For East Lansing City Council: Meadows, Altmann and Gregg

East Lansing still has its host of dysfunctions, but the beloved college town is in much better shape than it was four years ago, when Mark Meadows returned to City Hall, joined by Erik Altmann and Shanna Draheim. On the second try, East Lansing voters passed an income tax to stabilize the city’s finances while cutting the high property tax millage that burdened homeowners, especially seniors on a fixed budget. The new tax structure has already paid dividends — the Hannah Community Center was saved, new police and firefighters were hired and more money was freed up for parks and badly deteriorating streets.

New developments have been a pain for many residents and local businesses, and change is hard. But if new development is going to happen, it’s more sustainable to build up than sprawl outward. The new high-rises will put more people into downtown East Lansing, hopefully allowing for a more diverse range of businesses than T-shirt shops and lowbrow restaurants  not that we want East Lansing’s college dives to go anywhere.

It’s hard to imagine any of this happening without the leadership of Mark Meadows, who has earned another term. Meadows hasn’t always been right in his big plans for East Lansing — the botched Avondale Square housing project comes to mind, dating from his first term as mayor almost 20 years ago. But the man has learned from his mistakes from his years in public office, and now seems to contain the vision to take East Lansing into the roaring ’20s.

Working closely with Meadows has been Councilman Erik Altmann, who also should get a second term. We haven’t always agreed with Altmann on some policies, such as his opposition to a local ordinance banning harmful LGBTQ conversion therapy for the town’s youth, but his heart is in the right place and we respect his ability to maintain an independent perspective. It would be better to police this policy from the state level, but with a Republican Legislature failing to protect queer youth, the city was right to act. Altmann has exciting ideas to make East Lansing earn its Spartan green colors, including new mandates for electric car charging stations and a protected bicycle lane on Burcham Drive.

For the last spot, we like Jessy Gregg to replace Councilwoman Draheim. Gregg learned the ins and outs of city government while writing important public service journalism at East Lansing Info and served on the Ingham County Parks board. A small business owner in downtown East Lansing, she’ll provide an important perspective on Council and help the city avoid losing any more beloved businesses like Mackerel Sky. She’s also an artist who will look to keep the arts community a vibrant part of East Lansing’s future. Draheim provided a necessary check on Altmann and Meadows, and we’re hopeful Gregg will provide the same, with a platform that encourages more transparency.

Lisa Babcock has been a welcome voice in the debate over East Lansing’s future, and for voters who wish to really shake up city leadership, they probably wouldn’t go wrong with her. She has worked to draw attention to the questionable sale on Ebay of land that once belonged to public works as well as the seedy use of federal Housing and Urban Development money for landscaping at the City Attorney’s Office — a misuse of funds the city was forced to pay back.

Voters also wouldn’t go wrong with John Revitte, a retired labor relations professor, who spent his career trying to get adversaries to find common ground. He’s a little obsessed with the city’s urban white-tailed deer devouring his flower garden, but his more serious position that East Lansing should be less provincial and look at the success of other communities for workable solutions to common problems is well taken.

The MSU student in the race, Warren Stanfield III, has been a fun addition to the field and a reminder of the need to tie in the half of the community lying south of Grand River Avenue. We hope his grassroots run for public office will be a good learning experience for him on his way to a bright future.

But for 2019, we encourage voters to select Meadows, Altmann and Gregg to guide the community over the next four years.