Proposed state lease of Belle Isle ripped by Senate committee chair [MI]

[alp227]

Source: Detroit Free Press

LANSING — The City of Detroit might have a hard time getting any money for Belle Isle if state Senate Appropriations chairman Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, has his way.

In a speech during the Senate session Tuesday, Kahn said, he doesn’t understand why the state keeps pushing a deal to lease the city island for 30 years and invest millions in park upgrades and fixes when the proposal is opposed by the two mayoral candidates — Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan —and the City Council.

“There is competition for state funds to fund state parks,” he said. “I don’t understand the notion that this would be resurfaced in Belle Isle, despite the fact that neither mayoral candidate supports it and it’s been rejected by City Council.’

His comments came a day after the Detroit City Council rejected a state plan to lease Belle Isle for 30 years, turn it into a state park and promising to invest $10 to $20 million into the park over the life of the lease.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20131015/NEWS06/310150148/belle-isle-detroit-bankruptcy-state-senate-park-lease

[freshwest]

1. What the hell is this with the money from taxpayers? The 'producers' can't fund their paradise now?

Belle Isle Commonwealth Proposal Would Convert Detroit Park Into Private City-State

Huffpo - 01/15/2013

A Detroit-area developer has proposed a bizarre and controversial solution to the Motor City's monetary problems -- sell off the city's Belle Isle park to private investors so they can transform it into a privately-owned bastion of free market capitalism...

Under Lockwood's more utopian proposal, the Belle Isle city-state would print its own money, write its own laws and accommodate a population of 35,000 people. A website promoting the plan draws parallels with the principality of Monaco, a sovereign city-state located on the French Riviera, saying it supports a comparable population on about half the landmass of the island...

"The setting is Belle Isle, 30 years in the future, " reads a blurb for the book on commonwealthofbelleisle.com. "The construction of this remarkable new nation by private money provided years of economic boost for Detroit and Southeast Michigan, and the sparks generated by the fires of 'can do' optimism and a new social pact jumped the river, causing factories and farms to be built in Detroit, restoring it to its former glory."

Deadline Detroit's Jeff Wattrick goes even further, calling the proposal "unhinged":"If Belle Isle could be extracted from Michigan to form a tax-free Puerto Rico-like 'commonwealth,' then why couldn’t other parts of the country secede from their respective states?" he said. "The possibility of balkanizing these United States for the sake of ideological purity is to effectively dissolve what our Founding Fathers called 'a more perfect Union'."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/belle-isle-commonwealth-city-state-detroit_n_2478922.html

[djean111]

3. It sort of looks like Belle Isle is being purposely locked out of state money in order to free it up

for private development. Getting money and a commitment to be maintained and improved as a state park seems better to me than selling it to private developers. Looks like those candidates are not for keeping belle isle for the taxpayers. I find the idea of a private entity within the United States, but not subject to its laws, kind of creepy and a bad precedent.
Maybe I am misunderstanding the intent of the developers?

[okaawhatever]

4. I think the city is worried the state will be the ones to turn it over to private companies or sub-

lease it. Something to that effect. It was the state who asked a city tax be dropped a few years ago to encourage investment. At the time they were promised state funds. The state funds are still owed and weren't paid at the time of Detroit bankruptcy. I think Detroit is right not to trust the state right now.

[djean111]

6. Thanks, I had not thought of that angle. Hope the city can do something with it.

[alfredo]

5. A strip mall would look great there.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. An upscale mall, luxury apartments, boat slips, and a gatehouse at the bridge ...

... ordinary Detroiters need not apply.

[alfredo]

8. I spent many a fine day tramping around Belle Isle. I loved the Cactus room at

the conservatory.

Are deer still present on the island?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Didn't see any deer

but I've only been there a few times in the last few years.

They used to have some deer that were completely white. Dunno if they were albino, or just a hair color variation.

[alfredo]

10. They were real small. Link below.

http://belleislenaturezoo.org/enrichment/deer-feeding.html

[PeoViejo]

2. The mini Confederacy of One.

...soon to be followed by others.