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Saginaw Finally Breaks the Bank for Federal Funds By Mike Thompson
We will definitely be seeing Stimi — a share of the federal $787 billion economic stimulus plan — in three Saginaw neighborhoods. Two are the areas surrounding St. Mary’s of Michigan (Cathedral District) and Covenant HealthCare. The third is the old First Ward, and part of the Second Ward, stretching from I-675 north of TheDow Event Center to the vicinity of the old Grey Iron Plant, now GM Powertrain. How were these three territories selected? We’ll get to that in a minute, but first some background. City Hall is reaping $17.4 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to tear down up to 800 abandoned homes during the next three years, and to renovate up to 800 more. This is a huge chunk of cheese, given that past city spending for these purposes has amounted to little more than $1 million per annum from the ever-shrinking federal Community Development Block Grant allotment. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority also has chipped in during the past decade, which has helped because MSHDA generates its own funds and is independent of the bare-bones state general budget. All of a sudden, Saginaw’s getting $17.4 million. This definitely merits a “holy cow!” reaction from anyone who has followed City Hall for any period of time. It seems like Saginaw always misses out. The disorganized Housing Commission’s proposals for boo-koo bucks always have drawn blanks; a bitter pill in that the name of the grant program was HOPE, which probably stands for Housing Opportunities Program Enterprise or whatever – who knows and why bother to know when we don’t get any of it. (Okay, we looked it up, and guess what - HOPE doesn’t stand for anything. It’s just capital letters for emphasis, which figures.) At any rate, with this sort of dim track record, reaction is almost beyond belief when Development Director Odail Thorns projects that 80 percent of the city’s blight will be wiped out by the time the next presidential election rolls around. In the classic words of sportscaster Al Michaels: “Do you believe in miracles? Yesssss!!!”
Breaking News: City Hall Kudos! The Review would like to extend a handshake for Dr. Thorns, a savvy Delphi executive retiree who could have smelled the roses instead of taking on this second career. We’ll even assert that he deserves that controversial $91,000 assistant, who actually will fill a vacant position rather than creating a new one. As Mayor Greg Branch noted, $91,000 per year (which includes the bennies, not just salary) isn’t a whole lot of money for helping to oversee a $17.4 million windfall. We might as well compliment City Manager Darnell Earley as well, while we’re enjoying this gushy grant celebration, even while he maintains a public persona that would make crusty Ed Potthoff seem like a glad-hander by comparison. Few cities of Saginaw’s size have a manager of such experience and expertise, and Manager Earley indeed has done some solid things (even lately, whenever he’s in town) to right the city’s financial ship during the past five years. Still, if either Dr. Thorns or Mr. Earley are reading these pages, we will now proceed to kill this instant new friendship by noting that the supposedly dastardly Cecil Collins had the wisdom to hire both of them. Irony can be so rich! In effect, Cecil Collins took the first steps in paving the way for Saginaw to land $17.4 million. Of course, the main credit (or blame, if you’re a conservative) for this grant should go to President Barack Obama. A good number of readers no doubt will perceive that this Stimi grant is just another example of waste and excess during the Obama era. But in the end, this sure beats adding on to the $700 billion tab (so far) for the Iraq War, or the $700 billion paycheck for the Wall Street bailout - in fact, isn’t it a coincidence that those two numbers and the Stimi Recovery Act figure are almost identical? If we had to choose, give us Stimi! If you disagree and are among the 80 percent of the populous who go online, call up costofwar.com and view the spinning gas-pump style numbers for the Iraq debacle. Imagine what those dollars could have done here at home.
Target Neighborhood Choices With background in place, we now can explore the logic of choosing target neighborhoods. A first question among many citizens is why have target neighborhoods at all? Isn’t $17.4 million (I just love repeating that number) enough for the entire city, all at once? Well, no, it’s not. Plus, the good public servants at HUD demand establishment of target areas. There’s a reason. If the money is spent everywhere at once, we might not really see results anywhere at all - sort of like tossing a penny into the ocean. Saginaw’s target zones expanded as a result of what actually were well-intentioned motives. Saginaw’s first council with a black majority of members, the so-called Larry Crawford council of the middle 1980s, often was and is chastised. Regardless, this group truly wanted to demonstrate to a skeptical and even fearful white community that they would represent all the people. Creation of the Community Enrichment Commission and the Andersen Enrichment Center was one enduring result. Establishment of the first West Side block grant zones was another result. Crossing the river was a positive and significant gesture, but the Crawford council didn’t shut down any East Side target areas as a tradeoff. As a result, blight-fighting resources were spread so thin that there really weren’t any target zones, because virtually half the city was a target zone. Things didn’t change until the current council decided to narrow the focus first to the East Side area surrounding St.. Mary’s of Michigan (Cathedral District) then joined by the West Side’s Covenant HealthCare neighborhood. This strategy makes utmost sense. The hospitals are Saginaw’s employment anchors, along with the still-surviving auto industry, and it’s wise to maintain the surrounding neighborhoods. No, this doesn’t mean the hospitals are imposing blackmail on the City Council in order to receive top billing. Pressure tactics would have been more likely before the turn of the millennium. Back then, the city first was at risk of losing St. Mary’s (just ask ole’ Hank Nickleberry, now lounging in the Vegas sun), and then the former St. Luke’s/Saginaw General combo (remember the Bliss Park controversy?). But by now, both institutions have invested so many millions, looking across the river from one another, that they are not going to split town - not even if city leaders were to choose other target neighborhoods. A total equation would occur if the hospitals would invest a little bit more money in return, for neighborhood improvement outreach. Of course, hospital representatives will respond that they support this certain cause or that certain project, but the only major contributions have been from St. Mary’s during Sister Dinah White’s tenure as director of mission services. Sister Dinah brought home several million dollars between 1998 and 2006, first from the hospital itself and then from the Daughters of Charity. But after Sister Dinah departed four years ago, St. Mary’s commitment hasn’t been at the same level. Covenant has been even quieter. Times are tough, yeah times are tough. Still, the hospitals could do more. Sister Dinah White proved that. The result is that the neighborhood immediately surrounding St.. Mary’s is greatly revitalized, despite the East Side stereotypes.
Northeast Target Zone: This Is Stimulus? City Hall’s selection of the northeast First Ward area surrounding the Potter Street Railroad Station, made in conjunction with County Treasurer Marv Hare and the countywide land management bank, is more questionable. We suppose you could say CSX Transportation is the neighborhood anchor, similar to the hospitals, but CSX is so blatantly neglectful of its property that tall grass through the years has transformed into miniature forests. Botany 101. Marv Hare, like Odail Thorns, could be sitting back in retirement if he so chose. Instead, a few years ago, he took on the land bank responsibilities without seeking a single penny in added salary. Maybe some of those pre-grandfather-clause county commissioners could reach into their pockets and give Mr. Hare a small gift envelope, as a token gesture of thanks. He’s committed to redevelopment, which is great, but do we really need to raze virtually the entire First Ward (and part of the Second Ward) to create an industrial park of sorts? Hare talks about abandoned firetraps being dangerous, but there really isn’t that much arson north of I-675 these days, because there are hardly any people remaining to set the blazes. A better approach would be to start with a third rescue-worthy area to complement the St. Mary’s and Covenant zones, and to simply leave the northeast rubble alone for a while. The area east of TheDow, known as Houghton-Jones, could prosper with a boost. The housing around Saginaw High School, believe it or not, remains fairly sound. The same goes for the near West Side on both sides of the Covenant area, where blight could be nipped in the bud. It’s something to think about, but all in all, Saginaw finally has some good news. Redevelopment of Washington Avenue, the Temple Theatre and TheDow provided the prime positive redevelopment story of the new millennium’s first decade. Neighborhood improvement has potential for the new decade to come. |
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