While I hate to admit it, you have to give it to MDOT’s Progressive AE for:

1) successfully lobbying our elected officials that a wider Parkway for more cars is best for the people of Traverse City*

2) creating more business for themselves by now getting a contract to widen the waterfront path for tourists and wealthy residents to recreate

They appear to be now running things here with the help of local private nonprofits so kudos to them. Well played.

* to clarify, by the people of Traverse City I mean the people who live on TC’s 8 square miles — after watching some recent commission meetings, there appears to be some confusion about this.

Unpopular opinion?

Instead of giving Progressive AE another $150K of taxpayer money to widen the path for tourists and wealthy residents to run/bike, what if we used it to help improve the lives of those who live here?

Here are 20 things that I think would benefit the people of Traverse City more than widening the waterfront path to 16 feet:

housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing
housing

A Neighbor-first Traverse City?

As we saw last May with the Parkway, Progressive AE and their partners are good at lobbying, so they likely already have the 5 votes they need tonight to get their contract approved.

However, if there’s interest, I’m still in to play the long game and help build, deploy and shift power from consultants and private nonprofits with competing priorities to Traverse City neighbors with one agenda — improving the lives of their Traverse City neighbors, all of them.

If you have ideas on better accomplishing this, I’d love to get coffee, take a walk or grab a beer. Find a time that works for you here.

An Open Seat on Traverse City’s City Commission

Genuinely care about your neighbors, care about a fair and inclusive Traverse City, able to think critically, stay curious and optimistic, be bold, speak your mind, and vote your conscious?

Please consider putting your hat in the ring for Ashlea Walter’s City Commission seat.

The deadline is 12/1/22.

I’m happy to help with your letter of interest — let me know.

Organizing Neighborhoods?

I’m not a fan of dividing Traverse City into 28 neighborhoods but with this new masterplan map, it looks like a game we’re going to have to play.

If you genuinely care about your neighbors and a fair and inclusive Traverse City, are a city resident and live:

– east of Garfield or
– south of 14th or
– in Morgan Farms or
– in the Fitzbugh/Bay Hill neighborhood

Please let me know.

I’ve created a simple plug-and-play template to help you form a neighborhood association to better engage with the City and specifically the new masterplan rewrite process.