www.michronicle.com VOLUME 76 – Number 14
WHAT’S INSIDE NAACP report exposes wrongdoing (A-3)
December 12-18, 2012
479 Ledyard • Detroit MI 48201
Obama:
313.963.5522
Right-to-work is politics, not economics
Mr. Governor, why the change?
The nation’s corporate hotel industry is coming up woefully lacking with regard to hiring AfricanAmerican managers and minority-owned companies. The problem must be dealt with immediately, according to the NAACP.
By Bankole Thompson
‘The gift of warmth’ (B-1)
CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has long maintained that right-to-work is divisive and that he doesn’t want what took place in Wisconsin, the famous battle between labor and the Republican adminis-
Fifth Third Bank recently donated 1,100 new coats, hats and gloves to children in 24 schools and two non-profit organizations.
IIitch plan is a good one (C-1) Detroit government should go the extra mile in supporting Mike Ilitch’s latest development plans for downtown. The entire city will benefit, as will the state. Ilitch believes in the city of Detroit and unlike many others, he doesn’t just “talk the talk.”
New CMO announced (C-4) Janice Cosby has been selected for the position of chief marketing officer for the Michigan Health Ministries of Ascension Health.
Singer-actor is ‘built to last’ (D-1) Ne-Yo, a consistent hitmaker and an outstanding performer, has what it takes to join the elite group of recording artists who have what it takes for a career that endures.
Eastern Market pioneer dies (D-3) Samuel (Sal) Ciaramitaro, of St. Clair Shores, operator of Ciaramitaro Bros. Produce in Historic Eastern Market, died Monday, Dec. 3, at the age of 90.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! The Michigan Chronicle will be closed on Monday, Dec. 24 and Tuesday, Dec. 25, as well as Mon day Dec. 31 and Tuesday, Jan 1. Advertisers are asked to submit their creative copy by: Noon, Thurs. Dec. 20 for our Dec. 26 issue Noon, Thurs. Dec. 27 for our Jan. 2 issue Have a safe and happy holiday season!
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COMMENTARY tration of Gov. Scott Walker, to take place here in the Wolverine State.
FIRED UP — and fed up — protestors, both union and non-union, made it their business to be in Lansing to protest against right-to-work and the governor’s unexpected and disappointing support of it. The rally of 12,000 strong was very vocal. It took place on Tuesday. The protestors believe this is far from over. — Monica Morgan photos
By Bankole Thompson CHRONICLE SENIOR EDITOR
I
n his strongest show of opposition to right-to-work legislation in Michigan, President Barack Obama dismissed the hasty legislation that would make it illegal to demand financial support as a prerequisite to hire workers as nothing but politics at play. The president told workers at the Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford Monday afternoon that workers should be supported for better wages, not undermined. “What we shouldn’t be doing is taking away your rights to
bargain for better labor agreements,” Obama said. “These socalled right-to-work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have to do with politics.” Steve Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association, condemned the law. “Whether proponents call this ‘right-to-work’ or ‘freedom-towork,’ it’s really just ‘freedom to freeload,’” Cook said. State Rep. Maureen Stapleton said, “As a former Detroit Federation of Teachers member and daughter of a Detroit police officer, I cannot sit idly by while extremists and out-of-state special
interests push a radical agenda to obliterate Michigan’s economy. Stapleton said “Right-to-work states lead the nation in unemployment, residents without health insurance and anemic wage growth. I would caution the governor championing any of these metrics in an attempt to placate the flip-flopping Michigan Chamber of Commerce’s attempt to reinvent the Great Lake state into the can’t-afford-it state.” Karla Swift, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said Gov. Snyder should approach the issue in a collective fashion, and get imput from all sides of the issue.
“The labor movement agrees with the governor that we must do what is best for the citizens of Michigan. The best way to reinvent our state is for everyone, labor and management, to work together on job creation, job training and education — like labor and management did in the auto industry,” Swift said. “There are some basic economic facts that should inform any thoughtful discussion of right-to-work legislation. Workers, union or non-union, make an average of $1,500 less per year in right-towork states. They are also less likely to have pension or health PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, during a Dec. 10 rally touting the care benefits.”
value of workers at the Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, dismissed the UAW Vice President General Republican-driven right-to-work legislation as nothing short of politics. — Andre Smith photo See obama page A-4
Greg Jackson adds Lafayette Towers to his empire By Zack Burgess
it – were no more.
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Well today, the Lafayette Towers have a new owner, with a promise to restore it to glory. Nine months ago, Detroit-based business mogul Greg Jackson, the owner of the real estate firm Jackson Land Holding Co. LLC, bought the Towers from the city, for $5.8 million. An institution had been saved.
It was once considered a great place to live; perfectly placed, perfectly suited for Detroit and all that it had to offer. The goals were clear, you wanted to live or know someone at the Lafayette Towers. Musicians, doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people and factory workers made it home. People liked living there.
“My early recollection of this property — growing up in the city of Detroit, if you knew someone who For many lived in the Layears, before fayette Towers trouble hit these — that was big Towers that were time stuff,” said once a beacon Jackson. “To of city living, it just ride past was considered and look at these a sweet moment Greg Jackson buildings were a of shared experience, one more pleasant thrill within itself, because part of being African Ameri- they were beautiful on the outside. And they were the can and being from Detroit. epitome of luxury living in Unfortunately things Detroit. One of the things changed. Like the rest of that people would aspire to a city faced with challeng- do…was to be able to live at es, so went the Lafayette the Lafayette Towers. That Towers. Foreclosure set meant you had made it.” in, there was a government The history of the Towers takeover (HUD) and the Towers as Detroiters knew is an interesting one. In the
Bankole Thompson
But why has Gov. Snyder now reversed his earlier decision to go down a road that he has condemned as divisive and not helpful to bringing people together? What kind of pressure was brought to bear on Snyder, a man I believe is independent, able to make decisions that are not politically toxic regardless of the kind of legislature he’s dealing with in Lansing? In interviews during the campaign and after his election, Snyder told the press and journalists like myself who’ve sat down with him numerous times for interviews that he
Rick Snyder
wants to stay clear of divisive politics. And yes, in politics your words matter. And during the gubernatorial campaign, Snyder hardly ever engaged in inflamed rhetoric or right wing politics, maintaining a calm and moderate demeanor. When former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and other GOP gubernatorial can-
See snyder page A-4
Three DMC Hospitals earn 2012 Leapfrog ‘Top Hospital’ designation Three Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Hospitals — DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital, DMC Harper University/Hutzel Women’s Hospital and DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital — have received the Leapfrog Group’s Top Hospital designation for 2012. Leapfrog Top Hospital is one of the most coveted and exclusive hospital quality awards in the nation.
late 1950s and early 1960s, a major urban redevelopment project on Detroit’s east side created Lafayette Park, which was a planned community that is today one of the city’s most racially integrated and economically stable neighborhoods. Lafayette Park was built on land that was once a densely populated working-class African-American neighborhood called Black Bottom, after the marshy bottoms at the source of the River Savoyard, which was buried when Detroit was settled. Classified as a “slum” in the 1940s, the neighborhood was razed and left vacant until the mid-1950s, when Chicago developer Herbert Greenwald made a successful proposal to develop the land with architect Mies van der Rohe, urban planner Ludwig Hilberseimer and landscape designer Alfred Caldwell.
See JACKSON page A-4
The Leapfrog Group is the nation’s premier quality ranking agency, acting on behalf of many of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies which seek to improve hospital quality, in order to realize efficiencies in health care costs and to provide the highest quality of care for the millions of people in their employ. The rankings are based on responses to the 2012 Leapfrog Hospital Survey. Ranking hospitals had to meet stringent Leapfrog standards in the key areas of Preventing Medication Errors, ICU Physician Staffing, high-risk surgeries and procedures, achieve an Over all Value Score of 69 or more, and receive an “A” grade in the Hospital Safety Score. Four DMC Hospitals, including the three earning the 2012 Top Hospital designation, earned an “A” grade in both Leapfrog safety assessments for 2012. The most recent grades were released last week. “This latest achievement dem-
See DMC page A-4