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November 09, 2006
Local passionate environmentalist fights on
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Watching Bob Grooters mingle with the baristas at Glen Arbor’s Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company and greet the few folks seated outside on a typically quiet fall day, he looks as unassuming as any northern Michigan year-rounder. You wouldn’t think Bob is worth $150 million.
But that’s the amount of increased revenues he’s generated for the State of Michigan’s natural resources trust fund from oil drilling since 1979 — and $150 million is only as of 2002. Grooters is an environmentalist who won’t quit. He’s no policy expert, but an instigator who has accomplished missions with his voice and his passion, his letter-writing campaigns and his long drives.
Now Grooters is about to turn 70 years old and he has embraced a new cause, or rather one that hasn’t yet gotten the recognition it deserves. Grooters owns pristine land just outside of Grand Rapids dubbed the Bear Creek Nature Preserve. For the last 10 years he and his partners have been trying to sell the 42-acre parcel to an organization that will preserve it long after they’re gone, but so far they’ve come up empty. The Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund wouldn’t agree to sponsor it, and after expressing interest early on, the Land Conservancy of West Michigan seems to have dropped the ball, or at least it won’t make an offer within Grooters’ ballpark.
“It’s long past time to get this preserved,” he says. “If I have to form a new land conservancy, I’ll do it!”
Bob Grooters should be taken seriously.
Turn back the clock to March of 1979. The Michigan Supreme Court had just handed victory to environmental groups fighting to stop oil companies from drilling in the Pigeon River near Gaylord. But attorney Roger Conner, then a rookie lawyer and now executive director of the U.S. arm of Search for Common Ground (one of the world’s largest nongovernmental conflict resolution organizations), told Grooters not to get his hopes up, for “the oil companies would challenge everything, drag it out and narrow any victory we got. Anything they didn’t like, they’d go to the legislature and get it overturned.”
No sooner had the state Supreme Court made its decision than a proposal to lease one million acres all around Pigeon River dropped onto the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) desk. Without contest the deal made it onto the DNR’s agenda for approval at a meeting to be held in Detroit on March 16.
From 10 p.m. on Wednesday evening until 2 a.m. the next morning Bob Grooters sat and penned a letter he would deliver that morning. At 5 a.m. he climbed into an old Plymouth Station Wagon (he called it his Plymouth 7 because he could never get the eighth cylinder to work) and left Grand Rapids. After breakfast he went straight to the office of the Detroit Free Press and asked to speak to an editorial writer named Barbara Stanton. On the eighth floor he told the receptionist that Roger Conner had sent him.
“What do you want to see her about?” the receptionist asked.
“Oil,” said Grooters.
Stanton flew out of the meeting she was in and Grooters briefed her that Michigan was about to authorize a million-acre lease to oil companies. He asked for an editorial to run in the Free Press the next day.
“Mr. Grooters, do you hear that pounding going on?” she told him. “That is tomorrow’s paper … But I’ll see what I can do.”
At the DNR commission meeting in the Detroit Veteran’s Memorial Building Grooters wasn’t penciled in to speak until late in the day, and he spent the buildup lobbying everyone there to “please stay strong and listen” to what he was about to say.
When Grooters finally spoke, he told the commission that Michigan’s 1/8 (12.5 percent) royalty share from private oil companies drilling on its lands was miniscule compared to what other states, and other countries, received. His correspondence with Premier Lougheed of Alberta, Canada two years earlier had revealed, for instance, that Alberta received shares ranging from 28-45 percent.
Grooters was asked by a Mrs. Wolfe whether pools of oil in Alberta are much larger than here in Michigan, and would thus lend themselves to far greater efficiency. The moment she asked the question Grooters knew that he should not be debating the topic. After all, he was no scientist. Strategically, he answered that the answer was very complex and that he would need 30 days to study it.
Grooters then weathered an attack by a Dr. Tanner who sought to put him on trial and not the initiative to lease a million acres for oil drilling. Strategically, again, he backed down and apologized unconditionally, “because I hold you and the commissioners in the highest esteem.” The passionate environmentalist knew he had planted the seed. He took his seat and watched the mudslinging begin. Shortly thereafter the meeting broke up in chaos without even a motion to adjourn.
“I was so excited that I left a gas station in Detroit with the gas hose still attached to my tank and I ripped the tank loose.
“The next morning I awoke at 5 a.m. again and went to a news stand to purchase the Detroit Free Press. The headline to Barbara Stanton’s editorial read: “Oil and gas and pitfalls underline Michigan.”
Michigan eventually increased its state royalty rate from 12.5 to 16.66 percent, meaning that Lansing has Bob Grooters to thank for a full quarter of the oil and gas royalties it has collected since 1979.
“On that scale I’m the biggest producer of oil royalties for the State of Michigan — even bigger than Shell Oil!”
Twenty-seven years later Grooters has picked another fight. This time it’s about the Bear Creek Nature Preserve, a setting every bit as close to his heart as Pigeon River. And he won’t stop fighting until he wins.
Posted by editor at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
Sun sets over Little Glen Lake
... and with it the Glen Arbor Sun goes into hibernation for the winter. Thanks again for your readership this year, and look for us again on Memorial Day weekend, 2007.
Photo by Ryan Romeike
Look for more of Romeike's fine photography on our website or in our print edition. This past year he's captured everything from Fourth of July fireworks on the beach to spring cherry orchards in bloom to those silly mascots at the new minor league baseball field in Traverse City. Ryan Romeike is a manager at Gemma's cafe in Empire.
Posted by editor at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)
Local boys explore America’s world role in new documentary
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Now that the elections are over, let’s talk politics. Let’s enter the ring and debate about Bush, and the Muslim world, and the war on terror. Wait, no, not the kind of boxing match discussion that pits only two sides against each other — each off in their own corner bouncing up and down in arrogance. Those matches rarely lead to anything other than bloody noses.
Photo courtesy Avenue E Products
Let’s have instead the kind of political discussion that might not produce a winner — one that examines crisis and conscience, what it means to be American, and how our zeitgeist or “spirit of the times” has changed since we began uttering that loaded word, w-a-r, again. Where have we come from? Where are we going? And how do others react to the path we take?
Two young men with legitimate local credentials (they’ve summered in northern Michigan their whole lives) have created a unique and explosive documentary called “American Zeitgeist: Crisis and Conscience in an Age of Terror.” It has been premiering at film festivals all over North America since the spring of 2006 to rave reviews and standing ovations. “An important film about America and for America, one that counters the country’s partisan, bi-fractural politics and media,” writes openDemocracy.net.
Rob McGann, who summers in nearby Frankfort, directed and produced “American Zeitgeist,” and his high school buddy from Springfield, Ill., Aaron Blasius, a familiar face around Glen Arbor because he tended bar at Art’s Tavern for four years while putting himself through school, co-produced it. Both McGann and Blasius were actually in this neck of the woods when the 9/11 attacks changed the world or, as some would argue, reminded the United States that it was part of the world. “The mood that night at Art’s was one of stunned disbelief,” Blasius remembers. Just as in many small towns, suburbs and cities alike, the shock quickly turned into an “anticipation of what America’s response would be. It was nice to be able to spend time with friends and neighbors, and get a grip on what had just happened.”
Fast forward to February of 2003. McGann and Blasius were reacquainted and in New York (neither knew that the other had been holed up in northern Michigan); Bush and the U.S. military were poised to launch another invasion, this time of Iraq; and a year and a half after the terrorist attacks most New Yorkers once again opposed the sitting president’s politics. While perusing bars and coffee shops and listening to the chatter on the street, McGann came up with the question that would form the basis of the movie. “What does it mean to be American? What is our role in the world? Is it right to be offensive in a defensive-minded war?” These questions were going unanswered from Brooklyn to Crawford, Texas as the soldiers and peace activists marched off to their respective beats, their fingers drawn and pointing.
“American Zeitgeist” seeks to cut through all the political posturing that will continue long after the last troops die or come home. Instead this movie embraces the impossible task of asking what America is, what it does, and what it represents — truly the most explosive questions on the world stage since September 11.
“We decided to do a movie about a conversation that would never happen,” explains Blasius. “Gather (more than 40) experts who you’d never get in a room together and interview them.” That’s just what “American Zeitgeist” is — an interview documentary that includes conversations with experts across the political spectrum: Richard Clarke, the country’s first “terrorism czar” who served on the National Security Councils of both Clinton and the current Bush; Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist and critic of American foreign policy; Christopher Hitchens, the controversial and outspoken proponent of the Iraq invasion; Tariq Ali, the Pakistani native who publishes The New Left Review; Steve Coll; Peter Bergen; Samantha Power; the list of experts who agreed to appear in “American Zeitgeist” goes on and on, and it is impressive.
Clarke was the first big-name political figure to accept, and when McGann and Blasius arrived at his house in Washington D.C., Clarke’s book “Against all Enemies” was number one on the bestseller list. “He was intense,” Blasius recalls. “There were cicada insects buzzing around outside, and he only gave us a certain amount of time.”
But “American Zeitgeist” is not just about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In fact, only two or three minutes of the movie are directly devoted to those events. The timeline begins with the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, which the United States answered by supporting and training Muslim fundamentalists to resist the occupier — and that, as we now know, planted the seeds for what became the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.
Instead, the movie’s thesis is the story of how America’s foreign policy has had inverse consequences: funding bin Laden and the mujahadeen against Moscow; forgetting about Afghanistan once the Cold War ended; growing addicted to Saudi Arabian oil (15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis); and, quite possibly, the invasion of Iraq and the attempt to bring democracy to the Arab Middle East. “This movie talks about what we’re doing now, and the potential consequences of those actions,” says Blasius.
“American Zeitgeist” does not take a political stance or judge whether the invasion of Iraq was right or wrong, for absolutism is not the goal here. Nobody — not crowds who’ve scene the premiers, nor political pundits — have pigeonholed the movie as being “liberal” or “conservative,” pro- or anti-U.S. foreign policy. When I met Aaron Blasius at Art’s Tavern late this fall to discuss the film, he surprised me when he told me that the most common question he’s been asked is not what he thinks of Bush, but what he thinks of filmmaker Michael Moore, of Fahrenheit 911 fame. “Moore had the opportunity to inform people and to be true to the art of documentary,” Blasius responded. “But I think he took the easier way out and decided to entertain instead. He took Afghanistan, which is a big, complicated subject, and used a clip from ‘Bonanza.’”
The route McGann and Blasius took was to present experts with a myriad of different viewpoints, some that are extreme, and others that merely cast the room in a different shade of blue: the use of leftist Tariq Ali and rightist Christopher Hitchens as polar opposites, for example, to reflect that there are valid points on both sides of the argument.
Aaron Blasius won’t tell you what to believe about this turbulent period in American history. “My hope for the movie is that it will challenge people, either to re-think their positions or learn more about the issues and ask legitimate questions. Go out and read these people’s books. It matters what people on the other side of the world think of us.”
Posted by editor at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
Art Forum Berlin In 1,000 Words or Less
By Steven Matthew Brown
Sun contributor
Steven Matthew Brown, a former Artist in Residence at the Glen Arbor Art Association, is a native Detroiter. Brown is currently pursuing his Masters in Fine Arts at the Bauhaus Universität in Weimar, Germany.
Photo by Norm Dagen
“121 galleries from 22 countries will show new works by their stars and new-comers at the beginning of the season in autumn in Berlin.”
After much hemming and hawing, I decided to take the train to Berlin for Art Forum 2006. It was a last minute trip but given the immaculate rail system here in Germany, it was as though I had been planning for months. The trip offered certain revelations as to the nature of Berlin as a modern city and arts paradise as well as a window into much of what is revolutionary, beautiful and commercial in contemporary art.
Was it worth it? Uh huh.
The exhibition was housed in Berlin’s premier exhibition/fair grounds, The Messe. Under a grey sky, The Messe appeared both hideous and magical, reminding me of something a Manga animator might dream up for after the apocalypse comes. Art Forum was installed inside of the sprawling North Hall of The Messe. It was not difficult to navigate as a visitor because there was really no way to navigate it. Despite the hyper-detailed map, people were forced to simply begin walking without purpose, viewing as they went, hopefully finding a way out in the end. I had to give myself over to the scale of the event in order to take anything away. Paramedics would have had a much tougher time in an emergency.
The exhibition was mostly white-walled and packed with a mixture of amazing work and deliberately dressed people. No more than five minutes after I entered, I stood modestly curious, as a nice couple from who knows where inquired as to the price of a small (12x16) ‘anonymous’ painting. After being told the work was priced at 26,000 Euro ($35,000) they politely asked if they could carry it out with them. I guess names aren’t always everything.
The event serves as a temporary and contemporary museum of the highest quality, as well as clearinghouse for just about any art form that can be bought and sold. The over-arching principles of Art Forum Berlin are newness and quality. Both were present in equally breathtaking amounts.
“This year at the 11th ART FORUM BERLIN, the entire spectrum of contemporary art will be represented: painting, photography, installations, media art, sculpture, works on paper, editions and multiples.”
True! The exhibition was so diverse I could imagine purists falling into fits and pulling their hair out in the corner. The work ranged from, oil on just about everything, to graphite on paper, to monumental c-prints (I mean 20 feet x 10 feet monumental), to the requisite neon installation, to video installation, to interactive design … name it and it was there.
Markus Oehlen’s work seemed to be everywhere. His giant oil on canvas compositions would stand out even in a Fourth of July parade, or, as was the case even at Art Forum Berlin. Performance artist William L Pope had a small work entitled “Salt Lick” represented by a London-based gallery whose name I didn’t get. The orange crusty surface was accompanied by instructions to lick the surface and spit the contents of one’s mouth onto the floor. By day 4 of Art Forum Berlin no one had followed his instructions. It’s understandable, really.
Birgit Dieker was a new name for me but I will certainly not forget it. The works presented by Birgit, who is represented in Europe, all utilized fabric and found clothing. I was most struck by pieces that looked like anthropomorphic humanoid forms made by ‘stacking’ old shirts like a Russian doll until a solid form was realized. The ‘heads’ of these forms were then excavated until the layers within were revealed. David Scher, (another new name for me) shows in the still-hot city of Leipzig. He reminds me of San Francisco-based artists like Shaun O’Dell. I am struggling to understand why exactly, but it may be that they blend an interest in formal and technical aspects of drawing and painting with the insane ‘abstract expressionist/Korean animation/Americana’ symbolism that I find more and more in contemporary painting.
All things considered I was really completely under-whelmed by the installation section. The area was used for works that were not installation but were too large to be exhibited in the main spaces, as well as ‘true’ installations that I found generally a bit stale.
The city of Berlin itself is as amazing as it is strange. My first impressions were of the new 700-million-Euro Hauptbahnhof train station (the largest in Europe) — a glass cathedral that accepts trains on two levels. It’s larger than most airports and busier too. Eight hundred years of history seem to still be active and alive all around the city. The touristy areas are still quite raw and it would seem everyone finds a voice there.
The city is in many ways a blank slate. It is ancient and contemporary, and many areas still bear traces of multiple invasions, regime changes, world-shattering bombing campaigns and geopolitical division. Award-winning architecture and still dead Soviet-era buildings stand together, roving bands of street-kids wait for trains next to rich Golden-Youth at the U-Bahn station, wurst sausage peddlers next to Middle Eastern kebob carts.... It seemed like strange things were afoot all around me AND the people are delightfully nice. There were areas where just walking around I felt as though I was on some high-grade synthetic black-market chemical. Even at the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate it was all a bit like a blurry dream of some “Soviet Brooklyn.” I was unprepared for the tarnished-polish of the city.
All things said it’s an amazing metropolis and host to a seemingly non-stop party circuit at a seemingly infinite variety of clubs, venues, squat-houses, hotels and galleries. There are no less than 50 museums in Berlin proper, including the Pergamonmuseum, Bode-Museum, as well as the Alte and Neue Nationalgaleries. These are all situated on the Museum Island, which is still reeling from a 400-million-Euro renovation project. There are more official and alternative gallery spaces than I can count, all presenting a variety of work befitting an international city such as Berlin. I was also lucky enough to catch Cai Guo-Qiang at Guggenheim Berlin. I was introduced to him through the Woodward Lecture Series a few years ago. I have seen him at the Corcoran in Washington D.C. as well, and I am never disappointed with his work.
Suffice it to say there’s too much to discuss in one sitting. Maybe next year I can offer some perspective on the changing face of Art Forum Berlin. But for now, like the 100,000 other visitors, I am still in the hazy neon thrall of the grand event.
Visit Art Forum Berlin on the web at www.art-forum-berlin.com.
Brown’s work has been exhibited at Thoreson Farm and the Lake Street Studios’ Center Gallery. He has traveled vast portions of the United States since leaving his Glen Arbor residency and made an immediate stop on the middle coast of Oregon for a residency at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. A Maggie Allese Scholarship Fellow, Brown spent a year traveling with Art Train USA. He has also spent extended time creating studio studies in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. When Brown is not internationally engaged, he frequently makes rejuvenation visits to Empire. Brown’s work on paper is currently represented at the Synchronicity Gallery the Glen Arbor. For more information visit www.stevenmatthewbrown.com.
Posted by editor at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)
Before We Hibernate: Leaves, Wood, Food
By Holly Wren Spaulding
Sun contributor
Each fall my mood takes a plunge when things start dying off around me. At the end of the growing year, there is a thread of despair as I remember my own mortality and the end that comes in the cycle all living things. Low pressure or the stirring of a storm often reflects my own interior climate.
Photo by Ryan Romeike
I maintain a regular correspondence with a friend who lives 15 miles east of me. Most days, the same clouds or the same blue skies over my home in Cedar are as likely those he sees on the East Bay. Despite this, our letters always seem to begin with meteorological details. I write: “Today the swamp is pulsing moisture through the air and everything is slick with overnight rain.” He writes “Small stalactites of ice hang from the tomato plants on the porch. The basil's looking a bit disconcerted with the cold. I'm thinking its not going so well for the porch garden.” These fleeting observations are perhaps like stage directions, a way to set the scene.
When I write, “the maples are losing to the wind but one near my window has hung onto all its purple leaves,” perhaps I am also commenting to my friend that I too am determined to preserve my good humor a little longer.
In the midst, fall is noteworthy for its extremes. By mid-October I enjoy the wind buffeting the house, rattling the stovepipe, making music all night in the branches. To my poet friend I praise those breaks in the weather which provide another chance at outdoor chores before the snow.
This is the season of fortifying the woodpile, cleaning chimneys. Gutters are mucked out, downspouts straightened as we brace for heavy rains. The really good homeowner has already packed away the lawn furniture and tipped the picnic table to prevent rust or rot. Flowerpots have been moved or emptied. Driving around the county I admire those who in addition to what must be done, have put out pumpkins or a potted asters.
After a couple of hard frosts, I’m hanging on to what still grows. My calendula and nasturtiums persist so that even now I have fresh flowers on the windowsill. But the beds still need tidying if the crocus and tulips are to find their way come spring. Reluctantly I pull up the tangle of wilting leaves and unopened buds, take it all to the compost heap.
Arranging firewood for the heating season is always a last minute affair at my house. Of course, the sensible thing to do is split wood while it can cure in the sun; at this point we risk running into damp pieces before fair weather returns. But we are young and we live with this risk, knowing that if we must, we’ll go for wood in knee-deep snow.
Lately, we drive the truck back into the woods on the weekend, unload the saw, bar oil and red can of chainsaw mix. I step into my Carhartts, put on work gloves. The puppy couldn’t be happier than when we point her to a decomposing stump where she digs a dark hole into the earth, spraying rich soil in every direction.
On one of the adjacent parcels someone is firing a .22 amidst the hum of lingering birds and squawking squirrels. Every step into the spongy layer of leaves on the way to the leaning ash or the downed maple sends up the tannic odor of rotting leaves. We find the best path from firewood to truck bed and start cutting, start hauling.
Certain work reminds me that indeed, so much depends on this body. I use all of my weight to thrust the wheelbarrow over the hummocks, swiftly through the standing trees. I bend and lift with my knees, use all my strength to heave the largest rounds of wood onto the tailgate; I get up to shift the growing pile to the back of the truck bed. Much of what we gather won’t be cut to length or split until we are home again. I pause, leaning against a large beech, calculating what is needed yet to get through until May.
The other day a large diesel truck roared up to where we were working. I braced, thinking it was some grouch come to chew us out for trespassing. It turns out it was an old classmate I hadn’t run into in over a decade. Mike was in his full bow hunting gear and hoping we could give permission for him to access the land to chase a wounded deer, should it come to that. We caught up a little — he has two kids now, works for his dad in the construction business — and then each returned to our most pressing work: getting fuel and getting food.
If summer calls us to plant and tend, and play in the beauty of that hard-earned season, then fall summons us to gather, even to horde. We still play — take the canoe out for one more paddle, or go hiking across the unfrozen dunes when the sun appears — but not once have I spent a fall in Leelanau without rushing a little to get the essentials in order.
Those of us who retain some measure of personal responsibility for our survival have been occupied with gathering what we need for winter since the tomato glut in August. We pickle, can, freeze and ferment, stocking the larder with the fruits of — if not our own — then our neighbors’ labors. Squash are shelved beside onions, garlic, shallots and other storage crops. Hunters and fishermen have an added food group to smoke or cure or fill the freezer with. In the fall we are not so different from other animals in our scramble before we hibernate.
When the light falls gray and cold across the yard, I put the kettle on for coffee, certain that our tired bodies will not resist sleep tonight. The longest burning, best fuel we can find is ironwood and we take armloads to the basement for those exceptionally cold nights in February. A couple of pieces in the Morso before bed means you can count on good coals in the morning, sparing a trip to the woodpile in pajamas.
We talk about what to make for dinner — roasted sweet potatoes with walnuts, maybe fresh bread, some Red Russian Kale, which is best after a frost when the leaves are tender and sweet, salad with gorgonzola. We go on like this while, shifting the last cord of wood from the damp ground to long stacks. We move as we are made to move, and then we stop to look out across the brown weeds and the bare trees at the settling swamp.
Posted by editor at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)
Glen Lake Library holds holiday book drive, “Stories & More”
From staff reports
A special holiday tradition continues as we kick off our eight annual call for children’s books on November 15. The Friends of the Glen Lake Community Library, in cooperation with Glen Lake School’s “Parenting Communities” program (formerly the “Way To Grow” program), are seeking donations of new books for children in our community whose families are in need of assistance this holiday season.
Kathy Bartell, the coordinator for the “Parenting Communities” program for the Glen Lake Schools compiles a “wish list” of boys and girls from preschool through age 11. She calls on such groups as Head Start and the Glen Lake Elementary School as well as her own “Parenting Communities” program for names of families that need assistance. Any family can find themselves in hard times and the goal is to make sure the kids still have some holiday joy in the form of a special book. The list is available at the Glen Lake Library in Empire and at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor. Donors are asked to purchase a book for a child on this list and deliver it gift-wrapped to the library by December 15. The Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor will kindly provide a 20 percent discount on any books purchased for this program. Last year, over 100 books were donated. The list grows longer every year, so please help us bring the joy of books to these children for the holidays. The best part of this Book Drive is that we know all the books go to children in our own community.
“Stories & More,” a weekly program of stories and activities for preschoolers, is held on Thursdays at 11 a.m. at the Glen Lake Community library and continues throughout the school year.
Posted by editor at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
Community Thanksgiving: America Unchained!
From staff reports
On November 18, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, communities around the country will celebrate America Unchained! — a national event sponsored by the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), that urges communities to “unchain themselves” and to shop only at locally owned independent businesses for the day. AMIBA is inviting all independent retailers, independent business alliances, and independent trade associations to join in the third annual event.
Photo by Ryan Romeike
“We timed America Unchained! deliberately and strategically,” said Jennifer Rockne, AMIBA director. “Our goal is to get the public’s attention before the onset of the annual holiday shopping frenzy — before their attention is colonized by events and the advertising barrage.” America Unchained! focuses on community economics by helping citizens recognize the fiscal benefit of shopping at local independent businesses — and to think about the impact of where they choose to spend their dollars, not only for the upcoming holiday season, but every day.
“The media love to use ‘Black Friday’ to depict the nature of holiday shopping, but their chosen image is of shoppers exiting chain stores with armloads. It’s a soulless, superficial portrayal,” said Rockne. “America Unchained! primarily is a media event that carries a strong educational message about community economics and provides a way to remind people that independent businesses are part of the holiday shopping experience — and a better one all around.... We’d like to shift more holiday spending to independent businesses, but we also want to restore some humanity and meaning to the act of giving a gift.”
As in previous years, a key focus of the America Unchained! event is the findings of Civic Economics’ Andersonville Study and "”Economic Impact Analysis — A Case Study: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers”, both of which clearly illustrate that local retailers return more economic value to the community than do chain retailers.
“We know, through economic impact studies such as the Austin Independent Business Alliance’s, Andersonville and Mid-Coast Maine, that communities are huge beneficiaries when people shop locally owned,” Rockne continued, “so focusing on community economics is a useful bridge for this campaign that gives the act of gift-giving added meaning.”
America Unchained! evolved out of a 2003 event, Austin Unchained, which was held by the Austin Independent Business Alliance, an AMIBA affiliate headed by Steve Bercu of BookPeople. Austin alliance members organized the event to demonstrate that even one day of shopping at locally owned businesses would have a significant economic impact on the city.
In conjunction with the event, the Austin Independent Business Alliance commissioned “An Analysis of the Potential Economic Impact of Austin Unchained,” a study conducted by Civics Economics that indicated its expectations were correct. “The economic impact of a successful Austin Unchained event will be measured in the millions of dollars,” the report said. “This is the equivalent of dozens of new jobs in our community from a single day of changed consumer behavior.”
“The Austin Independent Business Alliance generated substantial local media exposure to drum up community support and participation,” Rockne said. “Combined with their posters, fliers, t-shirts, the word got out and the community joined in to inject millions into Austin's economy.” AMIBA hopes that its national campaign will multiply that effect with each participating community and continue to spread the collective message.
“The media love this event because it’s edgy, and its timeliness is perfect, both for the pertinence of the local versus chain issue and for its proximity to the holiday shopping season,” Rockne explained.
AMIBA provides templates for posters, a logo, button designs, press releases and more for local customization. All of the materials will soon be available for download from the AMIBA website, www.amiba.net. AMIBA also encourages participants to develop their own organizational items.
Posted by editor at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)
New website gives ridesharing a lift
From staff reports
Whether you are looking for a ride to work or looking to share your ride with others, a new website makes ridesharing safe and easy for commuters in northwest Michigan. www.NMRide.net was recently launched as the official website connecting commuters for ride sharing to work, activities and more throughout the Traverse Bay region. The general public is invited to learn how to use the site, as well as local businesses interested in helping their employees get to work.
NMRide.net is an initiative of the Northwest Michigan Transportation Alliance (NMTA), a collaboration of more than 20 human service agencies, non-profits and local businesses which seek to expand transportation options in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Benzie counties. Northwest Michigan Council of Governments (NWMCOG), a partner in NMTA, developed and will maintain the site.
The new ride share program is among the most comprehensive in the country, according to Michelle Goetz Grahl, who helped coordinate the launch of NMRide.net. “There are many people in our area who don’t own a vehicle and struggle with finding transportation to work, school or other places. NMRide.net gives them another option.”
How NMRide.net Works
Everyone can browse the offered rides and ride requests at www.NMRide.net. However, in order to contact a driver or rider, or post a ride offer or request, users need to register for a free account on the site.
Those needing a ride can use the ride search tool or browse the ride list to see if anyone has offered a ride in the direction they are heading. If a match is found, the user sends the driver an e-mail message. The driver will then have that person’s e-mail address and can respond. They can then exchange contact information, ride schedules and other information to help determine a good match.
For those with a ride to offer, the process works the same way. Ride providers can use the ride search tool or browse the ride list to see if anyone needs a ride in the direction they are heading. The steps are then the same for connecting to the person needing a ride.
NMRide.net enables users to enter criteria such as route, work schedule, smoking preference and sharing of expenses to help find the carpool partner that best matches their profile. A mapping tool allows riders and drivers to view destinations and routes, and carpool safety tips are also featured. There is no cost for registration or use of the site. Riders may be asked to share expenses with drivers, but that is left to the discretion of each driver.
To accommodate those without ready access to a computer, NMTA is in the process of creating a public access system, beginning with public libraries and local businesses. Public access sites will be marked with a window decal and listed on the website. The group is distributing posters and brochures throughout the region promoting NMRide.com.
Additional Benefits
Janie McNabb, Communications Coordinator for NMCOG, pointed out that besides helping individuals with transportation challenges, the site offers benefits to employers and the environment. “It helps workers find a reliable way to get to work, and to get there on time. That makes them a more dependable employee,” noted McNabb.
McNabb also noted that ride sharing should not be limited to people facing transportation barriers. “We hope this effort fosters an understanding that ride sharing helps reduce traffic and negative environmental impacts,” she said. “Our region is facing growing land use and transportation challenges, and sharing a ride is a simple way to reduce the number of cars on the road.”
Funding for the ride share program comes from United Way of Northwest Michigan and state, federal and local sources. For more information about the Northwest Michigan Transportation Alliance, and ride sharing, visit www.NMRide.net.
Posted by editor at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)