Andy Rogers, Charles Walmsley and company entertain the waterfall park crowd with the ballad of the Third Street Bridge, reborn as a fountain 30 years after its fall into the river. Whoosh! Waterfall Park Spurts "Cool Cities" Spirit in Downtown Bay City
|
||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
Andy Rogers and fellow folk musicians paid tribute to the new Third Street Waterfall Park with a chaming little ditty about the Third Street Bridge falling down in 1976.
Besides that, the other themes of the day in downtown Bay City on Thursday were just as poignant and historically vital:
Downtown Bay City bravely remaking its industrial heart for tourism and housing;
The old bridge footings converted to a cultural and tourism icon, another downtown attraction;
the venerable Catacombs of Hell's Half Mile Days peddling mounds of peanuts and candy as St. Laurent Bros., "Nuts Since 1904;" and
The embattled governor, determined, resolute Jennifer Granholm, her Giaconda smile glowing, campaigning like her job depended on it; as, of course, it does.All Bay City was there:
Poised, ever-present TV-radio newsman Eric Jylha, welcoming the throng for the Bay County Historical Society;
Towering, articulate Rev. Andreas Teich, of the Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church;
Judicial songster, District Judge Tim Kellywith a stirring version of the National Anthem;
Banker David Green, chairman of the Downtown Development Authority, financing hub of the $935,000 project;Imposing Mayor Bob Katt, representing the City of Bay City whose staff invented the plan for the outstanding project;
Precise, incisive Mike Stoner, spokesman for the Rotary Club of BayCity, helping unveil the Rotary Club Historical Micropark Kiosk, one of a five year series to punctuate the downtown's claim to fame.
The first park opened last year near the Planetarium, corner of Center and Saginaw. The image in glass highlights buildings, people or activities that would have been seen from that location 100 years ago, Mr. Jylha explained.Project "champion," Amy Butler, chief, environmental science and services, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, said: "We at the DEQ are very excited about this project; it provides public access and still protects natural resources and wildlife." The DEQ contributed$150,000 to the Bay City project, she said.
And the lithe, intense governor, a heroic figure at a truly historical crossroads as her adopted state searches for its place in a new global market.
Gov. Granholm is on a mission to save her job from an interloper who has vowed to spend $100 million to take it. She countered Thursday by launching an ad campaign of her own.
She flashed through Bay City, dedicated the new Third Street Waterfall Park that personifies her "Cool Cities" initiative, and whipped up to Linwood for a fundraiser at the bayfront home of a prominent Saginaw attorney.
There was little of a political nature in her comments at the waterfall park, save promotion of "Cool Cities" and praise for Bay City's cooperative effort to construct the park.
The day before she was in Battle Creek, lined up on the tarmac with Air National guardsmen to boost the state's effort to keep the feds from closing the air facility there.
A huge plus was recorded for her that day when Delphi and the United Auto Workers agreed to a deal, averting a strike that could have sunk General Motors, stuck another knife into Michigan and shaken the financial foundations of the nation as well.
A week or so ago she was in Japan, lining up investment by Japanese firms in Michigan. She says her two trade missions to Japan have resulted in more than $200 million of investment and have attracted more than 1,000 new jobs.
She touts her six-point plan to create jobs today and jobs tomorrow and ensure that everyone in Michigan has the tools they need to be competitive: "We're puttingthat plan in motion and working it every day."
She is vehement in emphasizing: "For too long, Michigan has been the victim of federal trade policies that have made outsourcing our jobs easy and affordable," said Granholm. "That must end. While we wait for the Bush Administration to stand up for us, my administration will continue to go anywhere and do anything to bring jobs to Michigan."
The Governor's economic plan targets improving the state's business climate by eliminating more than $4 billion in budget deficits, cutting business taxes, including a $600 million tax cut for manufacturers, reducing permitting time for businesses and making permits available online, and spending state dollars with Michigan companies.
She seems to be everywhere, with no limit to her resolve or enduranceto snap Michigan out of an earthshaking economic malaise caused by global forces and automotive industry retraction.
These are the times that try men's, and women's, souls, to apply a pertinent thought from the American Revolution.
A well-heeled Grand Rapids businessman, Richard DeVos, is chasing the governor with moneybags at the ready. He has inched ahead in the polls, causing the visible strain showing in her face as she exited the Bay City appearance on Friday.
"Honey, you're doing a great job," burbled a local matron as she passed by, commenting supportively: "She's trying so hard."
And that she is, the perfect Vaudeville portrait of a valiant young lady battling a rich, greedy old man waiting to pounce onher job.
"You must pay the rent," seems to be the theme as DeVos portraying Snidely Whiplash closes in on Granholm playing a winsome Little Red Riding Hood.
It may yet be Little Red Riding Hood with the sharp teeth when election time comes around, some local political observers predicted. When Snidely has to take off his black cape and state his positions on issues and his economic growth plan, the game may be up.
Hundred million here, hundred million there. Pretty soon you're talking real money, to paraphrase the famous quote by the late Senator Everett Dirksen of Indiana.
And little ol' Bay City, where, if memory serves, one Jennifer Granholm launched her gubernatorial bid, is at the center of it all.###
| Printer Friendly Story View |
|
|
Dave Rogers |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-16-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm