Sometimes what’s best for a city doesn’t have a price tag on it

Back 2011, Michael Davis, Julie Swartz, Evan Major, and Jeffrey Doe formed a vision for an urban farm and community garden on group of five city-owned lots in Hamtramck, Michigan that had sat abandoned for thirty years. The lots were unable to be sold due to pending litigation so they approached Mayor Karen Majewski. Later that year, they were issued a permit under the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program to use the lots for a period of five years. Over the next two years, they transformed the lots into a farm with garden plots and fruit trees, including an almost unheard of fruit called the Paw-Paw which was originally native to Michigan.

Then, in June of this year, came the Emergency Manager. It’s Hamtramck’s second EM and, when Cathy Square, entered the picture, the future of the project became uncertain.

Click through for more.

Happy Halloween! This was VERY popular the last several years so I’m reposting for your Halloween viewing pleasure. Enjoy. I love Halloween but I’m not much of a punkin carver. However, I love looking at them. Here’s a bunch of the coolest punkins I could find on the web. Well, except this one. It was taken by my wife: Here’s […]

This is why NERD Fund opacity is such a BFD Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog NOTE: This story has been updated HERE and HERE. I (and so many others) have talked a LOT about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s NERD Fund, financed by unknown corporate entities and wealthy individuals. Because they have been paying for Detroit Emergency Manager […]

“What I learned from my military experience is that…there’s no way this is sustainable and there’s gonna be one day when we go back and die for this stuff.” I meet a lot of really terrific people in my travels but Gordon Soderberg is one of he most selfless, compassionate men I’ve met in a very long time. He has […]

Even when he has the choice to do the right thing, Gov. Snyder doesn’t Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Yesterday during his testimony in the court hearing to determine Detroit’s eligibility for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder revealed an astonishing fact: although he had the opportunity to shield Detroit retirees from cuts to their […]

Lies, damn lies, and statistics Photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog Rick Snyder has embarked on a concerted effort to make you believe that he has turned Michigan’s job situation around. His latest farcical campaign centers around the fact that the number of people with jobs in Michigan is up 6.6% since 2009. Woo hoo! High five! Can […]

You wouldn’t walk into a store and walk out with a New York Times without paying for it, would you? Tim Kreider has a brilliant piece in this past Sunday’s New York Times called “Slaves of the Internet, Unite!”. In it, he perfectly describes the situation that many “content providers” on the internet, writers like me, Amy, and LOLGOP, and […]

I take the job of being a Representative very seriously and the only way you can be a good one is by being out in the community…and doing more listening than talking All photos by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog On May 1st, Congressman Gary Peters from Michigan’s 14th Congressional District announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate to […]

Empowering progressives across the state

I was on the Night Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show last night and we had more fun than usual. Tony was in rare form and incredibly flattering about the work we do here at Eclectablog. We covered a wide range of topics from the addition of Michigan Teacher of the Year Gary Abud to Team Eclectablog to Republicans in The Hypocrisy Zone with a little campaign finance reform activism and Tom McMillin grandstanding thrown in.

Enjoy (after the jump.)

Let’s dance [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is clearly practicing for his court appearance in Detroit on Monday where he’ll testify in the court hearing to determine if the city is eligible to go into bankruptcy. Yesterday, Snyder was asked about his opinion about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Michiganders […]

You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead— your next stop, the Hypocrisy Zone! Things have really gotten hypocritically bizarre in Republican attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Pundits across the country are outwardly […]