Livonia to draw line with Northville - Crain's Detroit Business

Livonia to draw line with Northville - Crain's Detroit Business

This is a very interesting article about the long legal battle between Northville and Livonia regarding some property that used to be (I think) a state mental hospital, but has been shut down for years. The whole controversy points to something I have been saying for a while, that maybe we don't need the number layers of government that we have. This development company has been playing off Livonia and Northville, and you see that all the time, with the tax breaks given to companies to settle in one place over another, the differences in police and fire forces because cities are different, the differences in schools because of a boundary line. Sub-optimal decisions are made because more decisions have to be made and different organizations can be coerced into making sub-optimal decisions buy companies or people that know how to play the game. I can't say I know the answer, but the idea of regional authorities for certain things does make sense on a lot of decisions.

Here is one idea. I think we should have a moratorium on greenfield building in the state. Instead of increasing our sprawl problem, we should go back into older areas and refresh them. Then, leave more green space outside the cities unspoiled. But if one city says they are not going to let any more greenfield building be done, then developers, smartly, would move to the next city, and the first city loses on the potential growth. To the developers, a few miles one way or another doesn't matter. But if the region says, we are not going to allow greenfield building, if you want to build new homes or businesses in this area, refurbish existing areas. Then developers have to do what is right for the region if they want to do business there, and more areas are refurbished, more green spaces preserved.

Tigers reach .500 with dramatic ninth-inning rally

"Tigers reach .500 with dramatic ninth-inning rally: "Those are frustrating ones, to be honest with you,' Leyland said. 'You've got a three-run lead in the ninth and then you look up, bottom of the ninth and you're down one. But that's the life of a closer. Here's a guy who is 14-for-14 (in save opportunities). Pretty tough job when you're 14-for-14 and you blow one and get booed that bad. That's pretty tough.'"

Sorry Jim, we had every right to boo that lustily after that performance. The fact that he was cheered coming to Sunday's game was the correct response by the fans.

Update: Todd Jones the next day.
Jones, on the fans' reaction to him: "I was very thankful. I got a pretty nice ovation. I could hear it today. I was anticipating a Jason Grilli-esque greeting."

Bush is charming, but

I was just reading an article about the Presidential Medal of Freedom presentation, and my overriding thought is that Bush is a charming guy, too bad he was such a terrible president. If he wasn't (or hadn't been) convinced war with Iraq was the right thing from the moment he took office, he might have accomplished something. Probably not, but maybe.