Category: Column
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Commentary: A funny thing happened on the way to the election
By Paul Rozycki Note: This column has been updated for a correction via City Clerk Inez Brown: it was the city’s Finance Department that initially omitted the $320,000 in the budget for this year’s election, not the City Council–Ed. For most cities, villages, and townships, an election is a pretty routine thing. Candidates file, their…
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Commentary: Fix the roads? Who gets the money?
By Paul Rozycki Gov. Whitmer is continuing her statewide campaign to garner support for a 45 cent gas tax increase, which would be used to “fix the damn roads.” It remains to be seen whether or not she will get what she wants. Most public opinion polls show little support for the large increase. Republicans…
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Commentary: Fix the “damn roads”? But how do we pay for the “damn roads”?
By Paul Rozycki Are you ready to “fix the damn roads?” It was Gov. Whitmer’s campaign promise, and just about everyone agrees that it’s job one for Michigan this year. But, how do we pay for it? By most estimates, the state needs to raise about $2.5 billion to get the job done. And even…
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Village Life: In LA or Flint, tai chi yields gifts of challenge, elation, peace
By Teddy Robertson “Breathe from the diaphragm,” says Beverly, my tai chi instructor. “Clear your mind; try to go slowly,” she reminds us before we begin. We never go slowly enough. We stand in two rows in a large room, the dining hall in a senior center. Some wear the thin-soled martial arts slippers that…
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A number of numbers to watch in 2019
By Paul Rozycki I once knew a math professor who argued that everything in the universe could be explained by numbers and mathematics—from the creation of the most basic atoms, to the formation of the stars and galaxies, to the most complex life forms, to all types of mechanical and electronic devices. I don’t claim…
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Commentary: Should the Lame Duck be a dead duck?
By Paul Rozycki In the past, the so-called “lame duck” session was a time when the state legislature met in the last weeks of the year, before the newly elected members took office. They took care of relatively modest issues, final adjustments to the budget and other end-of-the-year issues. However, in recent years the lame…
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Commentary: A “blue wave,” a “pink wave,” and a few mid-term surprises
By Paul Rozycki Last month’s midterm election may have been the most intense and energetic in recent memory, and when it was all said and done the results revealed several new directions to our politics, highlighting the strong reaction to Donald Trump, and the divisions in today’s politics. Midterm elections are usually rather low-key predicable…
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Village Life: Of elusive joy, lamentations and “wanton love”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Sometimes you have to fight for joy. At a recent East Village Magazine party at my house, wine flowed and four kinds of pasta from Flour and Eggs, comfort food extraordinaire, disappeared in thick hunks from trays on the big table, two extra leaves put in for the occasion. I’d put…
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Thanksgiving memoir: Temple of the City — a story of Atwood Stadium
By Gary L. Fisher NOTE: Gary Fisher, a local historian, spoke on the history of the venerable Atwood Stadium at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15 at the Genesee County Historical Society at the Durant-Dort Carriage Company office, 316 W. Water St., Flint. My first trip to Flint’s Atwood Stadium is seared in to my brain.…
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Village Life: Why I use medical cannabis
By Ted Nelson I thought I was losing my mind. Two sleepless nights in a row had left me exhausted, depressed, and mentally discombobulated. I was having dinner at my Los Angeles apartment with my youngest son, sharing my distress. A month earlier, I had been diagnosed with an enlarged prostate after complaining of regularly…
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