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www.mybaycity.com November 27, 2011
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Dr. Steven Ingersoll's Multi-Faceted Renaissance Well Underway in Bay City

Front Porch Group Has Launched Garden, Eyeglass Factory, Charter School

November 27, 2011       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Steven J. Ingersoll
Community revitalization is his passion.

 

Bay City is the site of an exciting experiment in renewal from the inside out.

Community Through Restoration is the motto of the Front Porch Renaissance Group, an organization that is spearheading the renewal effort.

Refurbished residences and apartment houses, a bed and breakfast, restored historic commercial buildings, a community garden, an eyeglass factory, charter schools -all are in the vision of Dr. Steven J. Ingersoll.

Dr. Ingersoll, 57, of Traverse City, a former Bay Cityan, is on a one man crusade to revitalize center city neighborhoods.

Ingersoll, a native of Greenville and optometry graduate of Ferris State University, Big Rapids, is not only a man who works in the vision field, he is a man of vision.

And Bay City is the main focus.

All the projects bear on community revitalization under the Front Porch Renaissance banner. Current Bay City projects listed by the organization include:

  • Jefferson Street Garden:

    Launched in spring 2011, this community garden engages local residents in a community-based gardening project that not only provides food for local families, but also serves as a place for the community to gather and flourish.

  • Bay City Academy:

    This K-6 charter school opened in September 2011 in the former Madison Avenue Methodist church. It has 167 students. This higher-quality education fits in with our pursuit of overall community redevelopment.

  • Specs Online Optical Factory:

    Founded in 2011, our eyeglass factory produces high-quality, custom-made eyeglasses available for sale locally and on the Internet.

  • Wolverine Building (in development):

    This re-purposed building will house an arts guild, focusing on fine arts, culinary arts and woodworking, and will provide vocational education in various media.

    The multi-faceted project has embraced areas of educational innovation, bootstrap entrepreneurship, residential self-help, employment training, urban renewal, and arts support. Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago in the early 20th century comes to mind as a program with many parallels. A member of a prominent Bay City family, Florence Tye Jennison, was one of the volunteers in Addams's community house in South Chicago in the World War I era.

    Front Porch Renaissance has acquired about a dozen run down properties ranging from single family homes to apartment buildings the three story former Wolverine Knitting Mill factory at 114-120 N. Jackson St.

    Front Porch Renaissance lists the following priorities:

  • Embracing the rich historic architecture;

  • Combining new uses for existing structures with green development initiatives;

  • Creating attractive, dynamic neighborhoods;

  • Helping residents embrace the arts, live healthy lifestyles and find meaningful local employment; and

  • Providing educational opportunities.

    Latest building revitalization project is the Lind Brothers' Dry Goods and Groceries Building, 100 State Street. Tim Hunnicutt, Executive Director of the Front Porch Renaissance Group, has requested that the City designate their properties at 114 N. Jackson (Wolverine Knitting Mills Building) and 100 State Street (Lind Brothers Dry Goods and Groceries Building) as local Historic Districts under Public Act 169 of 1970 (P.A. 169).

    P.A. 169 offers a 25 percent rehabilitation tax credit that is being phased out this year. "Fortunately, the Front Porch Renaissance Group was able to lock in their application for this incentive," said City Planner Jim Bedell. "In order for them not to miss out on this opportunity, local historic districts must be established for these properties in 2011."

    The city commission meets Dec. 5 to consider final approval for the two Front Porch projects as well as revised historic districts for Center Avenue and Midland Street.

    Dr. Ingersoll has reported that Bay City Academy's sister school Grand Traverse Academy was ranked in the state's top 10 percent of schools in the Michigan Department of Education's 2011 Public School Top to Bottom Ranking.

    The MDE's Top to Bottom list ranks schools statewide based on student proficiency, student improvement and achievement gaps between students within a school.

    A school with a high ranking is one that has a high level of proficiency, is improving over time and is ensuring that all students are learning and achieving at a high level, the MDE says. Graduation rate is also a component of the ranking for high schools.

    Bay City Academy founder Dr. Steven Ingersoll, former Bay Cityan, opened Grand Traverse Academy, which now includes preschool through Grade 12, in 2000. Grand Traverse Academy has an enrollment of about 1,200 K-12.

    Like the Traverse City school, Bay City Academy bases its practices and curriculum on three primary underpinnings: Integrated Visual Learning, Choice Theory and Character Education.

    The Front Porch website states: "In a long-closed, rundown textile factory on the banks of the Saginaw River, Dr. Steven Ingersoll saw potential.

    "Standing on dusty floors in rooms that once hummed with the sounds of knitting mills, he saw what he knew could be the rebirth of the American spirit.

    "He saw the home of iSpecs Online.

    "We manufacture in an old textile warehouse that was broken down and could have been easily demolished," said Sheri, a certified optician tapped by Ingersoll to help lead iSpecs Online, now operating in the refurbished Bay City, Mich., warehouse.

    Ingersoll's vision for that old warehouse mirrors his vision for the city and state it's in - a vision that led him to start the Front Porch Renaissance Group to promote city revitalization. It's an opportunity to reignite the American economy - to make "Made in America" a proud declaration for today, not a slogan of the past.

    "Bay County has an unemployment rate of around 11 percent. We want to change that," Sheri said. "By buying our glasses, you help revitalize Bay City, and you help revitalize Michigan.

    "Because we sell our glasses through the Internet, we have a global clientèle. Yet we create jobs locally, which in turn generates tax revenue to help schools and fund public works. By creating a new workforce in Bay City, we will awaken others in the community to invest in the future of Michigan."

    She said the iSpecs Online factory eventually will share warehouse space with employment and specialty guilds in which unemployed residents will be trained to make a variety of products. Ingersoll also envisions a marketplace for handmade goods such as wine, art, paintings, quilts, guitars and more.

    "We will offer training for local people in the trades of lens manufacturing," said Dennis, also a founding iSpecs Online optician. "It is hoped it will become a model of how one can be successful at business while supplying jobs for the local economy, and thus benefiting Michigan, too."

    Plus, working in such a creative environment where people are revitalizing their community while doing what they love is, well, just cool.

    "I think it will be a very productive atmosphere - creativity breeds creativity," Sheri said. "I feel fortunate to be involved in such a revolutionary idea, and I hope we are an inspiration for others."

    Like so many in Michigan and across the nation, Sheri was out of work because of the poor economy when Ingersoll approached her about helping start iSpecs Online. She had been in quality control for a large safety eyeglass laboratory.

    "For the first time in almost 20 years, I was out of work, for nearly a year," she said.

    It didn't take much for her to see that Ingersoll's vision for the company and for the city made sense.

    "I had never met anyone who had such a belief in an idea," she said of Ingersoll. "Bay City has remarkable resources, untapped until now. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to do what I love, and to grow with a company that truly cares about the community it serves."

    Dennis is thankful, too. He hopes other cities take a cue from what Ingersoll is doing in Bay City.

    "I think it will be exciting each day as new people come and catch the vision of what could happen," Dennis said. "I think it will become a win-win for everyone involved." ###

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    Dave Rogers

    Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
    respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
    (Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

    More from Dave Rogers

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