Letters 11-07-2016

Nov. 4, 2016

Young Voters Are Important

I hope young people will vote this fall, bearing in mind the consequences for their futures. The most important issue is global warming; Left unchecked, its consequences will be huge and terrible for them and their children.

Republicans, including Trump, are global warming deniers. Pence even promotes the use of coal – possibly the worst contributor to atmospheric CO2.

Republicans will cut taxes on the wealthy, increasing the concentration of wealth at the top, to the detriment of middle and working classes. Republicans want to privatize social security, making it disappear into Wall Street. The list goes on and on.

Barbara Abbott, Lake Leelanau

New Team

In 2010 Rick "the nerd" Snyder took over the Governorship of Michigan and vowed to work with the Republican legislature to solve all of Michigan’s problems. Snyder began with a billion-dollar cut in business taxes, much of it taken from the education budget. To help balance the budget the GOP legislature increased taxes on seniors and families with children.

Snyder promised the tax cuts would create jobs, but six years later job growth has been anemic and Michigan’s schools are in the bottom 20 percent in student achievement. After three successive highly-paid emergency managers, Detroit schools are worse than before. The children of Flint have been poisoned by a penny-wise and poundfoolish decision to skip proper treatment of water. Now Snyder is using millions of your tax dollars to defend himself from legal charges arising from the Flint disaster, while he has appointed a former British Petroleum lobbyist to head the Department of Environmental Quality.

It is time to send in the other team. Vote Democratic for Michigan legislators on November 8.

Alice Littlefield, Omena

Water Over Oil

As a former enlisted man, I discovered how rigid the mindset is at the senior officer level. Generals think they should be "obeyed" and they get used to it. That is not a characteristic that serves someone in a deliberative body like Congress. I started a company in Petoskey 15 years ago to produce technology that allows us to treat human waste and protect our vital freshwater resources. General Bergman and his Republican party do not seem to get how important our freshwater is. They think pipelines should carry oil. Water is far more valuable than oil and Michigan sits on 20 percent of the world’s freshwater supply.

Bergman’s opponent understands this and has pledged to take this message to Washington. We can and should be the center of a major effort to develop technologies that Michigan can supply to the rest of the world. The Republican party of Teddy Roosevelt knew that conservation was the true conservative value. Unfortunately Republicans sold out to the oil and extractive industries years ago and we the taxpayers have been left with their bills.

Dr. Daniel Wickham, Petoskey

Counting Votes

Does your vote count, or will it even be counted?

Forget the hoopla about rigging elections. We have plenty of potential for problems just by errors built into our system, and sadly they happen too frequently. For instance:

Did you know that over 15 percent of absentee ballots in some precincts in Grand Traverse County were not counted in the August primary? That was more than enough votes to change the outcome of the election, and unfortunately neither the candidates nor the voters will ever know if their vote was counted.

There was a recount on the Green Lake 2013 millage election, and one precinct was uncountable because of a small error (procedures have since been improved). Elsewhere, there have been cases of candidates losing by one vote, but there was no recount because of a simple error.

Voter mistakes on election day are caught by ballot scanners and a new ballot can be issued, but mailed in ballots are not afforded a second chance, unless the election challengers accept some minor discrepancy.

Consider being a poll watcher or an election challenger to provide extra eyes to help ensure procedures are followed. That is how we know our elections are honest.

David Petrove, Interlochen

Did You Know?

The GOP controls: 248 of 440 seats in the House, 54 of 100 seats in the Senate, 31 of 50 Governorships, and 70 of 99 state chambers. And they want you to believe Obama is ruining America!

Add to the above that corporations have sent Americas jobs overseas to improve their bottom lines, not Obama. Then there is the "do nothing Congress" for the past eight years, spending 30 hours of the week raising money to get re-elected. Is anyone listening?

Ronald Dykstra, Beulah

There’s No Comparison

Trump and Clinton had the same experience campaigning: Somebody jumped up on the stage. One candidate waddled off quickly with the Secret Service; the other stuck to her guns, despite the urging of the Secret Service and kept on talking.

Little wonder that Putin is doing what he can to get Trump elected. He recognizes the type of the cowardly bully, can think circles around him, and push all the right buttons. Little wonder, too, that he is doing his best to assure Clinton’s defeat. He knows she is the smarter and more courageous candidate. And he has experienced her toughness firsthand when she stood up to him as Secretary of State.

We can’t have a man leading this fine democracy whose ignorance of domestic and foreign affairs is rivaled only by his lack of interest, whose contempt for women is rivaled only by his contempt for all of you good and patriotic citizens who pay your taxes, and whose emotional maturity is that of a 10-year-old.

Please, don’t assume Hillary is a shoo-in. She isn’t. Trump’s true believers will all vote. You and your patriotic friends have got to vote, too.

Porter Abbott, Northport

Affordable Housing Is Good Business

From our oldest area businesses we learn this to be true: no pickers, no product. Development with intentionally integrated affordable housing is not charity. It’s just good citizenship, good sense and good business.

As we consider the character of Traverse City, there are two lines of reasoning in which we would wisely consider affordable housing as an essential factor.

First, some look at "vertical development" allowing tall buildings as creating excessive density downtown, changing the homey character we enjoy. But if we avoid that increased density, population growth takes the alternative route – horizontal sprawl. And the low-wage workers needed by the downtown employers will be pushed even farther from their jobs and public transportation.

Second, we have lately been considering tax revenue generation as a key factor in determining best land use. According to this, low-cost housing generates less tax and falls in line behind higher-cost housing. But housing for workers ought not to be merely a part of a liberal agenda or an act of charity. As the region’s fruit-growing industry grew, farmers developed their land not only with revenue-producing trees and vines, but also housing for the workers. Worker housing on the farms is not a revenue-generator, but a capital cost as essential as machinery and materials. And workers are provided with housing not out of charity, but out of awareness of their value to the enterprise. Liberal or conservative, we need affordable housing to be considered as good business as well as good caring.

John Daniels, Traverse City

It’s About Character

I love Traverse City. In my lifetime TC has cleaned up the waterfront and opened Hull Park, the Tart Trail and other recreation areas; it has great culture and outstanding restaurants. All the changes show that TC can grow while still keeping its "small town character" and best qualities. That’s what attracts residents and visitors alike, all of which bolsters our economy.

Last year I learned to my surprise that the City Zoning Ordinance allows 100-foothigh buildings in the downtown C(4)(c) district with a Special Land Use Permit (SLUP) – i.e., all along State Street on both sides from Pine to Boardman. Besides the Pine St. project, a "tall" building is being planned next to the Park Place. If unchecked, soon State St. will be a canyon of tall buildings. Those urban canyons are exactly what visitors and many residents have left to come to Traverse City. If we lose our character, we will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Clearly building heights have been controversial. History shows that the 1999 Zoning Ordinance is out-of-sync with community’s desires for the last 20 years. There has been constant pressure since 1994 at the Planning and City Commission as well as the ballot box to keep building heights to six stories or less. Yet city hall has not addressed the issue, probably because it does not fit the New Urbanism ideology of a few. Proposal 3 allows the people to decide. Vote "yes."

Judy Nelson, Traverse City

Development At All Costs?

Other cities have put limits on building heights because that is what their citizens wanted. Those cities are doing quite well as popular tourist destinations; Naples and Savannah are two good examples.

Those who oppose Proposal 3 ask us to rely on the system and its "vigorous vetting process." But how has that worked for us lately? The process failed completely in its recent test on tall building projects because the SLUP process was botched from beginning to end. The Pine Street developers failed to submit the necessary information and merely asserted that they met each SLUP criteria. City staff and commissions just repeated those unsupported assertions and and voted to approve the SLUP anyway, not long after three new commissioners took their seats last year. It was development at all costs, the fix was in, and it was not a thoughtful process.

Judge Rodgers vacated the Pine Street project SLUP for a lack of evidence, and he told the city commission to revisit it. To date the city has failed to do so. The developer has not been forthcoming with required information, and some on the commission and staff apparently are clueless about how to evaluate an application.

By contrast, the new Munson neo-natal center has done it all right; they propose a tall building in an appropriate place with no public subsidies, so it should be approved. It is time for residents to have a voice on future tall building projects. I have more faith in the voters of the city than in the process as it is today. Vote "yes" on Proposal 3 and don’t be misled by all the rhetoric, misinformation and doomsday predictions.

Kent Anderson, Traverse City