Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Prostitution sting leads to two arrests

But What About the Hookers???

This weekend, I was hanging out with my sister bitching about this whole shovel mess in Ypsilanti. My sister reminded me of a story that she feels captures the essence of Ypsilanti...

A while back, I went to a neighborhood association meeting where representatives from the Police Dept were available to listen to citizen's concerns. For TWO hours, it was nothing but bitching about barking dogs, uncut grass, and people speeding on Prospect. Finally, after everyone was finished with that, one man stood up and asked, "But what about the hookers? Is anyone going to do anything about the hookers"

That made me laugh for days. And it has helped me put this issue into perspective a little bit. I want a walkable city as much as the next person and obviously I think it is important that the city government be accountable to Ypsilanti citizens. But our city has problems that are way worse than snow on sidewalks. Just sayin.

Car Thieves in Ypsilanti

Last night I had dinner with some neighbors and there was some talk about crime and safety in the neighborhood -- mostly in relation to reducing city services like the police force. As it happens, I am not against reducing some services but I am not so sure about reducing police and fire services.

And just in case I needed a reminder about why, the car I've borrowed from my Dad was broken into last night. At first I thought I had forgotten to lock it but the police officers who took the report pointed out where the thieves had forced open the drivers side door lock. They also pried apart the ignition which activated the anti-theft system so now, the car wont start. The cops said that they probably tried to steal it because it is a Chrysler and apparently Chryslers are easy cars to steal...usually. Not all of them have anti-theft systems I guess. The tow truck driver said the same thing.

Ok, the anti-theft system did what it was supposed to do and the car wasnt stolen. But I had to have it towed to the Chrysler dealership and I had to take today off of work (unpaid) which I can ill afford. Again, I guess I should be grateful that this happened today rather than next week when I'll be in my first week at my new job.

I have to admit though, that I am getting tired of this. I usually dont lock my car and it gets broken into on average about once a month. But no one has ever actually tried to steal my car before. They just take loose change and returnable bottles usually. This is a somewhat recent thing too. It was a few years after I first moved in here that my car was broken into. It bugs the crap out of me though. It bugs me that there are people in the world who have so little respect for the property of others. It bugs me that we have an economy were some people get desperate. This summer has been pretty bad for me crime wise too. I had my hand chair stolen from my porch, I had a guy sleeping on my lawn in his underpants and a sleeping bag stolen from my neighbor..and now this.

I cant help wondering if all of this petty theft has something to do with the whole situation at the jail. The jail is always full so often the police arrest people and then just let them go right away. The people who live far away from Ypsilanti generally are the ones who have voted not to spend money to expand the jail. Why should they? They dont have the same crime problems. They have been able to move away from such social issues.

Right now, I cant say that I totally blame them. Well, I blame them for not voting to expand the jail but I dont really blame them for choosing to remove themselves geographically from the crime that necessitates a jail and an expensive police force. If you live far from the poor people, you are much less likely to be a victim of a crime. So you can get away with less police and that saves you money on your taxes. It is normal and rational for a person to make such a decision.

As much as I complain about the tax rate in Ypsilanti, we dont pay the same taxes that people who live in the City of Detroit pay. They *really* pay through the nose tax wise and I dont mind mentioning that their city income tax combined with the highest property tax rate in the state combined with lousy services has not really encouraged people to move there. One has to wonder, is Ypsilanti headed in the same direction?

Our tax system is broken. Seriously. You see, when people are looking around for a place to live, they can choose a place like Ypsilanti or Detroit. But there is infrastructure in place in those places that has to be paid for. There are old employee pensions, roads, parks, etc. OR people can choose to live someplace close to the city where they can avoid paying for city services while still benefiting from proximity to the city. Then, as the people who can afford to move out, move out, they leave behind the people who really cant afford to leave. They leave behind the social problems and poverty that lead to higher crime levels which leaves fewer tax payers to pay for those things. That higher taxation further discourages the people who can best afford to pay for things from moving into cities. And so on... Combine all of that with other market forces and voila! You have SE Michigan and all of the sprawl that is so characteristic of this area.

So? What is to be done. I know some people take the view that the answer is to gentrify the area, to drive up rents and property values so much that the poor people are forced to move. I wonder how much of this type of thinking was behind the failed Water Street project? It certainly seems to be a technique that has worked for Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is much more high brow than it was when I first moved there 22 years ago. But, I think Water Street is a good example of how the gentrification approach is nearly impossible.

A better approach would be to fix the property tax structure so that tax payers in areas with a lot of social problems dont end up paying for *all* of those problems while people who live in places removed from them dont pay anything at all. Of course, that solution might be just as impossible at least judging from the jail situation. I still say that the Ypsilanti police should start releasing people who would have gone to the jail if there had been room in places like Saline or Milan or even Ypsilanti Twp. That might motivate those motherfuckers to vote for a bigger jail!

I'm So Hot, I Have Men Camped Out On My Front Lawn

I am really tired today. I woke up at around 4:30 this morning and I happened to look out of my front window. There was a guy camped out on my front lawn with a sleeping bag! At first I thought he was a dog so I went and put some clothes on so I could go out to see if it had tags but when I looked out of the window again, I noticed he was standing up and wearing his hooded sleeping bag like a cape and dressed only in his underpants. I really couldn’t tell much about him except that he was no dog. He was just a silhouette in the glow of the street light.

He kind of reminded me of a guy I used to know named Bruce who always wore a hooded cape and had I not recently learned of Bruce’s death, I might have actually thought it was him. Not only because of the cape but because it simply wouldn’t surprise me to find Bruce sleeping on some random lawn in Ypsilanti. In a way I wish it had been Bruce because that would mean that the rumors I had heard of his death had been false. Also, I know that he wouldn’t ever hurt anyone.

I thought of just ignoring the guy and letting him try to get some small amount of sleep. But I couldn’t. I mean, I just couldn’t go back to sleep myself knowing that guy was out there. It was creepy. I kept thinking of that naked man who broke into my house a few years back. What if *this* guy decided to try something similar while I was asleep? There were my neighbors to consider too. What if he decided to try something similar over at their houses while they were asleep? It just didn’t seem prudent to ignore him.

I didn’t want to deal with him on my own though either. So I called the police. As usual, I was very impressed with the response I got from the Ypsilanti Police Department. I called their non-emergency number and they were still at my house within five minutes. They told me that hanging out dressed in underpants and wearing a sleeping bag like a cape is not a crime but they were sympathetic that I was scared about the guy being on my lawn. And they got him to leave although he left his sleeping bag. I moved that this morning because it looked like it could be an expensive one and since today is trash day, I worried that it might get picked up. At any rate, I continue to have a strong appreciation for the Ypsilanti Police Department. They’ve always responded quickly even for minor things.

I cant get this guy off of my mind though. Why was he camped out on my front lawn? I mean other than the obvious explanation that I am so beautiful that it isn’t surprising at all for me to have men camped on my front lawn ;). But seriously, I wonder what his story is. Is he one of the mentally ill guys from one of the local group homes? Is he one of those people in town who get caught up in all of the drugs and prostitution that goes on over on Michigan Ave? Was he kicked out of his house in the middle of the night to wander the neighborhood wearing only his underpants? I guess there is no way to know. I hope that he is ok. I hope that the police could help him.

Update: I found out later that the sleeping bag belonged to my neighbor where it had been stolen from her truck. I am especially glad that I moved the sleeping bag now that I know it didnt even belong to him but actually belonged to my neighbor.

Let me Give You a Hand!

ugh. Someone stole my hand chair from my front porch. That always creeps me out a little bit. I mean. I know strangers do come up onto the porch from time to time. Sometimes they knock and try to sell me stuff and sometimes they come to leave fliers from local restaurants. Still, when something goes missing...it is a reminder that *anyone* can come onto the porch.

This chair used to belong to my friend Gary and I have to say that although I have owned it for a while now and although I have occasionally parked my butt into the chair's surprisingly comfortable cupped palm, most of my best memories about the chair were from when the chair belonged to Gary. Still, I always really liked the chair and it used to give me a smile every day when I got home from work. Oh well, it had some sentimental value but I am trying to have less stuff and I suppose one way to look at this is that it is the universe's way of liberating me from some small portion of my stuff.

I always wonder about the sort of person who would walk onto someone's porch to steal a hand chair. Did they steal it because it seriously is a cool chair? Or was it someone who thinks they can resell a used hand chair? It is funny too because I know a lot of people who have stolen stuff before. Some people have cheated on their taxes. Some people have stolen cable or illegally downloaded music or whatever. Still, it seems that actually stealing a physical object from someone's porch is not something most folks would do. Oh well, it was probably a Gary groupie. Someone heard that Gary's ass used to OWN that chair and they couldnt live without it.

Honestly though, I have often wondered why things like lawn and porch furniture dont get stolen more often. I think about that every time I sit down with the Smith and Hawken catalog. I mean, I love the teak benches and I know they last forever and I know that one of those benches would look lovely on my porch. But even if I could afford one, and I most certainly cannot, wouldnt a thousand dollar bench on a front porch just be a little bit too tempting?

I did call the cops about this though. I told them they didnt need to send anyone over but they did anyways. They sent a very nice woman who took down all of the information. Man, it has got to be boring being a cop sometimes. I mean, I can not imagine that The Great Hand Job is a caper worth writing home about.