Governor (Snyder) to be (Benton Harbor) parade's grand marshal

[kpete]

Source: Herald Palladium

Governor to be parade's grand marshal

Snyder to lead Blossomtime's May 7 Grand Floral Parade
By WILLIAM F. AST III - H-P Staff Writer
Published: Friday, April 22, 2011 1:07 PM EDT
ST. JOSEPH - Gov. Rick Snyder plans to take part in the 2011 Grand Floral Parade on May 7 as its grand marshal.

Blossomtime Executive Director Sabrina LaSota said the governor's office has confirmed his plans to appear.

The governor is always invited to be the parade's grand marshal, though it has been years since a governor has taken part in Southwest Michigan's annual salute to the fruit industry.

..................

The parade begins at 1 p.m. that Saturday at Pearl and Main streets in St. Joseph, then goes along Main Street in Benton Harbor and ends at 6th and Main streets in Benton Harbor.

Read more: http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/04/22/local_news/4446341.txt

[fredamae]

1. It would be funny if no one showed up!

[kpete]

2. or

[GKirk]

3. Really?

That is surprising!

[juxtaposed]

4. water balloons optional

[A Brand New World]

5. I think lots of BOOing is in order!

nt

[HereSince1628]

6. Now they want Triumphal Parades? Huh? n/t

[QED]

7. Maybe he expects to be greated with candy and flowers.

[HereSince1628]

9. A laurel wreath over his head? And perhaps

a winged Vanity whispering sweet warnings in his ear.

I think they've crossed the Rubicon.

[COLGATE4]

8. It's called 'Adding insult to injury'. A Republican specialty. n/t

[Aerows]

10. Wait a second

I'm confused. The city is in such dire straits that it needs a financial manager, and said financial manager allows a parade, which will require significant expenditures for cleanup and security?

I don't mean to imply that there *SHOULDN'T* be a parade, merely that what they say doesn't match what they do.

[HereSince1628]

12. Shh! Shhh! You'll spoil the moment.

They've earned the right to a victory lap, being greeted by cheering hordes of t-baggers will make a great optical in the next campaign! :sarcasm:

[aquart]

11. What kind of police protection is he planning?

Will residents of Benton Harbor be allowed to stand along the parade route or is he bussing people in?

[HereSince1628]

14. Channeling Bush's travel through Europe, eh?

Remember when all the windows had to be shuttered before his passing?

[eowyn_of_rohan]

15. He'll be rolling through in a tank

with his entourage goose-stepping along behind...

[PassingFair]

30. Better git hisself one of these:

[bluedigger]

13. He's kidding, right?

Wish I could be there, with a bag of rotten fruit...

[rurallib]

16. all the other floats should pull out in protest

and let Governor Fuckyou march down the street waving to the crowds on his own.

[jimlup]

17. Apparently Synder is as naive as he looks...

[glinda]

18. video please

:mad:

[Cal Carpenter]

19. That's sick and wrong.

In Benton Harbor? Of all places.

[Angry Dragon]

20. To the victor go the spoils

He is just coming for an inspection tour to survey his latest conquest

[JDPriestly]

21. What percentage of the vote did he receive in Benton Harbor?

[3waygeek]

23. 100 percent...

according to Diebold.

[jimlup]

22. Funny, I think this might just not work out so well for

the nerd.

[NC_Nurse]

26. that was my first thought....he must be in some serious denial about how

people there view him. i would think there will be a LOT of booing and protest signs...or worse.

i guess in his mind he's doing a great thing for the town. Yikes.

[Demeter]

24. Hope Benton Harbor Gives Him a Good Old 1967 Detroit Welcome

He's earned it.

[divvy]

25. Now he can control the content of it

See, everybody loves me ... there is no story here ...

[erinlough]

27. Some information on Blossomtime and the parade

I live in a community which borders St. Joseph and I have been attending the Blossomtime parade my whole life. Reading the comments I realize that some information is in order. First the parade is funded by the communities who participate and private business, (mostly Whirlpool). It begins in St. Joseph and ends in Benton Harbor after crossing the bridge over the St. Joe River. Each community chooses a queen and king to represent their community and produces a float and their High School band to escort the float down the parade route. Additionally their are clowns, other than Snyder, business floats, etc. It is always held in the spring on the first weekend in May. In fact, if you look at St. Joe on google earth I believe the arial was taken during the Blossom parade because you can see the floats and bands.

I wrote to the Blossomtime committee and voiced my opinion of their choice, but groups are deciding how they will protest as we speak. The parade is shown live on WNDU out of SouthBend Indiana.

[erinlough]

28. Update, Google has updated the map

so sorry, no Blossom parade.

[kickysnana]

29. FYI Rebuttal to RM piece. Deserves a reply by RM one way or the other.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/04/column.html

[highplainsdem]

31. Rachel already responded to that, as a later column by that reporter explained:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/04/rachel_maddow_--_and_lots_of_r.html

[highplainsdem]

32. More information on how Jean Klock Park is being stolen from the people of Benton Harbor:

And see replies 29 and 31 above, which link to columns at Mlive.com by a Kalamazoo Gazette reporter claiming Rachel Maddow got her facts wrong, and suggesting what happened wasn't really bad for the people of Benton Harbor.

Rachel's response -- there's video of that in the second column, the one I posted the link to -- focused mainly on the imposition of dictatorial powers by the governor.

The Gazette reporter pointed out the initial grab for the land came under the previous administratzion, and Gov. Granholm had unfortunately sided with the developers. And it was Gov. Granholm who first appointed the emergency financial manager, because of other problems in Benton Harbor. Unfortunately the reporter is right about that, and this is something Granholm should be ashamed of. (Editing to add that Granholm unfortunately played much more of a role in this than I'd realized. I'll add the links to that info at the end of this message, under another link to the site where I found them.)

But it was Gov. Snyder who radically expanded the powers EFMs have (the original emergency financial management law was much more limited in scope).

Which I suspect may involve taking actions to stop the litigation against the development of the park, which has been ongoing.

Those developing the park claim it's taken only 22 acres, leasing those, and more acres than that were added to the park elsewhere, supposedly more than making up for taking that land.

But the land that was taken has the best views of the lake -- it was the most valuable land there, and they paid only a tiny fraction of its real worth -- and the development is destroying the fragile ecosystem of the dunes.

Worse, the parcels of land added to the park are hazardous, polluted land, and the developers are ignoring some other conditions they agreed to and even put a drainage ditch that wasn't in the earlier plans next to the public picnic area.

Links to the information on this:

http://www.protectjkp.com/
That has a link to photos on Flick showing what the park looked like before development

http://michiganmessenger.com/29945/golf-developers-face-new-scrutiny-in-lake-mich-park-privatization
That is about Benton Harbor City Commissioners complaining about the development doing much more damage to the park than the developers said they did. Those commissioners no longer have ANY power.

http://www.savejeanklockpark.org/StrandofBeach.html

That last link has pictures of the drainage ditch carrying runoff of chemicals from the park. The ditch wasn't shown in the original plans, and it was put on public land.

This site also has information on former Gov. Granholm's role in the development, including a pledge to assist Whirlpool with the development.

Link to the page there on the governor's role:

http://www.savejeanklockpark.org/TheGovernorsRole.html

with a link to the PDF file showing her May 2006 letter to the CEO of Whirlpool:

http://www.savejeanklockpark.org/files/Granholm_Fettig.pdf

I wish I could believe she didn't realize how much damage would be done to the park and the ecosystem, but according to that page she had plenty of warnings about the environmental damage that would be done.


But even though it's shameful that a Democratic governor had sided with the developers against the people of Benton Harbor and against the fragile environment, Rachel is right that the focus of this story now is on the dictatorial powers given to emergency financial managers by the expansion of the EFM law under Rick Snyder. And that will make it much, much easier for corporations and developers to take over public land, destroy ecosystems that had been protected, and create more hazardous conditions on land that the public still owns.