The Redmen Controversy, Soaring Costs for Kids Cove and Residences at North Harbor, Homeless Concerns Rising, Cruise Line Cutback, and Hot Dog "Athletes"
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
NEXT MONDAY’S MEETING of the MAPS School Board at Kaufman Auditorium is likely to be crowded and heated…The ever-controversial “Redmen” issue comes up before the board…again…with the options to either 1) affirm support for Marquette Senior High School’s longtime nickname, or 2) reject it and change it, or 3)…uhh…kick the can down the road again.
Yes, we all know the arguments pro and con: It’s an affront to Native Americans. No, it’s really about red coats!..It’s time to change with the times—after all the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians changed their names. No! It’s a part of our history, and, if anything, it’s meant to honor Native Americans!…But a blue ribbon committee a few years ago recommended that the name be retired. No, the community as a whole voted (in an unscientific survey) to keep the nickname!
Enough.
We’ve got bigger fish to fry in this community. Like finding housing for middle- income residents, like creating well-paying jobs for our young people, like helping entrepreneurs set up shop here, like battling teenage mental illness and suicide, like protecting our shoreline and dealing with climate change, like making sure our hospitals and schools are well-run.
We’re not fans of political correctness but it’s time to change the name, and move on to more important stuff. We’ll get over it…Otherwise, we’ll be fighting this same, tiresome battle three years down the road.
SOARING COSTS ARE delaying reconstruction of the new Kids Cove playground at the Lower Harbor…Demolition of the old wooden playground is supposed to have already taken place but…“When the bids came through (for demolition and reconstruction), they were way over what we had raised,” explains Nheena Ittner of the Playground for All committee…The committee had raised $1.4 million; she won’t say what the lowest bid was.
Bottom line: The committee and the architect have gone back to the drawing board to cut costs for the playground which will be built of durable, kid-friendly materials, and include play equipment appropriate for children of all abilities.
SEEMS WE JUST heard this, like, two paragraphs ago…“The bids came in 50% over what we projected, so we’re redoing the design and site plan.” That’s from John Foster, one of the owners of the Sabre Group which will be developing The Residences at North Harbor on Lakeshore Boulevard…The new design, featuring three buildings instead of eight, should be completed shortly…Still planning for as many as 98 units—one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, possibly even four…If things work out, site preparation and construction to start this fall…
“I DON’T WANT residents in our community afraid to walk past our Warming Center on Washington Street,” says Room at the Inn director Chelsie Wilkinson…She’s right—some residents and tourists avoid that side of the street if they see a few homeless individuals lingering out front on the sidewalk…Wilkinson, who’s new to the job, is holding an open house at the Warming Center on July 19th, 4:30-7pm, in hopes of making us all more comfortable around the homeless shelter.
Wilkinson’s got her hands full. Three of her eight employees have left for various reasons in the last few weeks, and the Warming Center is near its 30-bed capacity almost every night…Interesting: we thought we’d “solved” the homeless problem here a few years back when the Warming Center added all those beds. Not even close…Other agencies and churches have stepped in to help, but we’ve discovered that we can’t “solve” homelessness by simply providing more beds…The problems are much deeper and more complex.
NO SURPRISE, THE Marquette Community Gardens have a 14-person waiting list—gardeners eager to grow their own vegetables on two city-owned properties—one at Presque Isle, the other near the Fit Strip…Beds are $15 or $25, but they come with free water, manure, wood chips and tools…Currently, a capacity of 75 beds, but Tina Taylor, the President of the Community Gardens, wants more: “My heart’s desire is to expand the gardens—and the best spot would be at Presque Isle,” she says, “but we haven’t had that discussion with city officials yet. But we will.”
MOST OF US have loved seeing the cruise ships dock in Marquette and other ports on the Great Lakes in the summer, but one of the cruise lines, American Queen Voyages, says it’ll be cancelling its cruises after this year…The cruises do well in the summer, but it’s just too expensive to maintain them during the cold months when no revenue is coming in.
LOTTA ALTERNATIVES TO regular ice cream these days…Soft-serve, Italian ices, gelato, and now a coconut-based ice cream, compliments of Becky Lloyd and Becky’s Roadside Refreshments…She’s at the Marquette Farmers Market every week, and her cool coconut treats are at stores in a few other UP locations, as well…It’s a little fattier than regular ice cream (nothing wrong with that), but it’s non-dairy…Among the exotic flavors: banana pie-pineapple, chocolate-covered peanuts, and chai cupcake…“I didn’t want to copy what was already out there!” she tells you.
SIGN OF A declining civilization…Results of Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest are listed in the Sports sections of our newspapers and website…Shoving hot dogs down your throat is considered an athletic competition, just like football, baseball, soccer, basketball and hockey…At a time when obesity is rampant, and too many kids are malnourished, we celebrate champion Joey Chestnut for stuffing 62 hot dogs and buns (white bread) down his gullet in 10 minutes…Awesome. What a guy.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (thanks to Marquette Golf Club):
“It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling…”
Mark Twain
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Here's a novel idea about the homeless: every store is looking for help, looking for employees. Put the notices in their hands and tell the homeless to get a job and tell us when their employment begins. They need to get to work and I don't care it is cleaning the streets: it pays. Then they can stay at the shelter until they can find elsewhere to live. If we're not careful our beautiful city will not stay beautiful.
As for the Redman controversey: enuf is enuf. Move on.