Dante Chinni, co-athor of "Our Patchwork Nation." That's a Tigers cap he's wearing, and it's not accidental.

“I don’t want to be another city. I resent the fact that we are compared to other cities when projects are being proposed.”

That was Ali Ramlawi, owner of the Jerusalem Garden on South Fifth Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor, addressing the April 4, 2011 meeting of the Ann Arbor city council. He was criticizing the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, and advocating against a proposed conference center and hotel project on the Library Lot – the council voted the project down later that evening.

“Ann Arbor will change … but it won’t become Detroit.”

That was Dante Chinni, while riding the the teeter totter on my front porch last Thursday afternoon. Chinni has made it part of his job to compare communities like Ann Arbor – Washtenaw County, actually – to other places in the country.

Who is Dante Chinni? And why should Ann Arbor care what he thinks?

On his website, Chinni describes himself as a “a card-carrying member of the East Coast Media Industrial Complex.” The part of his job that lets him compare one place to another – in a statistically sophisticated way – is a project Chinni conceived called Patchwork Nation. It’s funded by the Knight Foundation. The effort has already produced a book, which he co-authored with James Gimpel: “Our Patchwork Nation: The Surprising Truth about the ‘Real’ America.”

Washtenaw County is featured in the chapter that introduces readers to the concept of a “Campus and Careers” community type. The classification, as well as a read through Dante’s Talk, confirm that mostly what defines Ann Arbor – at least for people on the outside looking in – is its place as the home of the University of Michigan. And certainly for people on the inside, it’s difficult to argue that UM isn’t currently the single most important institution in the community.

But some insiders – and by this I mean not just people who live, work and play here, but actual Ann Arbor insiders – are starting to float the question of what else Ann Arbor might aspire to be besides home to “the most profound educational institution in the Midwest.”

Vision of Ann Arbor: Non-Physical (DDA Partnerships)

“The most profound educational institution in the Midwest” was David Di Rita’s description of UM, which came in the context of a meeting of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority’s partnerships committee on Wednesday morning, April 13. Di Rita, a principal with the Roxbury Group, served as a consultant on the RFP review process for the Library Lot, which the city council terminated two weeks ago.

The partnerships committee meeting was one of insiders – both at the committee table and in the audience.

At the table besides Di Rita were: DDA board members John Mouat, Russ Collins, Gary Boren, Sandi Smith, Bob Guenzel and John Splitt, along with Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, and city councilmember Tony Derezinski. Invited to the table mid-meeting were Josie Parker, executive director of the Ann Arbor District Library – who brought along AADL board member Nancy Kaplan – and Jesse Bernstein, chair of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board.

In the audience sat other easily recognizable names: Vivienne Armentrout (former Washtenaw County commissioner), Peter Allen (developer), Mary Hathaway (prominent activist for peace and social justice), Alice Ralph (former candidate for county board, city council, and author of a community commons proposal for the Library Lot), Tom Wieder (local attorney and long-time city Democratic Party activist), John Floyd (former candidate for city council), and Sabra Briere (city councilmember).

Part of the committee’s agenda was a discussion of how to approach beginning a process that the city council has agreed to let the DDA lead. The process could result in the development of different uses for four city-owned downtown parcels currently used for surface parking: the Kline Lot on South Ashley, the Palio Lot at Main and William, the old Y Lot at Fifth and William; and the Library Lot on South Fifth. The Library Lot is actually currently a construction site – the DDA is building a roughly 640-space underground parking garage on the site. [Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor Council Focuses on Downtown"]

Bernstein weighed in for a process that would begin with figuring out a vision: Where do we aspire to be in 30 years? He pointed to the AATA’s process of developing a transit master plan – still in the works – as an example of that kind of approach. [Chronicle coverage: "'Smart Growth' to Fuel Countywide Transit" ]

Parker shared some of the hurdles that are inherent in the library’s future plans for its downtown building – plans that are currently on hold. Those challenges involve the historical relationship between the library and the Ann Arbor Public Schools (the district has a right of first refusal on any offer to sell the building) and the need to ask voters to increase the library millage in order to fund a new building. [Chronicle coverage: "Citing Economy, Board Halts Library Project"]

Remarks from Mouat, a DDA board member, seemed to resonate with Allen, a developer seated in the audience. [Allen has long called for the master planning of the whole area around the Library Lot, not just the Library Lot itself. Chronicle coverage: "Column: Visions for the Library Lot"]

Mouat suggested that the process could include developing a vision for Ann Arbor that is not physical. To explain what he meant, Mouat noted that Austin is known as a “music capital” and Boulder is known as a “recreation capital.” Ann Arbor, he said, is known as the home of the University of Michigan – but what is Ann Arbor beyond the university? he asked. He said that for his part, he could imagine Ann Arbor becoming some kind of “food capital.”

Vision of Ann Arbor: Third Base, Caboose, Engine

Compared to Mouat’s vision of an Ann Arbor that is distinctive, but not based on the presence of the university, Di Rita’s take on Ann Arbor seemed closer to building that vision based on the university connection. In assessing the Library Lot location, he noted that its three major advantages are: (1) the nearby location of other institutions – the library and the transit center; (2) the nearby location of the restaurant and entertainment district; (3) the short walk to the university.

Di Rita sees Ann Arbor as being born to hit a triple – now it’s standing on third base. The question is: Does it want to run home? Ann Arbor could really take things to the next level, he said, but the question is whether there’s a community desire to do that. He said that based on the major stakeholders in the community he’d spoken with, there’s support among them to head towards home plate.

Di Rita noted that one of the things that makes Ann Arbor distinct is that even a person who lives out on Scio Church Road might have strong objections to a proposal for downtown Ann Arbor. In other cities, he said, it’s sometimes the case that only the immediately adjacent neighbors have objections. But that’s not the way Ann Arbor works, he said, and you have to “play the ball where it lies.”

Di Rita sees growth for Ann Arbor, even if it just stands on third base as far as its vision for itself – buildings are going to get built, he said.

Dante Chinni didn’t attend the partnerships committee meeting – by then he had returned to Washington, D.C. But I can imagine him agreeing with at least some of what Di Rita had to say. To Chinni, the most salient and distinctive part of Ann Arbor is the university. And he sees Ann Arbor’s growth as fueled by growth at the university. The Patchwork Nation analysis slots Washtenaw County into the “Campus and Career” community type. But Ann Arbor is surely much more than just the university, right? What does Chinni know – he’s not from here.

But Chinni actually is from here – or more accurately, from around these parts: He grew up in Warren. So he’s at least not as susceptible as other east-coast media types to thinking of Michigan as one place, typified by Detroit. From his Talk:

I mean, most people who don’t live here view Michigan as Detroit. They don’t even really think of the northern part of Michigan. And when you tell them that, Oh, no the county right next door to it, the unemployment rate is really only about, what 6 or 7 percent …

When Chinni was in town two years ago, Ann Arbor was being described by our local officials as a life preserver for the rest of the state. A couple of weeks ago, at a different meeting of Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board members, mayor John Hieftje described the state of Michigan as a train, headed over a cliff. But Ann Arbor was the caboose, Hieftje said, so we’d be the last to go over the cliff.

On the totter, Chinni and I agreed that maybe that train metaphor needs tweaking a bit – instead of a caboose, maybe Ann Arbor should be compared to an engine hooked to the other end pulling Michigan’s train away from the cliff. Specifically in the recovery of Detroit, Chinni sees a role for Ann Arbor:

This is what I think is going to happen: It’s not going to be that Ann Arbor’s just going to grow and grow and get really big and Detroit is to get smaller and smaller and smaller and all the people to move out here. Ann Arbor is going to become a bigger and bigger economic force and eventually that will rub off on Detroit.

And as Ann Arbor becomes a bigger and bigger economic force, Chinni thinks Ann Arbor will change:

Ann Arbor will change as part of that, but it won’t become Detroit. If Ann Arbor is successful at helping Detroit become what it can become, Ann Arbor will change, too. People who don’t think it’s been a change, Ann Arbor has changed since 1980. It has. I know people here don’t want to hear that, but it has changed. It is not the same city as it was back then. I mean politically, the student body has changed – it’s a different place.

So as Ann Arbor changes, I think it’s worth asking if the residents of Ann Arbor will be able to reach a consensus on a vision of this place that might help guide that change. And it looks like an attempt to find that consensus will be part of the DDA-led process to look at those four downtown parcels.

I hope that people who participate in the process along the way are prepared to accept that the community consensus vision might be different from their personal vision.

Patchwork Politics

It’s worth noting that Patchwork Nation is not a project borne out of desire to help Ann Arbor figure out its vision. It was born out of a desire to understand politics in the U.S. on a more detailed level than the red-state/blue-state maps the media tends to use around election time.

That goal led Chinni to take a county-by-county approach, which resulted in an analysis of each U.S. county as one of 12 types: Boom Towns, Campus and Careers, Emptying Nests, Evangelical Epicenters, Immigration Nation, Industrial Metropolis, Military Bastions, Minority Central, Monied Burbs, Mormon Outposts, Service Worker Centers, Tractor Country. [For interactive maps of the Patchwork analysis, visit the Patchwork Nation website.]

I’ve written about the book before, when then-candidate for mayor Steve Bean graced the other end of the teeter totter last fall.

As Chinni pointed out during his ride, everything that’s said about the community types is more true of the type than it is about individual places categorized by a type.

Still, I think it’s natural for anyone who picks up the book to find their own community and decide if Chinni and Gimpel got it right. What will also be interesting to see is if the Patchwork approach begins to serve as a reliable tool for getting more insight into national-level politics.

On the totter, Chinni described how he’ll be partnering with the PBS Newshour on upcoming 2012 election coverage, offering insight on those races from the Patchwork point of view. It’s possible we’ll start to see the Patchwork analysis seep into the approach taken by the media to its election coverage and analysis for the 2012 cycle.

For Chinni’s views in more detail and context, read Dante Chinni’s Talk.

Though the arrow points up, donations are actually down at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop.

When The Chronicle came across a notice that the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop was facing some challenges, we caught AATA bus No. 6 to South Industrial’s Resale Row to get the details.

Susan Soth, the store’s manager, said that donations of clothes, housewares and other items are down 50% since early December, compared to a year ago. And though sales had been going gangbusters earlier in 2008, since early December they’ve been flat or slightly down. On Sundays, for example, they’d generally bring in more than $1,000 – recently sales have been closer to $800. The winter season is typically a slower time of year, Soth said, but “it’s never been this slow, and we’re not alone.”

Soth believes that people who in the past donated to the thrift shop are now holding on to things, because of the rotten economy. Or instead of giving things away to charity, they’re selling the stuff on eBay to bring in extra cash.

The Chronicle encountered anecdotal evidence of the former phenomenon just last week. County commissioner Barbara Levin Bergman told us jokingly that she’d been shopping at the Home Shopping Network these days – that is, pulling things out of her closets and storage, instead of buying something new.

At the PTO Thrift Shop, the most noticeable shortages are in the houseswares section: Dishes, pots, pans and other kitchenware. In some cases, the shelves are literally bare, though Soth said they try to spread out what they have to make it look a little less sparse. Donations of electronics are down too, she said. Same for men’s clothing.

Susan Soth, manager of the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop, shows The Chronicle just how bare some of their shelves are in the housewares section. Pretty darn bare.

The only real bright spot has been a little extra business from the set crew of “Betty Anne Waters,” the Hilary Swank film that’s shooting in the area this month. They’ve been in four times so far, Soth said, each time buying about $200 to $300 worth of linens, curtains and other household items.

Just down the road from the PTO is the city’s ReUse Center, where manager Gary Urick told The Chronicle they’re seeing a similar trend, though not to the same degree. The center is getting fewer large appliances. And items that people brought in when they were getting rid of cabinets and such before doing some “discretionary redecorating” – there’s not as much of that happening these days, he said.

Like Soth, Urick characterized the winter as a slow time anyway, and that while donations were down, sales for December and January had been stable. He said they’d know by mid-April whether something was at play other than just a seasonal slump.

This isn’t an omnibus article looking at all the thrift and resale shops in town, but we were hoping to hit the Resale Row cluster on Industrial south of Jewett, which includes the PTO thrift shop, ReUse Center and Klothes Kloset, an upscale consignment shop. (The Row also includes Woman in the Shoe on Rosewood and the Salvation Army store on South State.) However, on Monday the Kloset is closed, so we gave them a call the next day.

The exterior of the Klothes Kloset, an upscale consignment store at 2401 S. Industrial.

Owner Patricia Wojtowicz stressed that her consignment store isn’t a thrift shop, but like other retailers, she said she’s been hit by the economy. Sales are way down – about 80% of her customers are people on a budget, and they aren’t making nearly as many purchases as in the past.

She’s also getting more people who are desperate for money, who don’t know how the consignment business works, and who bring in items that they want her to buy from them. “They bring in crap,” she said, things that are soiled or torn that even a thrift store wouldn’t accept. Or they bring in clothes they’ve bought at a thrift store, and want her to sell.

She charges a $20 membership fee before people can sell their clothes at her store, a nominal amount meant to discourage people who are just looking to make a quick buck. “Otherwise,” she said, “I would have a lot of people bringing in junk and wasting my time.”

Shoppers on Monday inside the cavernous ReUse Center at 2420 S. Industrial.

Dream On Futon, at the southeast corner of Liberty and Ashley.

“It’s just so sad,” Doreen Collins told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning, standing in the front room of Dream On Futon. “I love this building. I love being on this corner. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like not to have this to come to every day.”

Doreen and John Collins opened Dream On Futon 15 years ago at the southeast corner of Liberty and Ashley. Last Friday, Doreen put up large “Store Closing” signs, and plans to shut down the business at the end of March. She said they just couldn’t pay their bills anymore – the monthly heating bill is around $400 – and they haven’t been paying themselves salaries for a while.

We heard the news when one of our readers saw the signs and filed a Stopped.Watched item about it, and so we stopped by Tuesday to find out what happened. Collins said the business has been struggling for about the past four years. The 2006 opening of Ikea in Canton was a blow, as was Pfizer’s closing and the general economic meltdown. “Nobody has any confidence in the world right now,” Collins said.

Doreen Collins describes some of the pictures on the Shakey Jake memorial wall in her store.

There’s something more fundamental at play, too. Collins says she’s treasured talking to customers and “just being a little part of people’s lives for a minute.” But she sees that society is changing and fewer people seem interested in that kind of exchange.

Her strong sense of place and her fondness for the building are clear. She took time to describe the structure’s history, showing where the mechanics bay was located in the back lower level when the building was a Sears tire store. Over the years it housed Monroe Antiques and after that a graphic arts firm.  One of those graphic artists, Zeke Mallory, designed the images on her store’s front awning and windows (he also painted the large seascape mural on the building that houses Tios on East Huron). Then the property was sold to its current owner, Phil Conlin, who added the glassed-in front room a few years ago.

There are memorials, too: A wall of photos in memory of Shakey Jake, and outside, embedded in the stone wall built by Dave Menefee is a small plaque in memory of Roger Davis, who was shot while working as a bouncer at Mr. Flood’s Party in 1975. “What I’ve learned on this corner is so amazing,” Collins said.

Back in the store, everything is for sale. Collins hopes to liquidate as much as possible – there’s also a warehouse “full of beauties” – because she wants to move and store as little as possible. Futons, of course, but also tatami beds and Shoji lamps, glass sculpture and vases, yoga blankets and pillows, statues of Buddha and more.

Doreen Collins, owner of Dream On Futon.

Collins said she won’t be giving up her work entirely. She plans to continue selling her handmade pillows and futon covers, possibly at the Farmers Market or through her network of local yoga instructors and chiropractors. “I’ll just need to get the word out that I’m not through forever,” she said. (After the store closes, she can be reached at 734-665-3826.)

And though she rents a home in Ann Arbor within walking distance of the store, she hopes to find some land in the country where her family – including her husband and two of her sons, who work as carpenters – can grow their own food, as they did years ago when they lived in a farm near Waterloo.

But don’t be surprised if you see her around even after the store closes. She laughs: “I’ll probably still come and sit on the corner every day.”

Dream On Futon is located at 303 S. Ashley in Ann Arbor. Store hours are Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m. The store is expected to close by March 31.

Doreen Collins holds an old photo of Joe Tiboni and Shakey Jake.

At the corner of Liberty & Ashley, just outside of Dream On Futon, is a memorial plaque for Roger Davis, who was shot in 1975 at Mr. Flood's Party. The stone wall was built by Dave Menefee.

Zeke Mallory was a former owner of the building where Dream On Futon is located, and he designed the awning and window signs for that store. The photo above shows a seascape mural by Mallory on the building that houses Tios restaurant on East Huron.

Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop.

This fall and winter Shaman Drum Bookshop went into a steep financial decline. Textbook sales declined $510K from last year. We managed to cut our payroll and other operating expenses by $80K, but that didn’t begin to cover our losses.

There was some good news. Our trade (general interest) book sales on the first floor were actually up in December from last year by 10%, which is extraordinary given what many other retailers were reporting. And trades sales in January were up 15%. Still, this hardly compensates for our losses in textbook sales.

The evaporation of our position has been astonishingly swift. We had been holding relatively even financially until September. Suddenly we’ve moved into the red.

I sort of saw this coming.

In July, 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published “Reading At Risk,” a report detailing the decline of literary reading in America. This was followed by a second report in November, 2007, “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” chronicling “recent declines in voluntary reading and test scores alike, exposing trends that have severe consequences for American society.”

Around the same time the NEA reports came out, I audited a University of Michigan course on the History of the Book in which I learned that every 500 years a major technological shift occurs. Five centuries ago Gutenberg invented (or perfected) moveable type. Now, with the digitization of print, we find ourselves in the middle of another sea change. I recall wondering what the new business model for bookstores would look like, and I worried that our industry would suffer from the same chaos roiling the music world.

And a few years ago the University Library held a conference on Digitization. I was invited to be a panelist and I defended the traditional book as still the most efficient technology for delivering information. I also said I was worried about collateral damage during our forward march into the joyous digitized future. I’m no Luddite, but everyone there seemed to me to be hypnotized by the new technology. Of course, it is dazzling.

In my own retail neighborhood I’ve watched the collapse of Schoolkids Records, an awesome independent record store, due largely to the impact of digitization, and it looks like I’ve got a front row seat on another sad decline. Borders Books, which I think at one time was the best general interest book chain in the English-speaking world, is a shadow of its former self and seems headed for oblivion.

Early this fall I told a group of booksellers that our industry (including the publishing sector) had a business model that didn’t work very well for any of us. A few of the booksellers said they didn’t think this was true, the others were silent.

Two weeks ago I met again with booksellers and publishers from around the country at the American Bookseller Association’s Winter Institute. Now everyone seems to agree that the book business is in trouble. The disintermediation resulting from customers migrating to the internet coupled with the frightening economic crisis makes it terribly difficult for us to see a way forward.

The crisis at Shaman Drum Bookshop is due to our loss of textbook sales. This fall the university introduced a program which allows professors to list their textbooks online, which effectively drives a significant number of students to the internet. It is impossible for local textbook stores to compete under these circumstances. I don’t think there are any villains here (well, maybe some greedy textbook publishers), but this is one of the consequences of the university’s policy.

The efficiencies of Amazon – even given the clever algorithms that bring us if you like this, you’ll like that – are no substitute for browsing in a bookshop.

In 1942 the economist Joseph A. Schumpeter said, “Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in….”  This is our system and Schumpeter is undoubtedly correct, but there is a countervailing fact that is equally true: Stability is essential for a civilized society. The second truth is what I’ve learned selling books in this community for forty years, being married for thirty-seven years and raising two children.

It also seems to me that if we are witnessing the collapse of Big Capitalism, the way to revitalize the economy is through supporting locally owned businesses. If you agree, please lend your good energy to Think Local First, the movement supporting locally-owned independent businesses in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County (www.ThinkLocalFirst.net).

What Is To Be Done?

Shaman Drum Bookshop is around one hundred steps from the central campus of the University of Michigan, one of the top ten public universities in the world. I believe the university community and Ann Arbor citizens who love literature need a first-rate browsing store for books in the humanities in the university neighborhood. This is what we aspire to be.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it has been clear to me for a while now that the current model doesn’t work. In March 2008 I announced my wish to give the bookshop to the community. I hired Bob Hart, a recently retired Episcopal priest, to research the feasibility of forming a nonprofit bookshop. We wrote up a careful business plan, met with a good lawyer, filled out the IRS forms and submitted our papers in July. In November the IRS notified us that our application was still under consideration. The review is taking longer because a for-profit business is a component of the project.

The new entity is called the Great Lakes Literary Arts Center, whose mission is “to develop excellence in the literary arts by nurturing creative writing, providing quality literature and fostering a literate public.” We’re already hosting two classes in the store. If we do not survive this downturn, I hope the Great Lakes Literary Art Center will continue under other auspices. It is a good idea.

Last week I consulted a lawyer and a financial advisor. They both felt the store could manage the debt load with some temporary help from our friends and a bit of luck. My landlord, who is a decent man, will allow us to keep our first floor space, vacating only the second floor of the building.

The issue now is this: After we scale back the store, do we still have a viable business? I asked my business manager to crunch the numbers based on our projected sales for the next two years. He reported back that we do not have a sustainable business model. Given our current sales projections, we will continue to lose money.

This means very simply that we would need additional revenue sources/streams to make the store viable.

For many booksellers – certainly including me – this is our darkest hour. I know this sounds melodramatic, but that’s the way it feels to me in the middle of the night when I’m trying to figure out how I can possibly make this work.

If I can’t figure this out, the most realistic and responsible thing I can do is shut the store down and move on.

The question then becomes: What is the next version of a bookstore? This is something worth thinking about carefully. Like you, I want to live in a community that has many good bookshops. But then I’ve been spoiled living in Ann Arbor.

Whatever happens, I am filled with a sense of gratitude for having been able to sell books in this town for the past 29 years. It’s been absolutely wonderful.

Karl Pohrt is owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, which opened in 1980. He is a former board member of the American Booksellers Association and a leader among the nation’s independent booksellers. The Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History is named in his honor, recognizing his work in fostering relationships between the community and the University of Michigan. 

How their wishes will be answered isn’t clear. They’ve been told to supply “shovel-ready” projects, those that are ready to go within 90 days of getting funded. Federal dollars will likely be delivered to the state, with the governor and state legislature responsible for allocating those funds. The Chronicle recently talked to state Sen. Liz Brater, who said that until Congress decides how much it’s willing to provide and how it wants the states to handle those funds, “we’re really in a holding pattern here.”

So what exactly do city and county officials hold in their wish lists? Housing, roads, sewers, sidewalks and more – there’s no shortage of projects. The files below give the details.

City of Ann Arbor Wish List

City of Ann Arbor Environmental Wish List

Washtenaw County Wish List

Washtenaw Road Commission Wish List (JPG file)

UPDATE: Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) Wish List

Hey, the party is over. We don’t save much anymore. We spend what we earn, borrow some more from other governments, to buy all of the latest plasma electronics at low prices at Wal-mart. America’s largest retailer then ships the $10 billion we borrowed in merchandise payments back to China each year and we start the cycle all over again.

When the financial market’s balloon recently exploded, our government blows up another balloon by printing more money and distributing it out to banks to loan to us so we can keep spending and avoid the party-ending migraine hangover. This new infusion of money cheapens the value of the dollar so we have to borrow more to just maintain the same lifestyle. In some respects this spend-and-borrow lifestyle is our own Madoff ponzi scheme with our children and grandchildren being the eventual victims of our own actions.

To withdraw from this spend-and-borrow addiction, we in the private sector need to start making competitive American products for the global marketplace and saving a part of the profits. Those of us in the public sector need to shrink the size of government and make it more efficient.

Why do we need 1,242 townships in Michigan? Can’t the townships’ duties of assessing property, collecting taxes, conducting elections, and providing fire and police services be turned over to local counties (who also provide most of these services) in an effort to pull Michigan from its fiscal crisis? I could just as easily send my taxes to the county offices as to the township treasurer’s farm on Old U.S. 12 (who then remits the taxes back to the county). On second thought, why do I have to mail the payment anywhere? I should be able to pay the taxes over the Internet, just as I do many of the other household bills.

Why do we need 84 county road commissions in Michigan? Are the roads in Washtenaw County so different than the roads in Livingston that we need separate commissioners, lawyers, accountants, auditors, maintenance supervisors, etc.? Recently I was trying to get to Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a snowy afternoon. I had no problem on Washtenaw roads but when the snowplow got off at the county line, the Wayne section of the freeway had not been plowed and traffic was at a crawl. If the Washtenaw road supervisor had more regional responsibility, I likely would have made my flight on time.

These local entities were established before Michigan became a state and their size allowed people living on the perimeter to walk to the township hall and return the same day. The argument for the status quo is that the township people are friendlier and provide more personal service. Unfortunately, this form of localism is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Public and private sector consolidations will eventually happen. A weak dollar and a shrinking property tax base will require that hard choices be made. The party is over. Let’s not leave our hangover to our children.