The DIA Art Millage

[Gistok]

OK.... let's put this into perspective...

If it wasn't for the "cultured and sophisticated" voters of St. Clair Shores [[my hometown... lol).... where the number of YES votes exceeded the NO votes by about 2,100... highest YES percentage in Macomb County...and gave a push to the 1,370 YES over NO final votes... and got the yes vote over the 50% mark... if it wasn't for SCS... this entire millage would not have passed...

So when we SCS residents get our free time at the DIA.... please provide imported cheese with the light refreshments....

... and DetroitNerd... in the future you must add a caveat to exclude SCS in any post criticism about Macomb County. Thank you!

Hmmm.... maybe I'll stop by Nino Salvaggio's for some Prosciutto with Brie and flatbred... ... and maybe on the way home stop by the local Service Station to see what objet d'art they have in their "Elvis on Canvas" gallery....

[Detroitnerd]

OK.... let's put this into perspective...

If it wasn't for the "cultured and sophisticated" voters of St. Clair Shores [[my hometown... lol).... where the number of YES votes exceeded the NO votes by about 2,100... highest YES percentage in Macomb County...and gave a push to the 1,370 YES over NO final votes... and got the yes vote over the 50% mark... if it wasn't for SCS... this entire millage would not have passed...

So when we SCS residents get our free time at the DIA.... please provide imported cheese with the light refreshments....

... and DetroitNerd... in the future you must add a caveat to exclude SCS in any post criticism about Macomb County. Thank you!

Hmmm.... maybe I'll stop by Nino Salvaggio's for some Prosciutto with Brie and flatbred... ... and maybe on the way home stop by the local Service Station to see what objet d'art they have in their "Elvis on Canvas" gallery....

Haha. I like Saint Clair Shores. Even ate at the Pepperoni Grille there once or twice. Heck, even parts of Mount Clemens are pretty nice to my mind. I'd be happy to bribe SCSers with imported cheeses and charcuterie, as well as peruse your gas station galleries.

Sorry for the implication. I think we get so fixated on equating Macomb County with sprawl because, for the most part, the county government really has decided to put all its eggs in one basket. Oakland County has a few different kinds of environments: walkable old streetcar suburbs, freeway suburbs, commuter suburbs, soul-sucking exurbs. Macomb County's "growth" in the last few decades has been about 100 percent exurban, the kind of land for which the prognosis is the dimmest. That said, sorry for lumping Macomb County's finer elements in with northern Macomb County.

[MSUguy]

I voted NO on this. It's not fair to tax the entire tri-county area for something that only some people will use.

Also, the DIA director makes over 400K a year.

I like going to the DIA. I don't mind paying to go there. What I don't want is for someone else to pay for me and my family to go.

People have paying for you for years, the State of Michigan and the City of Detroit supported the DIA for the vast majority of it's exsistence. Unlike, today with Ayn Randian attutuides, art muesums and other culutural instituions were seen as a nesscary public goods deserving support by tax payers.

[antongast]

voting tax dollars away from people that could care less??? why is that yours or any other persons decision???

Dunno, man, I just live here. Take it up with the state constitution. Isn't there a way to trigger a constitutional convention? Except, wait, that requires, uh...votes. Oops! I guess you'll have to stage a military coup if you really hate taxes that much.

[Goose]

Ended up voting yes because art doesn't come without cost and needs to be encouraged, especially given the creativity of metro Detroit residents vs the rest of the world.

is encouraging art like trying to get a kid to eat his brussel sprouts? if not given the push, would the artists resort to a life of crime?

Greenfield Village - I see a cattle call for a millage vote in your future!!!!

[CLAUDE G]

Im one of the ones who voted NO.

Not that I don't support the DIA, but the fact that the DIA needs to go out and get their own funding instead of looking to the tax payers.

Sure $12 is not alot to pay per year, but where do we draw the line?

[nain rouge]

When Detroit turned into sprawl, Oakland County managed to capture most of the professional class [[look at all the office space in Southfield and Troy). As a result, Macomb County had to aggressively court industry. Many of the major roads in Macomb County are lined with industrial buildings.

Industry has always been a huge part of Metro Detroit, and it's no secret that industrial workers aren't known as great patrons of the art. The DIA is essentially an institution that caters to the professional class, and it's creation was a mere offshoot of the incredible wealth Detroit's business magnates created back in the day. So why are you surprised that the hardy, working class voters in Macomb County didn't overwhelmingly support a DIA millage? It doesn't really fit the personality of the county. I love the DIA, but let's be a little understanding here. Or are some of you simple too good for industry and industrial folks?

As far as the whole exurban development trend, Oakland County has been just as bad as Macomb County. Oakland County was just lucky that the downtowns of cities like Ferndale, Royal Oak, and Birmingham developed before the sprawl reached critical mass. Otherwise, Oakland County has followed the same blueprint as Macomb County.

In Macomb County, Mt. Clemens was the closest traditional downtown to the encroaching sprawl, and it was preserved in the grid. The rest of the downtowns were farther north, in Romeo, New Baltimore, and etc., where the economic activity of the county was traditionally centered. The historic villages of Warren [[yes, it does exist, on Mound between 13 & 14 Mile) and other cities were dinky farming outposts, hardly something that could significantly alter a suburban blueprint. Utica's traditional downtown doesn't even encompass one whole block.

[jcole]

Haha. I like Saint Clair Shores. Even ate at the Pepperoni Grille there once or twice. Heck, even parts of Mount Clemens are pretty nice to my mind. I'd be happy to bribe SCSers with imported cheeses and charcuterie, as well as peruse your gas station galleries.

Sorry for the implication. I think we get so fixated on equating Macomb County with sprawl because, for the most part, the county government really has decided to put all its eggs in one basket. Oakland County has a few different kinds of environments: walkable old streetcar suburbs, freeway suburbs, commuter suburbs, soul-sucking exurbs. Macomb County's "growth" in the last few decades has been about 100 percent exurban, the kind of land for which the prognosis is the dimmest. That said, sorry for lumping Macomb County's finer elements in with northern Macomb County.

Don't forget old country towns like Armada and Romeo

[Detroitnerd]

When Detroit turned into sprawl, Oakland County managed to capture most of the professional class [[look at all the office space in Southfield and Troy). As a result, Macomb County had to aggressively court industry. Many of the major roads in Macomb County are lined with industrial buildings.

Industry has always been a huge part of Metro Detroit, and it's no secret that industrial workers aren't known as great patrons of the art. The DIA is essentially an institution that caters to the professional class, and it's creation was a mere offshoot of the incredible wealth Detroit's business magnates created back in the day. So why are you surprised that the hardy, working class voters in Macomb County didn't overwhelmingly support a DIA millage? It doesn't really fit the personality of the county. I love the DIA, but let's be a little understanding here. Or are some of you simple too good for industry and industrial folks?

As far as the whole exurban development trend, Oakland County has been just as bad as Macomb County. Oakland County was just lucky that the downtowns of cities like Ferndale, Royal Oak, and Birmingham developed before the sprawl reached critical mass. Otherwise, Oakland County has followed the same blueprint as Macomb County.

In Macomb County, Mt. Clemens was the closest traditional downtown to the encroaching sprawl, and it was preserved in the grid. The rest of the downtowns were farther north, in Romeo, New Baltimore, and etc., where the economic activity of the county was traditionally centered. The historic villages of Warren [[yes, it does exist, on Mound between 13 & 14 Mile) and other cities were dinky farming outposts, hardly something that could significantly alter a suburban blueprint. Utica's traditional downtown doesn't even encompass one whole block.

Excellent post. Thanks for the evenhanded look at the state of affairs, with a good historical perspective.

[jcole]

Towns like Romeo, Armada, New Haven and even Almont[[Lapeer County) traditionally send their students on a field trip to the DIA at least one time during their high school education. Some even send them during grade school. It's a couple hour round trip and well worth it. I've chaperoned those trips and the kids live them.

[noise]

Don't forget old country towns like Armada and Romeo

Which are more rural, further providing a sense of complete separation from themselves and the DIA.

I grew up in Romeo. We never went to the DIA in school.

[hudkina]

To pay for the increase in taxes now to support the DIA, I will have to skip lunch tomorrow.

What the hell are you eating? Ramen noodles? Even those cost more than 5 cents a pack...

[aoife]

OK.... let's put this into perspective...

If it wasn't for the "cultured and sophisticated" voters of St. Clair Shores [[my hometown... lol).... where the number of YES votes exceeded the NO votes by about 2,100... highest YES percentage in Macomb County...and gave a push to the 1,370 YES over NO final votes... and got the yes vote over the 50% mark... if it wasn't for SCS... this entire millage would not have passed...

So when we SCS residents get our free time at the DIA.... please provide imported cheese with the light refreshments....

... and DetroitNerd... in the future you must add a caveat to exclude SCS in any post criticism about Macomb County. Thank you!

Hmmm.... maybe I'll stop by Nino Salvaggio's for some Prosciutto with Brie and flatbred... ... and maybe on the way home stop by the local Service Station to see what objet d'art they have in their "Elvis on Canvas" gallery....

Thanks St. Clair Shores! I always knew there was more good in you than just Bommarito's & Nino Salvaggio's......

[clark1mt]

And it's 50-60 miles from some of the northwest areas of Oakland County. I'm unable to find voting results for those communities though, but I would love to see if the support was as strong there, or if perhaps some of those areas voted "no".

http://results.enr.clarityelections....n/summary.html

Search for "Art Institute".

Pretty much all of the SE part of the county out to Pontiac north and west voted yes. All the lesser-populated outer areas voted no.

[Gistok]

In following what clark1mt just said... it was Macomb Coiunty's older southern burbs south of M-59 Hall Rd. [[minus Warren)... that voted for it as well...

[hudkina]

Every city in Oakland County passed the millage. The only townships that didn't pass the millage are the rural/exurban monsters along the periphery:

Lyon TWP - 48.2%
Orion TWP - 47.4%
Independence TWP - 46.6%
Highland TWP - 46.5%
Holly TWP - 45.9%
White Lake TWP - 45.0%
Brandon TWP - 41.3%
Groveland TWP - 41.0%
Oxford TWP - 40.4%
Rose TWP - 39.5%
Springfield TWP - 39.0%
Addison TWP - 38.4%

Kudos to Milford TWP and Oakland TWP for bucking the trend and approving the millage with 50.7% and 51.7% of the vote, respectively.

[rb336]

In following what clark1mt just said... it was Macomb Coiunty's older southern burbs south of M-59 Hall Rd. [[minus Warren)... that voted for it as well...

Most of Macomb County [[except SCS, of course) think Hall Road is a cultural mecca

[Shollin]

I love the animosity towards Hall Rd when Oakland county has their own Hall roads.

[Detroitnerd]

Gistok's Rule: "Cultured and sophisticated" St. Clair Shores shall not be included, implicitly or explicitly, in any discussion of the vulgarity of much of Macomb County.

[Shollin]

What is cultured and sophsticated in Oakland county? I guess when Ferndale makes their Buffalo Wild Wings and Dollar Castle walkable, that's cultured.

[Wheels]

What is cultured and sophsticated in Oakland county? I guess when Ferndale makes their Buffalo Wild Wings and Dollar Castle walkable, that's cultured.

I certainly hope your not trying to imply that Detroit is cultured, sophisticated and walkable? That would be a hilarious statement. By the way there are two I's in sophisticated.

[rb336]

I love the animosity towards Hall Rd when Oakland county has their own Hall roads.

It's called "Troy"

[hudkina]

At least Troy has pretty skyscrapers mixed in with the parking lots!

[DetBill]

Very glad the Millage passed, we havent a history of appreciating our finer cultural assets,, and consequently dont take great care of them , unlike most other cities. We finally seemed to have passed that corner, if you want an appealing city you have to take care of its cultural institutions and we have a gem in the DIA. I know alot of people who say they dont enjoy art museums but maybe, just maybe some of them will take some time and enjoy a day or evening there for free now that they pay a part for it, I have taken some people who had never been there and had no interest and after a visit or a free Friday concert, were thrilled and have since gone back on their own,, Its hard to believe most people cant find something to enjoy there if they look at the the DIA year round schedule, whether it be some awesome art or fiddle music for free. They might actually come to enjoy their city and what it has to offer, Great for kids education also. There is alot of culture in Detroit to enjoy, to those on here who don't think so all you need to do is visit the city , especially midtown and the downtown areas and the museums and first rate theaters we have . We have nothing to be ashamed of by any means.

[Gistok]

Simmer down kids.... it did pass after all....

Although I was a little bit surprised that Harrison Twp. [[they hate every tax) passed it, and Shelby Twp. [[they ain't Rochester... but they do try) didn't...