Artisan Village

$10,000 Total Awards

July 23, 2023

Live Music Lineup

More information: 989-745-6096 https://www.artisanvillage.org/event/2023-great-northern-art-explosion/

*** FOR ABOVE EVENTS ***

Limited Preferred Seating: $20/person Call (231) 599-1111 option 3 for Tickets

General Admission is FREE

SUNDAY, JULY 16TH | PINE RIVER JAZZ BAND

SUNDAY, JULY 30TH | FOGHORN JAZZ

SUNDAYS @ 5:30 PM | TRIVIA NIGHT

MONDAYS @ 7 PM | KARAOKE & OPEN MIC

TUESDAYS @ 7 PM | DOMINIC FORTUNA

WEDNESDAYS @ 7 PM | LEE MALONE

THURSDAYS @ 7 PM | NICK VASQUEZ

FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS @ 8 PM

LEANNA COLLINS & IVAN GREILICK PLEASE

Unbiased Speakers

Recently, a representative from Enbridge spoke at the Luncheon Lecture series at North Central Michigan College (NCMC). The topic was the proposed Line 5 tunnel project under the Straits of Mackinac. While I’m glad to see our local center for higher education take on controversial topics like this, I’m concerned that a major corporation was given the floor to speak to a topic they have a vested financial interest in promoting. The company’s understandable bias in moving the project forward should have disqualified them as an appropriate speaker in this venue.

I did not attend the luncheon lecture but did express my concerns beforehand. I encouraged NCMC to cancel the event and reschedule with a speaker with no financial interest in the tunnel. What would have drawn me to the event would have been a speaker or panel who could have broadened my perspective on the complexities and ethics of investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure in these times. How refreshing it would be to move beyond the brittle debate of pro and con and into a genuinely thoughtful and respectful conversation.

Higher education is a place for creative thinking and lively, constructive dialogue. It is also a place to model openness and flexibility in addressing the concerns of the community.

Rev. Deb Hansen | Levering

TC Hasn’t Lost Her Vibe

When I read the piece on how Traverse City had lost her vibe [July 3 issue], I had several feelings about it. As an actual local of the area, I am fiercely protective of my town, what it has been, and what it has become.

I agree that there was an era of nostalgia for people who visited here and received a break from the bigger cities from which they came. People have moved here in the tens of thousands because they used to visit here, fell in love with it, and wanted to be a part of it. And with that come expansion, growth, and change. Do we really expect to see less crowded streets, cheaper prices, and a lack of infrastructure for a place that has become increasingly popular due to the word of mouth and advertising of this town? It is borderline exploitation, but the writer of this article is much a part of the problem, not the solution.

I, as a local, embrace the changes that have happened to our town. We are absolutely the best culinary destination in Michigan. We compete with any major city in the state. We offer amazing food from top quality chefs, markets providing quality to-go options, and bars, restaurants, breweries, and wineries are providing a crafted experience for the people that come to visit.

To expect Traverse City to be anything other than what it is is naïve. It has always been a vibrant, unique place to visit. It should not be stuck in some sort of time warp. For those that miss the good old days, I feel for you, since I was here for all of it. However, why not embrace what Traverse City has become? Because you created it, not us.

Joseph Black | Traverse City

Building Up Traverse City

I believe there is no issue worth fighting against more than poverty, be it globally or local.

As someone who has lived in Traverse City just two years short of a decade, I’ve had ample time to walk around the town and see many things. The thing that kills me most, however, is whenever I see one of Traverse’s many impoverished locals. Very few of us in town go out of our way to help them, and very few systems are in place to give them assistance. For those living in poverty, this needs to change.

I believe that we should support local institutions like Safe Harbor, who go out of their way to provide shelter for the homeless. We should establish many more places like Safe Harbor and build better systems dedicated to raising them up—offering jobs, giving them proper homes, making sure they have food, and developing stability for those necessities.

Traverse City needs to support its communities to the best of its abilities, and no community is in greater need than those living in poverty. Let’s find ways to support them. Building up Traverse City starts with building up its people—that’s what I believe.

Kenneth Berends | Traverse City

What’s the Point of Public Comment?

To All Commissioners: Are you aware of how your deafness to public comment sends a hopeless message to me and other citizens?

After an overwhelming negative reaction to the proposed zoning changes at the Park Place open house and the June 6 Planning Commission meeting, the plan was passed. I’ve heard that a city commissioner told the Planning Commission to just pass the plan as is, and presumably he will push it through in the same manner, unmoved by citizen concerns.

How can the city expect people to keep showing up to “open houses” and engage in so-called listening sessions when your actions show us that these meetings are merely perfunctory, and you have your outcomes already decided regardless of taxpayers’ wishes? I thought that a city commission might craft a plan based on citizen input. The city puts out calls for us to show up and present our ideas and our criticisms to shape the policies that they will implement. It seems in this case, the listening sessions are merely a sedative to lull us into thinking that our concerns are taken seriously.

When people buy into an older established neighborhood, they have the expectation, the right to expect that zoning will protect the neighborhood and their investment. They buy into that neighborhood because it represents the values and quality of life that they identify with. They don’t expect zoning changes to snatch that away from them. Did you commissioners not get any of that sentiment from your constituents? Perhaps some immediate recalls are in order to get their attention!

Doug Kimble | Traverse City

Capitalist or Anti-Socialist?

In “Travel Warning for Anti-Socialist Behavior in Michigan” (July 10), David Bessmer sarcastically recommends that Michiganders and visitors to our state who are “anti-socialists” abjure “socialist activities” such as visiting public parks and lakes. According to Bessmer, “anti-socialists” believe resources held in common, that is, resources such as waterways and state parks open to the public, are “theft of both private property and taxpayers’ money.” This allegation is a strawman. Resources held in common (air, waterways, oil, gas, etc.) are as old as the law itself and consistent with free market principles. The Romans asserted that the air, running water, the sea, and the sea shore were “common to all.”

In Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good, Richard Epstein writes, “A fully matured legal system is not one in which all resources have passed from primitive commons to private control. Many natural resources take a form in which their value is maximized only by leaving them, in whole or in part, in some form of commons.”

Bessmer also argues that a true capitalist should forgo benefits of such governmental programs and agencies as police, fire protection, the Coast Guard, libraries, social security, and Medicare. But any free society depends on government enforcement of laws to protect life, liberty, and property. Government exercising essential governmental functions is not socialism.

Concerning non-essential functions that governments have assumed, such as retirement planning (social security) and healthcare (Medicare), Bessmer has a point that such programs smack of socialism. Though opposed, I have been forced to pay for these programs my entire working lifetime. There is no opt-out for capitalists. Now I am retired. Bessmer seems to believe I should forgo the promised benefits to remain true to my beliefs. Now that is truly “theft of taxpayer money.”

Neal Stout | Charlevoix MI

The Housing Problem

How about we stop building 5,000-20,000-square-foot houses or multistory hotels downtown?

Find some land close to the new BATA station and build some tiny houses at 500900 square feet.

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