Closing in on one million page views

Million dollar view | Stock photo by Haidir Rais/Unsplash

I started the Warrendale Detroit Blog in December of 2005 almost on a whim. I new that there was a lot happening in our neighborhood but was frustrated that it never got any attention from the local news media. When a friend suggested over on the Detroit YES forum that I create such a blog, I jumped at it.

That was 14 years and three months ago.

As of this afternoon, Google Analytics tells me that this blog has received a total of 990,262 page views during its time online. I also continue to revieve 400 - 450 pageviews ever day.

Those two things suggest that the Warrendale Detroit Blog should cross the one million page view threshold within the next couple weeks. In fact, my best guess after combing through the data is that this blog should see its one millionth page view on or about March 17.

I feel that this milestone deserves somekind of commemoration. Something that will say to the world - quite literally - thanks a million. I'm just not sure what it should be.

If you have any idea what that something should be then please feel free to leave a comment below or on the Facebook page for this blog. I appreciate any and all suggestions.

Detroit police complete another week of targeted enforcement

Police officer | Stock photo by Coco Parisienne/Pixabay

The Detroit Police Department has completed a third week of targeted enforcement with the goal of decreasing violent crimes associated with the black market sale and purchase of marijuana and other illegal narcotics. Police precincts across the city began conducting targeted enforcement actions on January 27 in response to a spike in violent crime.

This initiative’s third week ran from February 10 – 17. During this time period, police officers reported the following preliminary results across Detroit:

• 78 felony arrests were made;
• 36 misdemeanor arrests were also made;
• 21 firearms were seized , which includes 16 handguns and five long guns;
• 918 citations were issued;
• 68 vehicles were impounded; and
• Two stolen vehicles were recovered.

Police officers also confiscated a variety of narcotics. This included 54.5 grams of cocaine, 307 pills of various types, 151.5 grams of marijuana, and 18 grams of heroin.

"Our goal is to keep our communities safe, and this effort is to focus on the buyers and sellers who are illegally carrying guns," explained Chief James Craig of the Detroit Police Department. "I am thankful for the good work my officers are doing to rid our streets of illegal weapons associated with the sale of illegal narcotics so law-abiding residents can go about their lives free from fear."

While these operations are by no means confined to the Warrendale neighborhood, it is afterall a citywide operation, the fact that so many felons and firearms are off the streets of Detroit is a promising fact, in my opinion.

As the Detroit Police Department continues this initiative, additional details will be reported on this blog and on its Facebook page.

Detroit named worst city to find a job

Landing a job - Photo by FotografieLink/Pixabay

As national unemployment figures continue to be at historic lows, the personal finance website WalletHub ranked Detroit to be the worst city for one to find a job in. This was the result of their researching into a total of 182 American cities and the labor market in those communities.

According to statistics from the Labor Department, the unemployment rate is 3.5% at the national level. Michigan meanwhile ranks 38th with a statewide unemployment rate of 4% and Wayne County has an unemployment rate of 4.5%. Detroit is clearly still behind the rest of Michigan and the rest of the nation.

For their rankings, the staff at WalletHub looked at nine different areas related to finding a job. They compiled data from government and other sources related to those nine areas to determine a ranking in each category. Detroit’s status as the worst place to find a job is a composite of those nine areas.

Rankings in the individual categories did, however, show some positive signs for Detroit. For example, Detroit ranked 23rd out of 182 cities in terms of employment growth. The problem, of course, is that even though Detroit is growing faster than the national average, our city still has a long way to go.

The nine areas that researchers from WalletHub looked at for this ranking are:

• Average work and commute time where Detroit ranked 40th;
• Employment growth where we came in with the 23rd fastest growth;
• Housing affordability where the Motor City ranked 33rd most affordable;
• Industry variety where the city ranked 165th least;
• Job opportunities where Motown ranked 179th lowest;
• Median annual income where we ranked 178th lowest;
• Monthly average starting salary where we came in 72nd;
• Percent of workforce living in poverty where Detroit was the 181st highest; and
• Unemployment rate where we are the 180th highest of the 182 cities.

Taken together, this means that we ranked as better than average in four of the nine categories. It really is the remaining five areas where we are doing so badly.

The key takeaways from all of this, in my opinion, are two points. First, Detroit has made a lot of progress in recent years, particularly in the area of overall employment growth. The strategic neighborhood initiative has been showing some real progress, which I discussed earlier.The housing market is continuing to improve as previously reported. However, we still have a long way to go on our journey to recovery.

Anyone who is interested can download the full report from WalletHub is available for free from here. As for Detroit and its job market, I believe the best thing for us to do is to keep doing what we’ve been doing since leaving bankruptcy. It took us almost half a century to hit rock bottom. It will take several more years for our community to recover.

As always, each step along this journey will be chronicled in this blog. Please subscribe to get regular updates by entering your email address in the upper right corner of this site or by subscribing to one of the RSS feeds. You can also follow along via the Facebook page for this blog.

This post is a part of this blog's semi-regular Friday Focus series, which endeavors to highlight news and opinions that, in my opinion, don't get as much attention as they deserve.

Please follow this blog on Facebook for more great content. I'm also on Twitter and Instagram as @fnemecek.

Mayor Duggan celebrates the Stategic Neighborhood Initiative

Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit recently commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Stategic Neighborhoods Initiative. This is a public-private partnership to improve some of the neighborhoods in our city, such as Warrendale.
This initiative got a large boost recently. The Ralph C. Wilson Foundation announced a $10 million grant to support the neighborhoods in Detroit. Those funds will go towards citywide development of our ten targetedneighborhoods on streetscapes, commercial corridors, and parks.

"We are improving neighborhoods in Detroit for Detroiters," Duggan commented.
They and our other corporate partners have already made an incredible impact, and it is my hope that others will join us in continuing our mission of creating a stronger Detroit for everyone. Mayor Duggan's team posted a video of his remarks about the Stategic Neighborhoods Initiative to his Facebook page.

I have embedded this video above. I encourage everyone to take a moment to watch it.

"War on police" - rebuttal

Police car - Photo by Free Photos/Pixabay

I posted earlier this week about a Detroit police officer who was tragically killed in the line of duty approximately four miles north of the Warrendale neighborhood. My intention was simply to memorialize an individual who lost his life while heroically protecting our city. I had absolutely no intention of dragging partisan politics into this or causing any type of debate. I simply wanted to memorialize a fallen hero.

When I shared that post on Facebook, the majority of people reacted in much the way that I expected. There was shock and outrage as well as praise for the fallen officer and prayers for his family and all other police officers. This is great and pretty much what I expected when I shared my post.

However, there’s always that one guy.

One individual in particular was rather vehement in his opinion that former President Barack Obama had started a “war on police” and this was the latest example of it. This was followed by repeated usage of Blue Lives Matter hashtag and insults directed toward those who disagreed with him. When I pointed out that a thread dedicated to memorializing a fallen officer wasn’t the best place for partisan politics, he only seemed to double down on his attacks.

This prompted me to do a little bit of research. Here’s the big headline that I want everyone to remember: a carpenter in the United States today is approximately 30% more likely to be killed on the job than a police officer.

In spite of this, no one claims that there is a war going on against carpenters. There has also never been a Carpenters Lives Matter hashtag trending on Twitter or any other social media platform.

As for the numbers, there is an estimated 950,000 carpenters working in the United States, according to official statistics. On average, one out of every 10,000 carpenters died at the workplace each year. In contrast, with an estimated 850,000 police officers in the United States, there are 0.7 out of every 10,000 who die a violent death on the job each year. This translates into a carpenter being 30% more likely to die on the job than a police officer.

Oh, and the reason why I chose carpenters for this comparison is simply because my father, grandfather, and many of my uncles worked in carpentry. I’m the misfit in my family who chose to earn a living with a cell phone and a laptop.

I suspect that much of the reason for this has to do with the fact that police officers expect to encounter danger on the job. As a result, they train and prepare for it. This training and preparation helps them to mitigate the danger and bring the number of deaths down dramatically. Carpenters, in contrast, do not expect to die on the job so they don’t take anywhere near the precautions that law enforcement officers do.

But still, I cannot help but feel that if there was a war going on against police officers - regardless of whether Barack Obama, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, or whoever else was leading it - the result would not be that they would be less likely to be killed on the job than carpenters.

As further evidence that there isn’t a war on police that Barack Obama, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, or whoever else are responsible for, I would simply point out that line of duty deaths for police officers are largely unchanged with them out of office and someone who is the polar opposite replacing them.

It’s a sad fact that I will one day again have to memorialize the tragic death of another police officer or firefighter on this blog. I dread this prospect.

My only hope is that when that tragic moment comes, I won’t have to also worry about someone hijacking the issue with partisan attacks. It is much better, in my opinion, to keep the focus on the fallen hero and the grief that his or her family and friends are going through.

This post is a part of this blog's semi-regular Friday Focus series, which endeavors to highlight news and opinions that, in my opinion, don't get as much attention as they deserve.

Please follow this blog on Facebook for more great content. I'm also on Twitter and Instagram as @fnemecek.

The state of Detroit's real estate market in 2019

The internet is losing its mind - Photo by Mandyme27/Pixabay

I posted an article to this blog yesterday pointing out that a home on Greenview Street was up for sale. This was part of my Featured Place to Live series where I highlight some of real estate opportunities in Warrendale neighborhood in Detroit. The asking price for this home I reported, was $79,900.

And the internet promptly lost its mind.

Within minutes of that article going online, my social media notifications started to blow up as one person or another wanted to comment on how delusional it was for a home in this part of Detroit to command such a price. Even asking for such a price, some individuals argued, was preposterous.

There were a few people who took this news in stride. They may have expressed a healthy amount of skepticism or been cautious in their optimism. What they did not do, though, was argue that homes in Detroit aren’t worth anything, that no one wants to live here, or any other such thing.

At this point, I should say that I had a completely different article planned for today. I was going to talk about some of the best places to go trick-or-treating since we are so close to Halloween at the moment. However, with so many people reacting so strongly to the idea of a home in the Warrendale neighborhood of going on the market with an asking price of $79,900, I felt it best to put original article aside for a moment and focus on this.

In the space below, I will provide some of the various reasons why one person or another was indignant at the such real estate pricing. While my comments are about the Warrendale neighborhood in particular, I feel that most of this applies to much of Detroit as a whole.

The comments in bold below are summary of a point that someone tried to make yesterday. Those comments are followed by my rebuttal.

The neighborhood is nothing like it was at some point in the past.
While it’s true that Warrendale and the other neighborhoods in Detroit have declined since their heyday, it’s also true that there have been substantial improvements in the quality of life here in recent years and that all signs point towards this trend continuing.

To put this in perspective, 20 years ago, a three-bedroom home in Warrendale would go for what in today’s dollars is roughly $140,000. Detroit still had a multitude of problems in the late-1990s and homes in the area were still able to command a six-digit price.

While the area was hit hard during the mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 and hasn’t fully recovered, I have to ask: is it really unreasonable that a house today should command a price of half of what it was prior to the mortgage crisis?

Personally, I don’t think so.

Detroit isn’t as good as [fill in the blank with some other city]
Again, Detroit has its problems. A piece of real estate in much of the city isn’t as valuable as a similar property in other parts of the country or even other parts of Michigan. However, I feel I should point out one key detail: the median selling price of a single-family home in the United States is $240,000, according to the January 2019 edition of Kiplinger.

If the outlying neighborhoods of Detroit were as good of a purchase right now as some of your other communities then that house on Greenview would have an asking price around $240,000; not $79,900.

[Fill in the blank crime] happened recently at a location nearby
First, crime happens everywhere.

Everywhere.

The only communities that don’t have a certain level of crime present are the ones who don’t have a certain number of people present.

Second, while crime is still a very serious issue in Detroit and the city is still one of the most dangerous in the United States, the crime statistics do show a slight slowdown. I would also say that this community’s current levels of crime and poverty are a large part of why that home on Greenview is asking $79,900 and not a figure much closer to national averages.

Warrendale is still a part of Detroit
Yes, it is. And you know what?

This home nine miles away in the Midtown neighborhood that’s selling for $319,900 and this one 11 miles away in downtown that’s selling for $430,000 are both also in Detroit. Oh, and this one eight miles away in the Corktown neighborhood that’s selling for $364,900? Yeah, that one is in the city of Detroit as well.

Does this mean that homes in Warrendale will soon be selling for $300 - $400,000 anytime soon?

Probably not.

It does, however, establish that the mere fact that a home is within the Detroit city limits does not mean that it’s worthless.

Oh, and then there’s my favorite criticism of all. The one that I deliberately saved for last.

It’s just not worth it
There are a thousand or so homes in the Warrendale neighborhood that are currently occupied on a rental basis. The landlords, generally speaking, have relatively little trouble finding people to rent those houses. They have, in fact, been getting around $850 per month for those homes and they’ve been getting that price for several years now.

And here’s why that is important.

If someone bought a home in Detroit for $102,250 and financed it entirely with no money down then, between his or her mortgage payment, property taxes, and homeowners insurance, he or she would pay approximately $850 per month, according to the mortgage calculator at Quicken Loans. It stands to reason, therefore, that home is this area should be selling for somewhere in the vicinity of $102,250.

Screengrab from Quicken Loans by Frank Nemecek

But the purchase of a home in the area for $79,900 is preposterous? I don’t think so.

Time will tell whether or not the home on Greenview really does sell for $79,900. I believe that it’s more than worth it and there are programs out there to help with the financing of such a purchase.

For now, I simply wish that folks were better able at accepting a little bit of good news every once in awhile.

Detroit introduces a plan to cut the number of home foreclosures

An Anmerican Home - Stock photo by Pexels

Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans, Mayor Mike Duggan, and Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree called on the Michigan Legislature to implement a sweeping new approach to assist tens of thousands of Detroiters and Wayne County residents who owe back property taxes avoid foreclosure. The plan builds on steps the City and County have already taken to reduce occupied home foreclosures by 94% since 2015.

Michigan State Representative Wendall Byrd (D-3) has introduced legislation that will facilitate this proposal. They call this proposal to minimize foreclosures Pay As You Stay or PAYS. This proposal aims to reduce tax foreclosure for Detroit homeowners who live in poverty and who are struggling to make payments.

According to data from the City of Detroit, this plan would help approximately 31,000 homeowners stay in their homes by dramatically reducing the amount they owe on their back taxes and lowering their monthly payments.

This payment plan is available to all those eligible for the poverty tax and disabled veteran exemptions. It will remove interest, penalties, and fees so only back taxes or 10% of taxable value is owed whichever is less. This will include any past due balance on the City of Detroit’s solid waste fees.

Pay As You Stay is a simple, three-part plan:

1. Once you enroll, all interest, penalties and fees would be eliminated;
2. To reduce an undue burden on homeowners, the balance due would be limited to back taxes only or 10% of a home’s taxable value – whichever is less; and
3. The remaining balance would be paid back over three years at zero percent interest.

Homeowners who qualify for a full or partial Property Tax Exemption and enroll in future years would be eligible for the program. To be PTE-eligible, a household with 1 person could not make more than $19,303 per year; a household with 4 people could not make more than $28,671.

“Since 2015, we’ve been able to reduce the number of occupied foreclosures by 94%, but far too many Detroiters still are at risk of foreclosure,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “Pay As You Stay would help more than 31,000 Detroit homeowners stay in their homes by eliminating interest, penalties and fees and making payment plans affordable for those who need them.”

Detroit City Council Member Janee Ayers added in a statement on Facebook, “Our city can only thrive if we work with our most vulnerable residents who have stayed here through the hardest times.”

More information about this Pay As You Stay proposal is available on the City of Detroit's website.

The Warrendale Detriot Blog will continue to follow this story as it develops and the PAYS legislation moves throught the Michigan Hosue of Representatives.

Follow me, please

Follow - Illustration by I.J. Maki/Pixabay

I love the fact that, according to Google Analytics, hundreds of people visit the Warrendale Detroit Blog every day. This includes readers from around Michigan as well as from more than 50 countries. A great way to keep up to date with this site is to subscribe to it, in whatever fashion best suits your preferences.

One of the best ways to keep up with this blog is to subscribe to it via email. At the top of the right-hand column on this page is a section labelled "receive email alerts." If you enter your email address in the marked field and hit "subscribe me" then you will get an email alert from my friends of FeedBlitz when I publish a new article. Your email address will remain private and you can unsubscribe at any time.

For those who prefer to follow multiple blogs simultaneously, RSS aggregators such as atom, Netvibes, and My Yahoo are a great options. For the other RSS feeds that are available, simply select your preferred RSS feed from the drop down menu under "Subscribe to RSS Feed" in the right hand column.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Facebook page that exists for the Warrendale Detroit Blog. More than 1,100 other people have liked and followed it. If you use Facebook on a regular basis, I invite you to like the page by visit it here on Facebook.

Finally, I would like to also mention that you can find lots of other great content by visiting my personal pages on Instagram and Twitter. My handle is @fnemecek on both.

As always, you can bookmark this blog and visit the site periodically. The other options simply automate things for you nicely.

Happy Labor Day, Detroit!

Labor Day - Illustration by Mohamed Hassan/Pixabay

I want to take a moment to wish a happy Labor Day to everyone in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood and beyond.

Besides being the unofficial end to summer, Labor Day is also to remember the social and economic conditions of the American worker. My father was a union carpenter. My paternal grandfather helped to organize the Pennsylvania coal mines for the United Mine Workers of America. The experiences and stories that have been passed down to me from these two men have made me more than a little sympathetic to the labor movement.

Local 2280 of the United Auto Workers will once again have a parade along Michigan Avenue in the nearby Corktown neighborhood. More details about this event can be found on their Facebook page.

Happy Labor Day, Detroit!

Poll: Return of the monthly meet-ups?

I launched a poll on the Facebook page for this group; inquiring about interest in a monthly meet-up. I used to do these events at Gracie See pizzeria until they closed. I keep thinking about bringing them back but would like to know if there's any interest in such a thing.

For those of you who do not have Facebook or - gasp! - are on Facebook but haven't liked the page for this blog, I have embedded this poll above. I would appreciate your response.

Open letter to Detroit real estate investors

Detroit homes under construction - Photo by Frank Nemecek

Normally on Mondays, I would publish a Tip of the Week that offers my readers some helpful advice regarding their home, money, or life. Today, however, I want to pass along some friendly advice to those who wish to invest in real estate in Warrendale or elsewhere in Detroit.

A friend of mine works with investors on a professional basis quite frequently. She noticed a mistake that was frequently made over and over by would be real estate developers - especially in the Detroit market. With her permission, I am including her comments below with only minimal editing on my part.

Her comments originally appeared on her personal Facebook page. I am publishing them below in italics.

Dear Detroit real estate investors:

Please, please, please read and ingest this information.

Buying a house that is in decent condition, sitting on it, and waiting for it to inflate in value does not work as well as buying it- putting in new electrical, plumbing- and getting it back on the market.

I promise you...

This is especially true if you’re not here helping the neighborhood you bought in to stabilize. You’re not increasing your value as much as you are paying taxes on a property that will be worth nothing after it’s firebombed or the roof collapses.

Investing is more than buying and sitting on a property. Invest your energy and expertise along with your money.

Thank you!

With this said, I will say that I have shown her thoughts to several people who have made a good living investing in Detroit's real estate market. Every single one of them agreed with this sentiment. Simply holding onto a piece of property isn't going to make its value climb. The financial gains come from getting the property back on the market as a rental or for sale.

With that said, I will simply add that my normal Tip of the Week will return next week.

Duggan to deliver State of the City address this evening

Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit - File photo

Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit will deliver his annual State of the City address this evening at 7 p.m. I look forward to him discussing important topics to our community such as city services, crime and police response times, economic development, as well as our neighborhoods.

The State of the City address will be live-streamed on DetroitMI.gov and the City of Detroit's Facebook page. It will also be carried on live on television and radio.

For those who use Twitter, I will be live tweeting from home during Mayor Duggan's speech. My Twitter handle is @fnemecek.

Good bye to Google+

A total of 92 people follow this blog by its page on Google Plus. For those individuals, I wanted to make a quick post to remind everyone of the various ways that you can still keep up today with everything on this blog and, in turn, with the Warrendale neighborhood in Detroit now that Google Plus is going away.

One of the most popular was is to get an email alert every time that I post new content. Readers can either get an individual alert or a daily digest depending on their preference. To sign up for these alerts, all one has to do is enter your email address where it says "receive email alerts" on the upper left corner of this blog. The folks at FeedBlitz will take care of the rest.

In addition, most of the content from this blog is republished on its Facebook page. Liking that page will put new posts into your newsfeed.

My personal favorite, though, is to keep track of 14 blogs that I read on a daily basis through an RSS reader. This puts the content into one stream that you can follow from there. I personally use Feeder but there are several other very good RSS readers out there.

No matter how you keep track of what is happening in Detroit and the Warrendale neighborhood in particular, I thank you for making the Warrendale (Detroit) Blog a part of your life.

More than 1,400 people have chosen to make my writing a part of their daily life. I am grateful for each and every one of you.

Christmas decoration in Warrendale

The South Warrendale Radio Patrol will be out getting pictures of the Christmas decorations this weekend for a contest that intend to run. If you live south of W. Warren Ave., which is where the South Warrendale Radio Patrol operates, then please remember to turn your holiday lights on as soon as it gets dark.

They will post the finalists on Monday on their Facebook page. Voting will be from Monday to Friday and the trophies will be gifted next Saturday. The most likes for a picture wins a trophy.

Thanks to all who decorated and brightened up Warrendale.

First snowfall of the year

One of the first things that I saw this morning, before I even looked outside, was a cheerful message on Facebook from an old friend of mine from high school who happens to run a snowplow business.

Even if you're not excited about the first snowfall of the season in Detroit, I hope all of my readers are able to confront the day with the same level of enthusiasm as my friend Wayne has about it.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Statistics and Sweetest Day

I knew that today is World Statistics Day. That was no surprise to me at all.

I even posted on Twitter about today being World Statistics Day. This, after all, is a day that was created by the United Nations and is recognized in more than 130 countries. This is a day to highlight the idea that better day means better decisions.

There’s a 100% probability that today is World Statistics Day.

— Frank Nemecek (@fnemecek) October 20, 2018

I knew all about World Statistics Day.

However, until several of my friends and family members posted on Facebook about romantic getaways and Sweetest Day in general I had completely forgotten that today is also that "holiday" that candy makers in Cleveland invented 96 years ago.

This fact that I remembered World Statistics Day but forgot about Sweetest Day probably says more about me than I really want to admit.

Happy Sweetest and World Statistics Days, everyone!

How to take out of this world selfies

Visiting the Christmas Tree Cluster - Photo by Frank Nemecek (with help from NASA)

In an era that is truly dominated by social media, there's no getting over the fact that selfies are a ubiquitous part of Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and Twitter. This creates a certain amount of pressure for people to take a truly spectacular selfie.

A selfie that is, to put it either figurately or in this case literally, out of this world.

To help with such a selfie, my dear readers, I would like to introduce you to the NASA Selfies app. This free app, which is available from either the App Store or the Play Store, takes a selfie like the one that I featured above.

My friends may have posted selfies from the beach or some music festival. I, however, got to post a selfie from the Christmas Tree Cluster - a group of new stars in the Monoceros constellation this is located approximately 2,600 light years from Earth. I don't think anyone can top an out of this world selfie like this.

The NASA Selfie app is incredibly easy to use. Besides the Christmas Tree Cluster, one can also take a photo of one's self at the Triangulum Galaxy as well as:

• Andromeda Galaxy;
• Antennae Galaxies;
• Arp 142 Galaxies;
• Cassiopeia A;
• Cigar Galaxy;
• Crab Nebula;
• Eta Caninae Star Forming Region;
• Galactic Center;
• Helix Nebula;
• IDCS J1426 Galaxy Cluster;
• Large Magellanic Cloud;
• Meisser 78;
• Meisser 81;
• Milky Way;
• Mountains of Creation;
• North America Nebula;
• Orion Nebula;
• Perseus Nebula;
• Pleiades Star Cluster;
• RCW Star Forming Region;
• Rho Ophiuchi;
• Serpens Cloud Core;
• Sombrero Galaxy;
• Spider Nebula;
• Spitzer Space Telescope;
• Trifid Nebula;
• W33 Star Forming Region; and
• W5 Star Forming Region.

All of this makes the NASA Selfies app a really cool thing to have on one's smartphone.

The NASA Selfies app, therefore, is your Tip of the Week for the week of September 3, 2018. Please check back next week for another tip on making your life just a little bit better.

These tips are brought to you by the Warrendale (Detroit) Blog as part of our semi-regular Tip of the Week feature. Please check back every Monday for more advice on your home, money, and life. In the meantime, please feel free to check out the author, Frank Nemecek, on Twitter and Instagram for more great content as @fnemecek.

Anecdotal thoughts on the governor's race

A friend of mine, who I've had the pleasure of knowing for more than a decade, Brenna Lane posted some anecdotal thoughts on the race for governor of Michigan on her personal Facebook page. She addressed some things that she had seen about Democratic candidates Shri Thanedar of Ann Arbor and Abdul El-Sayed of Detroit.

With her permission, I wanted to share her thoughts with everyone as a guest commentary. The following are her observations on Shri Thanadar's campaign as well as her personal experiences with Abdul El-Sayed, which I publish here with only minor editing.

Stock photo by Sanja Gjeneor/Pixabay

Some anecdotal thoughts on the Governor's race here in Michigan:

Story #1
In my economically distressed neighborhood in Highland Park, there are Shri Thanadar signs everywhere. While driving home yesterday, I saw a van in the parking lot at Dean's liquor store at McNichols and Second. It was unmarked, but two men stood at the open back doors, one handing bundles of Shri signs to the five or six men waiting in line to receive them while the other counted cash and gave it to a man who had a bundle of signs under his arm.

I later saw my neighbor go by carrying a Shri Thanedar sign. I asked him if he was pulling it out and he said, "no, I'm putting them in all up and down the block." I asked, "Willie, why are you supporting this guy?" and he replied, "because they gave me $20 if I put out 20 signs."

Story #2
During my junior year of high school, I attended Andover High School in Bloomfield Hills. Abdul El-Sayed was in my grade. We had Calculus and AP Physics together. He was generally kind, humble, and very smart.

One time, I was waiting for our bus with my girlfriend who had presented a paper in one of her classes that day. She was dressed up for the occasion - wearing a skirt (out of character for her) and it was the first day she had ever worn makeup to school (the first time her mother ever allowed it). She was heavy handed with the makeup, and her look that day was a stark contrast to the way she normally dressed, which was a much more conservative, nerdy-bookish look.

Four guys on the basketball team, all seniors, approached us and asked my friend if she was planning to "go to 8 Mile" (that is, become a prostitute). They continued by asking her how much she would charge, making hand signs mimicking oral sex and thrusting their hips as they laughed. She was trying not to cry, I was telling them to fuck off.

Abdul El-Sayed was walking down the hall, saw what was happening and got between us and the guys. He asked them if that's how they thought men behaved. He asked "do you feel proud right now? getting laughs from your friends at the expense of her feelings?"

I don't remember everything Abdul El-Sayed said that day in high school, but it was basically like "you guys are seniors, this girl is a sophomore, pick on someone your own size or better yet, don't be the kind of man who picks on anyone."

The called him a f****t, and her a whore again a few times and then left. Abdul El-Sayed apologized to both of us. He said that things will be different when we were out of high school and the boys grew up to be adults.

Although I'm still not sure he was right on that last part, Abdul El-Sayed was standing up to bullies that were bigger than him and pushing back against toxic masculinity when he was 16 years old. Even if I didn't love his politics, I would still vote for this guy because of his character. He truly is a servant leader.

This is a crucial primary. Please - get out and vote. And if you employ people, please give them the time to vote.

SS Peter & Paul celebrates its 95th anniversary

SS Peter and Paul Church - Photo by Frank Nemecek

One of the oldest establishments in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood, SS Peter & Paul Catholic Church (7685 Grandville Ave.), will celebrate its 95th anniversary this week. The church will have a special anniversary mass at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 1, which will be presided by Bishop Donald F. Hanchon.

To commemorate the Polish-American heritage of the parish, this special mass will be celebrated in both English and Polish. Everyone is welcome to attend, especially those who used to be a part of the SS. Peter and Paul community.

This mass will also celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which is the special feast day for the patron saints of this parish. The actual feast day for the Apostles Peter and Paul will be on Friday, June 29 in accordance with the liturgical calendar. However, the parish will celebrate this feast day and their 95th anniversary on the following Sunday.

More information about this special event can be found on the Facebook page for SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Church or their website.

On changes in the Boy Scouts

Boys and girls as scouts in Thailand - Creative Commons photo from Pixabay

Last week, the Boy Scouts of America announced that they will change their name to reflect the fact that girls are now allowed to be members of the 108-year old organization. Their new name will be Scouts BSA and, quite frankly, I need to get a few things off my chest.

Ever since this happened, my social media feeds on Facebook and Twitter have been blowing up with people reacting negatively about this. I've heard referred as "snowflakes taking over the world", "trying to destroy boyhood", and a slew of disparaging remarks.

In fact, if I had a dollar for every time that I have heard or read complaints about the Boy Scouts accepting girls as members and changing their name to Scouts BSA, I would be writing this blog post from my new oceanfront villa in Tahiti as a half dozen or so Victoria's Secret supermodels feed me grapes and rubbed themselves all over me.

You're welcome for the imagery, by the way.

I should start out by mentioning that I started as Cub Scout, went on to the Webelos, and eventually became the senior patrol leader at Boy Scout Troop 525, which was based right here in Detroit's Warrendale neighborhood. As a scout, I did all of the usual Boy Scout things. I also went to the national jamboree and served as a Boy Scout guide on Mackinac Island. I later left the Boy Scouts during my high school years and joined the Civil Air Patrol.

I personally don't think either the name change or allowing girls into the Boy Scouts is all that big of a deal. For those who wish to disagree with me, I would simply like to remind you of a few things:

1. Both Scouting organizations have had a drop in membership over the years;
2. Some girls want to do more than sell cookies;
3. Most Scouting parents have both sons and daughters. This change is a lot more convenient for them;
4. Explorers, Sea Scouts, and Venturers/Voyagers are all a part of the Boy Scouts of America and all have been coed since their inception; and
5. Scouting has been coed internationally for years.

As for the repeated-so-often-that-I-want-to-vomit meme that this will lead to the Boy Scouts becoming some sort of hedonistic orgy whenever they go camping, I will simply say that most other organizations for teens are also coed. This includes band camp, Civil Air Patrol, and most of your summer camps.

I was at either summer camp or a Civil Air Patrol encampment for most summers during my teen years. As a former teenage boy, I regret to inform everyone that no matter how much I wished it had been true, youth camping was absolutely nothing like what some people imagine the new scouting program will be. I'm pretty sure, therefore, that the virtue of everyone's lovely teenage daughter is as safe in the Scouts as it is in your own home.

Heck, as I think about some of the things that used to happen in someone's basement during my high school days when their parents were right upstairs, I think there will even be less debauchery at a Scouts BSA camp than in the homes of some parents.

And there you have it - my reasons for why allowing girls into the Boy Scouts and the organization's subsequent name change is no big deal at all. It might even turn out to be a positive.

For now, though, I simply sick of hearing people complain about this and me not getting the $1 that I need from each of them to make the Victoria's Secret supermodels in Tahiti thing a reality.