Grant Money Not Tainted......or is it?

Viewed obliquely from Muskegon's Gaza - C'mon folks, let's get American here and not be upset when grant money, ostensibly to help the impoverished (wink, wink), turns out to be an opportunity to help defray the costs of what we know is necessary yuppificaton.

Let's be real and not be outraged when the grant process turns out to be padding to inflate someones resume. This is the American way...It is this traditional use of tax money that has brought us to where we are in this great country! Taking our tax money in forms of state and federal grants in one hand while trying to create a upscale community in the other hand, where the yuppifictoners do not pay. Build that club house downtown Muskegon .... have we considered some golfing with grant money? Why not..... none of the players will have to pay!!

Shout outs to all the public payrollee's who have been milking the tax payers for years. Shout outs to the public payrollee's who have mastered the art of GRANT WRITING.

Keep it up and you can stand all together on our Mamed Streets in Muskegon, alone!!!!

Luna~ Forming Right Here In The Broken City!!

View from the Gaza Strip-Broken City - Greetings Science Fiction fans! The Broken Downtown City by the Lake has an entertainment venue for you sponsored by the Muskegon Chronicle, our local newspaper. We have Luna~Forming! (As opposed to a not-uncommon-concept in SF known as Terra-forming; which invovles taking a life-less, but feasible, planet and re-forming it to be Earthlike) They call it "Mlive, Muskegon Talk Forum" and in keeping with the Luna~Forming idea, you don't talk but write about Muskegon, Michigan.

In this venue concept, you see how long it takes certain players to figure out what is sacred to write and what isn't. If you fail to be part of the sacredness Luna~Forming resolves the matter with a blockade of deadly punishment and kills you off for 24 hours. Only then do they realize this 24 hour death is merely the first step in a sinister scheme by the re-emergent forces of darkness known as the Comical Editor In Charge and his loyal Galactic Poo Publics .

You then are brought back to life and as soon as you get comfortable you find that freedom of speech has engulfed the Galactic Poo Publics, who feel threatened as relationships form on topics of interest.............and you are killed off for 24 more hours.............and so on ...........and so on...........and so on. Play heavy and hard and if you die a lot, you win!

As always, slow down, smile and wave!!!

Muskegon's Expanding Culture

Another view from the city that's broken by the lake; filtered through it's Gaza Strip - In their never-ending quest for more beer-tent culture, Muskegonites can now attend the Frauenthal Theater, right across from the round-about with Hunt's Muskegon Rising sculpture (a visually metaphoric Phoenix), and watch "King of the Streets Fight Night", where tatooed semi-Neanderthals beat the crap out of each other... And maybe then Summer Celebration can include Slam-Rap competitions, where rappers take the stage and legally dispose of each other as violently (but imitating poetry along the way) as they wish! What can be next? Chariot races at the round-about? Watching Christians devour lions? How about jousting on motorcycles? Para-sail sword fighting? Excelsior Muskegon!

Edumication - Alive and Well and Living in Muskegon

A view from the Gaza Strip, providing jail jumpsuit candidates for the future - The Muskegon Bored with Education Member who came up the ingenious plan for insuring sports victories by not havinng the 2.0 Grade Point requirement should be promoted to Stuporintendant of Schools.

Could " Education" fail us any further...? Give them time they'll find a way.

TWO SPUTTERING SPHINCTERS FOR YOU MUSKEGON SCHOOLS!


Is this asshattery? You determine the verdict!

An Afterthought...

A short walk from the Gaza Strip - (Yawn) Counting pennies, trying to come up with enough to purchase bait for ice-fishing, Skeet looks at the businesses on Third Street and wonders, "Are these shops part of Downtown? Will they have to pay the new Support Mainstreet Tax? Is it cheaper to start a business on Third Street rather than on Western or there-abouts?" He looks lakeward, "This place, in winter, looks like one of those after-the-nuclear disaster movies. Last summer it appeared only marginally better than in winter-time..." .

Skeet stops and looks at the sculpture in the stupid round about, and observes "Hmm not even a pidgeon". Stupid is as stupid does.

BIG SNOW-JOB ON MAIN STREET

Head Fake by the Lake - Well, once again the sputtering sphincter that passes for a city government here has joined forces with Darth Garner to pass a "special assessment tax", which seems to benefit the residents living Muskegon Ave. and the Downtown Condo Developers, ignores the rest of Nelson Neighborhood, and drops the cost squarely on the remaining denizens (the F.O.E., the Masons, and businesses)... Well, in the spirit of driving slow, waving and smiling. let us consider something else...

Not too long ago , Business 31 was moved from Webster and Muskgeon avenues to the Lakeshore route; this takes State/County responsibility of maintenance and snow removal and moves it further west leaving the residents in the rest of Nelson Neighborhood to fend for themselves and suffer with City snow-removal and repairs (and we all know how effective that is - thankyou Mr. Mayor). This redesignation paves (no pun intended) the way for the next phase (...wait for it...) the Special Assessment tax, to pay for snow removal for those who live any where else in Muskegon and in the process help save salary funding for Dan, the echo-monkey. The next step is to detach Downtown Muskegon from the Nelson Neighborhood and VOILA! the crime stats, no longer linked to Nelson, drop like the mercury in January, and Downtown is saved (picture Kevin Kostner standing in a corn field at the edge of Downtown watching the condos grow, nifty upscale boutiques and bistro's flourish). Good job MainStreet Muskegon!!!

Now if only the echo-monkey had a real backgound in community development (not public administration and six months teaching English in Asia) he would know a city's real strength comes from it's diverse neighborhoods, not homogenization. If the Muskegon had an effective City Manager and City Attorney and a Mayor who was a leader, it wouldn't be as it is...Broken by the lake.