Power And Arrogance

Aug. 26, 2016

In 2006 the developer of Cambria Suites in Traverse City requested a zoning variance to allow them to build beyond the established setbacks. The project and variance included the razing of an apartment building that we would now call “workforce housing.” Upon receiving their eviction notices, neighbors in the area circulated a petition and gathered signatures from 90 percent of property owners on both sides of the street. At the Zoning Board meeting, the room was packed with property owners who testified in opposition of the variance. Comment went on for nearly an hour. After the open comments, the board voted, without discussion, to unanimously approve the variance. The developer’s consultant sat on the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Flash forward to 2015. The Peninsula Township Board advertises for people to serve on its parks commission. They hold open interviews at a board meeting. In the pool of five candidates there are two excellent choices. A third candidate gets nominated (me). My nomination dies for lack of a second. Rather than a nomination for one of the other two excellent candidates, a board member nominates someone who did not attend the interview session. There is immediately a second and the absent candidate is unanimously appointed to the position.

I know these two examples well because I was involved, but I also know there are countless other examples of public officials governing without regard to public input in ways that completely ignore the people for whom these officials serve. These local examples of the arrogance of power are present at all levels of government and in all political parties:

• In 2014, national Republican candidates ran against the Affordable Care Act and against amnesty for illegal immigrants. Once elected they openly promoted and funded every Obama Care proposal.

• We know from leaked Democrat Party emails that the party itself worked to undermine the will of their own voters and keep Bernie Sanders from winning the party nomination.

• Michigan voters overwhelmingly voted down an increase in the gas tax, but within less than a year elected legislators passed more or less the same bill.

• A Traverse City commission study showed significant opposition to the restriping of 8th Street; the commission labeled the study flawed and did what they wanted.

In all of these cases the political class have decided they know better. They have become so removed that they not only disregard their constituencies, they directly oppose them. There is perhaps no better example than Jeb Bush, who arrogantly boasted that he was going to win the presidency without the Republican base.

This isn’t a new thing. Politicians have always thrived on backroom deals. And perhaps public input has always been a charade. But now there is a difference: The public is connected via social media, well beyond mere network news. People no longer have to sit at home thinking their outrage is unique; now there are consequences.

The obvious political rebellion is the nomination of Donald Trump. Insider Republicans are so shocked at the consequences of their own arrogance that they are taking their football home. Hillary Clinton, who should have been a shoe-in, is in a fight Democrats never expected.

There is local fallout, too. Every one of those people on that Peninsula Township Board lost their seats in the primary. It wasn’t because of my one example; my experience was one in a pattern, and the voters ultimately said, “no more.” Traverse City now has Proposition 3, a voter initiative to say no to the smarter-thaneveryone-else political class who have fixed the game for years.

Proposition 3 is simple. It says the people no longer trust their elected officials to follow the will of their constituents. The ninestory Pine Street development is the tipping point because this isn’t just restriping; it’s changing the character of a community. The voters have realized that the process itself is so predetermined that their will can only be expressed directly, not through their representatives.

For my constitutional conservative and libertarian friends, this is a property rights issue. It’s a legitimate point. But the zoning and the planning have been achieved with such subterfuge and so much slight of hand that the community no longer trusts the very rules their elected officials created. Proposition 3 is not about one tall building; it’s about the political class and their allies being called out for their arrogance. Proposition 3 is about power and trust.

Like the establishment Republicans refusing to play in the same sandbox with Donald Trump, the political class in Traverse City is gearing up to oppose the people. The group against Prop 3, StandUp TC, is just the usual collection of insiders trying to keep their power. Their speaker, Jeanine Easterday is a long-time political player. They are supported by the Chamber of Commerce. Their claims are things we always hear from politicians who want us to go away. Their three main claims are comical when applied to the backroom political deals that got us here. StandUp claims the proposal is wasteful, but where was StandUp when the City Commission kept spending money to repaint Eighth Street? They say that it wastes “thousand of hours of city staff and citizen volunteer time that went into creating the zoning code.” In other words, it undoes all the plotting we did to fool you.

The most telling claim of StandUp is when they claim Prop 3 “effectively eliminates economic development in our downtown.” The ruling class thinks only they know how to grow our community. We know something different; we know they’re wrong.

Thomas Kachadurian is a photographer, designer and author. He lives on Old Mission with his wife and 2 children. He is a member and past president of the Traverse Area District Library Board of Trustees.