Record Eagle: Wish List For Thriving Community
posted by Beth Milligan @ 8:13 AM
Beth's Blog: Viva La Pasion
About Me
- Name: Beth Milligan
- Location: Traverse City, Michigan, United States
Previous Posts
- Arrested Development-- R.I.P.
- Record Eagle: Inside The Gamer's Mind, Part 2
- Record Eagle: Inside The Gamer's Mind, Part 1
- Record Eagle: Christmas Once A Year Seems Excessive
- Worst (And Best) Ways to Die
- Record Eagle: Five Things Every College Parent Sho...
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- Guster Is For Lovers
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2 Comments:
I'm a 23 year old resident of Traverse City finishing up my degree in the Metro-Detroit area. Although I think that your ideas for Traverse City are ideal, they are also unrealistic. For the past 5 years I have enjoyed a diverse, cultured, urban lifestyle, combined w/ a Starbucks and Sushi Bar on every corner. This comes with a price that I do not want to see Traverse City pay. First, the crime rate between Traverse City and Metro-Detroit is not comparable. People are murdered daily in Detroit, almost 100 children were murdered there last year. In my trendy temporary-home-town of Royal Oak, the need for diversity has driven crime rates to a peak. Also the need for every shopping pleasure possible. Think about it this way: you need a Carribou Coffe, not just a Starbucks. When that Carribou Coffee comes, it brings jobs. What kind? $7.50 an hour. With that, it brings in the employees that will take these jobs-incidently the social-economic group with the highest rate of crime. As a city grows, problems grow with it. Traverse City has been destroying itself slowly for years. The worse thing to do would be to bring in more industry. As a city grows and industry booms, factory jobs and other jobs paying high ammounts to people with lower education also thrive. Again, this brings in people statistically proven to bring the crime with them. A good example of this is Wixom, Michigan. 20 years ago this was a small town. Then Ford built the factory and several lower cost subdivisions popped up. Wixom's population, business and ecomony all increased. But now the average Wixom police officer would suggest you move to nearby Novi, it's safer. Traverse City reeled for years after the murder of Sgt Dennis Finch. I can still remember his name, and it happened in 1998. Four police officers have been gunned down in the past year within 20 minutes of my apartment. I don't know the name of a single one. And Royal Oak is considered to be a good neighborhood. Why try to destroy Traverse City with increasing it's population, increasing potential for danger in our beloved streets? What long term ecomonic issues will arrive from a wish list like yours? If those are the things you want-move down here. You'll get them, and the problems that come with them. On another note, Traverse City still does require it's tourism industry. I haven't heard too many people down here express interest in Traverse City. Most say it's too big and if they wanted to be in a place that looked like a suburb, they'd just stay home. Most now head to Charlevoix and Petosky-hence the birth of Bay Harbour. My husband finishes Law School in 14 months. When we come home to the north, we hope there will be a north to come home to. Suburbs are attractive, but they belong here where there is a big city to support their issues-not in northern Michigan.
I fully disagree with the previous blogger. I, a 22-year-old OU graduate recently moved to Traverse City from Rochester Hills, 20 minutes from Royal Oak. When I moved I asked where the Starbucks was, and people laughed at me. Though, Traverse City has some great locally-owned coffee shops (and other types of businesses) I don't see how bringing some commercial businesses here is harmful and would bring violence to a community. And a diverse society is a utopia, in my eyes. I agree with Beth in that it would be great with the 24-hour restuarant or the movie theater. But I still consider how Traverse City survives on its tourism.
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