Questions 2016

While some are resolving to do — or not do — all manner of things they won’t end up doing — or stop doing — the New Year seems a more likely time for questions. As always, there are plenty of them.

• How can one man make so many so afraid of so little?

• Do members of the Traverse City Planning Commission really believe that a new Costco completely within the city limits’ 8.9 square miles represents sprawl?

• Must all new TC development now be downtown and vertical?

• Did you know you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than killed by terrorists? And a way, way better chance of being hurt or killed by a friend or family member?

• If furniture stores can regularly offer 50%, 60% or 70% off and still make money, how much is their mark-up to start?

• When is the last time you saw your Congressperson in person? Ever?

• If you were stranded in the wilderness with no communication and had to pick one presidential candidate to help you survive, whom would you pick?

• Did you know Donald Trump is older than Hillary Clinton?

• Why do people waiting in line, on foot or in vehicles, think complaining or honking will somehow speed things up?

• When is the last time a politician said something you believed?

• Will poor Petoskey ever find a developer to do something with the giant hole in the ground? Isn’t it the perfect location for, well, something?

• Does Traverse City St. Francis have the best small-school all-around sports and academic programs in the state?

• Do the cyclists in the fancy little uniforms believe they are exempt from traffic rules?

• Can a sport like football, in which serious injury is expected and a fatal brain disease is possible, survive?

• Will everyone in Traverse City eventually have their own microbrewery? Then maybe their own vineyard and tasting room?

• Is their anything more cruel in all of sports than relegation in European soccer leagues?

• If the region is experiencing “explosive growth” and “sprawl,” why aren’t tax bases increasing and why are so many county and other municipal budgets in such tough shape?

• While we’re at it, why is there a worker shortage and declining school enrollment when the population is allegedly exploding?

• Do you suppose the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners will ever bother to catch up with the pension plan deficit?

• When the oil pipeline under the Straits breaks, how long do you think it will take to clean up the mess? How much do you think it will cost?

• Did you know recent research has determined even a drop of oil on their food or feathers can be enough to eventually kill waterfowl?

• Did your children care there was no snow on the ground on Christmas morning?

• If TCAPS schools actually started falling down around students do you think voters would then pass a bond or millage election?

• Did you know the U.S. has added 12 million new jobs in the last 6 years?

• How many guns are enough?

• Did you know we just flew a little spaceship for 10 years and 3 billion miles to take close-up pictures of Pluto?

• Who has a more difficult job than school bus drivers?

• How can it be, with all the choices, vanilla is still the favorite ice cream flavor?

• When did we stop believing well-educated scientists and start believing anybody who writes nonsense online?

• Do you think West Grand Traverse Bay will be better off not being impaled on a giant pier?

• Has there been a worse NFL team for the last 50 years than the Detroit Lions?

• Why are primary voters willing to forgive Donald Trump’s endless lies?

• Did you ever wonder how much electric bills increase when the Christmas lights go up and on?

• Do you think the families of mass shooting victims care whether it was a terrorist attack or just another American lunatic killing a bunch of people?

• If Santa Clause is a “right jolly old elf with a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,” why do we depict him as a large, rotund guy?

• What’s better than a friendly dog? Or a laughing baby?

• Is it possible that paying downtown Traverse City workers an actual livable wage would help solve the “affordable housing” dilemma better than building more subsidized housing?

• Why do you suppose the Lake Huron lakeshore is so infrequently mentioned?

• Won’t there be hell to pay if the proposed Boardman Lake Avenue in TC messes with our beloved McGough’s?

• Did you know 11 young men under the age of 19 died playing football in 2015?

• Does it seem to you the Traverse City City Commission hires an awful lot of consultants?

• Do you miss David Letterman and Jon Stewart?

• Would you be surprised to learn the top paid state employees in Michigan are football and basketball coaches?

• Are you going to vote in 2016? Have you started paying attention?

• Are you hoping 2016 is better than 2015? Me too.

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