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Adam
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http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1147445245174940.xml&coll=2
Attracting jobs will brighten future
Regional effort needed to bolster state economy
Friday, May 12, 2006
A dramatic deceleration in home construction tells us two things about the southeast Michigan economy: Job prospects aren't very good right now and people don't think the hiring picture will brighten soon.
Now add to the housing numbers a record inventory of homes for sale in Genesee County and we can suspect something else may be happening locally: a net outmigration, something we haven't seen since the deep recession of the 1980s.
However, just like then the remedy is obvious, if not simple: Improve the employment outlook and, equally important, people's expectations that the future will be better.
Unfortunately, the former isn't expected for a couple of years, regardless of how candidates in this year's election talk. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm can point all she wants to her job-creation program, and Republican challenger Dick DeVos can cite endlessly his business experience, but Michigan won't see a net gain in jobs until next year, and then it will be a scant 1,500, according to a recent University of Michigan forecast.
However, that growth would end six straight years of job losses, the longest on record, according to U-M's Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics.
Yet this prediction doesn't mean we should just wait around for better times, especially in Genesee County, where the economic dislocation has been keenest and new housing permits in the first quarter of 2006 are the lowest in five years. Indeed, doing nothing will surely guarantee that the best of what the global economy offers will go elsewhere.
This is a time for southeast Michigan, and particularly the Flint area, to come together as a region, to minimize - if we can't eliminate - jurisdictional lines that hamstring the development of land-use and other policies that would enhance our economic competitiveness.
People will start buying homes again when they feel this area has a solid future. They're looking for positive signs, but that good news won't happen by accident. |
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Sat May 13, 2006 11:37 am |
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flintteach
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What jobs are to be had in Flint/Genesee county/Michigan? We probably have the lowest skilled workers in the nation !
Unless you are willing to work at WalMart, Lowe's or any other minimum wage job ! Even those jobs are few and far between.
When a city/state is a "one-horse" town what do you expect? |
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Just a Jarhead.. OOORAH ! I dig country music.. I love this country and her flag ! But my family comes first ! |
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Sat May 13, 2006 12:47 pm |
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Adam
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I'd expect it to at least make a half hearted attempt to bring in new businesses like lapeer is doing. Lapeer is not even a "one-horse" town and they passed a tax package to lure new and expanding businesses.
Although we might not have "skilled workers" we have a lot of people with college degrees and more coming out of our Flint colleges. Personally I'd rather use my business degree in Flint than in Auburn Hills.
We still have hostile business ordinances on the books that help keep our "unskilled workers" from starting up any home-based businesses and become skiled business leaders. Have you ever heard the story of Ikea? I've even heard our "unskilled" mayor started with a home business.
Home based businesses our by no means a cure all but I feel legalizing them and luring in businesses in with new enterprise zones and tax breaks is better than sitting around doing practically nothing like we have been doing for the past couple decades.
In case people forgot at one point there was no GM. Durant became successful from an idea that he licensed and didn't even produce himself. He eventually started GM. Although our uniion democrats might like to forget it, if it wasn't for the grandsonson of a Republican Flint mayor and Michigan mayor. GM would not exist. If you look at Flint's history there was a lot of business creation going on in our Republican days. It was democrat Woodrow stanly and a democratic council that helped make sure poor black democrats in the north end can not start up home businesses. Poor black non business owners are the staple of the democratic party so I'm pretty sure that was helpful to the democratic party.
Eventually in a few decades from now I wouldn't be surprised if Flint might be ready to go back to being Republican and having jobs. High taxes and a lot of social welfare programs do not create jobs like Flint people seem to think. A lot of our social welfare programs actually take up prime business real estate to top it off. I think once things get bad enough people might be ready for real change. |
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Sat May 13, 2006 2:50 pm |
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flintteach
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The ghettos of the northend of Flint have driven off potential businesses. Who wants to start a business on King when no one in their right mind would frequent that area. Who wants to start a business any where in Flint when the insurance premiums are sky-high because of the drugs, crime, and natives who live there? When 2/3rds of the people who live in Flint are on the welfare roll, who is going to buy what you are trying to sell? What law-abiding citizen wants to risk their lives and property by driving to any business in Flint?
I live south of Lapeer and I can tell you the people of Lapeer proper and outbound areas are people with higher expectations for themselves and their neighbors. That's why they pay the higher taxes ! |
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Just a Jarhead.. OOORAH ! I dig country music.. I love this country and her flag ! But my family comes first ! |
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Sat May 13, 2006 3:21 pm |
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It sounds to me like you think people enjoy being on welfare. Maybe you've never been? I, however, spent five months with a Bridge card. Let me tell you, I may have actually been able to buy fruit and vegetables for a change, but it was certainly less fun than cashing a pay check. People are not on social welfare programs because it's fun. It's not easier than working. There just aren't enough jobs to support single-parent families in this county. A woman with two children cannot go to work at McDonald's and support her family. Welfare provides them with housing and food, and her meager wages supply them with heat and maybe a car. It's humiliating. So let's bash them, too. Nice.
Genesee County has a job posting right now for a Horticulturalist on their HR website. The starting wage is $7 per hour. They're requiring a college degree and experience. Their applicants would have to be smoking weed, not eradicating them. And for the record, Lowe's employees can make upwards of $12 per hour. Stack lumber, or work for the government ...
If someone were smart, they'd stop building all those houses and lofts downtown until the put in a GROCERY STORE. They're asking high-quality workers to live and work in Flint, but yet they're forcing them to spend their money outside the city. Rather than letting them go to Lapeer and Grand Blanc Township, the city should have asked Meijer or Wal-Mart to put in a retail outlet downtown, in lieu of property taxes for a period of time (employee income taxes would offset the potential loss), in a building renovated with federal funds, to sell groceries, housewares, clothing, etc. A good old department store with a guy on the elevator telling what was on each floor, you know? That way, people could stop using their Bridge cards on $4 gallons of milk at the Hinky Dinky and spend $1.99 at Meijer or Wal-Mart like people in the "nicer" neighborhoods. Maybe inner-city kids wouldn't be so prone to obesity if they had access to Kraft singles like they do Little Debbies. For Pete's sake, there is a store on Hill Rd. where I can get iron-fortified, crustless white bread that my kids love for 79 cents, but in the city, not only can I not find that bread, but regular nutritionally-worthless bread cost me $2.79 last week on my lunch hour.
People wonder why the crime rate is so high. I'd be knocking over liquor stores too if I couldn't afford to feed my kids. |
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Sun May 14, 2006 6:37 am |
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Then stay off your back and keep your legs together !
If you can't afford to have kids, simple ! DON'T HAVE ANY ! Especially if their daddy is a loser with no education or job skills. Especially if their daddy is slinging dope on the corner of King and Wood. Especially if their daddy has a rap sheet longer than their list of past employers.
Secondly, leave the Jordans at Foot Locker. Leave the cell phones at the Nextel stores. Leave the Baby Phat clothes hanging on the racks. Stop spending money on getting your hair and nails DID !
Instead, take the money you spend your threads, accessories, and matching tennis shoes and buy your children some paper, pencils, fruits and veggies.
Get on the state roll and off the welfare roll.
And I do think they enjoy being on welfare. I hear it all day in school and have kids pulling up the MDOC website and showing other kids pictures of their daddys and mommas. |
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Sun May 14, 2006 7:36 am |
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Adam
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Having been to the northend of Flint I strongly disagree with flintteach. Although you might not be able to pull off most types of businesses like say a Cheesecake factory or Nordstroms for example. "Low end businesses" that are cheap seem to do very well. An example of this is the $1.99 Church's chicken meal. I also think there's more money in the north end than people realize. Although MLK may or may not be ready to go. I think there's no reason why the very few locations on N Saginaw that aren't open could be.
For the north end I think you could have put in a Rally's, Chicken Shack, second hand shops, possibly another pawn shop. I'd also like to see another flea market in the north end. I think that's a great business model and I would definately shop there more often if gas wasn't so high and I wasn't so busy.
With EBAY now in existence having our hostile ordinances kills off a lot of potential EBAY and other home businesses as well. High fees and regulations kill business. High fees kill garage sales. There's a lot of stuff at garage sales that people can sell on EBAY. Cheap goods also lowers the cost of living which in turn would raise Flints standard of living.
With our current policies in place I expect Flint to continue losing more and more jobs. Why would a "rich Republican" move a new business to Flint with high crime and high taxes when he can go to the Republican stronhold of Lapeer and not have to worry about hostile democrats that don't understand business, high crime and to top it off take advantage of Lapeer's tax breaks and higher wage earners.
I think any person that thinks that democrats have run Flint better than the Republicans have run Lapeer is an idiot.
In NYC it took a Republican to bring back that inept heavily democratic city.
Adam Ford
district 27 |
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Sun May 14, 2006 12:33 pm |
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David
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Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:38 am |
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quote:
Anonymous schreef:
It sounds to me like you think people enjoy being on welfare. Maybe you've never been? I, however, spent five months with a Bridge card. Let me tell you, I may have actually been able to buy fruit and vegetables for a change, but it was certainly less fun than cashing a pay check. People are not on social welfare programs because it's fun. It's not easier than working. There just aren't enough jobs to support single-parent families in this county. A woman with two children cannot go to work at McDonald's and support her family. Welfare provides them with housing and food, and her meager wages supply them with heat and maybe a car. It's humiliating. So let's bash them, too. Nice.
Genesee County has a job posting right now for a Horticulturalist on their HR website. The starting wage is $7 per hour. They're requiring a college degree and experience. Their applicants would have to be smoking weed, not eradicating them. And for the record, Lowe's employees can make upwards of $12 per hour. Stack lumber, or work for the government ...
If someone were smart, they'd stop building all those houses and lofts downtown until the put in a GROCERY STORE. They're asking high-quality workers to live and work in Flint, but yet they're forcing them to spend their money outside the city. Rather than letting them go to Lapeer and Grand Blanc Township, the city should have asked Meijer or Wal-Mart to put in a retail outlet downtown, in lieu of property taxes for a period of time (employee income taxes would offset the potential loss), in a building renovated with federal funds, to sell groceries, housewares, clothing, etc. A good old department store with a guy on the elevator telling what was on each floor, you know? That way, people could stop using their Bridge cards on $4 gallons of milk at the Hinky Dinky and spend $1.99 at Meijer or Wal-Mart like people in the "nicer" neighborhoods. Maybe inner-city kids wouldn't be so prone to obesity if they had access to Kraft singles like they do Little Debbies. For Pete's sake, there is a store on Hill Rd. where I can get iron-fortified, crustless white bread that my kids love for 79 cents, but in the city, not only can I not find that bread, but regular nutritionally-worthless bread cost me $2.79 last week on my lunch hour.
People wonder why the crime rate is so high. I'd be knocking over liquor stores too if I couldn't afford to feed my kids.
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Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:03 am |
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MikeloVager
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Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:03 am |
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Gogh A. Way
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Just a comment on home businesses.
What kind of business should operate from home, Adam?
If you must have clients in your office, other than an occassional customer, then you have no business having your business in your home. We don't want you using more than your share of street parking and we don't want the increased traffic flow either. If you are only talking about having product delivered to or shipped from you home, then the same thing applies. Where will you store product? How dangerous, explosive, or toxic is it? How big is it?
Again, what type of business. We don't want you causing any increased fire risk. What type of people will be coming to your home? Will they be casing mine on the way in or out?
Who will regulate their loud music when they leave someone in their car while they "run in for a minute?" What hour will you allow people to come by?
What commercial product will you dispose of at you home and how will you dispose of it?
Will you have employees? How many? Where will they park? Is your home ADA complient?
Adam, there is a reason that there are laws - current laws - that allow certain types of businesses in a home. And there are very good reasons why the businesses have strict guidelines they must follow.
Lastly, don't forget you are encouraging many, many people to operate a home business. Take any possible problems and multiply them greatly, based on the number of home businesses operating in a neighborhood.
How will we know you are not destroying our neighborhood, the city, country, or the earth with what you are doing? How will the government regulate you? How can we be sure you pay your taxes?
And for those of you who are anti government & think there should be no government oversight... Remember the way Lake Erie used to be... remember the era of sweatshops.
Home businesses are a very small answer to a very large problem. Like most things, if they are operated in moderation they can (and are) an asset to the community and to the economy.
But, they are not a great and wonderful solution. As a matter of fact, knowing how people love laws but think they don't apply to themselves, I think a large influx of home businesses would cause far more problems than they solve.
Coming up with a quick answer like "We should have home businesses" is an example of bad leadership.
Everything is both simplier than you think and more complicated than you think.
The answer is like pieces to a puzzle. It needs to "come together" with the other pieces... including those that on first, second, or 100th glance seem to be unrelated....
P.S. I haven't posted for awhile and will post no more today. And never again with this name or any other names I've used. Even though the spoofer seems to be less active lately.
-The original Voice of Reason (accept no imitations). |
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Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:13 pm |
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Adam Ford
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That's fine. If worse comes to worse I can always find another city in Michigan that wants jobs or even go to a conservative Republican State like Florida and Texas and then not even worry about state income tax. The problem is with our conservative Republican states with the many jobs I would have to pay a lot more to get workers.
It's nice that you like so many people are concerned about stopping businesses (jobs) from operating in homes. Although home businesses are illigal in many cities it's perfectly legal to have people over to get drunk every night and take up parking.
I do think you may be right about how the "cancer" of home businesses (jobs) that could spread throughout Flint so I do not argue with you at all on this point. Particularly in the Northend and Flint you could potentiially have swarms of people coming to Flint from around the county. Home businesses have less overhead so there costs can be lower. From the success of Walmart we can see people do prefer lower prices.
I'm pretty conservative when it comes to home businesses so I'll leave it to the liberals like you to decide what home businesses (jobs) to kill.
Perhaps eventually Flint will decide to take a more conservative stance on business creation. Until then there is always welfare, unemployment benefits, food stamps, theft etc to get people by.
Form the research I was able to do under Flint's Republican leadership we did not have a problem with home businesses. I think the results speak for themselves. Under conservative Republican leadership Like mayor Charles Stewart Mott we did not have a problem with home busineses. We also had plentiful jobs numerous businesses and some of the best schools in the nation.
Perhaps you should thank Stanley for helping to block people like me from being successful and create jobs but I may be hard to block no matter how hard liberals like you want to try. |
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Adam Ford
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Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:58 pm |
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Home A. Lone
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I've nothing against "home businesses."
My comments were meant to encourage you to expand on your ideas, Adam.
You've given your sound bite - "We need home businesses," etc.
Now, address the specifics of your idea. If you haven't thought about the ramifications of your idea, then you really haven't thought the idea through very well. At least, not well enough to make any educated comments on the subject.
If you want to get into government you need to know some details about how your concepts will materialize in the real world.
Its not just children, but also people who are ill informed, who should be seen and not heard.
Lets just address a part of one of my points.
How would you guarantee that a business that must comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act actually complies with the act?
I await your Voicing Of a Reasonable response.
PS, no more posts today for me or ever again with this name.
Hi, Biggie! |
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Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:10 pm |
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christine
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Adam said: "Form the research I was able to do under Flint's Republican leadership we did not have a problem with home businesses. I think the results speak for themselves. "
Adam, I would like to see your research on Flint & home business. I'm just curious about your information. I am working on a revitalization plan for Shiawassee County and small business is a big part of it. Home businesses of course would be included in that.
A lot of people are making good livings out of their homes. I didn't realize Flint did not allow home based business. Is this all in-home businesses, or just certain types? |
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www.christinebarry.com
The only blog focusing on the people & politics of Shiawassee County, Michigan |
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Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:47 pm |
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Bossman
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| Flint has several hurdles to clear before they will ever be able to lure viable jobs into the area. The two major concerns for Flint must be the school district and the perception of safety. Without a major overhaul of the school system you will never lure citizens into the city. The school system is in a shambles(see various school board posts). Also, people will not relocate to an area that they do not feel safe in. Without citizens in Flint you won't have jobs in Flint. If I were an employer I would need to know that there was a market in the area I intended to move to. Do you think the residents in Grand Blanc, Swartz Creek or Flushing would drive into downtown Flint to buy my product when my competitor is located at Miller and Linden or the new shopping area in Grand Blanc? The answer is no! So why would I move here. Now, if you can lure residents back into the city by providing a quality school system and a safe environment for them to raise a family, then they may be willing to conduct business inside the city. So until the general quality of life in Flint improves, you can kiss jobs here goodbye. |
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Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:31 am |
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