Yeah, I'm just going to talk tonight about several random things. So..so, there it is.
Today the Great Lakes Offshore Wind council gave an informational presentation in my home city, Muskegon, about Michigan's plans for offshore wind power in the Great Lakes. It was one of three such presentations in the state and it was originally going to be in some other city, but the 1150 MW wind farm proposed for West Michigan sort of shifted the meeting location to Muskegon...
100 people showed up to the meeting in Bay City. Less than 50 showed up in Escanaba. Over 300 showed up in Muskegon.
A majority of attendees expressed support for offshore wind power.
Wireless audience voting equipment showed 62 percent of those participating in the Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council’s Muskegon meeting Tuesday favored the concept of offshore wind farms, with 32 percent opposing.
-- Article
Our non-profit group, the West Michgian Jobs Group, got out the word to its supporters and managed to drive at least 50 folks to the presentation. Maybe they woulda showed up anyway, but maybe not. Either way, some good news and a successful organizing effort.
Huzzah.
The people are speaking...
Which reminds me...last night I saw Michael Moore's new movie Capitalism, A Love Story. He pretty clearly makes a case that capitalism gets in the way of a healthy democracy. The shrinking and dismantling of the middle class is by design...
...I don't know what the rest of the country is like, I guess. But I see people with nice houses and newer cars...people who go into Best Buy and get a big television or a new computer......and I wonder: What the hell do these people DO for a living?
Good grief.
The U3 unemployment in Muskegon has risen to 16.9%. Employment, the number of people working, is at 70,900, the lowest it's been since 1994 when Muskegon was coming down from it's LAST bout of double digit unemployment.
I mean...come ON.
Can somebody please put a friggin end to this shit?
On the up side, I talked to my neighbor a couple days ago. I was weeding my garden while my little boys ran around in the yard and the smaller one kept trying to take off his pants. Anyway, my neighbor who dotes over his lawn waved to me and we started a conversation over the chain link fence and a tiny hemlock tree we planted 3 years ago but has never grown.
He told me that the tool and die company he works for has had so much work lately they've had to turn away the work! It doesn't sound like they're hiring just yet...but they have tons of work and THAT is fantastic.
anyway...
Muskegon just expanded its bus schedule to include evenings...instead of shutting down at 5:30pm, it now runs until 10:30pm. Apparently the busses have seen an increase in traffic over the years. A 60% increase since 2002. Apparently the long term economic malaise has been good for one industry...mass transit. Now folks without cars have a greater diversity of jobs and shifts they can have. Bleh. Our car's transmission is on the fritz. Ol besse needs to hang on. We need that little fella to hang on just a bit longer.
Some friends and I have arranged a crop trade...I'm growing root vegetables and tomatoes in my yard and they're growing peppers and beans.
In the meantime another friend and I have been daydreaming over a building with a greenhouse...a quarter of an acre lot and 1600 square feet, not including the greenhouse or full basement...selling for $35,000. Plus it could be used for an office. Some crackpot plan to experiment with hydroponics and aquaculture. But, what...we neither of us got the dough. It would be interesting to experiment with this stuff, though, just for kicks.
And that's all I have to say about that.