Reminds me of home…

I’ve been following this “Walmart attempts the District” thing over the past few weeks.  Long story short, Walmart is trying to open four locations in the city, one just a few blocks away from our place.  I’m pretty indifferent to the whole thing – I have a Safeway less than a few blocks away, and I’ve always considered Walmart pretty overwhelming.  But there’s no doubt this store can be a lifesaver in an area where there isn’t much else around.  So despite Walmart’s poor reputation among people who don’t shop (can afford not to shop) at Walmart, the project has people saying things like this:

Paul McElligott, executive director of the Perry School Community Services Center, spoke of the dire need for employment—his organization has in previous years placed around 25 people in jobs per month, but only averaged seven in 2010. “All things considered, this project is a benefit,” he said.

Yvonne Williams, chair of the Board of Trustees for Bible Way Church—which has built hundreds of low-income apartments right across the street from the proposed Walmart, and is at work on 60 more—brought 50 signatures in favor of the project from local residents, and says they desperately need more affordable groceries than what they can get in CityVista Safeway and NoMa Harris Teeter (Bible Way had tried to run a supermarket itself years ago, and failed. Now, according to St. Aloysius' Father Thomas Clifford, a local non-profit runs buses for seniors to a Walmart out in Maryland.)

“We’ve been praying for food in our neighborhood for 40 years,” Williams said. “We need Walmart here to meet the needs of our residents.”

Anyway, there was a community meeting last week in my neighborhood.  And the Mt. Vernon Triangle blog’s report reminded me* of home:

You come to expect some irrational comments at a forum like this. However the low point of the evening for me was a member of our ANC6C PZ&E committee yelling at the Brig Owens about his Virginia residency status. He repetitively barked in a hostile tone “You don’t live here” and “Why don’t you move to DC?” There are alot of different legitimate stances on the Walmart project, but what’s the purpose of expecting everyone connected to it to live inside the District. A tad disappointing to see a member of a committee that evaluates ANC 6C Zoning projects be so caught up in xenophobia rather than the merits of the project or the credentials of the developer.

*(Particular episode that this reminded me of is outlined here.  Courtesy Monica Conyers).

Mitch and the movies

I’m pretty committed to staying out of the Michigan budget debate.  Don’t think there’s much to say there that hasn’t been said by somebody else at some point.

But you-know-who apparently blackmailed the Free Press editors into launching a mini hissy fit over Gov. Rick Snyder’s thumping of Michigan’s “incentives” for the film industry.  So the past few days saw the Freep roll out a host of (totally unbiased) articles and opinion pieces by a couple people who really, really want to take your money and give it to their friends.  And really, I’m just confused on this one.

Albom:

And before you say, "Who needs those Hollywood types?", consider all the carpenters, electricians and drivers this thriving industry put to work. Consider the hotels, restaurants, car rentals. Ask yourself if any other field grew 100 times over -- from $2 million to $225 million -- in two years, if any other field kept our young, bright minds from leaving or brought more attention to the beauty and talent of our state.

I mean…I guess.  It’s no secret that Mitch is a pretty liberal guy, which is fine, but isn’t that first sentence basically “trickle down” economics?  And the second sentence…well that’s just Albom discovering that if you give people a lot of money, they’ll tend to do stuff. 

And Albom then closes with this irony-sensor-exploding gem:

Because our Michigan can't be viewed only through a CEO's lens, a budget that shows little regard for poor and elderly people, but twists like a pretzel for certain businesses.

Twists like a pretzel for certain businesses.  Which is different from twisting like a pretzel for certain industries.  Or something.

Albom actually makes some decent points in his piece – particularly, that there’s more to being an “attractive” state in a business sense than just having low taxes.  And he’s right.  But that valid point is lost in a piece where the main point - amidst all the “creative” and “beauty” and “hip” and “young minds” mumbo jumbo – is just “I would like you to give a lot of money to this industry that I happen to like.”

Last week, there was Jeff Daniels, who looked at Snyder’s budget and said:

"The sound you hear today is of people packing and leaving the state," Daniels said by phone, describing the potential impact of Snyder's budget proposal, which would eliminate the film tax credit as we now know it.

Really?  Film subsidies?  That’s what did it?  This would be like me catching a cold this week and saying, “Now I’m REALLY worried about my health!”

The final opinion piece is from Mike Binder, an actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who tells us “As far as I’m concerned Michigan is the greatest state in the country, bar none.”  Which is good, since he’s a California resident who somehow had a hand in orchestrating a forcible transfer of money from Michigan residents to his friends in his industry.

Oh and there’s this awesomely-timed report (commissioned last year and coincidentally released on Monday): Study finds film incentives bring millions to state coffers.  Sounds made up. 

I’m not even sure if this is a partisan issue, but apparently Democrats support the credits by a wide margin, while Republicans oppose them by a narrower margin.

And I don’t get it.  Isn’t this a bunch of stuff Democrats/liberals are supposed to hate?  Benefits “trickling down” from big corporations to blue collar workers?  Lobbyists and industry officials lining up to get their share of the pie?  Politically-connected rich white guys meeting with government officials to divert public money to people and industries that they like?  Tax dollars collected from Michiganders and given to out-of-staters?  How can you claim these favorable tax rates are critical to the film industry and create jobs and then complain that a more favorable tax rate for every other business in Michigan is a terrible idea because it won’t create any jobs?  Substitute “oil industry” for “film industry,” and Albom is leading an angry mob instead of e-mailing the governor and writing glowing columns.

I know it creates jobs.  Or, rather, it employs certain people who probably already have jobs in particular favored industries for a certain period of time until you run out of other people’s money.  Of course you can rattle off a list of “benefits.”  For a couple hundred million dollars, you better be able to do that.  That’s not the point.  The question is whether it is politically and economically justified to take money from people and give it to this particular industry because…hell, I don’t know.  Because Mitch Albom thinks its a good idea?  Everything I’ve read defending this thing boils down to little more than, “I like this.”  You can dress it up in whatever platitudes you like, but that’s still the message. 

“I like this” is not a political or economic philosophy.  It shouldn’t be given an uncontested platform in a major state newspaper, and it certainly shouldn’t justify taking money from Michiganders and giving it to your friends. 

Midweek Update

Wednesday really snuck up on me this week, and that is awesome.  That is because I now get Presidents Day off.  Which is also awesome.  Of course, a “day off” really just means “do work at home.”  But oh well.  That’s good enough for me. 

What isn’t awesome is me going on Day 21 of operation “try to make an appointment at Johns Hopkins.  I was able to get a timetable out of them:  The doctor wants to see me the second week of March, and I would get scanned the week before that (the first week in March).  This is ideal – I didn’t want to fly home to get scanned because then I would have to wait a day or so for it to be read, and then have a doctor’s appointment, and then I’m looking at a multi-day trip back to the mitten.  Which is fine, but the scan and appointment would have to take place on weekdays, and I can’t take a chunk of the week off right now.  Much easier to do a scan here then fly back home for just an appointment, if need be. 

But given that this scan might touch off a whole new round in the “more treatment” debate, I really want to make sure this stuff happens ASAP.  So while the timeline I currently have straight from the people at JH is great, it would be even greater if they would stop going dark for days on end.  Last Tuesday’s message ended with, “I will contact you shortly to set up an appointment.”  Apparently “shortly” means “over a week.”  This hasn’t happened to me very often at all, but it completely boggles my mind that people pull this crap when they work in a freaking oncology clinic.  A little sense of urgency, please.

But anyway, that’s my timeline at the moment:  Scan (hopefully) next week; appointment in two weeks.  And then we get to do this fun little dance again.