The attitude of Michigan City |
The attitude of Michigan City |
Sep 17 2007, 11:46 AM
Post
#1
|
|
Spends WAY too much time at CBTL Group: Admin Posts: 16,460 Joined: 8-December 06 From: Michigan City, IN Member No.: 2 |
I am going to admit my bias here quickly... I loved this letter. I was curious to hear other people'e impressions of it.
http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=49521.11 QUOTE Paul Venckus Writing a eulogy is very difficult. You reminisce about the past. Fun times. Sad times. Mostly good memories of days gone by. Recollections etched in our souls define much of who we are today. How quickly the days, then years slip away. I first met my friend 44 years ago when I was just 6. We had so much fun at school. Pine School, Barker, then Rogers. There was Shoreland Hills, the beach, skating, parades, fireworks, etc. Who can forget Mount Baldy, the zoo and Marquette Mall? I have this longing to somehow hold onto these memories as I try to write words of hope and meaning. Hope. Is there any hope? You see, my friend hasn't died yet. But I see the despair, the fear. The disease has spread to a point where only radical surgery can help. But my friend is in denial. She says things will be all right though disease ravages the very marrow of her being. It is a disease of quiet resignation. Of mindless hope that things might be better in the future. I am greatly saddened. I write that you may somehow help her. I know that you can help her. Unfortunately, I live too far away to be of any real help. But I deeply care about her. Who holds such a special place in my heart? Her name is Michigan City. These thoughts have been stirring for many years with each new visit deepening my convictions. I've been witnessing this slow decline for the past 30 years. Perhaps the final straw was the YMCA. A place where I learned the value of working hard toward goals from people like Paul Dimke. The countless hours I spent there as a youth. The place is now in the dark. Closed due to apathy. The teaching of toughness, being fair, and doing your best by people like Jerry Karstens seems to be from another era. The sports teams have sunk so far that losing by close margins is almost like a victory. Where is the pride in being your best? Where is the next Doug Adams? In addition, the amount of crime astonishes me. It is absolutely appalling. People move to thriving communities such as Chesterton or Valparaiso to raise their families. You have a phenomenal asset in Lake Michigan, but then there is the eyesore of NIPSCO. You have vast amounts of land use potential close to the Lake. Think Big. Think Great! You have thousands of good people who have slowly resigned themselves to the fact that the city is in decline and they're helpless to change things for the better. Michigan City, it doesn't have to be this way. Instead of being this decrepit shadow of a once vibrant city, why not strive to once again become this vibrant city? I know these words will anger some of you. I feel bad about that, but something has to change. Don't expect the politicians to save your city. You are responsible as residents of the city and you need leaders. People who truly have the best interests of the city and people at heart. People with courage, strength and conviction. These leaders may be teachers, businessmen or soccer moms. You need people pulling in the right direction with a much greater vision. I believe these people are already there. They just need to step forward. And these leaders will need your help. My father-in-law, Nate Winksi, was the type of person who truly cared about the community. Contribution and action were at the core of his character. People like him, his friends and peers, once made this community special. It is now time for a new generation of leaders to step forward. The children are out on the playgrounds, not realizing that their future is in your hands; I implore you to take these words to heart. Your future is sown in the decisions you make today. Paul Venckus is the owner of Aspen Polymers, Carmel, Ind., and member of the Rogers High School Class of 1976. His e-mail is paulvenckus@aol.com |
Sep 18 2007, 02:50 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 459 Joined: 4-April 07 Member No.: 182 |
Jenny,
If you took my response that I was criticizing Nate, then you misunderstood me. Paul, on the other hand... He writes about Mt. Baldy, the Zoo and Marquette Mall as though those things are gone. He makes no mention of the skate park, the Lighthouse Mall, Millenium Park, Bubbles, Ruby Woods, Streibel Pond, Blue Chip, Patriot Park, the new Cinemaplex. Why doesn't he talk about all the work being done to purchase blighted properties on the creek and remediate them. How about great times at the Treehouse or Bridges? How about a High School athletics program that has made some wonderful hires over the last year? How about the new Lutheran High School which gives parents even more choice in the education of their children? Why doesn't he talk about Mayor Chuck's discussions with the state to gain control of Michigan Blvd so that it can be redeveloped? The NIPSCO plant!!??? Are you kidding me? And his comments on crime... why not mention that the general trend in crime in Michigan City over the last 5 years have been downward? The real problem is that when progress is made in this town, people like this still won't give us any credit. They are obsessed with picking at the negative points. I know that Michigan City has a very long way to go. We need a pro-business attitude. The intermodal site(s) has got to happen. We desperately need an influx of new blood with positive attitudes about what can be done in this community. I honestly hope that we will continue to press for higher-end residential developments on the north end that could draw into the city limits people from places like Hyde Park in Chicago where a turn around has already begun to happen. I have a good friend who is a Springville resident but owns a business in Michigan City. He has decided to pull his kids from the parochial schools here and move them to the LaPorte system. He is constantly stumping for LaPorte, telling me how wonderful it is compared to Michigan City. His kids now are parroting him, never having a positive thing to say about the City. And let me tell you it burns me up! These people are so conditioned to only think about and talk about what is wrong with Michigan City. You try to point out the positive and they don't want to see it. They seem to take pleasure in the prospect of its failure. Put simply, mean reversion is a bitch. -Vitaliy Katsenelson
|
Oct 13 2007, 07:20 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Really Comfortable Group: Members Posts: 627 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 41 |
Jenny, If you took my response that I was criticizing Nate, then you misunderstood me. Paul, on the other hand... He writes about Mt. Baldy, the Zoo and Marquette Mall as though those things are gone. He makes no mention of the skate park, the Lighthouse Mall, Millenium Park, Bubbles, Ruby Woods, Streibel Pond, Blue Chip, Patriot Park, the new Cinemaplex. Why doesn't he talk about all the work being done to purchase blighted properties on the creek and remediate them. How about great times at the Treehouse or Bridges? How about a High School athletics program that has made some wonderful hires over the last year? How about the new Lutheran High School which gives parents even more choice in the education of their children? Why doesn't he talk about Mayor Chuck's discussions with the state to gain control of Michigan Blvd so that it can be redeveloped? The NIPSCO plant!!??? Are you kidding me? And his comments on crime... why not mention that the general trend in crime in Michigan City over the last 5 years have been downward? The real problem is that when progress is made in this town, people like this still won't give us any credit. They are obsessed with picking at the negative points. I know that Michigan City has a very long way to go. We need a pro-business attitude. The intermodal site(s) has got to happen. We desperately need an influx of new blood with positive attitudes about what can be done in this community. I honestly hope that we will continue to press for higher-end residential developments on the north end that could draw into the city limits people from places like Hyde Park in Chicago where a turn around has already begun to happen. I have a good friend who is a Springville resident but owns a business in Michigan City. He has decided to pull his kids from the parochial schools here and move them to the LaPorte system. He is constantly stumping for LaPorte, telling me how wonderful it is compared to Michigan City. His kids now are parroting him, never having a positive thing to say about the City. And let me tell you it burns me up! These people are so conditioned to only think about and talk about what is wrong with Michigan City. You try to point out the positive and they don't want to see it. They seem to take pleasure in the prospect of its failure. An interesting article in the Chicago Suntimes a few weeks ago Chicago travelers pick Wis., spurn Ind.Click here for complete article Author: Ben Goldberger The Chicago Sun-Times Date: September 17, 2007 Publication: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Page: 12 Word Count: 717 Excerpt: A vacation in the Hoosier state? Not likely if you're a Chicagoan. Indiana does not even crack the top five as a vacation destination for Chicagoans, according to market research data collected by the Scarborough Research Corporation. Wisconsin is Chicagoans' top place in the U.S. to vacation, with Michigan -- which most Chicagoans must drive through Indiana to get to -- a close second. Indiana's absence from the top tier does not surprise Kevin Erington, 50,... Chicagoans tend to think of Northwest Indiana as a dirty industry area, not a nice place to visit. While at every level of our government (State, County and Local governments) are spending a fortune to try and change this perception, they are at the same time trying to create the area as a huge freight yard. Quite contradicting stands. We need them to quit waisting our mooney in doing so. Keep in mind, recent government release of statictics show, A single parent with two children needs to make $17.20 an hour to become self suficient. Freight yard jobs average much less. |
Oct 13 2007, 01:29 PM
Post
#4
|
|
Spends WAY too much time at CBTL Group: Admin Posts: 16,460 Joined: 8-December 06 From: Michigan City, IN Member No.: 2 |
An interesting article in the Chicago Suntimes a few weeks ago Chicago travelers pick Wis., spurn Ind.Click here for complete article Author: Ben Goldberger The Chicago Sun-Times Date: September 17, 2007 Publication: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Page: 12 Word Count: 717 Excerpt: A vacation in the Hoosier state? Not likely if you're a Chicagoan. Indiana does not even crack the top five as a vacation destination for Chicagoans, according to market research data collected by the Scarborough Research Corporation. Wisconsin is Chicagoans' top place in the U.S. to vacation, with Michigan -- which most Chicagoans must drive through Indiana to get to -- a close second. Indiana's absence from the top tier does not surprise Kevin Erington, 50,... Chicagoans tend to think of Northwest Indiana as a dirty industry area, not a nice place to visit. While at every level of our government (State, County and Local governments) are spending a fortune to try and change this perception, they are at the same time trying to create the area as a huge freight yard. Quite contradicting stands. We need them to quit waisting our mooney in doing so. Keep in mind, recent government release of statictics show, A single parent with two children needs to make $17.20 an hour to become self suficient. Freight yard jobs average much less. Yet Freight yard jobs are a big step above the jobs we have to offer to people who have a high school diploma or less. Lighthouse place, Blue Chip, and the other tourists traps aren't paying anything close to the $12-13 an hour starting wages estimated of the intermodal type jobs. Tourism has its role and is a nice injection of cash into MC, but we need to parlay those gains into family supporting type jobs. You aren't going to have someone come along and build an automotive plant or something that will pay a near $20 an hour starting wage plus benefits... Those days are gone. The intermodal is a huge step forward, and they also match the educational and workforce dynamics of our area. With our graduation rates, its not like we are going to be looking at white collar and high technology employers moving here. |
Oct 14 2007, 09:09 PM
Post
#5
|
|
Really Comfortable Group: Members Posts: 627 Joined: 9-February 07 Member No.: 41 |
Yet Freight yard jobs are a big step above the jobs we have to offer to people who have a high school diploma or less. Lighthouse place, Blue Chip, and the other tourists traps aren't paying anything close to the $12-13 an hour starting wages estimated of the intermodal type jobs. Tourism has its role and is a nice injection of cash into MC, but we need to parlay those gains into family supporting type jobs. You aren't going to have someone come along and build an automotive plant or something that will pay a near $20 an hour starting wage plus benefits... Those days are gone. The intermodal is a huge step forward, and they also match the educational and workforce dynamics of our area. With our graduation rates, its not like we are going to be looking at white collar and high technology employers moving here. It is a viscous circle. We are to wipe out any chance of high tech jobs that would bring an educated work force. That would spill into our school system and help our kids. By decimating any chance of cleaning up our image by building freight yards, so that the goods imported by our exported manufacturing jobs can be distributed easier and cheeper. It is unfortunate that an educated work force will not want to locate to a freight yard in a State that already leads the nation in brain cancer. |
Oct 15 2007, 07:19 AM
Post
#6
|
|
Spends WAY too much time at CBTL Group: Admin Posts: 16,460 Joined: 8-December 06 From: Michigan City, IN Member No.: 2 |
It is a viscous circle. We are to wipe out any chance of high tech jobs that would bring an educated work force. That would spill into our school system and help our kids. By decimating any chance of cleaning up our image by building freight yards, so that the goods imported by our exported manufacturing jobs can be distributed easier and cheeper. It is unfortunate that an educated work force will not want to locate to a freight yard in a State that already leads the nation in brain cancer. I'd actually disagree with you, and I would use history as my guide. Historically it takes about two generations to break the situation that Michigan City is in. Usually the first generation gets the ability to work at a middle class, blue collar job that involved working hard physical work for a living. That generation is able to break the poverty cycle. By breaking the poverty cycle, they also bring hope to the next generation, who sees the hard work their parent/s put in everyday, and usually vow to do better. They take it upon themselves to become better educated, and not to repeat the labors of their fathers. The second generation is the one that goes into the white collar/professional fields, because the education allows them to do so. The Chesterton/Valpo sector is the perfect example of this playing out over a two to three generation cycle. The steel mills and other factories over there didn't ruin the towns, in fact, it gave them the tax base to push their educational system to a higher level than us. As a matter of a fact that was the model that Michigan City was operating on until the industrial/manufacturing base in MC collapsed. Once the tax base collapsed, then the educational system collapsed. Ever since then we have experienced a brain drain of all our best and brightest fleeing the area, and consequently we have entered into a poverty cycle instead. Michigan City has basically no middle class anymore. Until MC establishes a middle class out of our poorer residents nothing is going to change. You can't just bring high education jobs to this area and expect things to be fixed. Education for the younger generation and decent wage industrial/manufacturing jobs for the generation Xers are the key to fix MC in my opinion. |
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 26th September 2024 - 01:12 PM |
Skin Designed By: neo at www.neonetweb.com