Watching, Counting, Turning

Spectator

As always, there is plenty of activity in Traverse City. Issues pop up like trilliums this time of year. Some are old and reliably and perpetually unsolved, like affordable housing or what to do with the homeless population, and some show up uninvited, like how to make up for cuts in federal funding to programs.

Let’s take a look at three current issues that were neither surprises nor crisis-level impossible.

The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and the Traverse City Police Department (TCPD) are teaming up to purchase another portable surveillance system for use mostly during significant events, but it can be used anywhere at any time.

Even though there is no legal expectation of privacy in public spaces, this is potentially slippery slope territory. We are assured by police Chief Matt Richmond that everyone’s constitutional rights will be protected, the system will not be used to target anyone engaged in legal activities, and all data acquired will only be held for 30 days.

One supposes this kind of system has been used elsewhere without abuse, but it takes but a single incident of someone using the system for some personal reason when real trouble begins.

One DDA board member, who says she frequently walks downtown alone, was quoted in The Record-Eagle saying, “We live in an increasingly dangerous environment these days, and we need to protect our citizens.”

Really? Downtown Traverse City is increasingly dangerous to the point we need more surveillance? Does TCPD have data supporting this notion? Should somebody have told the rest of us there is now greater risk from criminal activity in our community? And if there is an increasingly dangerous environment out there, shouldn’t we have surveillance everywhere and all the time to better protect our citizens and visitors?

No doubt surveillance of this type can be a useful law enforcement tool, but the advantage for the law-abiding being surveilled is far less obvious.

Traverse Connect describes itself as the “lead economic development organization for the Grand Traverse region.” Unfortunately, “economic development” is such a hazy, nebulous term that it’s not always clear what it is they do to economically develop the region or individual businesses. Do they get credit, or take credit, every time a new business comes to town or an existing business expands? If so, how did they do that? Is there a criteria we can follow?

The Traverse City City Commission has agreed to renew a contact with Traverse Connect for economic development services through 2027. They will pay more than $50,000 annually for the next three years, and the DDA will kick in almost as much. As reported in The Ticker, City commissioners met with Traverse Connect leaders to review priority areas that include developing an “equitable and sustainable future for city residents” and building “a thriving year-round economy.”

Maybe that is money well spent and the area would suffer economic hardships if Traverse Connect did not receive more than $90,000 of taxpayer money annually for the next three years, but we could use more definitive evidence to justify spending taxpayer money.

Meanwhile, State Street will continue as a two-way street at least for the time being. We were told it was slower and safer than it had been as a one-way street, though traffic studies show the differences between one-way and two-way were minimal. State was never treated as a drag strip by local motorists, and there was no data indicating one-way State created vehicle accidents or created more danger for pedestrians or cyclists.

In fact, according to both pedbikesafe.org and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), one-way streets are statistically safer for pedestrians and cyclists because there are fewer points of conflict, even though traffic moves slightly faster.

At a minimum, our traffic engineers will need to figure out how to improve intersections so a single vehicle turning left does not halt every vehicle behind it, as is the case now.

The issues above listed are likely not crises but they do raise questions worth asking and should create attention worth paying; we should carefully watch the watchers, count the specific benefits of the economic developers, and make a turn without creating gridlock.

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