Good morning - mlive



Good morning.

No, I’m not here to say that Saginaw is as idyllic as Mayberry, or that it’s the Good Ship Lollipop. I’m not saying that Darnell Earley is Big Brother, that I’m the Gipper, or that cross-dressing is common in the advertising industry.

When Shirley Temple sang “The Good Ship Lollipop” in 1934, Saginaw had 80,000 people. It was just 40 years after its biggest industry, and more than half of Saginaw’s jobs, had completely collapsed. But another industry had just taken off. In 1934 the company born as Jackson Church and Wilcox had only recently changed its name to Saginaw Steering Gear. And we were about to experience unprecedented population and economic growth.

When The Andy Griffith Show debuted in 1960, Saginaw had about 100,000 people, and we were reaching the apex of what Jackson Church and Wilcox started. Saginaw was one of the nation’s biggest players in one of the nation’s biggest industries. It was affluent, growing and considered, in 1969, an “All-American City.”

As we know, much of that, too, went away.

By 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected and “Bosom Buddies” premiered, and 1984, when Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, we’d lost nearly 25 percent of our population and thousands of automotive jobs. We averaged 10,000 violent crimes and more than 20 homicides per year.

I say all this to illustrate that our crime, our economy, our population – our success – is cyclical.

When the lumber bubble burst, it took about 30 years for us to hit bottom before we started to come back up again.

The auto bubble didn’t burst so much as slowly deflate, over a period of about 35 years.

Now, I know there would be disagreement over when we hit bottom this time, or even if we have. But I believe, as do many people in this room, that by most important measures, Saginaw has been on the up side of the cycle for a few years now.

We’re in the black. We’re adding to our fund balance. While other cities are struggling with deficits and being taken over by emergency financial managers, they’re looking at Saginaw and asking, “how’d you do that?”

We did it by making, over the last six years, a lot of hard choices that other cities had put off. We’ve strategically outsourced some of our support functions. We’ve worked closely with our unions to bring down HR costs. We’ve cut back on some non-essential services. We’ve found innovative new ways to deliver other ones. Some have been a hit from the start, such as the inter-departmental code-enforcement initiative called SCENIC. At least it’s a hit with the people who are calling in the complaints. The ones getting cited, on the other hand, often use another word that ends in “H-I-T.”

Some of those initiatives are controversial. Such as the possibility of a multi-jurisdictional fire district.

It’s only being explored at this time. And many people don’t like the idea. But there are guys in Lansing who hold the purse strings for about a quarter of our general fund ... and they like it.

We’re going to end up in bed with somebody. I’d rather the decision about whom we’re sleeping with be ours, not Lansing’s.

Through our work with community partners, we’re able to offer more – and better – recreational opportunities for our young people than we have in a decade.

Go out today and drive south on Washington and you can see some of the economic development that’s re-shaping the City’s core. There’s more on the way: CMU should break ground on its medical school within the year. GM just announced a major investment in Saginaw Metal Casting Operations.

Yes, we had a high-profile strikeout or two. But the singles and doubles we’re hitting: in healthcare, in financial services ... in carbide tooling, in pickles and peppers ... are scoring a lot of runs for us.

While you’re out and about, take a look at how far we’ve come reducing blight. In five years, we’ve demolished about a thousand vacant and abandoned buildings. And through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, we’ve turned many tipping point homes into the nicest houses on their blocks.

We now have nearly two-dozen active neighborhood associations, people who are investing their time and their talent to tackle their neighborhood’s problems head-on.

We continue to make significant inroads in reducing crime. Unfortunately, not enough of us believe that, including our governor.

Many of you have read or heard my rant ... I mean opinions ... on the FBI’s violent crime “rankings.” I think the most important thing to remember is this: you can’t get to the numbers without reading this warning from the FBI: “don’t use these statistics to rank cities.”

The fact that the “rankings” then contain fairly arbitrary qualifiers makes them even less valid. “Most violent city ... per capita ...with population over 50,000.” If we put in enough qualifiers, we can say Gavvy Cravath is the best hitter in major-league history.

Ultimately, I don’t care how we’re doing compared to Camden, or St. Louis, or Memphis. Neither does our police chief. And neither should you.

What you should care about is whether our numbers are going up or down. We’ve had 20- to 30-percent drops in violent crime every year since 2008. You all saw the story yesterday that part-one crime is down 50 percent since 2005. And, because I’m a history geek who appreciates the perspective history gives us, let’s consider this: In 1974, Saginaw was at its height … just before the bottom dropped out. We had about 90,000 residents. And we had 51 homicides. Last year, in a city of 51,000, we had 12. Let’s do the math.

In 1974 – remember, that’s when the people looking out the back of the train think everything was perfect – you had a five tenths of one percent chance of being a homicide victim.

Today, it’s two tenths of a percent. Statistically, you’re more than twice as safe in Saginaw today as you were when this city was considered at its best.

Think back to 1982: We still had 77,000 people, we still had a lot of GM jobs, and, if you ask people who were around then, they’ll tell you they felt a lot safer then ... than they do now.

This despite the fact that in 1982, we had 10,000 index crimes compared to last year’s 3,000, and 23 homicides. You had a 13-percent chance of being an index crime victim in 1982. Today, it’s about half that.

All of this is a testament to our law enforcement staff ... and to the citizens of Saginaw who have supported a public safety millage that is, now, larger than our general fund levy.

The fact that it’s not recognized is a testament to our media landscape, but that’s a rant for another day.

Today, by most of the standards of the governor’s EVIP program, we’re ahead of the pack. A couple of weeks ago, Mayor Pro-Tem Browning filled in for me at an Urban Core Mayors Group meeting. And he was amazed at the way all these other cities – Flint, Dearborn, Lansing, Jackson …even Grand Rapids ... kept looking at him and saying, “Tell us how you guys in Saginaw fixed that.”

I know we still have too many kids in gangs, with guns, and with no direction.

We still had, last year, 12 too many homicides.

We still have too many people who are unemployed and too many people who are unemployable.

We still have too many abandoned properties and too many burned-out hulks.

We still face the challenges of shrinking revenues ... and rising costs.

And we still have too many people who sit back and say, well, somebody else needs to fix it. And the funny thing is, they’re the ones who are most likely to disagree when you or I say: we’re on the way back up.

Council knows. The 430 people who work for the City know. The people in those neighborhood associations know. And I think nearly everyone in this room knows that Saginaw’s on the way back up.

Because you are the ones who are making it happen.

And now that we’re on the way back up, what are we going to find at the top?

Over the last year or so, Council and staff have worked hard to create a vision of Saginaw 10 years from now. Here’s what we see:

We see a city that has reclaimed its longtime position as the region’s most inviting, attractive and affordable place to live, work and play ... because it has:

World class public services. With new technology, with new relationships, with new attitudes, Saginaw has, in 2022, an effective, high-performing and sustainable service delivery system.

Opportunity and entrepreneurism. After more than a century of being a “company town,” where I waited for somebody to come and give me a job, Saginaw is, in 2022, a place where I go out and create my own job ... and then show others how to do the same.

Quality neighborhoods. After decades of experimenting with “urban renewal,” we’ve learned that the secret to a strong city is strong neighborhoods. Saginaw, in 2022, has great ones.

High-quality education. Starting from a core of some of the state’s best and most innovative programs, boosted by free post-secondary education through Saginaw’s Promise and close alliance with our business community, Saginaw has, in 2022, a school system that’s a regional magnet.

Top-notch healthcare. A nationally recognized neurosciences research institute. Teaching hospitals. Medical and allied health education. In 2022, Saginaw remains the specialty care center for more than 20 Michigan counties and beyond.

A rich variety of arts and culture. Those of us here already know, today, what kind of world-class arts and cultural institutions we have. In the next 10 years? It’s only going to get better.

Premier recreational attractions. We take for granted our park system. A lot of cities would kill for it. We produce world-class athletes. We have a wealth of participant and spectator sports and nearly every form of outdoor recreation. And we don’t even need to look ahead 10 years for that.

A sense of place rooted in our heritage. We’ve learned from our mistakes, in which, in our drive to “renew,” we destroyed many of the things that put the “there” there. In 2022, we value our natural, historic and architectural treasures. Because they help us remember people who put their wealth, their work, their hearts and their souls into this city ... and they help us remember why this city’s worth us doing the same.

That’s what Council sees. You’ll see it, too.

You’ll see a city that’s adapted, that’s evolved, that’s been reinvented to meet the realities of today.

And in 2022, I think we’ll look back at the last 20 or so years as a trial we had to face to make us better, to help us adapt and evolve. We’ve come through the survival of the fittest, Nietzsche’s things that do not kill us that make us stronger, the boot camp that makes the Marine, the fire that hardens the steel.

We adapt, we evolve and we reinvent because of tragedy, adversity or obsolescence ... not in spite of it. And we can see examples everywhere.

America being what it is today, I’ve opted to go with what really gets people’s attention. Celebrities.

As Shirley Temple became older, it became impossible for her to live up to her childhood image. After her comeback TV series failed, she evolved.

She became active in politics and served as chief of protocol, inaugural chair and U.S. ambassador.

Opie Taylor grew into Richie Cunningham. But as he kept aging, Ron Howard became less suited for the boyish roles he was typecast in ... and more and more suited to play Alfred E. Neumann.

He reinvented himself , and became one of our most acclaimed directors.

After his career fell to the point where he was hosting “Death Valley Days,” B-list leading man and union president Ronald Reagan reinvented himself – as a Republican, as governor, as president, as conservative icon.

He once played a boy in a man’s body, but Tom Hanks, the go-to leading man for romantic comedy, also found himself dragged down by age. Not to mention turkeys like Turner & Hootch and Joe vs. the Volcano. He adapted and made the most of his strengths, and is now considered one of the finest actors of his generation.

In 1985, when Steve Jobs was booted from Apple Computers, the company he founded, it was as a guy who wanted to compete – to be a player. By the time he took Apple back over in 1997, he had evolved into the guy who was inventing the game.

Adaptation. Evolution. Reinvention. They take vision. Dedication. Patience. Courage. A clear understanding of – and appreciation for – your strengths. An honest grasp – and no fear of – your weaknesses.

There is no shortage of those qualities in this city. There is no shortage of those qualities in this room. That’s why I can see those things in 2022, and why I know you’ll see them, too. Because you’re the ones who’s making them happen. Today. And for that, I thank you.

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