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FOOD INSECURITY DURING PANDEMIC NUMBERS CONTINUE CLIMBING INCLUDING IN OAKLAND COUNTY OAKLAND CONFIDENTIAL POLITICAL NEWS/GOSSIP

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Psychedelic drugs: Decriminalization effort gaining steam There is a movement underway across the country to decriminalize the possession and use of psychedelic drugs, for both medical research and for recreational use. Ann Arbor is among the communities that has joined the movement to relax bans on this class of drugs.

LONGFORM

48

Food insecurity has long been a problem and became an even greater issue when the pandemic hit last spring, and now the food bank officials addressing this concern say that the situation is not improving.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

16

While national Republican officials are now calling for unity following the siege on the nation's Capitol, publisher David Hohendorf says that accountability must come before reconciliation.

CRIME LOCATOR

25

A recap of select categories of crime occurring in the past month in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills, presented in map format.

THE COVER

OAKLAND CONFIDENTIAL

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Censure of Oakland state Representative; still no Whitmer challenger; Levin misses Biden appointment'; FBI comes knocking for Senate staffer; Chris Ward joins Coulter office; plus more.

Cover design: Chris Grammer.

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ENDNOTE

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More empty words for state lawmakers on bringing transparency to state government unless Senate is forced to act. Birmingham should work to monetize its ice arena top eliminate losses.

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FROM THE PUBLISHER Believe in truth: To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights. (On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century.

Timothy Snyder) We have been sliding away from our country's democratic principles beginning with the campaign for the 2016 presidential election, although I will leave it to students of political science to debate the nuances of whether we were creeping towards an authoritarian or totalitarian state with Donald Trump. No matter.

Either way, we moved awfully close these last four years to losing what has made this country that “shining city on a hill” often admired by other countries around the world.

The voting public (less than a majority) four years ago surrendered to a national leader who did not respect the balance of competing powers in the other branches of our national government, nor the laws that have long governed society, let alone common ethical standards which we had often accepted as the basic principles for our representative democracy.

Maddock who represents the local communities of Milford Village, and Milford, Highland, White Lake and Springfield townships, along with part of Waterford; and John Reilly, who resides in Oakland Township and also represents Orion, Addison, and Oxford townships, along with Leonard and Ortonville.

Maddock should get special recognition for initially supporting one of the lawsuits filed to block voting returns here and for weeks of aiding and abetting the proliferation of lies from the Trump campaign relative to the November voting returns. He, along with his wife Meshawn (soon to be the state GOP co-chair), were among a group that attempted to enter the state Capitol building the day Electoral College votes were being cast, claiming that their Republican group should be allowed to cast electoral ballots for Trump (they were denied entry). Maddock, who introduced a resolution to impeach Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has a history of heavy involvement in far right causes and groups, including his reported joining a new Facebook group where civil war has been a topic.

The lot of them persisted in promoting to the public an alternate reality about the election returns, even though 86 judges in 60 lawsuits saw otherwise.

Trump tapped into the underlying societal insecurities in areas such as race, nationality and class to weave a tale of “national carnage” – then sold the country a bill of goods, claiming only he could address what ailed the nation, bolstered by a disinformation campaign the likes of which we have not seen in our borders.

So, watching democracy unravel at the nation's Capitol in recent weeks, my first thought was not about unity. Justice and accountability before reconciliation has to be the order of the day if we are to prevent what took place recently from ever being repeated, let alone what we have endured for the past four years.

But he was not alone. There is plenty of guilt to go around on the part of those who enabled him during his term in office. Despite 2016 campaign trail critiques by many in the GOP, politicians smelled the alluring scent of power and saw the ability to expand their share and retain it once Trump got into office.

Major corporations have already announced they will be withholding – some temporarily and others more long-term – future political donations to Republican candidates who were part of the effort to overturn the returns from the November election. Smaller individual donors, who are increasingly the lifeblood of campaigns, should think twice before giving to the GOP or anyone from the county and state who took part in this charade.

How convenient that the Republican members of Congress quickly called for “unity” days after the recent failed siege on the nation's Capitol.

Forget that only a few within the party over a four-year period had the gumption to speak out against Donald Trump. Forget that the tacit support for attempts to overturn the vote of the electorate in select states, including Michigan, lent itself to mob action ignited by Trump and his minions, drawing out a menagerie of violent groups that included the Boogaloo Bois, Last Sons of Liberty, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and that ilk, familiar figures given legitimacy in this president's term of office.

From our state, we had our fair share of elected officials who jumped on the Trump disinformation train. From the halls of Congress, Republican Representatives Jack Bergman (Watersmeet), Lisa McClain (Bruce Township) and Tim Walberg (Tipton) voted to to reject presidential electors from the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania. Had they been successful, they could have disenfranchised nearly three million Michigan voters who had cast ballots on behalf of President Joe Biden.

From the Capitol in Lansing, there were over a dozen state lawmakers who helped stoke the false narrative that voting fraud was so rampant that Trump actually carried the state of Michigan, some even lending their names to failed lawsuits to overturn voting returns in Michigan.

Among those in the state legislature it's important to single out two Michigan House members from Oakland County, Republican Matt

But elected officials who lent credence to the “stolen election” conspiracy theory should be made to pay a higher price. It would be virtually impossible to recall anyone from office, thanks to never-ending amendments over two decades to recall law in this state by lawmakers who were intent on making it increasingly tough to pull this off.

At best, and it's a long shot, is a pair of pending resolutions by state House Democrats calling for appointment of a special committee to investigate and possibly expel Maddock from that chamber – or at a minimum a censure for his heavy involvement in attempting to undermine voting returns in Michigan.

The newly named Republican House Speaker, Jason Wentworth, has already said he has no intention of bringing the resolution to a vote. No surprise there. But if you agree Representatives should at least have the opportunity to weigh in on this proposal, send him an email at JasonWentworth@house.mi.gov.

This is one of those situations where no one should be sitting on the sidelines.

David Hohendorf Publisher DavidHohendorf@DowntownPublications.com

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PUBLISHER David Hohendorf NEWS EDITOR Lisa Brody NEWS STAFF/CONTRIBUTORS Hillary Brody Anchill | Kevin Elliott | Stacy Gittleman Austen Hohendorf | Jeanine Matlow | Gigi Nichols | Bill Seklar PHOTOGRAPHY/CONTRIBUTORS Esme McClear | Laurie Tennent | Chris Ward Laurie Tennent Studio ADVERTISING DIRECTOR David Hohendorf ADVERTISING SALES Mark Grablowski GRAPHICS/IT MANAGER Chris Grammer OFFICE 124 W. Maple, Birmingham MI 48009 248.792.6464 DISTRIBUTION/SUBSCRIPTIONS Mailed monthly at no charge to most homes in Birmingham, Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills.

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INCOMING/READER FEEDBACK We welcome feedback on both our publication and general issues of concern in the Birmingham/Bloomfield community. The traditional “letters to the editor” in Downtown are published in our Incoming section and can include written letters or electronic communication. Opinions can be sent via e-mail to news@downtownpublications.com or mailed to Downtown Publications, 124 W. Maple Road, Birmingham MI 48009. If you are using the mail option, you must include a phone number for verification purposes.

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Robbery

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Larceny

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Placement of codes is approximate.

OAKLAND CONFIDENTIAL Oakland Confidential is a periodic column of political gossip/news, gathered both on and off-the-record by staff members at Downtown newsmagazine. We welcome possible items for this column which can be emailed to: OaklndConfidential@DowntownPublications.com.

All sources are kept strictly confidential. The gossip column can be viewed at OaklandConfidential.com where you can sign up to receive updates via email.

CHANGING PARTY PICTURE: Looks like there won’t be much of a battle for leadership of the state Republican party, now that Laura Cox, former state lawmaker and wife of former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, has announced that she will no longer be seeking another term as party boss. That automatically catapults University of Michigan regent, businessman, former U.S. ambassador (George W. Bush) and former party chair (2009-2010 and 2017 and 2018) Ron Weiser and likely co-chair Meshawn Maddock (from Milford) into the top party spots when the state WEISER party convention is held February 6. Both Weiser and Maddock bring some baggage to party leadership posts. He – over 4,000 people have signed an online petition asking him to resign the university board spot, and faculty members have sent their own letter asking for the same outcome. Her – a track record of being on the fringes of the party through far right organizations like the West Oakland Tea Party, founding MADDOCK other hyper-conservative groups backing Trump, including organizing Michigan busloads to the pro-Trump rally that preceded the siege of the U.S. Capitol the first week of January. Her far right credentials are further burnished by her marriage to state Representative Matt Maddock (44th-Milford), although one observer said she is “the brains” of that partnership. Some have suggested there could be opposition to Maddock due to her Trump servitude and strident farright positions but others say Meshawn has gotten “better” in terms of realizing that not every Republican in Michigan is into hero worship of The Donald. Others note a lot of Michigan GOP delegates continue to be Trumpsters, making her choice a good one.

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MATT MADDOCK CENSURE: Speaking of Matt ‘Mad Dog’ Maddock, Democrats in the Michigan House have introduced two resolutions calling into question the Republican Representative’s behavior surrounding the bogus controversy over Trump’s loss in November – one calling for a formal censure for a “pattern of misconduct” as provided by Standing Rules of the House and a second calling for formation of a select committee to investigate his behavior relative to efforts to overturn the presidential election votes in Michigan. Specifically, the one resolution cites two lawsuits to which Maddock lent his name challenging Michigan election results; joining a “phony group” attempting to enter the state Capitol to contest counting of electoral votes; signing onto a letter to former Vice President Mike Pence asking for election results to be decertified; and speaking to a Trump crowd, amplifying the falsehoods about legitimate voting results, just prior to the crowd attacking the U.S. Capitol. As one legislative insider summed up the chance of either resolution passing, “it’s not going to happen,” mainly because of the “complexion of leadership” – in other words, Republicans control both chambers in Lansing. Although it will be interesting to see if Maddock is able to move any bills in the future, often a silent penalty for causing grief for the party when public trust and confidence in the legislature is undermined by a member.

GOV. ROMNEY MCDANIEL?: Having just been handed another term as chair of the Republican National Committee at the annual Florida gathering, national political scribes are already speculating about what the long-term game plan is for Ronna (don’t call me Romney) McDaniel. There’s some guesstimates that McDaniel, granddaughter of former Michigan Gov. George Romney (1963-1969) and a graduate years ago

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from Bloomfield Hills Lahser High School, will parlay her current party post into a possible candidacy for Michigan governor in 2022 when incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer will likely seek a second four-year term. The rumors started as quickly as Candice Miller announced that she would not be seeking the office of governor, despite her bona fides as Macomb Public Works Commissioner, former congresswoman, county treasurer and secretary of state.

A Trump loyalist to the core, Northville resident McDaniel could see some blowback due to controversies WHITMER that arose during her stint with the RNC. And some are pointing out that after the GOP lost both the office of president and the U.S. Senate, perhaps someone else should have taken over the RNC. In terms of the Whitmer race, some question whether she would really want to get into the trenches in a state battle which likely will start shaping up by next fall. A close Republican ally said “No way” to McDaniel seeking the governorship, although he acknowledged state Republicans are really searching when it comes to who could – and will – take on Whitmer. “I think the race is winnable, but we don’t know who’s willing to do it,” he said.

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: Andy Levin, Bloomfield Township Democratic Congressman (9th District), turned out to be an also-ran for the position of Labor Secretary in the administration of President Joe Biden. The labor post, still to be confirmed by Congress, went to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh a former union official and close friend of the President. If confirmed, Walsh will be the first union official to head up the labor department in 50 years. Word is that Biden administration officials were hesitant to appoint Democrats from the House because taking anyone from that chamber would only diminish the already narrow majority margin following the November election. Levin had the backing of a number of union officials, thanks to his background as union organizer and time in the Jennifer Granholm administration, but some of the bigger union affiliates supported Walsh, who has close ties to Biden.

Levin had picked up public support from a number of environmental groups, like Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth, 350.org and Greenpeace. Environmental groups, in a nod to Levin’s background in the energy field with his own business, saw the Congressman as the person to bridge the gap between union workers of the alternative energy future and those still tied strongly to fossil fuel industries.

MILITARY MIGHT: As we saw with the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capital, some think it’s enough to carry a big stick. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-Rochester, Rochester Hills, northern Oakland, parts of Livingston and Ingham counties) understands from her training in the CIA, three tours of duty in Iraq and work at the Pentagon, that it’s best to let your mouth do the work to effect change and get a point across. Witness a letter sent by her and five other members of Congress to Secretary of Defense-designee Lloyd Austin, a recently retired general, discussing SLOTKIN concerns they have regarding civilian control over the military, and its importance, noting his appointment will necessitate a waiver, just as General Mattis’ did, “requiring another waiver so close on its heels, risks this norm becoming moot, and civilian control of the military with it.” The letter states they are seeking certain assurances, including a strong working relationship between the Defense Department and Congress. Slotkin invited Austin to an informal meeting with other members to discuss critical concerns, she said, having known him for over a decade. She now said she “looks forward to continuing the conversation on January 21st when he comes before the House Armed Services Committee.”

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morning of October 29, when, still in her robe, she opened the door to find an FBI special agent and a Birmingham police officer – all because of something she allegedly said over a Zoom call while working from home. Reiter, who is chief of staff for state Sen. Rosemary Bayer (DBloomfield Township, Beverly Hills, Franklin, Bingham Farms, Pontiac, Clarkston, Independence Township), was told they had a tip where she had discussed “the use of tear gas during the election.” Turns out, Reiter, Bayer and staff had been on a private Zoom call October 19 discussing proposed legislation that would ban tear gas, part of a package of proposed legislation in the wake of George Floyd’s death last summer. The BAYER call was routine for Reiter – but the FBI had no idea who she was or what she did, and when she told them, they did not stop their inquisition of her about the legislation. Prior to the pandemic, the information discussed over Zoom would have been held in a closed door meeting; both Reiter and Bayer have spoken of feeling like they were being intimidated. While Bayer, who before becoming a state senator worked in IT and as a software engineer, is particularly concerned about how law enforcement could have known what was said during a private Zoom call and if it was hacked, and felt it was meant to “cause fear and intimidation.” Reiter recalled she’d had an appliance serviceman in a nearby room that day, who may have alerted authorities, but authorities would not confirm that to her. Since 9/11, the FBI has had a policy of “see something, say something.”

NUMBERS GAME: Even when something is rumored it doesn’t make it easier to hear it when it happens. Final U.S. Census figures aren’t official yet – the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the tally from December 31 to April 1, 2021 – but we do know that Michigan has lost enough population to be assured of losing a congressional seat, as well as an electoral college vote. The state’s population did grow slightly in the last decade – by one percent – but the average across the country was growth of six percent. So Michigan will go from 14 to 13 representatives in the House, and to 15 electoral college votes from 16.

It’s unclear where the seat will come from, and speculation is rife, because it’s no longer in the hands of the party in power to determine redistricting, which would be Republicans who control the state House and Senate. As of 2018, a proposal unanimously passed by voters to have redistricting redone by a citizen-led redistricting commission, which is currently underway, led by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. The 13-member bipartisan – or really nonpartisan – commission is tasked with redrawing all of the voting districts for congress, the state senate and state house so that they are equal and contiguous, favoring neither party disproportionately or racially. Final maps will be out November 21, 2021, become law December 31, 2021, and will be used in the 2022 elections.

PAYING HIS DUES: It’s not true that nice guys finish last. Sometimes they get the recognition they rightly deserve. Take Chris Ward, who for years has toiled as the chief of staff to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. In mid-January, Oakland County Executive David Coulter named Ward as a deputy county executive, filling his fifth and final vacancy on his executive team. Ward, who didn’t seek the job, is rightly excited – after he got over being surprised he was chosen. Those who have worked with WARD him over the 28 years he has served in local, county and state government – he was first elected a Brighton Township trustee in 1992 at the ripe ol’ age of 18! - and served as a state representative from 2002 to 2008, before joining the county in 2009 – weren’t surprised at all. He ascends to the exec’s offices February 4. No word yet who’ll fill his shoes with the county board.

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The Proof is in the 2020 MLS BrokerMetrics Results.

FACES

Catherine Shoichet rowing up in Bloomfield Township, CNN Digital Reporter Catherine Shoichet enjoyed all the opportunities she experienced as a student at Cranbrook Schools. In fact, it was her Cranbrook Upper School English teacher David Watson who sparked her interest in journalism in the 10th grade when he asked her to write an article for the Crane-Clarion.

“I got hooked on newspaper writing pretty fast after that,” said Shoichet, who has won many accolades for her in-depth coverage on immigration issues. “Though we all know Cranbrook is not (just) a boarding school, I spent most of my waking hours (there) at the student newspaper office. I guess (Watson) saw a spark in me for journalism that I had not yet realized.”

Over the years, Catherine maintained her connection to her alma mater. She returned to Cranbrook in 2017 to talk to current students on the importance of journalism. In 2019, Watson, who recently retired after teaching and advising for over 30 years, officiated Shoichet’s wedding.

“So much about the joy of journalism comes from just being curious about the world around you,” said Shoichet. “I didn’t realize it at the time it was happening, but that spirit was fostered in me during those formative high school years.”

When Catherine was a junior at Harvard University and an editor at the Crimson, she interned that summer with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. On her first assignment, she realized that learning Spanish could come in handy as a reporter when much of an interview with the Consulate General of Columbia got lost in translation.

Inspired to pick up a new skill, she began to study Spanish, which offered her a new perspective on Latin American culture and immigration issues.

“That assignment was the catalyst for me to want to speak Spanish,” said Shoichet. “My paternal grandparents were from Polish Ukraine, and their immigrant stories became part of my family’s lore. When I learned Spanish, it opened me up to a new generation of immigrants and their stories unfolded all around me.”

Shoichet has been with CNN since 2010, and has focused her coverage exclusively on immigration since 2017. She earned awards for in-depth reporting, including a series uncovering the hidden stories of migrants in detention centers at the border.

In 2014, she and a CNN camera crew accompanied a Guatemalan woman and her 13-year-old son on a 36hour Greyhound bus ride from Tucson, Arizona to Tupelo, Mississippi to be reunited with her husband. They had been apart for 12 years.

In 2017, viewers began to pay more attention to immigration issues as the Trump administration drew ire for stepping up family separation at the border and for a sudden ban on immigrants from Muslim majority countries.

In Atlanta, Shoichet in 2017 chronicled the story of a Somali family of six children who was temporarily separated while immigrating to the United States. Because of the ban, the eldest daughter was stranded in a refugee camp in Kenya. In time, she was reunited with her family and eventually found a job at a place where many immigrants dealt with the brunt of Trump’s executive order: at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

“I hope that from my reporting, my audience sees the very human impact of policy and politics,” said Shoichet. “Ultimately, my reporting is not about what one policymaker said to another. It is about what a father says to a son after they have not seen each other for years at a time. I hope I am giving my audience a window into a global or national picture and a better understanding of things outside themselves.”

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Story: Stacy Gittleman

Photo: Melissa Golden

DECRIMINALIZING PSYCHEDELICS NEW MOVEMENT TAKING HOLD TO ALLOW FOR BOTH MEDICAL STUDY, RECREATIONAL USE

BY LISA BRODY

hen many people hear the words “psychedelics” or “hallucinogenic drugs,” they think of the 1960s, of LSD and Timothy Leary, who coined the infamous phrase, “Tune in, tune out, drop out,” at a Human Be-In in 1967 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park before 30,000 hippies. A clinical psychologist, in the early 1960s when LSD and other drugs in that classification were popular, Leary came to believe that psychedelic drugs had great therapeutic uses in psychiatry – and he was not alone.

Fast forward 60 years, and medical science is finding its way back to Leary's initial hypothesis – if not his legendary slogan. Even some scientific skeptics are interested in studying the potential of psychedelics to break through the mental health morass some are burdened with by depression, PTSD, eating disorders and other conditions which may be helped by utilizing a more natural treatment course than the current pharmaceutical antidepressants. Classified as Schedule I drugs, it is difficult for scientists and medical practitioners to research psychedelics, or to have scientific trials as mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs are illegal.

A burgeoning movement is afoot to decriminalize psychedelic drugs, primarily for therapeutic use and scientific study, and in some cases for recreational use. In less than two years, four cities around the country, ranging from Oakland, California to Ann Arbor, Michigan, along with Denver, Colorado and Santa Cruz, California, have voted to decriminalize possession of some or all psychedelic drugs, which is a category that includes mushrooms, LSD, mescaline, peyote, ayahuasca and MDMA – popularly known as Ecstasy or Molly. In November 2020, voters in the state of Oregon approved statewide ballot Measure 109, becoming the first state in the country to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin – the chemical compound that creates the “magic” in magic mushrooms. Clients will only be able to buy and consume psilocybin at specific facilities and only under the supervision of a licensed facilitator.

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he movement to decriminalize psychedelic drugs – as in Oakland, California and Ann Arbor – generally involve resolutions stating that law enforcement should not prioritize arresting or investigating adults who possess or use the substances, and that the counties should not prosecute people involved in their use. But these efforts do not get people caught driving under the influence of these drugs off the hook, and they do not create marketplaces or commercial sale mechanisms for distribution of natural plants, the drugs are barred from being distributed at schools and often times the sale of these drugs still remains illegal.

The decriminalization drive comes on the heels of a growing successful movement to legalize cannabis across the country, many experts point out. And it's not just in traditionally “liberal” communities.

The founder of the Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor said they are actively looking to decriminalize psychedelic drugs in the cities of Detroit and Grand Rapids. And an Iowa Republican lawmaker unsuccessfully introduced an amendment to a budget bill in 2020 which would have removed psilocybin from the list of Iowa's prohibited substances. While the amendment was shot down, Iowa state Rep. Jeff Shipley said he was seeking to legalize psilocybin and MDMA for medical and therapeutic use.

“Psilocybin, I sincerely believe, could open up Iowa to a whole new world of health and healing, revolutionizing our healthcare, revolutionizing mental health, where right now we have a system of treatments where a person has to take a pill, a synthetic pharmaceutical for an indefinite period of time, maybe for the rest of their life,” Shipley said during a speech on his amendment. “These treatments, at best, make a person’s symptoms manageable.”

Across the United States, psychedelic drugs are classified as Schedule I drugs, meaning that according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), they have a high potential for abuse and the potential to create severe psychological and/or physical dependence, and there is no currently accepted medical use. Schedule I drugs include heroin, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy and peyote.

Julie Barron, the president and founder of the Michigan Psychedelic Society in Ann Arbor, is also the executive director and founder of Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor. A trained therapist who explains she has worked with “non-ordinary states of consciousness,” said she moved to Ann Arbor from the west coast and saw “lots of people wanting to talk about psychedelics and their experiences, and there wasn't a group here. Decriminalization efforts started out of the Michigan Psychedelic Society – it's part of our mission statement to first decriminalize Ann Arbor, and then bring it statewide. Whether people are using them recreationally or therapeutically, they're profound drugs.

They're very transformative by their very nature.”

She said Ann Arbor's efforts focused strictly on decriminalizing “natural specimens that came out of the ground. How do you criminalize nature? That was the foundation. Whether it's going to be used medicinally or recreationally, we have to educate people to help with safe and responsible use.”

Ann Arbor City Council decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms and other natural plants September 21, 2020, taking immediate effect.

Included in the resolution is ayahuasca, ibogaine, mescaline, peyote and psilocybin mushrooms. LSD and MDMA are not included as they are created in laboratories.

On January 12, 2021, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced his office would not charge anyone for use, possession or small-scale distribution of marijuana or psychedelic mushrooms, and would look into expungement of old criminal records for those offenses.

While psychedelic drugs are not a significant law enforcement issue, Robert Stevenson, executive director, Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said, “We always look through the eyes of public safety, and the question is public safety improved or diminished if psychedelics become more available? – and common sense says no. There are no common doses; they're not regulated. You don't know where they come from. We know the more drugs out there – including marijuana and alcohol – the more impaired driving there can be. We don't have a chemical test to determine if we stop an individual, so we have to have a DRE – a drug recognition expert – to come and determine it, which needs extensive training, which most departments don't have.

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“Decriminalization makes it appear that it's less dangerous,” Stevenson continued, who said he hopes it does not gain more traction across the state.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic drug compound found in more than 200 species of fungi. In the body, it quickly converts to psilocin, acting on the serotonin receptors of the brain, which can cause mind-altering effects that can include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and for some, spiritual experiences. Some users can have adverse reactions which can include nausea and panic attacks. The mind-altering effects of psilocybin can last for two to six hours, although anecdotally, to individuals under its influence, the effects may seem to last much longer.

Scientists and psychiatrists assert that psilocybin has a low toxicity and a low harm potential, and there is no documentation for addiction or abuse. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used psilocybin mushrooms in traditional religious or spiritual contexts. Peyote, a small, spineless cactus, known for its psychoactive alkaloids, particularly hallucinogenic mescaline, has a long history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous North American Indians.

“From the earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by indigenous peoples, such as Huichol of northern Mexico and by various Native American tribes, native to or relocated to the southern plains states of present-day Oklahoma and Texas. Its usage was also recorded among various southwestern Athabaskan-language tribal groups,” according to Carl Lumholtz, a Mexican and Native American scholar.

He noted the religious, ceremonial and healing uses of peyote may date back over 5,000 years.

While a Schedule I drug, as part of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, the listing-of peyote as a controlled substance in Schedule I does not apply to the use of peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church.

Mescaline, derived from peyote, has a wide array of suggested medical uses, including for alcoholism, depression and other conditions linked with serotonin deficiencies. But, since the 1970s and its listing as a Schedule I drug, few human studies have been conducted to determine its medical efficacies. yahuasca is a brew made from the leaves of two different plants, and has also been used for centuries by indigenous tribes for spiritual and religious purposes. It is enjoying a renewed interest in some circles for its naturally occurring hallucinogenic chemicals. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the hallucinogenic substance, DMT (dimethyltryptamine), is broken down quickly in the liver and gastrointestinal tract, “which is why DMT must be combined with MAO inhibitors which allow DMT to take effect… when combined, these two plants form a powerful psychedelic brew that affects the central nervous system, leading to an altered state of consciousness that can include hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, and euphoria,” said Jillian Kubala, MS, RD. Beyond ceremonial purposes, those who try ayahuasca today are seeking to heal previous traumas, open their minds or help treat addiction, anxiety, treatment-resistant depression and PTSD, Kubala said. Because it is so powerful, it is advisable only under the supervision of an experienced shaman, who takes care of the effects and needs until it has worn off, anywhere from two to six hours later. Those who take ayahuasca can experience vomiting, diarrhea, feelings of euphoria, strong visual and auditory hallucinations, mind-altering psychedelic effects, fear and paranoia.

“Some adverse effects, such as vomiting and diarrhea, are considered a normal part of the cleansing experience,” Kubala said.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), colloquially known as “acid,” is a hallucinogenic drug first made by a Swiss chemist named Albert Hofman from lysergic acid, a chemical related to the fungus ergot.

Hofman created LSD in 1938, but did not realize its hallucinogenic properties until 1943, when he accidentally ingested an unknown quantity.

LSD typically can alter a user's thoughts, feelings and awareness of their surroundings, and many users have visual and auditory hallucinations. Effects can begin within a half-hour and last up to 12

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hours. It has primarily been used as a recreational drug, although some practitioners believe there are medical benefits, and is not addictive, although a tolerance can be achieved for some users. An overdose is believed to be unheard of – although some users have had what are known as “bad trips.” According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDR), adverse psychiatric reactions can occur, such as paranoia, anxiety and delusions. Hallucinogenic persisting perception disorder, or flashbacks, can occur at any time, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and as of 2017, at least 10 percent of the people in the United States had tried LSD at some point in their lives, and .7 percent had used it in the last year, with it increasing among adults in the U.S. by 56.4 percent between 2015 and 2018. Early studies indicated that a single dose of LSD was effective in reducing alcohol consumption in alcoholism, and it is being studied for depression, anxiety and drug addiction, with preliminarily positive outcomes.

If psychedelics seem to have a high upside with minimal downsides for most adventurists – much less the potential for medical and psychiatric use – many wonder why it is classified as a Schedule I drug.

For a long time they weren't – the U.S. government actually utilized LSD and some other drugs clandestinely in mind control efforts against enemy combatants. It appears only when psychedelics became the choice of counterculture youth in the 1960s and 1970s that the drugs were reclassified as dangerous drugs.

When Hofman first discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD, five years after he developed it in a lab, he was working for a Swiss chemical company, Sandoz. His “accidental” discovery in 1943, during World War II, during a ride home from work when motorized vehicles were banned. April 19 – when he took a large dose and rode home – has become known as “Bicycle Day” by recreational users of LSD to celebrate Hoffman's discovery. Hofman later wrote that he took 250 micrograms of LSD, and that should be the threshold for dosages.

In 1947, Sandoz Laboratories introduced LSD as a psychiatric drug, according to Drug Enforcement Agency records, and as a psychiatric panacea for schizophrenia, criminal behavior, 'sexual perversions,' and alcoholism.

The U.S. government discovered LSD was beneficial and useful – with the CIA, using the code name “Project MK-Ultra” in the 1950s and '60s. Beginning first as a research program in the early 1950s, the CIA introduced LSD to the United States by purchasing the world's entire supply, for a price tag of $240,000, and propagating LSD via CIA fronts through U.S. hospitals, clinics, research hospitals and prisons. In a report in the congressional Rockefeller report in 1975, it was revealed that experiments were conducted on CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public – all without their knowledge – in order to gauge and study their reactions. andoz' patent on LSD expired in 1963, and psychiatrists, psychologists, New Age writers and experimental youth began to dabble with and advocate for hallucinogenics. One of the most notable was Timothy Leary, who at the time was a clinical psychologist at Harvard who worked on the Harvard Psilocybin Project from 1960 to 1962. However, much of his scientific legitimacy and the ethics of his research became questionable because he took psychedelic drugs – LSD and mushrooms – along with his research subjects. He later became an advocate promoting the use of psychedelic drugs and the '60s counterculture.

Likely in response to the counterculture movement, in 1968 possession of LSD became illegal in the United States, and in 1970 was added to the list of Schedule I drugs, according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The United Nations Convention of Psychotropic Substances, adopted in 1971, made LSD, mushrooms – of which there are over 100 with psilocybin – illegal in the countries that were party to the convention, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe.

Today, small groups of scientists, psychologists and other medical professionals are looking at psychedelics once again for the claims that they can be beneficial for those suffering from severe mental health issues. The movement for decriminalization has focused primarily on those efforts, although some proponents also advocate for those who

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choose to safely use psychedelics recreationally.

“Unlike in the 1960s, when it was the first time they were hitting the mainstream and it would sometimes make someone crazy long-term, it's not that same level of concern, that you will break someone or destabilize society,” said Norman Farb, PhD, associate professor and psychologist, University of Toronto. “The majority of people are just fine after having a trip.”

Dr. Susanne Brummelte, professor of psychology at Wayne State University, said today the study and understanding of psychedelics is “an emerging field because it was illegal. They've been Schedule I drugs, so it's very difficult to do research, though there is beginning to be some research on the medical benefits of LSD, and they're getting some idea that with a guided trip it can help with depression and other issues.”

Dr. Scott Bowen, professor and chairman of the department of psychology at Wayne State University, said, “Decriminalization allows for some research to study depression, anxiety, mood enhancement. The question is, does it really happen? Unless there's a placebo – a negative – you don't have a scientific study to determine efficacy. There's a lot of anecdotal information that can be attributed to the placebo effect.” hose who are studying the effects are seeing profound breakthroughs in major depression and PTSD, in particular. A small study of 24 adults with major depression published in Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) in November 2020 found that two doses of psilocybin led to a large reduction in their depressive symptoms. Alan Davis, an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at John Hopkins University School of Medicine said, “The magnitude of the effect we saw was about four times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market. Because most other depression treatments take weeks or months to work and may have undesirable effects, this could be a game changer if these findings hold up in future 'gold-standard' placebo-controlled clinical trials.”

“This is one drug that's hard to give a placebo, because you either have a trip or you don't,” noted Farb – while pointing out there are mixed reports out of the smaller studies, and randomized controlled trials with placebos are the only way to determine true usefulness.

“Many people (in the small studies) said they achieved greater stability of attention, a greater ability to focus, greater creativity, better moods. But for every two to three people reporting these effects, we get one person reporting the opposite – saying their mood is worse, they're having trouble concentrating,” he noted.

“It's different with a survey of a few thousand people,” Farb continued. “With that type of research, you can see why one person is benefitting and someone else isn't.”

“Psilocybin seems to have potential for use in the treatment of mood disorders like depression because it has profound effects on the ways the brain interacts with neurotransmitters like serotonin and glutamate,” said Adam P. Stern MD, director of psychiatry, the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, and assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. “While there is tremendous potential for clinical use, the field of psychiatry is still awaiting large, well-designed randomized controlled trials in order to determine if it may be a tool that we can add to our therapeutic arsenal.

“I do not, at this time, recommend it for my patients outside of the setting of a clinical trial where possible benefits and side effects can be closely monitored,” Stern continued.

Farb pointed out that in comparison, there is decades of research on antidepressants, which millions of Americans take on a daily basis, and their side effects, “versus absolutely no research on psychedelics, despite decades of dabbling, or on their side effects. There's almost no research on micro-dosing (a new practice of giving micro doses of psychedelic drugs). There are thousands of studies, and more case studies, on full doses of psychedelics, but they're all from prior to the mid-'60s. But that is much different than randomized controlled trials with placebos.”

“At their core, all psychoactive substances – whether synthetically designed or found in nature – affect the brain through neurochemical signaling and action. The biggest differences between FDA-cleared medications and unregulated psychoactive substances – of all varieties – is

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primarily in our understanding about mechanism of action, dosing, pharmacodynamics, desired effects and undesired side effects, all of which can be better understood through rigorous scientific study,” said Stern. ne way scientists are studying the efficacy of psychedelics is through microdosing psychedelics – providing small doses of psychedelics, often LSD but sometimes mushrooms, in low, sub-hallucinogenic doses such as in five to 20 microgram doses, every two to three days to combat medically-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety and other chronic mental health conditions. Farb has a lab at University of Toronto which has been studying microdosing, which he said is “not much different than the puttering that is done with dosages for antidepressants and their side effects.”

He noted the major issue is that there is almost no research on microdosing other than anecdotal reports – “case studies prior to the mid-'60s were on full doses of psychedelics, but that's much different.

“Anecdotally, when accompanied by a therapist, these drugs can really help those for whom nothing else has helped,” Farb said. “Those with deeply-entrenched depression, eating disorders, PTSD – where they get really remarkable changes they go on these trips with tight controls. With a trained therapist's care, you tend to have a really positive experience, even if you encounter really deep emotions.”

Barron of Michigan Psychedelic Society said, “Microdosing, taking small dosing to get a sub-perceptual perspective, is a very different approach versus macrodosing. There's a lot to be said, and it's advisable for some people in certain situations. There's room for both microdosing and macrodosing.”

Farb said preliminary research indicates that for higher dose interventions, “people say the trip was one of the most meaningful experiences in their life. The argument is – does it persist? We don't know if there are long-term side effects, so we need more long-term studies, and more from chronic usage. We don't see it in the literature that someone who does one or two trips with a therapist has any issues, like flashbacks, but we don't know if 10 years down the line they'll have a flashback. There needs to be more research.

“In my lab, we're doing research on microdosing, and we believe it's probably okay, but I'd like more research that there aren't adverse effects and that people are okay to drive. Right now, I think the hype has outpaced the evidence,” he said.

Bowen and Brummelte from Wayne State University believe there needs to be more research on the medical benefits of microdosing, as well.

“LSD is a powerful drug. It affects your serotonin receptors, so it will definitely change your brain,” said Bowen. “The question is, is that happening with microdosing? There are a lot of unknowns. It's just so new. LSD by itself is the most potent – you just need a teeny amount, but it is also the most effective.”

Brummelte has concerns about using mushrooms for microdosing as well, relative to the amounts ingested and the side effects.

“Some (mushrooms) work on dopamine and serotonin and would have similar effects with microdosing,” she said. But, she noted, it can be difficult to determine dosing and the amount of psilocybin in a mushroom to microdose.

“I'm not saying these drugs are bad, we just haven't had the ability to study them because of the Schedule I classification. We don't know how much psychedelics are in specific mushrooms. People think if something is natural, it must be good,” Brummelte said. “Thankfully, most psychogenic drugs are not very addictive, especially the way they're typically used – take a trip once or twice a year. With chronic microdosing, we don't have any data to make a statement about addiction.”

They both are in favor of decriminalization because of the ability for scientists like themselves to study the uses and efficacy of microdosing, macrodosing, and psychedelics for mental health.

Big business sees potential in psychedelics, as well.

“Behind the decriminalization argument is – we've gotten marijuana legal, so what's next?” noted Farb. “Marijuana was last year. It's a very lucrative market. With marijuana, they've started to run out of new ground, so they're turning to psychedelics as the next set of drugs to decriminalize, at least for prescriptions.

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“My concern as someone who works at a university – I don't have a financial bone in this fight – I believe there are benefits but also side effects,” he continued. “I believe there will be a rush to get these to market. If I had a crystal ball, I'd say we'll see prescriptions for psychedelics within 10 years, and what is driving this is the decriminalization movement, because so much money is involved. But will it be done in a safe way? I'd like research policy and safety to be driving this rather than money.”

Ronan Levy, co-founder and executive chairman of Field Trip Health in Toronto believes decriminalization will occur even quicker.

“Access to psychedelic therapies is going to come much more quickly – it's about two years away for federal access for purely medical use of MDMA (ecstasy) for PTSD, and by 2023, in Oregon, there will be access to non-medical psilocybin therapies to anyone over 21,” he said. “They won't be buying mushrooms, but psilocybin therapies, still in a controlled setting with controlled oversight.”

Levy does have a dog in this fight – he and his partners previously were involved in the cannabis industry in Canada, and now, with Field Trip Health, they operate ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinics in four cities – Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and soon in Atlanta, Houston and Amsterdam, with 10 to 12 locations in operations by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Why ketamine? “In North America, ketamine is the only substance we are treating with because it is FDA-approved,” he said. “The intent is to give a substantial dose of ketamine so they don't go under but can go deep and revisit or whatever comes up and become aware.”

Field Trip Health clinic settings are almost spa-like, but Levy said instead “it is being in a safe, warm, comfortable space leads to better therapeutic treatments. The clinics are designed to be comfortable.”

One therapeutic experience lasts two to three hours. reatments are designed for people who are stressed, anxious and/or depressed. “The research shows it's profoundly safe, inherently non-addictive and can help people get off other substances,” Levy said. “There are some risks – but there are hard trips or easy trips. A hard trip can become a bad trip without the proper support around you. Some people have very scary experiences during a trip, but a good therapist will go towards the experience. The research shows it leads to greater creativity, greater empathy, and a decrease in depression. We're bringing access to those dealing with mental health issues and those who want to expand the benefits for a better quality of life.”

Levy said Field Trip Discovery, a research and development arm of the company, is working on a synthesized molecule that will hopefully be in human trials by the end of this year.

Ketamine. LSD. Mushrooms. Localized decriminalization. Is there a real likelihood of nationwide decriminalization, or even legalization, of psychedelics, for therapeutic treatments and scientific study in the United States? Yes, if Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has anything to say about it.

Ocasio-Cortez has initiated legislation twice, once in 2019 and the second time in 2020, both tied as amendments to federal spending bills that prohibits spending federal money on any activity, like research that promotes the legalization of drugs and substances classified as Schedule I. In 2019, she noted that “psilocybin, the psychoactive substance found in 'magic mushrooms' and outlawed in the 1960s, has shown promise as a treatment for PTSD as well as end of life therapy.

Psychedelics like this aren't legal for medical use, though researchers at John Hopkins hope that one day the Food and Drug Administration will reclassify them, as their analysis found it can help treat depression, anxiety and arthritis.”

On the floor of the House of Representatives in July 2020, OcasioCortez advocated “to allow United States researchers to study and examine the extraordinary promise shown by several Schedule I drugs that have been shown with critical diseases, such as MDMA success with PTSD.” She further pointed out that as many as 30 percent of U.S. veterans suffer from PTSD, so “if a substance shows promise, we have an obligation to study it.”

The wild west might be getting ready to be tamed.

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FACES

Shane Battier rowing up mixed race in Birmingham in the 1980's was often lonely and difficult, basketball star Shane Battier acknowledges, but likely helped put him on the path to success. “The lesson I learned was I was different.

As a kid you just want to be the same. When we won, I was accepted. It was win or die. It became my mantra in life.”

His father, Eddie, who passed away this year, was his coach in all the sports he played as a kid, and taught him, and his friends, about sportsmanship. “He was the only Black (when I was) growing up in Birmingham,” Battier recalls. “He had this big, booming voice, a big laugh, but he never intimidated anyone.”

When Battier was in the sixth grade, him mom, who he said “wanted the best academic opportunity for me,” encouraged him to attend Detroit Country Day School, which he had never heard of. “It worked out,” he said, an understatement, winning the state's Mr. Basketball in 1997.

From there, Battier attended Duke University. “I was lucky to have a great academic career at DCD so I had a choice. I felt it was time for me to push my comfort zone,” he said. Choosing Duke was “the challenge to go to play for the best coach in college basketball.”

Battier played four years at Duke, helping win the 2001 national basketball championship and national player of the year, and was the sixth pick in the 2001 NBA draft by the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies. After a few trades, he ended up a free agent in 2012.

“For the first time, I got to choose a team. I wanted to win, so I joined the Miami Heat,” he said.

Turned out that was a good choice – Battier helped the Heat win two NBA championships, in 2012 and 2013. He retired as an NBA player

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following the 2013-2014 season, after 13 years. He now works as the Heat's director of basketball development and analytics.

“I wanted to exercise my brain,” he said. The job he does now, he said, is “trying to uncover basketball advantages through data.”

While Battier and his wife Heidi, his high school sweetheart from Birmingham, who he first met at DCDS in seventh grade, and their two children, Zeke and Eloise, make their primary residence in Miami, they also have a second home near Chelsea and return to visit family frequently.

“Michigan will always be home,” he said.

Detroit continues to be a huge part of their lives, from family to philanthropy. Shane and Heidi have created the Battier Take Charge Foundation, dedicated to providing college scholarships, dynamic programming and academic resources for underserved yet driven young scholars. “We are encouraging, inspiring and supporting a new generation of potential leaders through quality educational opportunities and the cultivation of effective leadership skills,” he said.

So far, the Battier Take Charge Foundation has provided $1.5 million in scholarships to kids in Detroit, Miami and Houston – including to Horizon Upward Bound (HUB) students at Cranbrook Schools.

“Every year we award a college scholarship,” he said.

What's next? “That's the million dollar question. I live to improve others lives.

“I look at myself as a kid from Birmingham who made good. I didn't have a great plan.”

Story: Lisa Brody

Photo: Miami Heat

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ne of the many indelible images over the past year is that of cars filling parking lots, drivers waiting in hours-long lines to pick up food so that they and their families will have food to eat.

At the same time, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, farms were filled with rotting crops, and gallons upon gallons of milk were dumped, food going to waste instead of making it to the tables of those in need. Food insecurity is unfortunately not a new issue, but the coronavirus pandemic, and its ensuing economic devastation, has left millions more Americans without necessary access to food.

“When you’re food insecure, you have one problem. You don’t have two,” describes Dr. Phil Knight, executive director of the Food Bank Council of Michigan and chair of the Food Security Council. “Your mind is consumed with the idea of what am I going to get my kids to eat, and what am I going to eat? You’re held captive by that toxic stress until you solve it. Now if you solve it, your mind’s free, and you can think about the other challenges you might have. That’s what you see at a food distribution.”

Prior to March 2020, according to Knight, Michigan’s food insecurity rate was 13.6 percent of the population, or roughly 1,359,650 people, about 400,000 of which were children. As of January 2021, Michigan’s food insecurity rate is 19.1 percent.

Over 600,000 of those are children. In Oakland County, the food insecurity rate has jumped from 10.1 percent of the population prior to COVID-19 to 15.1 percent.

Nationally, more than 50 million people, and 17 million children – one in six Americans and one in four children – were food insecure in 2020, an increase of nearly 50 percent.

Projections, Knight said, indicate that food insecurity will continue to be elevated until June 2022. As such, his network of seven food banks statewide, including Gleaners and Forgotten Harvest in southeast Michigan, play critical roles in ensuring that those in need have access to food.

Knight pointed out that “there is not a food shortage. There never has been through this entire pandemic,” despite empty grocery shelves and purchasing limits at big box stores on select goods.

His role is ensuring that food gets to those who need it.

The Food Bank Council has averaged a distribution of approximately 4.5 million pounds of food per week since the pandemic began, with several weeks topping more than 5 million pounds of food. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, they averaged 2.6 million pounds of emergency food each week.

With mass unemployment, closed schools and visitor restrictions at senior centers, more Americans are facing food insecurity than ever before. Knight breaks down those who need food assistance into four groups: the innocent, or children; the vulnerable – senior citizens and those whose health makes it difficult to engage during a health crisis; the unexpected, or the many workers who have been laid off or furloughed due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic; and the indefinite. “We are seeing about 50 percent, on average across the state, more need than what we saw prior to the pandemic. So how are we meeting that need?” he asked.

For those experiencing food insecurity for the first time, the “unexpected” the Food Bank Council identifies as those who “were working, they never thought they wouldn’t be working, and now they can’t work because of the pandemic,” navigating the emergency food network may be the most daunting.

Since the pandemic first began, several different initiatives from the federal government have increased emergency funding so that states could purchase more food.

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed Congress in April 2020, the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) provided financial assistance to producers of agricultural commodities who had their supply chain disrupted due to COVID-19. This included two rounds of funding throughout 2020.

An additional component of CFAP is the Farmers to Family Food Box Program. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) contracted with national, regional, and local distributors who were impacted by the disruption to the food service business (including those who provided food to restaurants, hotels, and schools) in order to get fresh produce, dairy and meat to the general public. From May 15

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through December 31, 2020, approximately 132.7 million pounds of food boxes were distributed nationally through area food banks and pantries, totaling approximately $4 billion worth of food. Each box contained approximately 30 pounds of food. With the passage of the COVID-19 relief package on December 21, 2020, the Family Food Box Program has been extended, allowing for the purchase of an additional $1.5 billion worth of food. It is expected that food box distribution will begin again in late January.

Trade mitigation programs that were already in place to help farmers who suffered from trade retaliation by foreign nations have also expanded. Through the Food Purchase and Distribution Program (FPDP), the USDA buys food directly from American farmers. The majority of this food is then provided to states for distribution to food banks and food pantries that participate in The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). TEFAP provides supplemental food for low-income Americans at no cost. Diane Golzynski, director of the Office of Health and Nutrition Services at the Michigan Department of Education, said that the state has distributed $22 million through TEFAP. The state will get an additional $12 million out of the $400 million TEFAP funding that was part of the COVID relief bill.

Through all of these commodities programs enacted in 2020, Golzynski said that the state has distributed $125 million worth of food to food banks. Additionally, more than 1.2 million Michiganders are now receiving the maximum amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and pandemic EBT cards are available for families who make too much for SNAP, but whose children qualify for free or reduced school meals. ocally, those who have been able to increase their food distribution thanks to these measures include Gleaners Community Food Bank and Forgotten Harvest, both of which benefit from the advocacy and resource allocation from the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Both Gleaners and Forgotten Harvest serve Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties, while Gleaners also serves Livingston and Monroe counties. Prior to the pandemic, according to Stacy Averill, Gleaners’ Vice President of Community Giving, Gleaners distributed between 3.5 and 4 million pounds of food each month. Throughout the pandemic, she said that they are giving out double that, averaging 150,000 households and 7 million pounds of food are being distributed, with a record 7.7 million pounds of food distributed in December 2020 alone. She expects these numbers will hold through the winter.

Kirk Mayes, CEO of Forgotten Harvest, sees similar increases, noting that they’re serving 40 to 50 percent more people than previous years.

Traditionally, distribution sites for the food banks include food pantries, soup kitchens, churches and community and senior centers.

As Lea Luger, executive director of Yad Ezra, southeast Michigan’s Kosher food pantry, located in Oak Park, put it, “We all have a role in this road from farmer to family. There are a lot of different stops. So we [pantries] are the last stop in terms of getting it to the families in need.”

Typically, food pantries are run by volunteers at local churches and community centers; Yad Ezra is an independent non-profit with a paid staff. Yad Ezra is able to provide food to low income families through a combination of the food they receive through the USDA and the food banks, as well as supplemental shopping they do thanks to donations.

Prior to COVID-19, they served about 1,100 families, or approximately 2,400 individuals a month. They are now serving about 1,250 families a month, a 15 percent increase since last March.

The delivery mechanisms for food distribution have altered significantly since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, putting a strain on organizations that need to get more food to more people, while simultaneously having seen their volunteer base decimated. Mayes described that, “in the past,” Forgotten Harvest would “drop off food at our agency partners and divide up the boxes, congregant meals. With COVID, we’ve had to conduct distributions ourselves.” He said that there are six to seven “rolling distributions” a day at different sites throughout the tri-county area, as well as car drops and mobile pantries.

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Additionally, he said they are still serving a portion of their more than 200 agency partners, which includes churches, schools and community centers.

Gleaners was able to “adapt and launch additional mobile sites within about a week of the closures [in March] because we already had that distribution model, we already had drive-through distributions so we could take that model and bring it scale,” recalled Averill of how quickly they were able to address the increase in demand for food thanks, in large part, to having operated their School Food Mobile pantries for years. Currently, they have approximately 100 school food mobile and senior distribution locations, and by February, she anticipates that they will have an additional 20 new sites, as well as an additional 70 new public community sites. While the school and senior distributions require invitations to be served, “the 70 additional community mobile sites are open to the public and all of them are spaced out throughout the five counties we serve.” Averill said that all mobile distributions are listed on the Gleaners website with both maps and calendars. “Anybody can go and show up at a site during the distribution window and park in line.” She emphasized that no registration or paperwork is required.

Yad Ezra previously had a volunteer base of around 150 individuals a month who helped with everything from “client intake, filling out shopping lists, handing out chicken, packing up the food, escorting them to their car and helping load in the trunk,” according to Luger.

After a brief stint offering curbside groceries, Yad Ezra now delivers boxes of food in three different sizes, put together with six staff members and delivered by drivers from Jewish Family Services. She said that using Uber and Lyft drivers was also a future possibility, depending on need.

Noting the elimination of volunteers across agencies, Knight from the Food Bank Council says that much of this work would not have been able to happen had not Governor Gretchen Whitmer called for the Michigan National Guard to aid humanitarian purposes. “We’ve averaged 86 members of the guard at all seven of our food banks. There is no way we could have done this increase without them.”

While most of the food distribution sites have adapted to curbside pickups and contact-less mobile pantries, those that offer food delivery are vital because many elderly people do not have access to the same methods of transportation that they had prior to the pandemic. Last year, Dan Carmody, president of the Eastern Market Partnership, was able to provide 36,000 locally-sourced free farm boxes with funding from the USDA that they distributed through six or seven community partners, which he said came from “long-standing relations with senior homes throughout the market. We used to partner with them to get seniors out to our Tuesday markets and provided bus transportation. That funding went to delivering good food to them instead.” chools play a critical role in both getting food to children as well as serving as general community food distribution sites. It is an understatement to say that children have had their school year disrupted tremendously, with most districts in Oakland County and throughout metro Detroit teaching their students virtually most of the time. With kids not attending school in-person, it was imperative that those who previously had relied on free and reduced lunches still have access to meals. In October 2018, 31.6 percent of Oakland County students were eligible for free or reduced meals through the USDA’s National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. In October 2019, the figure was nearly the same, with 32.6 percent eligibility.

Through June 30, 2021, all 1.5 million public school children in Michigan under the age of 18, and those with special needs under the age of 26, are entitled to free meals.

Lori Adkins, Oakland Schools childhood nutrition consultant, said that regardless of circumstance, offering free meals to all students “helps extend the food budget. It’s a piece of school while the kids are at home.”

In the Bloomfield Hills School district, approximately 10 percent of the student population of 5,987 is eligible for free or reduced meals this

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school year, a number consistent from the 2019-2020 and 2018-2019 school years. This year, though, all students may receive free meals.

School districts post their monthly menus online along with the distribution sites. All meals include a protein, whole grain, threequarters of a cup of fruits and veggies, and one percent milk. Marianne Romsek, food service director for Bloomfield Hills Schools, said that since the second round of school closures in November, they are currently averaging a distribution of between 4,500 to 5,000 meals a week. “When we open schools, I expect those numbers to be closer to 16,000 a week,” Romsek said. hen schools were open in a hybrid model, free meals were served in all schools, with curbside pickup available at Bloomfield Hills High School to those attending school virtually. When the schools closed, they offered curbside service both at the high school and East Hills Middle School.

Notably, Romsek stressed that “children receiving meals do not have to be from our district; parents or caregivers can pick up meals on behalf of children, and the honor system is used to pass out meals in our district.

No identification is required.”

With schools opening to in-person learning, curbside food pickup will continue for families, Romsek said, on Mondays and Thursdays at Bloomfield Hills High School from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for virtual students and families “that choose to pick up food from us.”

While all students are eligible for free meals, local demand has varied. Adkins described that Oakland Schools, the county's intermediate school district, uses the data from prior weeks to determine exactly how much food to provide to each site to help mitigate waste.

Additionally, some districts, like Birmingham and West Bloomfield, have the ability to pre-order online so that they know exactly how much food to provide. The districts post their menus, as well as their distribution schedules, online and through their social media channels.

Getting the food to the school districts, however, has been challenging. Adkins described a process that, due to supply chain issues, found schools “competing with convenience stores and grocery stores, since everyone wants pre-wrapped sandwiches and muffins.” She said that the “schools have had to be very flexible in making menu changes to get the food out that’s available.” A bright spot in Bloomfield Hills is that the district “recently received a grant to help pay for local produce, and are now including Michigan produce daily,” according to Romsek.

With the return to in-person learning, Adkins said that food production will streamline as they can go back to bulk food production and not rely on single-serving sizes. Although she anticipated that the demand will increase, as it will be easier for kids to get the food and give parents one less thing to worry about, the districts will “return to our normal production and have a better economy of scale.”

Schools have also been essential as distribution sites for the Family Food Box Program. “When parents came to pick up school lunches, they could pick up these boxes from the USDA at the same time,” said Adkins.

At Birmingham Public Schools, Anne Cron, director of communications and family engagement, said it has been difficult to ascertain the number of students and families accessing free meals.

“With the state offering funding for food, families and students do not need to fill out paperwork as they typically would to request services.

This means that we can’t compare if they’ve gone up or down. It’s also not stable – it may be different people at different times opting for the free meals. The pick-up spots have been successful, but these free meals are for anyone with kids zero to 18, or 26 with special needs, and it was never offered before,” Cron said, making it a difficult comparison. Free meals can be picked up at Groves High School on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the duration of the school year.

Access and ease is key in many of metro Detroit’s immigrant communities. Rezaul Chowdhury, Global Detroit’s community engagement specialist, described that many of the immigrants in Hamtramck and Banglatown walk to local stores and do not have cars.

Locations like International Hope Center became food distribution sites

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at the beginning of the pandemic, but Chowdhury described that “some people know about the free food, some don’t. The information is not being published broadly or through the right channels. Some people know about food distribution, but they don’t have the transportation to go and get it. Third, people know about it, they have transportation, but they hesitate to go because it’s embarrassing,” a common thread across cultures.

Many organizations, he said, delivered food door to door. He also attributed a lack of transportation as a limiting factor in getting the free school lunches, as it was a burden for many immigrant families to pick up food that did not feed the entire family. The new EBT cards for students are “very wise and effective,” he said of the debit cards sent to families that can be used at local markets.

Other immigrant neighborhoods, where there are clusters of undocumented immigrants, like those in southwest Detroit, have observed that some might be fearful of picking up free food, despite the fact that at most emergency food pantries, the only information collected is a name and the number of members in the household. Some may also collect for another address.

Mayes says that Forgotten Harvest is reorganizing how they distribute in southwest Detroit because “we have experienced consistent anxieties about people giving too much information about who they are and where they’re coming from. I haven’t seen it personally, but we have anecdotal evidence about anxiety about data collection and whether the lines truly speak to the people in need. People are picking up a lot of food for others in the community, which tells us they’re either unable or uncomfortable standing in the lines.”

The coming months are unknown, with several of the stimulus programs already having expired at the end of 2020, as well as impacts from a new presidential administration. Winter months are notoriously more challenging financially as well. Gleaners is preparing for all scenarios. “Before the trade mitigation programs started a few years ago,” said Averill, “we [Gleaners] received on average 300,000 pounds of food per month. With CFAP and trade mitigation, we receive three to 3.5 million pounds of food each month. We could go back down to these pretrade mitigation numbers of 300,000 pounds a month from the government. What we’re doing in preparation is fundraising and trying to make sure that we have unrestricted funds that we can pivot towards food purchases as the community still needs support.” hese programs, even though the federal government has augmented their funding for the past year, still only cover a fraction of the food that is been given out. The food banks and pantries negotiate with retailers and wholesalers directly, with Knight saying that the Food Bank Council “can buy a farmer’s seconds that big box stores are not going to buy.” Forgotten Harvest has a farm in Fenton that grows about one million pounds of food a year and Yad Ezra has a commercial grade greenhouse where they grew more than 10,000 pounds of fresh produce last year. Food drives are helpful to build awareness, but the amount of food distributed from them is modest.

Ultimately, these organizations rely on donations in order to round out their food purchasing, and volunteers to ensure that food gets to those who need it. “Two groups of people volunteer,” said Knight. “One group comes from the business world. Rocket Mortgage will take their team and pay them to volunteer. That’s a huge part of our volunteers. Second is our senior citizens – now the vulnerable can’t go.”

These organizations have proved nimble, and are still adapting nearly a year into this crisis. Yad Ezra's Luger said that as an “emergency food provider, I have to be prepared that if 100 [more] people come to us today, we need to be able to give them food, and that it is the same level, quality and quantity had we known that they were coming. We always have to be in a position to assist people.”

Knight, too, sees a long road ahead. “As long as there’s high unemployment and underemployment, our lines are going to be long.

Particularly from the unexpected. Even if the service industry reengages, if they’re only at 50 percent capacity, there’s less shifts, less turnover, less patrons for servers. They’re gonna need us.”

T

Vijay Daita t 14, Vijay Daita of Bloomfield Hills already understands that people spend lots of time working, shopping, and socializing in the digital world while also wanting to give back and improve upon the real one.

The Bloomfield Hills High School sophomore was recently recognized for his computer coding savvy by winning the Congressional App Challenge for the 9th congressional district with his entry, Click for a Cause, an experimental JavaScript app that connects would-be consumers to socially minded companies and products. A record-setting 6,000 students across the country participated in the competition which was judged by the industry’s leading experts.

In his second year of entering the competition, Daita said this time around gave him the chance to create an app that could provide value to his community.

“I wanted to create an app that can help leverage the new awareness in our country around social issues,” said Daita. “More than simply giving out small, onetime contributions, I wanted to help businesses develop and sustain during these tough times. Then these businesses can create jobs and that will help the society at large.”

Daita designed Click for a Cause to connect people to businesses that match their values through an easy-to-use interface that allows users to search for businesses associated with causes like social justice, public health, and environmental justice. As a prize, Congress will showcase Daita’s app in the United States Capitol at a future date.

Click for a Cause allows the user to choose a charity and then find corresponding businesses and services that donate to it. Daita proposed that this app would be a “win-win” because it would help companies locate and retain customers while increasing charitable giving. The app has search bars to locate companies and corresponding causes and even has a map feature to locate smaller businesses that fit in with a user’s charitable giving goals.

To create a digital community, the app also features a section to share information with others, publicize and recruit for volunteering efforts, and allow users to enter information about companies that are giving back. Now in an experimental phase, Daita hopes Click for a Cause can be someday fully developed and used by the public.

Daita’s zeal for coding started at an early age when he developed a love for computer games. For Daita, it was not enough to play games but to learn about the multitude of lines of code from their back end that make them work.

He started by teaching himself Scratch, a beginner’s programming language geared for the youngest coders, and progressed to more complex programs such as JavaScript, Python, and Android App Development. To share his passion for coding with his peers, in 2019, he and some classmates established Todocode, an organization that introduces children in metro Detroit and elsewhere to the art and skill of computer coding and web design. Before the pandemic, in the summer of 2019, he taught middle schoolers who had developmental disabilities coding with the Little Stars Foundation during a summer coding boot camp.

Over the past summer, Daita explored advanced computing classes, including learning how artificial intelligence programming can help researchers and scientists battle the coronavirus pandemic. When Daita is not coding, he plays tennis for the Bloomfield Hills Blackhawks tennis team and enjoys playing violin in the school orchestra.

“I think a lot of kids enjoy programming,” said Daita. “The workshops I give go beyond teaching programming languages and show how coding builds real-world programing applications.”

A

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MUNICIPAL $5.1 million bid for ice arena approved

By Kevin Elliott

The Birmingham City Commission awarded a $5.1 million bid on Monday, January 11, to design a project to improve and upgrade the Birmingham Ice Arena.

The project – which includes relocating the arena’s main rink, replacing the facility’s refrigeration system, expanding locker rooms and other improvements – is part of an $11.25 million parks and recreation bond approved by voters in November 2020. Commissioners split their votes 4-3 last year over whether to put the bond language before voters. The bond was approved in November by more than 70 percent of voters.

On Monday, January 11, commissioners approved a $288,900 contract with Grand Rapids-based Andrus Architecture to provide architecture and engineering services. The firm has constructed 26 rinks in eight states, including Compuware Sports Arena, in Plymouth, and the New York Islanders practice arena, in Long Island, NY. Commissioners approved the bid 6-1, with commissioner Stuart Sherman dissenting.

“Basically, we are asked to spend $5 million to have maybe a $50,000 net profit,” Sherman said. “We are asking the public to spend $5 million on something that non-residents will use and will be paid for by residents.

We haven’t discussed if this is an appropriate use of taxpayer money.”

The comments came following a presentation by consultant Robert Stempien, with Plante Moran Cresa, in which Stempien said the arena tends to cost the city about $50,000 each year when looking at revenues and expenditures.

“They are never really moneymakers,” he said. “With ice arenas, you almost never break even.

You’re probably into the black with the new equipment. They all strive to have a cost-neutral position.”

Planned improvements include replacing the existing in-floor cooling pipes; sub-soil heating systems; ice plant equipment; dehumidification systems; relocating the main ice arena; providing a female locker facility; enlarging the existing main ice arena locker rooms and providing a team locker room; replacing lighting with LED; and a new studio rink observation/meeting room.

Stempien said some of the major equipment at the arena is 45 years downtownpublications.com

Former clerk cleared, township sued

By Lisa Brody

irmingham police and the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office have declined to file criminal charges against former Bloomfield Township Clerk Jan Roncelli, who was involved in a fatal pedestrian accident on Maple west of Coolidge in Birmingham on September 22, however the estate of the deceased has filed a civil lawsuit against Bloomfield Township.

On September 22, at 3:30 a.m., Birmingham police dispatch reported they received a 911 call from the driver, a female from Bloomfield Hills, who stated she hit a person while driving westbound on Maple. Roncelli told officers she passed through the intersection of Maple and Coolidge on a green light when she struck the pedestrian. Roncelli reported she was coming home from working at a family business.

Officers located a 32-year-old male from Birmingham who was laying in the roadway and succumbed to his injuries. Toxicology reports determined the man, Bradley Bauer, had a drug alcohol level of .34.

It was determined Roncelli did not have any drugs or alcohol in her system, and from accident recreation and the accident report, it is believed Bauer ran into the driver's side of Roncelli's vehicle as she passed through the intersection. Surveillance photographs from near the crash site indicate Roncelli's vehicle had been stopped at a red light at Maple and Coolidge and the light had just turned green when the accident occurred. It does not appear Bauer was in a crosswalk. Roncelli was not charged in the accident.

Roncelli, like other elected officials at the time and township department heads, was given a township-issued SUV, which she was driving at the time of the accident.

On December 29, a lawsuit was filed against Roncelli and Bloomfield Township in Oakland County Circuit Court on behalf of Karissa Duff, representing the estate of Bradley Bauer, by attorney Kevin Riddle of the Fieger Law firm. The lawsuit seeks in excess of $25,000 in damages to be determined and attorney fees, alleging gross negligence by Roncelli and saying the township should have known her driving practices, history and habits, and that by allowing her to drive a township vehicle “she would likely be involved in a traffic collision.” Roncelli does not have a history of traffic violations.

In the lawsuit, Bauer's estate alleges it believes Roncelli may have been driving at an excessive speed, ran a red light, and either did not see Bauer as he crossed Maple or was unable to stop in time.

The case has been assigned to Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Michael Warren.

B

old, including the main rink’s AC units, of which only one was still functional. The arena, which is only operational part of the year, suffered significant malfunctions in 2017, 2019 and 2020, including a leak in the main rink’s in-floor cooling system.

Stempien said the improvements would provide efficiency savings of about $100,000 per year. The arena also could be open year-round.

Gary Piotrowicz, past president of the Birmingham Hockey Association and representative of the Birmingham Unified Hockey Boosters, said the team has been looking for a new locker room for four years. The clubs are open to Birmingham high school students.

“Currently, they have to change in the showers or bathrooms,” he said.

The boosters, he said, have already purchased the lockers for the team room and are donating them to the arena.

Commissioner Rackeline Hoff said she was concerned whether there was enough citizen input involved with the project. She said she hadn’t heard an outpouring of support for the project that the vote would suggest.

“People aren’t coming out because they are pleased with what we are doing,” commissioner Clinton Baller answered.

Heather Carmona, chair of the parks and recreation board, said there are 10 pages of public input from an earlier report about the ice arena.

Carmona also credited commissioner Therese Longe, who previously

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served as chair of the parks and recreation board, for her work on the project.

“There was a lot of public input, but there has been a delay because there was nothing new until now,” she said.

Commissioner Mark Nickita questioned whether there had been any analysis or assessment on the long-term plans for the arena, and whether it was something the community was committed to funding.

“This is difficult because it’s not a park or a tennis court. It’s a very costly item,” he said. “When I think about $5.1 million and the amount of assets it can bring to the city – Shain Park cost $3 million and tens of thousands of people go through that in a course of a year… I would like to understand where we are going with this long term. Is this a full investment that we are going with into the future? What is the vision for this facility longterm and how much are we going to put into it?”

Mayor Pierre Boutros said he wanted the city to have a more competitive ice arena to help serve as a draw to the city, both with current residents and others.

“You’re at the worst stage that it will be with the arena today,” he said.

“Either we don’t have one, or we have a beautiful one, and we have a bond that people voted for… I believe it’s overdue.”

Water lawsuit fully reversed on appeal

By Lisa Brody

A three judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday, January 9, reversed an Oakland County Circuit Court judgment of more than $9 million in the case of Jamila Youmans v Charter Township of Bloomfield, and remanded entry of a judgment of no cause of action in favor of the township, as well as affirming the lower court's ruling against Youmans' Headlee Amendment and Revenue Bond Act claims.

A class action lawsuit against Bloomfield Township had been filed in April 2016 by the law firm Hanley Kickham, which has been largely successful suing municipalities for excessive water and sewer fees, asserting there is an effort on the part of the municipalities to raise revenue in violation of the Headlee amendment. Bloomfield Township residents who had paid the township for water and sewer services since 57

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MUNICIPAL March 31, 2010, had been included in the Oakland County Circuit County suit challenging Bloomfield Township's imposition of water and sewer charges as a tax in excess of rates imposed by Southeast Oakland County Water Authority (SOCWA), which resells water to Bloomfield Township from the city of Detroit, and Oakland County Water Resources Commission, which provides sewer services for the township.

The case was tried before Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Dan O'Brien for the full month of February 2018. There were seven issues under contention in the lawsuit. A previous portion of the class action lawsuit had been awarded to the plaintiffs, in the amount of $3.8 million, in September 2018, and appealed by Bloomfield Township.

In addition, O'Brien awarded $5.4 million in damages in two parts of a class action suit against Bloomfield Township, determining the township should not have been integrating water loss costs into operations, as well as deciding that the township had overcharged sewer customers.

O'Brien also awarded the plaintiffs almost $2.2 million over the township's methodology of sewer and water collection, determining they had overestimated sewer flow and therefore were collecting all the revenue needed from their water and sewer customers, and additional revenue from sewer customers was excess.

Bloomfield Township included the subsequent judgements in their appeal, which the appeals court cited in their opinion, noting, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We agree with the Township that the trial court erred by failing to apply the presumption that the disputed rates were reasonable and abused its discretion by granting plaintiff permanent injunctive relief despite her failure to demonstrate that doing so was necessary to prevent irreparable harm.â&#x20AC;?

They noted that the Michigan legislatureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention for courts to refrain from strictly scrutinizing municipal utility rate-making is reflected in several statutory provisions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Courts of law are illequipped to deal with the complex, technical processes required to evaluate the various cost factors and various methods of weighing those factors required in rate-makingâ&#x20AC;Ś The trial court erred by nevertheless ordering defendants to refund more than $9 million to plaintiff and the plaintiff class. Given that plaintiff failed to demonstrate that the Township would be excessively (and downtownpublications.com

thus unjustly) enriched by the retention of such funds, the trial court should not have ordered the refund that it did.

In their ruling, Michigan Appeals Court Judges Cynthia Stevens, Christopher Murray and Deborah Servitto wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We also conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by granting plaintiff a permanent injunction requiring the Township to document its ratemaking efforts in a specified fashion.

Injunctive relief is an extraordinary remedy that issues only when justice requires, there is no adequate remedy at law, and there exists a real and imminent danger of irreparable injuryâ&#x20AC;Ś Similarly, in this case, it is undisputed that the contested rates are assessed to fund the operational and capital expenses of the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s water and sewer system, which serves the primary function of providing water and sewer services to the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ratepayers. Moreover, to the extent that those rates result in surpluses during some fiscal years, (former Engineering and Environmental Director Wayne) Domine indicated that the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 20-year capital improvement program was, at least in part, necessitated by the entry of an 'abatement order' against the Township, which arose out of litigation with the DEQ and regarded the level of water 'infiltration' in the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sewer system.

Categorically, such obligations arising out of administrative-agency regulations serve a regulatory purpose. On the strength of the entire record, we hold that the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s act of raising a prudent level of both revenue and capital and operational reserves through the disputed rates â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including revenue to fund its OPEB obligations, the costs of providing fire protection services to the community, expenses related to the county stormdrain system, and necessary capital improvements â&#x20AC;&#x201C; primarily serves valid regulatory purposes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nor are we persuaded by plaintiffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s contention that, because some who are not ratepayers may benefit from the water and sewer system, the disputed rates must be an improper tax.â&#x20AC;?

Further, the judges stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;On balance, plaintiff has failed to carry her burden of demonstrating that the disputed rates are impermissible taxes, rather than user fees, for purposes of Headlee § 31â&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;&#x153;Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded to the trial court for entry of a judgment of no cause of action in the Townshipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favor.â&#x20AC;?

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City neighborhoods plan topic of meeting

Birmingham recognizes outgoing manager

By Kevin Elliott

O

More than 100 people attended an online meeting on Wednesday, January 13, with the Birmingham Planning Board to review the first draft of the Master Plan’s Neighborhood and Housing Policy, intended to guide housing and zoning into the future.

Overall, the plan aims to connect neighborhoods in the city; embrace managed growth; retain neighborhood quality; invest in civic spaces and programs; support mixed-use areas; and advance sustainability. The meeting's theme focused on the overall policy, with specifics to each neighborhood to be reviewed by the commission and public in February.

Matt Lambert, an urban planner with DPZ in Miami, said the thought behind the policy was that the city needs to be a better competitor in the region, which may be inhibited by rising housing prices. Likewise, he said those who want to downsize in Birmingham may be priced out as teardown homes are changing the character of neighborhoods.

At the heart of the policy is the projection by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) that an additional 900 housing units will be added to the city by 2040.

“That amount of growth remains an open question,” Lambert said.

“You could choose not to grow, or if you grow too much it can impact neighborhood quality.”

The policy recommends a “neighborhood seams” approach.

Identified as low, medium and high intensity, neighborhoods seams consist of a variety of single-family and multi-family housing types, limited according to intensity, homebased businesses and some sizelimited businesses in high intensity seams.

According to the plan, high intensity seams occur where the non-residential uses have already established neighborhood edges.

“These require limitations on the size and type of businesses, and restrictions on the amount of parking that can be provided,” Lambert explained. “Moderate intensity seams are located along regionally significant streets with downtownpublications.com

utgoing Birmingham City Manager Joe Valentine was recognized by city commissioners at their meeting on Monday, December 21, for his more than two decades of service to the city with the unanimous approval of a park bench dedication in Valentine’s honor, which will be placed on the west side of city hall, facing Shain Park.

Valentine, who started in 1997 as an intern with the city and was appointed city manager in 2014, submitted his resignation in October to “explore new opportunities.”

During his 24 years with the city, Valentine served in eight different positions, including management specialist, human resources director, assistant city manager and two stints as interim city manager prior to becoming city manager. Former city manager Tom Markus replaced Valentine on January 1, 2021.

Valentine’s departure is one of several recent resignations this year in the city. Valentine, for his own part, thanked the commission and staff, and gave his respect to those he worked with over the years, including former mayor Eleanor “Coco” Siewert, who has been lauded for her ethics and civility in local government.

“As a community, we are lucky to have so many talented individuals working in support of the city, and I’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of elected officials, hundreds of staff members and thousands of residents and community stakeholders that have all contributed to the success this community shares,” Valentine said. “First, I’d like to thank and acknowledge former mayor and commissioner Coco Siewert, whose encouragement to look at Birmingham for opportunities turned into a career. Thank you Mayor Dimples.”

Valentine also expressed his appreciation to city manager Tom Markus, former assistant city manager Dan Schulte, city attorney Tim Currier, and commissioners Mark Nickita and Stuart Sherman. Lastly, he thanked his staff, as well as his wife Sarah.

“With so many nights receiving text messages requesting if I’m coming home for dinner or not, I do appreciate all of her support during those long nights and long weeks,” he said.

high traffic, in locations where primarily multi-family housing stock can be absorbed. Low intensity seams are located where nearby neighborhood fabric is most sensitive, defining a neighborhood edge but limiting the increase of intensity at the seam.”

Lambert provided a brief presentation of the Neighborhood Seams Policy, which included a broad overview of maps of various neighborhoods throughout Birmingham with potential uses aiming to connect neighborhoods.

More than a dozen members of the public spoke, with the majority opposing changes that would allow large multi-family developments to be incorporated into neighborhoods that are predominantly single-family areas. Several people also objected to the use of accessory dwelling units, such as carriage houses located above garages.

Prior to the meeting, some residents received a nongovernmental, anonymous letter urging them to attend the meeting and oppose the draft policy.

“The new zoning would allow developers to demolish single family homes and replace them with multiunit housing. The plan would allow for apartments to be added to existing homes,” the letter read.

“These changes would have negative effects on our city.”

Birmingham resident John Smith said he was alarmed by the presentation.

“The seams idea would put these duplexes at the end of our block,” he said. “We are already six houses from the end, and I think it would damage the type of neighborhood we live in.”

Fellow resident William Watkinson said the policy appears to benefit future residents and property

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developers, and said he didn’t like the prospect of living near a fourunit housing building.

Natalia Dukas, a member of the city’s historic district commission, said there was very little discussion on potential historic preservation. “If you overlap the map of seams and historic buildings, there are a lot of overlaps,” she said. “To me, there’s no alignment. I believe development is important, but it’s also important to retain the character of a city.”

Planning board members echoed some of the same concerns, indicating that the seams presented may work in some areas and not in others.

“To me, a plan like this is like a guidepost for 20 to 30 years from now,” said board member Dan Share. “There’s probably pressure for 900 additional units and it’s incumbent on us to plan and guide that, rather than having an unfettered market take that. I believe some of the new housing should go in the Triangle District, downtown and dispersed in neighborhoods. I think seams are generally okay, but I think we need to match the demand to available land. I think it’s a good idea to identify areas that are better suited for seams.”

Board member Stuart Jeffares agreed. “There are probably too many places we have seams,” he said. “Hopefully we can narrow that down to more appropriate spots.”

Board member Bert Koseck said the plan appears to be “overly ambitious. There are a lot of seams.

Is that necessary? In my opinion, probably not… I think it’s overly ambitious and has frightened a lot of people, and me.”

A copy of the plan may be viewed and commented online at thebirminghamplan.com.

The next draft review is scheduled for Wednesday, February 10, and will focus on neighborhood plans and shared neighborhood elements. A public input and proposed summary for a second draft is scheduled for March 10.

Birmingham Planning Director Janna Ecker said the additional meetings and input sessions will take place toward the later half of 2021, prior to a formal hearing at the planning board. The plan is then to forward it to the city commission for review and another public hearing before adoption.

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Unimproved streets plan accepted for city

By Kevin Elliott

It will cost roughly $118 million to improve nearly 26 miles of unimproved streets that have never been fully paved throughout the city of Birmingham, according to a report accepted by the city commission on Monday, December 21.

“This is critical,. Once a plan is implemented for unimproved streets, it will be the largest and most expensive infrastructure plan in the city,” said Scott Moore, chair of the ad-hoc unimproved streets committee, which began studying the issue in 2018.

About a third of the city’s streets are considered unimproved roads, which are essentially gravel roads with coats of sealer applied on top.

Unimproved roads have no curbs or gutters, and often are subject to water pooling and uneven surfaces.

Improved roads are asphalt or concrete. Further, unimproved roads aren’t able to participate in leaf

collection or street cleaning.

City manager Joe Valentine said the committee looked at the history and evolution of roads in the city, as well as billing, maintenance, a funding model and other aspects that were included in the committee’s report.

“The problem is 26 miles of gravel roads with a slurry seal that don’t meet with the residents’ expectations,” Valentine said. “They aren’t engineered or designed for proper grade or drainage.”

The committee – which included two members of city commission, three residents living on unimproved roads, one on an improved road and one with a background in road design – found the average lifespan of an unimproved road is roughly seven to 10 years. Improving those roads requires asphalt or concrete, as well as drainage and gutter utilities at the time of improvement.

In total, the committee estimated it would cost about $2.2 million in water main replacements and $1.2 million in sewer line replacements per mile of roadway to be improved,

as well as about $2.3 million in street costs, for a total of $4.55 million per mile.

Further frustrating the issue of road replacement is the funding process. Currently, any reconstruction must be initiated by residents living on the street through the special assessment district process, or SAD. As such, at least 51 percent of residents impacted by the work must agree to pay for reconstruction, which often leads to neighbors being at odds.

The report recommended the city initiate improvements through a ranking system of all unimproved roads. Further, it recommended the use of concrete, rather than asphalt, to reconstruct roads because of its longer durability with final decisions being left to the city’s engineering department. The assessments would be updated annually and included in the city’s capital improvement plan.

Finally, the committee recommended using general fund transfers to fund the road component of improvements, with bonds being made available for

funding water and sewer components as part of the long-term plan. The cost allocation for reconstruction is recommended to remain the same, with homeowners bearing 85 percent of the costs and the city 15 percent.

Valentine said the payback period for the SAD is set at 10 years, as set by the city; however, a homeowner may use an alternative funding source on their own if they like. He said most are paid immediately or within three years of the work.

Resident Matthew Carmona, who lives on an unimproved street in Birmingham, said he was concerned the city may force some residents to improve streets, regardless if the majority doesn’t want it.

“Citizens need to have more say on what happens on their streets when the time comes,” he said.

Commissioners unanimously approved accepting the plan, but modified the motion to allow further discussion in the future before implementing any specific aspects.

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Birmingham seeks public art donations The city of Birmingham is seeking artists to donate or loan works to the city for five locations throughout the community, including spots at Poppleton Park, Linden Park and three terminating vistas at key locations in the city.

City commissioners on Monday, December 21, unanimously approved putting out a “call for entry” to various art galleries and organizations in hopes of procuring five donations, with the city providing a $2,000 stipend to artists for approved works. The effort stems in part from the city’s public arts board’s terminating vistas report, which called for using sculptures, artistic furniture, landscaping and other artistic works to enhance the city’s terminating vistas.

Birmingham Planner Brooks Cowan said one of the locations includes enhancing an electrical box with artwork and a sculpture, and additional sculptures at other locations.

“The public arts board has been waiting for the West Maple construction to be completed. Within

those plans include a structure based in front of Anthropology, at the intersection of Henrietta and West Maple,” Cowan said. “Right now there’s a six-by-six pad, so they’ll be looking for a smaller sculpture there.”

Additionally, Cowan the city is hoping to replace the 15-foot tall sculpture at 555 Old Woodward that was removed last fall, which would be a larger piece to serve as a gateway to the city. Additional locations include the grassy area near Linden Trail at Linden Park, as well an area in Poppleton Park.

Commissioners discussed some of the potential specifics, particularly the electrical box along Old N. Woodward Avenue at Hamilton Row. Commissioner Clinton Baller said he opposed enhancing the electrical box beyond its current green color as he said the historic area is already too cluttered.

“The goal should be to unclutter it and restore its historic nature,” Baller said.

Commissioner Mark Nickita suggested approving the resolution as the resolution would grant final authority of the design to the city

Build a ÙäÁŖőĆùŖě ěĆùä͠ Begin constructing the life

commission before any installation.

“We spent $12 million on street improvements on Woodward and Maple, and we want it to look as positive as possible, and would want the arts board and creative community to be creative and enhance our downtown,” Nickita said. “I think it’s irresponsible to say we shouldn’t be allowing the creativity to come forth.”

City fire department ready for vaccines The Birmingham Fire Department has formally requested vaccines from the state and the Oakland County Health Department, and hopes to receive them in the coming weeks in order to assist in inoculating residents.

“We prepared for this turning point in the pandemic in April by purchasing syringes and needles with the hope of someday inoculating residents who are most susceptible to this deadly disease,” said Birmingham Fire Chief Paul Wells. “I want to remind the community that this vaccine is safe, and it is critical in our fight against COVID-19. More than 30 Birmingham

firefighters are paramedics and we will be ready when vaccines become available.”

Ninety percent of Birmingham firefighters have received both rounds of the COVID-19 vaccine, as they provide direct medical assistance to COVID-19 patients throughout the city.

For information about vaccine availability, residents should not call at this time but follow these steps to receive updates regarding the vaccine rollout: 1) Sign up for Birmingham's citywide email list at www.bhamgov.org/citywideemail.

2) Register for the city's Nixle emergency alert system at www.nixle.com or simply send a text message with the zip code 48009 to 888777. 3) Visit www.OaklandCountyVaccine.com and complete the ‘Save Your Spot’ form.

Register for updates from the Oakland County Health Department by texting OAKGOV to 28748.

Birmingham will send out updates as more information becomes available. Residents are reminded to continue to wear masks even if they had COVID-19 or if they received the vaccine, as it may still be possible to spread the virus.

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MUNICIPAL Birmingham looking into parking denial Parking woes in Birmingham led city commissioners on Monday, January 11, to reconsider their denial last year of the use of six public parking spaces by The Pearl, 855 N. Old Woodward, in order to meet zoning ordinance requirements.

Construction of the four-story, 90,000-square-foot building, called The Pearl, had initially included required parking for proposed retail use on the first floor of the building.

The owner has since proposed new first-floor businesses, including salons and food service establishments, thus requiring additional parking, under city ordinances.

In November, The Pearl’s request to use six on-street, public parking spots to meet parking requirements was denied by the city commission.

At that time, some commissioners recommended coming back to the commission and requesting inclusion in the city’s parking assessment district (PAD). The current building was constructed last year and is not included in the adjacent parking assessment district. Properties that are included in the district aren’t required to meet zoning requirements for on-site parking for any commercial uses, including retail, salons and food establishments.

The advisory parking committee reviewed the request and recommended denial, citing high demand for parking in the area prior to the pandemic. Commissioners on Monday, January 11, initially leaned toward rejecting the request from The Pearl.

City commissioner Stuart Sherman said The Pearl’s dilemma was “self imposed,” as it had already been approved but changed its tenants after that approval.

“We can say ‘no, we aren’t going to fix your problem,’ or we can have a public hearing on this and see if we are going to fix it and include them in the district,” Sherman said.

Attorney Richard Rattner, who represents The Pearl, said the building wasn’t included in the city’s parking assessment district because it didn’t exist. Had the original building not been demolished, he said the address would undoubtedly have been included in the district.

“When I first started practicing law in the Dark Ages, we used to have our monthly meetings at Carrie Lee’s (Chinese) Restaurant every month. It was a great restaurant. It downtownpublications.com

burned down in 1988. Since that time, that site was a scar on the landscape of Birmingham. It was contaminated and very difficult to develop. Nobody touched it for 30 years,” Rattner said. “During that 30 year period – I was on the planning commission during that time – the PAD came into existence. The outline of the PAD followed what was developed at that time. … the (PAD) stops right before this new building.

More importantly, the overlay district didn’t stop there. What you have done, unintentionally, is to provide that The Pearl has to do that same thing, developmentally as everyone else on that street, but not allow them the advantage of the PAD. That’s unfair.”

Commissioners struggled with the requirements of including The Pearl in the parking assessment district, noting the high demand for parking already in the area.

“Our job is to not overload the system,” said commissioner Clinton Baller. “I’m concerned that if we allow you into the PAD, nobody will park in Lot 6, and fewer in the parking structure, and they will end up in the neighborhood, or battling with neighbors.”

Birmingham City Manager Thomas Markus asked commissioners if they would be in favor of taking no action on the PAD request, instead allowing the six public parking spots in front of the building to be used to meet parking requirements.

“It makes more sense to me to reverse the decision on those six spaces,” he said. “At least you have a governance on how many spaces they can use.”

Commissioner Rackeline Hoff agreed.

“In this case, by putting the building in the PAD, they can put in a restaurant or something else with much more intense use, and what will happen is that customers will take up all those spaces in the area,” she said.

Commissioner Mark Nickita agreed that if the building had existed decades earlier, it would have been included in the parking assessment district. “It’s a victim of circumstance of the fire and demolition,” he noted.

Business owner and leasing agent Emil Cherkasov, who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, said he was considering whether he could continue to wait for the parking situation to be rectified or pull out of a tenant agreement in the building.

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“These businesses can’t afford to sit around and wait while commissioners make a decision,” he said. “The owner of the building will lose a tenant.”

Mayor Pierre Boutros said the city has yet to see the full effects of the pandemic on local businesses, and is concerned about losing those willing to open.

“I’m concerned about people trying to open a business to survive,” he said. “We are still going through a difficult time in the business world.”

Commissioners discussed whether it would possible to pass a motion that night to reverse the previous decision to deny the use of the six public parking spaces, but determined the matter would have to return at the next meeting, per the advice of the city’s attorney.

Lot combo request for parking delayed The Fred Lavery Porsche car dealership sought to reschedule a public hearing at the Birmingham City Commission on Monday,

December 21, until late January in hopes of being able to demolish a building at Haynes and Woodward to make room for additional parking, which is currently against city ordinances in the city's Triangle District.

“There are a number of moving pieces relative to these parcels, including for example, the Worth Street realignment project, which may run through the Haynes property,” said attorney Jason Canvasser, representing the dealership. “We would like an adjournment until January 25 to not only serve to allow the commission time to review the application, but also ask the commission to direct the city manager to meet with us so we can talk about different options and work on both short-term and longterm plans as we look to the current and future master plan.”

City planning staff recommended denying the request, as it was found to be inconsistent with the city’s zoning ordinance and wasn’t applicable to the master plan for the Triangle District.

Specifically, the request was to

combine two parcels in order to accommodate additional parking. The dealership is located at 34350 Woodward while a two-story commercial building is located at 907-911 Haynes Street. Lavery is hoping to combine the two parcels and demolish the two-story building to make way for a surface parking lot.

In 2016, Lavery received a special land use permit for the Haynes property to use as an office for one year while renovations were made to the main dealership. That approval required that cars parked for sale couldn’t be on the Haynes Street property. In January of 2020, Lavery requested an amendment and the proposed lot combination to expand parking. That request was subsequently withdrawn on January 22, and is expected to go before the commission again on January 25, 2021.

Commissioner Stuart Sherman recommended pushing the hearing into February in order to ensure the city’s long-range planning priorities are incorporated into any meeting, as well as to allow incoming city manager Tom Markus time to address any issues.

Outgoing city manager Joe Valentine said working with property owners on long-range planning is key to healthy development.

“The question is, ‘how do you incorporate these (long-term) plans with what they want to do so it’s mutually beneficial,’” Valentine said.

“The only way to incorporate these plans into properties we don’t own is to have these meetings with property owners.”

Remediation starts on schools water

By Lisa Brody

Remediation work has begun at several Birmingham Public Schools after water testing showed not only high lead and copper levels at several schools, but also the presence of legionella, and school officials have asked students to bring water bottles from home when attending in-person until the water systems are fixed.

Birmingham Schools had water testing conducted by Trace Analytical in late November and early December. High lead and copper

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levels were found at Groves and Seaholm high schools, Derby and Berkshire middle schools, Birmingham Covington School, and Harlan, Quarton, Beverly and West Maple elementary schools.

Retesting and remediation is continuing at all of the affected schools, district communications indicated.

For students who will be attending in-person instruction, the district said they will “will shift to cold water flushes to eliminate copper and lead in the system in the coming weeks.

All individuals should use water from home or bottled water until water filter stations are enabled again.

Hand washing can occur during this time. We will provide an update when our building is cleared for regular water usage. Once remediation is complete and our water bottle filter stations can be turned back on, this is the recommended water source for drinking water as they are designed to filter out lead.”

Testing showed there were multiple lead and copper results throughout the building at Seaholm, administrators said, as well as legionella found in the building.

Groves had trace levels of lead and copper, as well as legionella discovered. At Derby, the building showed four lead results and five copper results, as well as legionella.

Berkshire had no elevated levels of lead or copper, but legionella was found in the building. No elevated lead or copper was found at BCS either, but legionella was found in the building.

Legionella was not found in the building at Greenfield, but test results showed one lead result and two copper results in non-drinking water sources, which principal Noelle Davis said had been shut down and were not available for use.

At Quarton, test results showed four lead results and five copper results, as well as legionella was found in the building.

At Harlan, test results showed there were eight locations with high lead results and two locations with copper results that are higher than maximum contamination limits, and legionella was found in the building.

At Beverly, tests results showed there were four elevated lead results and six high copper results.

Legionella was also found in the building.

Reports from West Maple stated they are still waiting for lead and copper testing results, but that legionella was found in the building.

According to the Michigan Lead downtownpublications.com

Bloomfield Hills adds officers, promotions

By Lisa Brody

loomfield Hills Chief Noel Clason announced promotions, changes and additions to the public safety department at the city commission meeting on Tuesday, January 12.

Clason informed commissioners officer Dan Madden was promoted to sergeant, replacing a sergeant who had retired. Clason said Madden has been with Bloomfield Hills since 2006, and was also a member of the Troy Fire Department, as a volunteer firefighter. He recently received his master's degree from University of Detroit Mercy in Intelligence Analysis, oversees the department's field training program, is sergeant on platoon one, and serves as the department's newly appointed public information officer.

Clason noted that lieutenant Dustin Lockard had successfully completed Michigan State University’s School of Staff and Command. “The six-month program is top-level training for police chiefs and commanders concerning administration and management in law enforcement,” Clason said.

“Currently three out of the four lieutenants have successfully completed this tremendous program, and the last lieutenant will be scheduled to attend staff and command school later this year.”

He then introduced three new public safety officers: Jason Ulatowski, who was hired in February 2020, directly out of the Macomb Police Academy. He graduated the Oakland Fire Academy in November, has completed all department training and is serving on Platoon 2.

Cole Hyde graduated from Oakland Police Academy in December 2020, and has a bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University. “Cole has begun training with the department and will attend the Oakland Fire Academy in February,” Clason said.

Sean Bradley also graduated from Oakland Police Academy in December 2020. He has an associates degree and is a U.S. Army veteran, having served from 2016-2018. Clason said he has begun his training with the department and will join Hyde in the Oakland Fire Academy in February.

With Hyde and Bradley's hires, Clason said the department will be back to full staff once they complete the fire academy and their training.

B

and Copper Rule, safe levels of lead in water are being reduced from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 12 ppb by January 1, 2025, and 1.3 mg per liter for copper.

Legionella bacteria can cause a serious type of pneumonia called Legionnaires' Disease, according to the CDC, as well as a less serious disease called Pontiac's Fever, which is a milder form of Legionnaires' Disease, and, more rarely, extrapulmonary infections, collectively known as legionellosis.

People can get Legionnaires’ disease or Pontiac Fever when they breathe in small droplets of water in the air that contain legionella.

Public valet services to be offered at hotel

By Kevin Elliott

Shoppers won’t have to be guests of the Daxton Hotel, 298 S. Old Woodward, in order to use its valet parking service when it opens its doors for business in February, under

a public-private partnership approved on Monday, January 11, by the Birmingham City Commission.

The public valet service near 210 S. Old Woodward, will be moved to the Daxton Hotel and remain available to the public at its current rate of $5. The agreement will allow for the removal of four on-street parking spaces in order to accommodate the service, which will be operated by Woodward Brown Ventures, which submitted an application with the city in May for a valet license.

Richard Rattner, an attorney for the business, said Woodward Brown Ventures' agreement would save the city nearly $40,000 per year. The city currently pays about $750 per week for valet service near 210 S. Old Woodward, near the now-closed Vinotecca. Further, Rattner said the Daxton includes on-site parking, forgoing the need for spaces in the city’s public parking lots or structures.

“We run a very professional valet service in this hotel, and we have a

DOWNTOWN

lot of experience doing it,” Rattner said. “When approaching the city, we were told we would’ve have the same terms and conditions, but no better, than the public stand.”

Birmingham Police Commander Scott Grewe said the current valet station receives about 100 customer per week, referring to 2020 figures after the impact of COVID-19. The removal of the four metered parking spaces would mean a loss of some parking revenue, which could amount to $22,464 per year, if each meter were occupied during all available hours.

While city commissioners were initially receptive of the agreement, there was concern over the day-today operation of the valet services.

Specifically, commissioners questioned how the public would know the service is available to all motorists.

City commissioner Rackeline Hoff said she liked the price reduction, but asked how the city would make the public aware of the service. “It would be highly unusual to give your car to a hotel valet if you’re not going to the hotel,” she said.

Commissioner Clinton Baller agreed, and questioned whether it would be appropriate to charge different parking rates for hotel guests and the public.

“If we do it, it should be crystal clear and displayed that this is a city operation,” he said. “And that prices are displayed.”

Commissioner Mark Nickita also said shoppers wouldn’t expect the hotel to provide public valet services.

He asked Grewe if the department could track how often available public parking meters in front of the hotel would be taken out of service for special events, thus reducing available public parking.

Commissioner Stuart Sherman said that while he had some concerns about the situation, the agreement allows the city to terminate the deal at its discretion. “We are in control here … I suggest we give staff leeway to make adjustments as it develops. The hotel opens in February. Give them a chance to try it out and adjust.”

Commissioners approved the agreement by a vote of 5-1, with Hoff voting against it, and mayor Pierre Boutros requesting to abstain from the issue due to a potential conflict of interest.

77

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FACES

Edward Shehab defining moment led Edward Shehab to where he is today. “Three years ago, I knew my mother was slipping with her mental capacity. We were having lunch together and it quickly dawned on me that she didn’t know who I was. She saw me as a guest in her own house. It was staggering to think that this was the person who brought me into this world and life with her is gone,” he said.

“Being an entrepreneur, I thought, ‘I can fix this,’ so I did a lot of research,” said Shehab, who has a background in finance and the oil industry.

A friend introduced him to a supplement that had lots of science behind it. “It became more of a passion for me. I knew I could help a lot of people not only in the throws of dementia, but prior to diagnosis,” he said.

Dementia takes people through a door they can’t come back from, which sadly was the case for his mother who has since passed away.

Now, the CEO and managing partner of Memory Health in Birmingham, Shehab, who lives in Bloomfield Village with his wife and kids, has a passion for the product he represents. An all-natural brain health supplement just received a second patent, first in the UK, and now in the U.S. According to Shehab, it is the only supplement patented for the prevention and/or treatment of dementia. Double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials showed improvement in memory, cognitive function, mental health and overall brain health in healthy and diseased brains, specifically those with Alzheimer’s disease.

Still, the product offers a glimmer of hope, not a cure, said Shehab, who has been developing and marketing the brand. “It’s never too early to start,

A

but it can be too late,” he noted. “We know we can help the healthy and those in the early stages of the disease who take the product now.”

Though the key ingredients can be consumed in nature, individuals can’t get enough of plant-based nutrients like lutein, zeaxanthin and mesozeaxanthin found in leafy greens like spinach, kale and broccoli. The supplements that are sold on their website, memoryhealth.com and on Amazon, also contain Omega-3s and natural Vitamin E. “We know the product has been validated. We know the effects. It’s all natural and it gets to the brain and we can measure it. We know definitive research has been proven,” said Shehab.

The supplement already has been especially popular among women in their 50s who may be buying for themselves or for their households. He said it's been popular for the brain fog that often comes with menopause, with the feedback that the fog has lifted. After taking the product, some have said there’s a clarity and brightness to their lives.

Shehab said student athletes may benefit, as well. “We know that CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is a stepping stone to dementia,” he said. “This is a supplement for brain health like aspirin is for the heart.

There is no caffeine or additives.”

He’s determined to make a difference with the supplements. He's proud they are made and distributed in the U.S. “It’s always interesting to see what opportunities come our way, not only for personal enhancement, but to help people,” he said. “I don’t want people to go through what I went through. That moment changed my life forever.”

Story: Jeanine Matlow

Photo: Laurie Tennent

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THE COMMUNITY HOUSE “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness” - Desmond Tutu Sir Desmond Tutu’s quote highlights the most wonderful aspect about hope - acquiring it and reaping its benefits does not guarantee that we will get the results we desire. Yet there is promise that all we truly need is the “potential” or “possibility” that things will get better to encourage us to go on.

While the pandemic took most of the business world by surprise, epidemiologists and other experts had long warned it was only a matter of time before such a disaster struck. And though the crisis seems to have been with us for a long time (and it has) the reality is that we are beginning to see light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. While the pandemic is likely to bring more changes in the months ahead – the race to begin the most crucial mass inoculation is underway – bringing with it the possibility that things will get better – and the hope and encouragement for us to go on.

revisited their vision, we recalled their passion and steadfast commitment to society, to our community, to families (particularly our children). We discovered that so many of society’s changing social and economic situations we faced in 1923 still apply, still challenge us today.

With renewed vigor and reverence and respect for the past, we began to take steps to better align “The Community House of today” with our founders’ (St. James Women’s Guild’s) original vision of yesterday.

At the same time, because of COVID, we have been called to an even higher service – tending to and caring for more children and their families in our community. At the start of my administration, The Community House and its award-winning Early Childhood, Infant and Toddler centers were servicing 35 families/children. At that time, over 125 families remained on our waiting list. Pre-COVID, with improved space and resource allocation, coupled with the demand for our children’s programs and services at an all-time high – we were able to grow our children’s centers to an unprecedented 95 families/children. While some families came off our waiting list, other families immediately replaced them.

Bill Seklar

As the world continues to battle COVID-19, leading experts observe “that the pandemic has put human welfare and sustainability front and center.”

Consumers see a new role of companies, non-profits and otherwise – for good – and will value companies demonstrating a long-term value agenda in culture, purpose, and ethics.

According to The Heart of Birmingham – The Community House Story, “there is a tendency, when one writes or speaks about The Community House, to think of an architecturally beautiful building, of organizations, meetings and dinners, and indeed, a history of the House focusing on the bricks and mortar, programs, and fund drives, on the minutia of day to day operations…and that would be valid.” But COVID-19 requires us to look beyond that.

Authors Betty and Frank Angelo reminded us that we must also recognize and value the intangibles of this great institution, and its nearly centuryold commitment of people fulfilling “the felt needs of the Greater Birmingham community” and beyond. Perhaps, our rich DNA and the extraordinary legacy and vision our founders left us have uniquely prepared us for these moments in history.

Not long ago, in preparation of marking our centennial milestone in 2023, The Community House began a period of reflection. We traveled back to our humble beginnings, and to our founders, we studied their words, we

Then in March 2020, the worldwide pandemic hit. Essential and critical workers were called to action. Schools and early childhood centers closed.

Families became overwhelmed. While our early childhood centers were also temporarily closed, our waiting list exploded. With so much gathering space unused at The Community House, and the future uncertain, The Community House developed plans to reopen the Early Childhood Centers as soon as local and state officials gave us the approval – and we would reallocate new space at The Community House for early childhood use and to assist parents, essential workers and families in crisis.

While future meeting space for others would be impacted by this change, our children and their young families needed us – now more than ever – we could not and would not disappoint. These are the intangibles Betty and Frank alluded to. In response, on November 1, 2020, The Community House and its Early Childhood Centers (ECC) were granted approval by the state to open our 7th and final ECC classroom, bringing our total approved ECC enrollment at The Community House to an unprecedented 109 children/families. On Wednesday, November 18, 2020, the new Hoglund Infant & Toddler Room officially opened for business – we have answered the call.

You can choose to change with the times, meet new opportunities head on and grow your organization. Or you can fight the changes, refuse to adapt, and watch your business and the critical services you provide perish. Be safe, stay well.

William D. Seklar is President & CEO of The Community House and The Community House Foundation in Birmingham.

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81

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FACES Emily Elconin n a study abroad program in Europe during her junior year of college, Emily Elconin fell hard for the art of photojournalism. “I immediately felt connected to what I was doing and wondered if I could make it a job one day,” she said.

Her outgoing personality and desire to connect with people makes the field a good fit for the 25-year-old, who credits grad school with fostering her growth and allowing her to explore the medium to its fullest.

Currently a freelance photojournalist based in Farmington Hills, Elconin grew up in Birmingham, graduating from Groves High School before heading to Michigan State University where she was a journalism major with a visual communications track. She finished her coursework for her master’s in photography at Syracuse University where she plans to defend her master’s project in the near future.

In the meantime, she’s been making a name for herself working for the wire service for Reuters and Bloomberg. She has also done assignments for The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Those working for the wire service are predominantly male. “It’s been pretty cool to be a young female photographer,” said Elconin. “It’s empowering to help create a path for other females and try to diversify the field. I feel special being a young woman in the industry.”

Before returning to Michigan, she worked for a newspaper in Virginia. “I moved back to be closer to family. I wanted to be happy in my personal and professional life,” she said. “It was great to reconnect with my roots.”

The pandemic wouldn’t put her creative pursuits on hold. “I felt like I couldn’t just sit around. I’m going to do my best to work around this obstacle,” said Elconin. “Photojournalism is about what’s out in the world and connecting with the people you’re photographing.

Maintaining distance can be a little bit of a tricky dynamic, but my health is my priority.”

For one of her first assignments for Reuters, she photographed the rabbis at her temple, Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield, doing a virtual Shabbat service. “I had never been inside an empty synagogue before.

That was pretty special, that moment with them,” she said.

In April, she photographed the field hospital at the TCF Center in Detroit. “Seeing them build hospital beds was pretty surreal,” said Elconin. Her image appeared on the home page of The New York Times website the next day.

Since Michigan is a swing state, she also did a lot of election coverage, including events where masks became political. “It can be challenging to navigate, but I learned a lot about professionalism and how to handle different situations,” she said.

In addition, Elconin captured images of industries affected by the pandemic featuring holiday shoppers at Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth and travelers at Detroit Metro Airport on Christmas Eve. When Forgotten Harvest set up mobile food pantries, she covered the fallout from the virus that highlights economic hardship. “I enjoy working on stories about people who are committed to helping communities,” she said.

In a field where a picture is worth a thousand words, her talent is apparent in her compelling storytelling. “I’m really curious about people and their stories. I want to make sure they feel like their voice is being heard. I like to interact with them and it feels really good to do that through photography.”

O

Story: Jeanine Matlow

Photo: Emily Elconin

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We thank you in advance for your support of our effort to bring you quality local journalism each month. www.downtownpublications.com 84

DOWNTOWN

02.21

PLACES TO EAT

STEVE'S DELI DINE-IN Starts February 1!

We Miss You So Come On In

The Places To Eat for Downtown is a quick reference source to establishments offering a place for dining, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. The listings include nearly all dining establishments with seating in the Birmingham/Bloomfield area, and then some select restaurants outside the immediate area served by Downtown.

Birmingham/Bloomfield 220: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday- Saturday. Reservations.

Liquor. 220 E. Merrill Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.2220.

5th Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2262 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.481.9607.

Adachi: Asian. Lunch & Dinner daily.

Liquor. Reservations. 325 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham 48009.

248.540.5900.

Andiamo: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 6676 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301.

248.865.9300.

Bangkok Thai Bistro: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 42805 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Township, 48304. 248.499.6867.

Beau's: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. Liquor. 4108 W. Maple, Bloomfield Hills, 48301.

248.626.2630.

Bella Piatti: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations.

Liquor. 167 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.494.7110.

Beverly Hills Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Liquor. No reservations.

31471 Southfield Road, Beverly Hills, 48025. 248.642.2355.

Beyond Juice: Contemporary. Breakfast & Lunch daily; Dinner, MondaySaturday. No reservations. 270 West Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.

248.594.7078.

Big Rock Chophouse: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 245 South Eton Street, Birmingham, 48009.

248.647.7774.

Bill's: American. Lunch & Dinner, Daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 39556 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.646.9000.

Birmingham Sushi Cafe: Japanese.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 377 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.593.8880.

Bistro Joe’s Kitchen: Global. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Sunday brunch. Liquor.

Reservations. 34244 Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.0984.

Bloomfield Deli: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 71 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48304.

248.645.6879.

Brooklyn Pizza: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Liquor. No reservations. 111 Henrietta Street, Birmingham, 48009.

248.258.6690.

Café ML: New American. Dinner, daily.

Liquor. Call ahead. 3607 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Township.

248.642.4000.

Casa Pernoi: Italian. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 310 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009.

248.940.0000. downtownpublications.com

Churchill's Bistro & Cigar Bar: Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

116 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.4555.

Cityscape Deli: Deli. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations.

Beer. 877 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302.

248.540.7220.

Commonwealth: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 300 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009.

248.792.9766.

Dick O’Dow’s: Irish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 160 West Maple Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.

248.642.1135.

Eddie Merlot's: Steak & seafood.

Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

37000 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.712.4095.

Einstein Bros. Bagels: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. 4089 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.258.9939.

Elie’s Mediterranean Cuisine: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations.

Liquor. 263 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.647.2420.

Embers Deli & Restaurant: Deli.

Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Dinner, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 3598 West Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.645.1033.

Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar: American. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 323 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.723.0134.

Forest: European. Dinner, MondaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 735 Forest Avenue, Birmingham 48009.

248.258.9400.

Greek Island Coney Restaurant: Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 221 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.1222.

Griffin Claw Brewing Company: American. Dinner, Tuesday-Friday, Lunch & Dinner, Saturday and Sunday. No Reservations. Liquor. 575 S. Eton Street, Birmingham.

248.712.4050.

Honey Tree Grille: Greek/American.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, daily. No reservations. 3633 W. Maple Rd, Bloomfield, MI 48301.

248.203.9111.

Hunter House Hamburgers: American.

Breakfast, Monday-Saturday; Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 35075 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.646.7121.

Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse: American. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 201 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009. 248.594.4369.

IHOP: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2187 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301. 248.333.7522.

Joe Muer Seafood: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner daily; Sunday brunch.

Reservations. Liquor. 39475 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.792.9609.

Kaku Sushi and Poke': Asian. Lunch & Dinner. Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. No Liquor. 869 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Township,

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Facebook.com/statesidedeli Instagram @statesidedeli Partnered with DoorDash and Grubhub

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Hours: Sunday-Monday 7am -3pm, Tuesday - Saturday 7am -8pm â&#x20AC;¢ StatesideDeli.com (order online!)

48302. 248.480.4785, and 126 S. Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009.

248.885.8631.

Kerby’s Koney Island: American.

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2160 N. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304.

248.333.1166.

La Marsa: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner daily. Reservations. 43259 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.5800.

La Strada Italian Kitchen & Bar: Italian.

Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday.

Reservations. Liquor. 243 E. Merrill Street, Birmingham, 48009.

248.480.0492.

Leo’s Coney Island: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 154 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.

248.593.9707. Also 6527 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301.

248.646.8568.

Little Daddy’s Parthenon: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 39500 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304.

248.647.3400.

Luxe Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily; Late Night, 9 p.m.closing. No reservations. Liquor. 525 N. Old Woodward Ave., Birmingham, 48009. 248.792.6051.

Mandaloun Bistro: Lebanese. Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, Daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 30100 Telegraph Rd., Suite 130, Bingham Farms, 48025. 248.723.7960.

Market North End: Mediterranean.

Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 474 N. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.712.4953.

MEX Mexican Bistro & Tequila Bar: Mexican. Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily. Liquor. 6675 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301.

248.723.0800.

Nippon Sushi Bar: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor.

2079 S. Telegraph, Bloomfield Township, 48302. 248.481.9581.

Olga’s Kitchen: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2075 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.451.0500.

Original Pancake House: American.

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 33703 South Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.

248.642.5775.

Phoenicia: Middle Eastern. Lunch, Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 588 South Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009. 248.644.3122.

Qdoba: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Also 42967 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Township, 48304.

248.874.1876 Roadside B & G: American. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 1727 S. Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7270.

Salvatore Scallopini: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & Wine. 505 North Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham, 48009.

248.644.8977.

Social Kitchen & Bar: American. Lunch 88

& Dinner, daily. Reservations, parties of 5 or more. Liquor. 225 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009.

248.594.4200.

Stacked Deli: Deli. Breakfast & Lunch, Monday-Saturday. Delivery available.

No reservations. 233 North Old Woodward, Birmingham, 48009.

248.593.5300.

Stateside Deli & Restaurant Deli.

Breakfast, Lunch, Sunday-Monday.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. No reservations.

653 S. Adams Road, Birmingham, 48009. 248.550.0455.

Steve’s Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6646 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield, 48301.

248.932.0800.

Streetside Seafood: Seafood. Dinner, daily. Liquor. 273 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.645.9123.

Sushi Hana: Japanese. Lunch, MondayFriday; Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 42656 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48304. 248.333.3887.

Sy Thai Cafe: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 315 Hamilton Row, Birmingham, 48009.

248.258.9830.

Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro: American. Dinner. Monday-Saturday.

Sunday brunch. Reservations. Liquor.

55 S. Bates Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.731.7066.

The Franklin Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 32760 Franklin Rd, Franklin, 48025. 248.865.6600.

The Gallery Restaurant: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & wine. 6683 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, 48301. 248.851.0313.

The Moose Preserve Bar & Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2395 S. Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, 48302. 248.858.7688.

The Morrie: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 260 N. Old Woodward, Birmingham 48009.

248.940.3260.

The Rugby Grille: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 100 Townsend Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.642.5999.

Toast: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily; Reservations. Liquor. 203 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009.

248.258.6278.

Tomatoes Apizza: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner daily. Carryout. 34200 Woodward Avenue, Birmingham 48009.

248.258.0500.

Touch of India: Indian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 297 E. Maple Road, Birmingham, 48009.

248.593.7881.

Townhouse: American. Brunch, Saturday, Sunday. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 180 Pierce Street, Birmingham, 48009.

248.792.5241.

Whistle Stop Diner: American.

Breakfast & Lunch, daily; No reservations. 501 S. Eton Street, Birmingham, 48009. 248.566.3566.

Zao Jun: Asian. Lunch Monday-Friday; Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

6608 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Township, 48301. 248.949.9999.

Royal Oak/Ferndale Ale Mary's: American. Weekend Brunch.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 316 South Main St., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.268.1917.

Anita’s Kitchen: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & Wine. 22651 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 48220. 248.548.0680.

Assaggi Bistro: Italian. Lunch, TuesdayFriday. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday.

Reservations. Liquor. 330 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale, 48220.

248.584.3499.

Bigalora: Italian. Weekend Brunch.

Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, daily.

No Reservations. Liquor. 711 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, 48067.

The Blue Nile: Ethiopian. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor.

545 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale, 48220. 248.547.6699.

Cafe Muse: French. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 418 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak, 48067.

248.544.4749.

Cork Wine Pub: American. Sunday Brunch. Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 23810 Woodward Ave., Pleasant Ridge, 48069. 248.544.2675.

Due Venti: Italian. Sunday Brunch.

Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 220 S. Main St., Clawson, 48017. 248.288.0220.

The Fly Trap: Diner. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. Dinner, Monday-Friday. No reservations. 22950 Woodward Ave., 48220. 248.399.5150.

Howe’s Bayou: Cajun. Lunch, MondaySaturday. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 22949 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 48220.

248.691.7145.

Inyo Restaurant Lounge: Asian Fusion.

Weekend Brunch. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 22871 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 48220.

248.543.9500.

KouZina: Greek. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 121 N. Main St., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.629.6500.

Kruse & Muer on Woodward: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 28028 Woodward Ave., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.965.2101.

Lily’s Seafood: Seafood. Weekend Brunch. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 410 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak, 48067.

248.591.5459.

Lockhart’s BBQ: Barbeque. Sunday Brunch. Lunch & Dinner, MondaySaturday. No reservations. Liquor. 202 E. Third St., Royal Oak, 48067.

248.584.4227.

Oak City Grille: American. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 212 W. 6th St, Royal Oak, 48067. 248.556.0947.

One-Eyed Betty: American. Weekend Breakfast. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 175 W. Troy St., Ferndale, 48220. 248.808.6633.

Public House: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

241 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale, 48220. 248.850.7420.

DOWNTOWN

Redcoat Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

31542 Woodward Ave., Royal Oak, 48073. 248.549.0300.

Ronin: Japanese. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 326 W. 4th St., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.546.0888.

Royal Oak Brewery: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

215 E. 4th St., Royal Oak, 48067.

248.544.1141.

Strada: Italian. Dinner, Wednesday Sunday. Liquor. No reservations. 376 N. Main Street. Royal Oak, 48067.

248.607.3127.

The Morrie: American. Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 511 S. Main St., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.216.1112.

Toast, A Breakfast and Lunch Joint: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily.

No reservations. 23144 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 48220.

248.398.0444.

Tom’s Oyster Bar: Seafood. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

318 S. Main St., Royal Oak, 48067.

248.541.1186.

Trattoria Da Luigi: Italian. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations. Liquor.

415 S, Washington Ave., Royal Oak, 48067. 248.542.4444.

Twisted Tavern: American. Dinner, daily.

No reservations. Liquor. 22901 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 48220.

248.545,6750.

Vinsetta Garage: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

27799 Woodward Ave., Berkley, 48072. 248.548.7711.

Troy/Rochester Capital Grille: Steak & Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Saturday. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2800 West Big Beaver Rd., Somerset Collection, Troy, 48084. 248.649.5300.

Cafe Sushi: Pan-Asian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1933 W. Maple Rd, Troy, 48084.

248.280.1831.

CK Diggs: American & Italian. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 2010 W. Auburn Road, Rochester Hills, 48309.

248.853.6600.

O’Connor’s Irish Public House: Irish.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 324 S. Main St., Rochester, 48307. 248.608.2537.

Kona Grille: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 30 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 48083. 248.619.9060.

Kruse & Muer on Main: American.

Sunday Brunch. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 327 S. Main St., Rochester, 48307. 248.652.9400.

Loccino Italian Grill and Bar: Italian.

Lunch, Monday-Friday, Dinner, daily.

Liquor. Reservations. 5600 Crooks Road, Troy, 48098. 248.813.0700.

The Meeting House: American.

Weekend Brunch. Dinner, TuesdaySunday. No reservations. Liquor. 301 S. Main St, Rochester, 48307.

248.759.4825.

Miguel’s Cantina: Mexican. Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 870 S. Rochester Rd, Rochester Hills, 48307. 248.453.5371.

Mon Jin Lau: Asian. Lunch, Monday02.21

Friday. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 1515 E. Maple Rd, Troy, 48083. 248.689.2332.

Morton’s, The Steakhouse: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 888 W. Big Beaver Rd, Troy, 48084. 248.404.9845.

NM Café: American. Lunch, MondaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 2705 W. Big Beaver Rd, Troy, 48084.

248.816.3424.

Oceania Inn: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. The Village of Rochester Hills, 3176 Walton Blvd, Rochester Hills, 48309.

248.375.9200.

Ocean Prime: Steak & Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2915 Coolidge Hwy., Troy, 48084. 248.458.0500.

Orchid Café: Thai. Lunch, MondayFriday. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

3303 Rochester Rd., Troy, 48085.

248.524.1944.

P.F. Chang’s China Bistro: Chinese.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. Somerset Collection, 2801 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 48084.

248.816.8000.

Recipes: American/Brunch. Breakfast & Lunch, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

134 W. University Drive, Rochester, 48037. 248.659.8267. Also 2919 Crooks Road, Troy, 48084.

248.614.5390.

Rochester Chop House: Steak & Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday.

Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

306 S. Main St., Rochester, 48307.

248.651.2266.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 755 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, 48084. 248.269.8424.

Silver Spoon: Italian. Dinner, MondaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 6830 N. Rochester Rd., Rochester, 48306.

248.652.4500.

Too Ra Loo: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 139 S. Main St., Rochester, 48307.

248.453.5291.

West Bloomfield/Southfield Bacco: Italian. Lunch, Monday-Friday.

Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 29410 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, 48034. 248.356.6600.

Beans and Cornbread: Southern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

29508 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, 48034. 248.208.1680.

Bigalora: Italian. Weekend Brunch.

Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, daily.

No Reservations. Liquor. 29110 Franklin Road, Southfield, 48034.

The Fiddler: Russian. Sunday Brunch.

Dinner, Thursday-Sunday.

Reservations. Liquor. 6676 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.851.8782. downtownpublications.com

Mene Sushi: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Beer & Wine.

6239 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield Township, 48322.

248.538.7081.

Meriwether’s: Seafood. Lunch, MondaySaturday. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 25485 Telegraph Rd, Southfield, 48034. 248.358.1310.

Nonna Maria’s: Italian. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2080 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48323.

248.851.2500.

Pickles & Rye: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6724 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.737.3890.

Prime29 Steakhouse: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 6545 Orchard Lake Rd., West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.737.7463.

Redcoat Tavern: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 6745 Orchard Lake Rd., West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.865.0500.

Shangri-La: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. Orchard Mall Shopping Center, 6407 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield Township, 48322. 248.626.8585.

Sposita’s Ristorante: Italian. Friday Lunch. Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 33210 W. Fourteen Mile Rd., West Bloomfield Township, 48322.

248. 538.8954.

Stage Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

6873 Orchard Lake Rd., West Bloomfield Township, 48322.

248.855.6622.

Yotsuba: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 7365 Orchard Lake Rd, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.737.8282.

West Oakland Gravity Bar & Grill: Mediterranean.

Monday – Friday, Lunch & Dinner, Saturday, Dinner. Reservations.

Liquor. 340 N. Main Street, Milford, 48381. 248.684.4223.

It's A Matter of Taste: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

2323 Union Lake Road, Commerce, 48390. 248.360.4150.

Volare Ristorante: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

48992 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.7771.

North Oakland Clarkston Union: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

54 S. Main St., Clarkston, 48346.

248.620.6100.

Holly Hotel: American. Afternoon Tea, Monday – Saturday, Brunch, Sunday, Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 110 Battle Alley, Holly, 48442.

248.634.5208.

Kruse's Deer Lake Inn: Seafood. Lunch & dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

7504 Dixie Highway, Clarkston, 48346. 248.795.2077.

The Fed: American. Lunch and Dinner daily, Brunch, Saturday and Sunday.

Liquor. 15 S. Main Street, Clarkston, 48346. 248.297.5833 Via Bologna: Italian. Dinner daily. No reservations. Liquor. 7071 Dixie Highway, Clarkston. 48346.

248.620.8500.

Union Woodshop: BBQ. Dinner, Monday – Friday, Lunch & Dinner, Saturday – Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 18 S. Main St., Clarkston, 48346.

248.625.5660

Detroit Bucharest Grill: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 2684 E. Jefferson, Detroit, 48207. 313.965.3111.

Cliff Bell’s: American. Sunday Brunch.

Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations.

Liquor. 2030 Park Ave., Detroit, 48226. 313.961.2543.

Cuisine: French. Dinner, TuesdaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 670 Lothrop Rd., Detroit, 48202.

313.872.5110.

The Detroit Seafood Market: Seafood.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 1435 Randolph St., Detroit, 48226. 313.962.4180.

El Barzon: Mexican. Lunch, TuesdayFriday. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday.

Reservations. Liquor. 3710 Junction St., Detroit, 48210. 313.894.2070.

Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen Café: Cajun. Breakfast, daily. Sunday Brunch. Lunch, Monday-Saturday.

Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

400 Monroe Street, Detroit, 48226.

313.965.4600.

Giovanni’s Ristorante: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 330 S. Oakwood Blvd., Detroit, 48217.

313.841.0122.

Green Dot Stables: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

2200 W. Lafayette, Detroit, 48216.

313.962.5588.

Jefferson House: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 2 Washington Blvd., Detroit, 48226. 313.782.4318.

Joe Muer Seafood: Seafood. Lunch, Monday- Friday, Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 400 Renaissance Center, Detroit, 48243.

313.567.6837.

Johnny Noodle King: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 2601 W. Fort St., Detroit, 48216. 313.309.7946.

Mario’s: Italian. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 4222 2nd Ave., Detroit, 48201. 313.832.1616.

Midtown Shangri-la: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday.

Reservations. Liquor. 4710 Cass Ave., Detroit, 48201. 313.974.7669.

Motor City Brewing Works: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Beer & Wine. 470 W. Canfield St., Detroit, 48201. 313.832.2700.

Prism: Steak & Seafood. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday. Reservations.

Liquor. 555 E. Lafayette St, Detroit, 48226. 313.309.2499.

Red Smoke Barbeque: Barbeque.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. Trappers Alley Shopping Center,

DOWNTOWN

573 Monroe Ave., Detroit, 48226.

313.962.2100.

Selden Standard: American. Weekend Brunch. Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, daily. Liquor. Reservations. 3921 Second Ave., Detroit, 48201.

313.438.5055.

SheWolf Pastifico & Bar: Italian.

Dinner, Tuesday through Sunday.

Reservations. Liquor. 438 Selden St, Detroit 48201. 313.315.3992.

Sinbad’s: Seafood. Sunday Brunch.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 100 St Clair St., Detroit, 48214. 313.822.8000.

Slows Bar BQ: Barbeque. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

2138 Michigan Ave, Detroit, 48216.

313.962.9828.

St. CeCe’s Pub: American. Sunday Brunch. Lunch & Dinner, MondaySaturday. No reservations. Liquor.

1426 Bagley Ave., Detroit, 48216.

313.962.2121.

Tap at MGM Grand: American.

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 1777 Third Street, Detroit, 48226.

313.465.1234.

Taqueria Nuestra Familia: Mexican.

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 7620 Vernor Hwy., Detroit, 48209. 313.842.5668.

The Block: American. Sunday Brunch.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 3919 Woodward Ave, Detroit, 48201. 313.832.0892.

Tom’s Oyster Bar: Seafood. Lunch, Monday-Friday. Dinner, MondaySaturday. Reservations. Liquor. 519 East Jefferson Ave., Detroit, 48226.

313.964.4010.

Traffic Jam & Snug: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

511 W. Canfield, Detroit, 48201.

313.831.9470.

24grille: American. Sunday Brunch.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations.

Liquor. The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit, 1114 Washington Blvd, Detroit, 48226. 313.964.3821.

Union Street: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

4145 Woodward Ave, Detroit, 48201.

313.831.3965.

Vince’s: Italian. Lunch, Tuesday-Friday.

Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. Reservations.

Liquor. 1341 Springwells St., Detroit, 48209. 313.842.4857.

Vivio’s Food & Spirits: American.

Saturday Breakfast. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 2460 Market St., Detroit, 48207.

313.393.1711.

The Whitney: American. Breakfast, Lunch, & High Tea, Monday-Friday.

Sunday Brunch. Dinner, daily. Liquor.

Reservations. 4421 Woodward Ave, Detroit, 48201. 313.832.5700.

Wright & Co.: American. Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations.

Liquor. 1500 Woodward Ave Second Floor, Detroit, 48226.

313.962.7711.

89

ENDNOTE

Transparency still lacking at the state level t's no secret that for the last two years, since Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, won the office, and the state legislature, held by Republicans, have been at each other's throats.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear for everyone to see, with whatever stance Whitmer has taken, Senate Leader Mike Shirkey (RClarklake) and former House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) have pivoted to the other foot. They can't even agree if armed protesters at the U.S. or Michigan Capitol are rioters or demonstrators.

So it's definitely refreshing to have heard new Speaker Jason Wentworth (R-Clare) urging transparency in government as a top priority for this legislative session. In his first speech, Wentworth said transparency is a top priority, and in mid-January House Republicans introduced ethics policies to “restore trust in government.” Part of the legislation would create a new conflict-of-interest policy for lawmakers, as well as limiting out of control lame duck sessions, by requiring a two-thirds approval to advance legislation following even-year elections. Michigan has long had a reputation as the state ranking among the worst in the country for government ethics and transparency laws. Included in that is a protection from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the governor and legislative branch – meaning they have a cloak of invisibility from its own public.

Michigan is just one of two states where its executive and legislative branches are excluded

I

from FOIA – the basis of which is to ensure informed citizens, and is a vital function of a performing democratic society. Enacted in 1967, FOIA is described as the “law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.” Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under FOIA unless it falls under an exemption which protects interests such as personal privacy, national security and law enforcement.

We applaud Wentworth's remarks regarding transparency and ethics, and we couldn't agree more. We look forward to bipartisan support on the legislation – because not only are they important, but they're sensible – and shrewd.

Very important hallmarks not only for bills, but for legislative leaders.

Here is our more important concern. This is not the first time – or second or third – that legislative bills have been introduced, and even passed, in the state House demanding transparency and ethics, only to fail to find footing in the state Senate, where many a bill has been known to die. As recently as September 15, 2020, the Senate Oversight Committee took up Senate Bills 833 through 842 – mirrored by House Bills 4007 through 4016 – to make the governor's office subject to FOIA for the first time, and create the Legislative Open Records Act to make the Legislature subject to FOIA, in what would become the Freedom of Information and Legislative Open Records Act. Among the bills sponsors were state Sen. Jeremy

Moss (D-Oak Park), who introduced them in March of 2020, along with Sen. Ed McBroom (RVulcan), former Sen. Pete Lucido (R-St. Clair Shores), Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-Bloomfield Township), Sen. Mallory McMorrow (DBirmingham, Bloomfield Hills) and Sen. James Runestad (R-White Lake).

The bills were all tie-barred, meaning one of the bills could not become law unless they all did.

Despite wide bipartisan sponsorship and support, including from the Michigan Press Association, ACLU, Michigan Freedom Fund and Michigan Council on Governments, Shirkey refused to bring the bills up for a vote, so they died in committee along with the legislative session – leaving Wentworth, and presumably the state senators, to begin again. There is every indication that Whitmer, like her predecessor, Gov. Rick Snyder, who signed a cybersecurity FOIA exemption bill into law and released some of his emails in 2016 regarding the Flint Water Crisis after calls for transparency, would sign bills opening the government to greater transparency.

The rhetoric sounds great on Wentworth's part. Perhaps he is sincere and will push for its passage. But unless someone pushes Shirkey to bring it to a vote – and get it passed – in the Senate, it's just words. Words that are hollow, once again, to the public lawmakers are elected to serve.

Learn to monetize Birmingham Ice Arena he Birmingham Ice Arena has been a part of the community so long, many of us take it for granted – that it will be there, that it will be available for ice skating lessons for tots, children and adults, hockey teams, and for its popular figure skating programs, whenever we want to access them. But the reality is that, like a beloved stuffed animal, it's showing it's wear and needs work to put it back in shape.

As a matter of fact, it needs a $5.1 million touch up, just for starters.

Birmingham's Ice Arena is 47 years old and typically welcomes approximately 6,500 people each year, many of whom are not residents of the city. In November, Birmingham voters approved an $11.25 million bond parks and recreation bond to make improvements at several of the city's parks and to improve facilities at the ice arena.

Planned improvements include replacing the existing in-floor cooling pipes; sub-soil heating systems; ice plant equipment; dehumidification

T

systems; relocating the main ice arena; providing a female locker facility; enlarging the existing main ice arena locker rooms and providing a team locker room; replacing lighting with LED; and a new studio rink observation/meeting room. In addition, improvements are needed to the arena's main rink’s AC units, of which only one is still functional.

While city commissioners began the process of improving the ice arena on January 11 by accepting a bid for design and improvements by Grand Rapids-based Andrus Architecture to provide architecture and engineering services, there were some noted concerns, such as when Plante Moran Cresa consultant Robert Stempien pointed out the arena tends to cost the city about $50,000 each year when looking at revenues and expenditures. Commissioner Stuart Sherman voted against approving the $5.1 million bid precisely for that reason, noting, “We are asking the public to spend $5 million on

something that non-residents will use and will be paid for by residents. We haven’t discussed if this is an appropriate use of taxpayer money.”

It is not that the Birmingham Ice Arena doesn't need to be repaired – it does, and the parks and recreation bond is a logical funding tool for this project. But there is no reason for the city to be a municipal charity, either. The ice arena plays host to the Figure Skating Club of Birmingham, Players Edge Hockey School, Birmingham Hockey Association, Birmingham Unified Ice Hockey, and other hockey organizations and clubs. To stay competitive – and to be a worthwhile tenant of the city – it needs to increase its rates to a level that is both appropriate for its clubs and so that the city can appropriately maintain an expensive building like an ice arena, and not force residents to subsidize a special interest facility.

That's a winning formula for everyone.

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