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EYEFUL
OF THE WEEK
A stately row of two-headed street lamps with matte-black
ironwork, topped by frosted glass globes and gold crowns,
is now making its way down Michigan Avenue in Lansing.
Neighbors
could come together or apart over cul-de-sac
For Lansing residents, it only takes one community improvement
project to stir up the whole cauldron of social relations.
Some residents of Lansing’s Genesee neighborhood are
pushing the city to install a cul-de-sac at the corner of
Sycamore and Saginaw streets to push out drugs and prostitution
from the area.
However, others say the cul-de-sac really represents a racial
barrier in the neighborhood.
Bernero selects
primary opponent Martinez to help in transition
Mayor-elect Virg Bernero has reached out to Lynne Martinez,
one of his opponents in the primary election, to serve on
his transition team.
Martinez will head the committee on human capital, infrastructure
and city services, one of six panels that will prepare recommendations
to the new mayor.
Martinez, a former state representative and Ingham County
commissioner, resigned as the state children’s ombudsman
to run for mayor at the urging of liberal Democrats who
were dissatisfied with the choice of Bernero and Mayor Tony
Benavides. She came in third with 19 percent of the vote,
a strong showing considering she entered the race at the
last minute.
Michigan United
launches fight to save affirmative action
Now that the 2005 election has ended, community activists
are gearing up for a new battle — against the November
2006 ballot proposal, deceptively named the “Michigan
Civil Rights Initiative,” which would essentially end
affirmative action in Michigan.
Leading the fight against the proposal is Michigan United,
Michigan United, a coalition of concerned citizens and groups
across Michigan, including Republicans, Democrats, civil
right advocates, business, labor, social, youth, religious
and women’s organizations. Michigan United will host
a meeting Thursday, Nov. 17, in Lansing.
Who wants
to be a commissioner?
The Ingham County Commission is seeking a replacement for
Commissioner Chris Swope, who will leave the county’s
legislative body to become Lansing city clerk on Jan. 1.
The replacement would serve the remainder of Swope’s
term, which expires on Dec. 31, 2006.
Q&A with
Jerry Ambrose, Bernero's new chief of staff
Lansing Mayor-elect Virg Bernero, a distinct Type A, has
named Ingham County Controller Jerry Ambrose, a Type B,
to be his chief of staff when the new mayor takes office
Jan. 1.
Ambrose, 56, has served as Ingham County’s chief administrator
since 1983. In his new role as chief of staff he will be
responsible for day-to-day operations of the mayor’s
office.
City Pulse sat down with Ambrose to discuss his new post
as Lansing’s chief operating officer.
Hollister
enters House race with heavy ammo
When David Hollister ran for mayor in 1993, Steve Serkaian
was at his side. He stayed there throughout Hollister’s
two-plus terms in office.
His son is taking a lesson from the old man. When Jerry
Hollister issued a press release for the formal announcement
that he is running for the state House, the contact name
on the release was Steve Serkaian.
City Council
candidate wants recount; problem with ballots will hinder
it
Bob Johnson, who finished 26 votes short of winning an at-large
Lansing City Council seat Nov. 8, said he will ask for a
recount, alleging that his opponent, Kathie Dunbar, engaged
in illegal campaigning the day of the election.
Dunbar denies any wrongdoing.
Cancer Society
program offers lifts, lifts spirits
It’s the first ice-scrapingly cold morning of the year,
but Art Korrach has the maroon minivan de-iced, warmed up
and ready to ride by 9:30 a.m.— right on schedule.
He doesn’t have to be up at this hour or be here in
the parking lot of the American Cancer Society in the bone-aching
cold, but he is. In fact, he kinda likes it.
“I worked hard for years,” he says. “Now
I’m doing things that I think are fun.”
ACD.net
to open data center on north side
One of Lansing oldest technologhy companies, ACD.net, will
open a data center in North Lansing next year. ACD. net,
which is noted for its telecommunication, Internet and broadband
service, is purchasing a 42,000-square-foot former auto
parts warehouse at 1800 N. Grand River Ave.
John Hiatt: An
ode to the one who’s not from Texas
Lansing has a passionate cast of musicians who play blues
and twang. Don’t know what “blues and twang”
is? John Hiatt, one of four legends performing in the Wharton
Center’s Friday’s Composers’ tour (see story
below), has the answer in his song “Memphis in the
Meantime:”
“Sure I like country music. I like mandolins. But right
now I need a Telecaster [guitar] through a Vibrolux [amplifier]
turned up to 10.”
Unlike Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark and Joe Ely, John Hiatt isn’t
from Texas — he was born in Indianapolis in 1952 —
so it would be easy to claim him as a Midwesterner. But
that would be like calling Bob Dylan a guy from Minnesot
‘Composers’
Tour’ offers song swap to end all song swaps
A good songwriter can turn darkness to light in four minutes.
A great songwriter like Lyle Lovett can do it much faster:
“Lord, it made me happy, seeing all those people I
ain’t seen since the last time somebody died.”
(That’s from his 1992 album “Joshua Judges Ruth.”)
This Friday at the Wharton Center, Lovett is joined by fellow
truth seekers John Hiatt, Guy Clark and Joe Ely for a song
swap like this city has not seen.
Running away
to (and from) the circus
Cotton candy is an unholy marriage of sugar and electricity,
and the same could be said for carnivals.
Growing up in Williamston, Emma Kruch was hooked on both.
“I always got cotton candy at the Williamston County
Fair,” she says. “It’s a little fluff of
heaven.”
Kruch, director of East Lansing’s experimental (Scene)
Metrospace Gallery, is offering up gobs of sparking mind
sugar with a huge themed exhibit, “Circus Carnival.”
Calendar
celebrates Lakes
The Great Lakes are running out of time, and time is the
medium chosen by a quartet of MSU art school grads, all
Michigan residents, to celebrate the lakes they love. They’ve
crafted a limited-edition, hand-made art calendar interpreting
their common theme from four different points of view. Proceeds
from the showing and sale, to be held at Magdalena’s
Tea House 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, will go to the Alliance
for the Great Lakes.
TYH
New MSU facility reflects mainstreaming of fitness trends
Surrounded by grease-dripping eateries, Saturday morning
beer-chugging contests and 3 a.m. pizza deliveries, it’s
a wonder any college student is able to walk to class. To
make matters worse, the College Student Journal reports
that in the past 20 years, the percentage of adolescents
from ages 12 to 21 participating in physical activity has
dropped from 70 to 35.
There is even a catchphrase — “the freshman 15”
— for students’ tendency to put on weight at college,
where many enjoy spending discretion and freedom from paternal
food monitoring for the first time.
Phantom Moon
over Lansing
Three weeks ago, in mid-October 2005, State Archivist of
Michigan Mark Harvey placed a set of folded paper sheets
on a table, drew a deep breath and gingerly picked up one
corner.
The papers came into his hands when an East Lansing resident
and former Lansing City Planning Office employee named Sue
Cantlon came to his office at the State Archives in downtown
Lansing that day. She told Harvey that a Lansing-area couple
had picked the papers up at an estate sale, as part of a
$25 lot of mold-fringed books, and passed them on to her.
Cantlon told Harvey in advance what the papers contained,
but he still wasn’t prepared for what he saw. “It
wasn’t until I unfolded them, laid them out and looked
at them that I realized what was sitting on the table,”
Harvey said. Spread before him were a set of seven blueprints,
clearly etched in fine white lines on deep blue photo-sensitive
dye, detailing every window, tower, cornice and fireplace
of one of Lansing’s most fabled landmarks.
Bath’s
‘Foreigner’ works
Amazingly, against all odds — including a Friday night
audience of less than 40 hearty souls — Bath Theatre
Guild’s production of Larry Shue’s “The Foreigner”
works. Credit is due in no small part to director David
Brooks, who also designed and constructed the set and selected
a cast of actors who showed up at rehearsals, learned their
lines, and delivered them on cue.
Musical steps
high, lives low
“The Life,” this year’s big co-production
of Michigan State’s University’s Theatre and Music
departments, can’t help attracting notice for its gritty
street action and cast of prostitutes and pimps.
Director Rob Roznowski loves the stark contrast of medium
and subject matter. “The music is in the Broadway idiom,
but when you listen to what the lyrics are about, it’s
completely upsetting and truthful,” he says. In one
tune, a man is recruiting a woman for porn work; another,
Roznowski says, is “all about how we can abuse others.”
Meanwhile, a hooker laments turning 26, singing “I’ve
had so many Shriners, I should be up for membership.”
