Reactions to the Jane Bashara case
go viral, giving ignorance and fear a voice

One of the late John Cheever's most famous short stories is "The Enormous Radio," and maybe eight of you have actually read it, or remember it from English class. So here's a synopsis:

"Jim and Irene Westcott were the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports in college alumni bulletins," it begins. Middle-class. Two children. Irene stays home to raise them, Jim goes to work every day. (Sound like anyone you know? Many of Cheever's stories read like they were written here.) One day in this pre-television age, their radio goes on the fritz. Jim buys Irene a new one. After a day or two it demonstrates an unsettling feature: It can pick up conversations and intimate noises from other apartments in their building. Irene is fascinated to learn that people she sees every day in the elevator and at the park are drunk, money-troubled, adulterers, wife-beaters.

Irene can't tear herself away, and finds herself inexplicably depressed. Jim gets the radio fixed and it plays only music again, but it's too late for Irene — she's listened to the radio of knowledge, so to speak, and has cast herself out of her little domestic Eden.

Today's enormous radio is Facebook, and lately it's been telling me way more than I want to know about my neighbors. And yet — Irene, I feel your pain! — it's hard to walk away.

As I write this, the investigation of Jane Bashara's death continues. There's been frustratingly little to report since last week, and in fact, beyond the shock of the initial breaking news, there have really been only two developments: the cause-of-death finding (strangulation), and that Grosse Pointe Park police consider her husband, Bob, a "person of interest" in the investigation.

(Some people use that term interchangeably with "suspect," although it's not a synonym. See here for more journalism inside-baseball than you ever wanted to know about this new wrinkle in law-enforcement jargon.) read more...

Our guy supports the library millage,
but if you don't, we're still listening

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. A press release landed on my desk this morning with the following news:

Headlined, Burns Appointed to Lead Library Millage Effort, it continued:

The Grosse Pointe Library Millage Committee announced today that Ben Burns, director of the journalism program and a professor in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University, will chair a Library millage initiative designed to help “make up” lost revenue as a result of the 2008 recession.

Hey, I know that guy. In fact, he's my partner here at GrossePointeToday.com, and his presence on this committee presents us with something of an ethical quandary: How are we to report on this particular story when one-third of the partnership that runs this joint is a key player in it? read more...

Party in the Pointes: With teen drinking,
too much is sometimes just the start

I don't know how many of you follow the GrossePointeToday.com public-safety roundup – compiled by yours truly every Monday – but if you don't, I'd like to call your attention to an item from a couple weeks back about the Woods police breaking up a teen party that resulted in 26 "MIPs," as the kids call them. That's "minor in possession," of alcohol, of course. read more...

There's a reason it's called a duty;
even local elections are serious

A disclosure by way of a story: A few weeks back I was shopping at the Eastern Market when I was asked to sign a petition to recall Gov. Rick Snyder. I'm not particularly impulsive, but a slide show of recent Snyder and/or GOP actions flipped through my head -- a boneheaded redistricting; strong-arm tactics from Lansing on any number of issues, and the coup de grace, a brutal school-reform package that threatens to strip even more value from my property (already at loss-leader, clearance-sale valuation). I did something impulsive.

"Sure," I said, reaching for a clipboard. And signed.

Within two minutes of handing it back, I was sorry I'd done so. I turned to look for the petition-passer, but he was lost in the crowd. I went back to tomato-shopping, and chastised myself for my little scrawled temper tantrum. read more...

Grosse Pointe Farms flood victims
have every right to be indignant

How bad was last Thursday's special meeting of the Grosse Pointe Farms City Council at the War Memorial? How about this? At least one flood-damage restoration contractor took the opportunity to paper the cars in the lot with flyers, but they'd have made more money with a torches-and-pitchforks concession.

Everything about the evening was working against the city's administration and managers. Even with chairs all the way to the back of the Fries Ballroom, there weren't enough seats, forcing a couple dozen people into the SRO district in the lobby. It kicked off with a PowerPoint (argh), prefaced by a few helpful words: "I'd like to give you a brief history on the Grosse Pointe Farms sewer system." And in the end, hardly anyone was satisfied. read more...

After a wild school board meeting,
will emotions settle down soon?

The superintendent applicant was an internal hire, and lacked unanimous board support, squeaking through on a 4-3 vote. If any chairs were knocked over in anger, no one remembers it today. But they do remember the candidate's name: Suzanne Klein.

That's one way to look at Tuesday night's (July 12) tense Board of Education meeting, at which Tom Harwood was extended an offer to take Klein's place when she retires at the end of the year. The vote was 4-3, and a chair was definitely knocked over at that meeting, by board member Fred Minturn, who stalked off the South High School auditorium stage and through a crowd of equally upset parents, some of whom shouted with dismay when the vote was taken.

It's the one board president John Steininger, who voted with the majority, would like district residents to keep in mind. Some choices are unpopular, he said Wednesday, but it doesn't make them unwise. read more...

A shorter trip for Grosse Pointe cyclists,
but a four-city loop better than none

Good news, bad news, fellow cyclists.

First, the good news: It appears that the bike routes initiative pushed by the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce is moving forward. The $70,000 dangled by Wayne County – the first influx of parks-and-recreation funding from the county anyone can remember – is actively being sought for signs and pavement markings that designate bike routes. There will be some acknowledgement that people who ride bicycles have official encouragement to do so.

The bad news: The routes won't go many places you want to go. David Hiller, public-safety director in the Park, met with his colleagues in blue and the city managers in the other Pointes earlier this week, and they see only problems if cyclists go to some of the area's most popular destinations under the semi-blessing of a sign that says "bike route."  read more...

If Grosse Pointe cyclists want routes,
it's time to light a fire under city leaders

It was just about a year ago – fish fly season, as I recall – that the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce invited the public to a meeting at Beaumont Hospital to announce that as part of the Live Well in Grosse Pointe initiative, the chamber would be pursuing a plan to designate bike routes throughout the five municipalities. Not bike paths, mind you – nobody has money for that – but bike routes. Basically, a declaration that cyclists are encouraged to use a particular set of – roads as they travel through the Pointes.

To boil it down even further: Signs and paint. Maybe a few racks and benches. Some chevrons and stripes painted on a few streets reminding motorists that they should be mindful of cyclists. And that's it.

Such a simple idea. Such a good one. Most of the $100,000 budget would come from Wayne County's parks department, and would represent the first tiny return on the millions the Pointes have sent to the county via taxes, which doesn't get spent here because our own parks are restricted. The rest was to be privately raised. All it needed, really, was a nod from the cities. I left the meeting, went home and wrote a happy column about it, anticipating riding over those chevron ... by the fall? Maybe not that soon. But certainly by now. read more...

A little shrimp goes a long way
to explain out-of-touch spending

I'm sorry I had to leave Monday night's (April 11) meeting of the Grosse Pointe Woods City Council Committee of the Whole early. I gather the usual squabble broke out over the last few filigrees in the tattered and torn city budget. Despite the by-now-familiar techniques of stretching here, patching there, and adding a small tax increase, there's just not enough to make up a projected shortfall of more than a quarter-million dollars.

Which is where the fighting started, when council member Lisa Pinkos Howle suggested two obvious places to trim: the modest salaries paid to the council and mayor ($3,750 and $6,000, respectively), and an annual party the city throws for its volunteers at the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club, budgeted for $12,000. read more...

How one Grosse Pointe public entity
found a new way, and why it matters

After a year of drama tempered with a great deal of wonkish financial analysis, the Grosse Pointe Public School System Board of Education approved a budget last night. The meeting at Parcells Middle School was sparsely attended, and while I had to duck out before the PowerPoint barrage concluded, I'll assume the clouds did not part and no heavenly beam shone down on the proceedings when the final vote was cast.

But this budget, and its cornerstone, the recently ratified contract with teachers, represents something special. If we can't wrangle a choir of angels, this column will have to do. read more...