculousness - and is once again almost the polar opposite of the reality of what constitutes "growing up". Being a "social center" does not make a community thrive, nor does it age well - especially when there are no teeth to back it up. A handful of university and medical elites, combined with a couple of local, 3rd-generation business owners (who haven't put in the work) that meet at those "grown up" locations a few weeks a year with all of the out-of-town well-to-doers (whose lakefront townhouses sit empty 11 months out of the year) sipping over-priced wine and faux designer coffee, pointing at and critiquing art which they know nothing about while congratulating each other on being masters of the universe does not give said teeth or any credence to the idea of being "grown up".
Marquette has always been the governmental center of the UP - despite it's tiny size in the scope of state and national politics. In many respects it is to the UP like what Chicago thinks it is to the state of Illinois - but on a far more microscopic scale. It occupies a tiny corner of a vast state full of good, hard-working people... but just like Chicago - it likes to sling its thing around and act like it speaks for the entirety of the state (if the UP were a state) while ignoring the majority of the people of the land. Truth be told - the city government has been despised by the residents of the city and the rest of the UP for decades - and it has consistently acted against the best interests of the citizens and residents who have called this area home for generations. This is what led to the mass exodus from the city and county in the 3 years after the base closed, with a slight recovery for 2012-2014 and a steady decline in the decade since. Insufficient and ineffective city and county governments driving the region further down the drain, combined with absolutely poor representation at the state and federal levels. Thankfully now with Karl in office - the UP will get the attention, recognition and weight on the state and national scales that it needs and deserves, and will have someone who truly believes in his soul of the strength and people of the UP as a whole - and not just one little city suffering from an identity crisis and has poor local government.
That recovery which began in 2010 was fueled by local residents, but was then capped off in 2014 by a sudden switch to massive tourism. This unnecessarily and artificially drove prices through the roof for everything under the sun, kick-started the "social center atmosphere" and once again began driving and pricing generational residents out of the region. The vision being pushed for that of a social center hinging largely on tourism which only brings money into the region for a few months of the year, with the city government trying its damdest to turn MQT into another Traverse City (which has limited accessible & visible shoreline), Mackinac Island or (wretch) Disney World - despite not having any of the resources or regional or national clout & attraction to accomplish such a thing. This resulted in residents staying away from the touristy parts of town, others leaving outright, and the myriad of shops and businesses along the lakefront, Third and Washington opening, closing and changing every 18-36 months as one after another tries and fails to sustain itself on "social center" and tourist business alone - while not being able to properly pay their staff, who cannot afford the artificially overpriced housing in the region - causing them to leave, too.
Sure - Marquette is being discovered by more and more visitors every year... but that is all they are - VISITORS. They are not the residents. They are not the generations of families that built this town from the railroads and ports days, through the patriotic and economically thriving (and stable) military and university days and who are now being pushed out by the overpriced and tourism days. Marquette has forgotten its own forest of residents for the trees of a few extra dollars and tourism notoriety. Those visitors are just that, though - just visitors. They have no attachments here. They have no vested interest. They come in, do their thing, spend a few dollars, make and leave their mess - and then they leave. They don't give a damn what happens here once they do, and they have no understanding of the impact they cause when they are here, or the aftershocks and aftermath to the community and its residents afterwards. The mayor's comments regarding tourism in the article are completely tone-deaf. She ignores the facts that the locals don't want tourism, and is displaying straight up ignorance about the large number of restaurants and shops that do fail here and shut their doors every single year. They really need to install revolving doors on both the front and back of all the shops along 3rd and Washington to make it just as easy to move in and move out as it would be go go in and out as a customer.
I might note that this was not a problem from 1974 through 1993. The city and county were stable and growing, stores stayed open in familiar locations and flourished, prices, real estate and crime were exceptionally low and the elitists were kept at bay thanks to the blue-collared nature of the city and surrounding region. All that combined with the base - Marquette County saw 150 million (in 1990 dollars - that'd be over 350 today) a year being pumped into the economy. That's a far cry less than the 250 a year coming in now. Without a doubt that period of time was the best for the city and central UP.
Holsworth's observations as equally as tone-deaf as Hanley's - stating that only nowadays can they go hunting in the morning and stop somewhere for a beer in the afternoon. Definitely not a Yooper, that one. This has been a long-standing practice in the central UP for generations. It did not at all require Marquette becoming a touristy, "cosmopolitan", "social center" of a town. Half the people in any given bar or restaurant anywhere in the UP were decked out in hunting or fishing gear and could have told you those exact words 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years ago.
I could go on and on, picking apart points of this biased, debacle of an article that is not founded in any sense of reality and only reflects a utopian vision clouded by dollar signs of tourism and pot haze, driven by the miniscule number of business and social elites this town has to offer. But the long story short is that the whole damn things is one giant ruse - and all the residents can see it clear as day. We've been sending clear messages and warnings to the city and county governments and they keep ignoring it in favor of the old guy in the stream with a dollar bill attached to the end of a fly-line - you know - that one that you always see on TV? "Ooooh - you almost had it!".
So for some time now - the long-standing residents have been speaking with their feet. The exodus continues - after the brief reprieve 12 years ago. Pushed out by soaring and unsustainable real estate prices along with costs of living, pushed out of their favorite local spots by tourists and poor local government policy decisions who recklessly spend the money gifted to them by the detached and uninvested tourists.
Keep this nonsense up and soon you will have nobody to staff the cutesy, cosmopolitan shops - and the downtown area will turn into a purely seasonal region. It will end up like Mackinac, Traverse, and even Door County. Everything will shut down until next year, and all the residents will be living in Harvey, Sands, Crossroads, Negaunee and Ishpeming. Downtown will be a ghost town most of the year - save for the businesses and housing NMU can sustain (though keep in mind how much on-location enrollment continues to plummet every year).
Does that really sound like a town that has "Grown Up"?
Think really hard about that.
You should start a blog