MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
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Michigan Chronicle
Vol. 81 – No. 43 | July 4-10, 2018
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Marijuana legalization heading to November ballot By Patreice A. Massey Managing Editor The Michigan State Legislature was not able to garner the votes needed to pass the marijuana legalization ballot initiative supported by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA). The issue will now appear on Michigan’s Nov. 6 ballot. If approved by voters, Michigan would become the 10th state to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for all adults 21 years and older. “While we would have been happy to see our initiative passed by the legislature as written, we are confident Michigan voters understand that marijuana prohibition has been an absolute disaster and that they will agree that taxing and regulating marijuana is a far better solution,” said CRMLA spokesperson Josh Hovey. The campaign will now focus its efforts on educating general election voters about its proposal and the benefits of marijuana legalization. This includes the following facts: • Marijuana has legitimate medical uses and is proven to be safer and less addictive than either alcohol or tobacco • The continued enforcement of marijuana prohibition wastes law enforcement resources and clogs our legal system • Taxing and regulating marijuana has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars that will be dedicated to Michigan’s roads, schools and local governments • The campaign is proposing a set of strict regulations that follow best practices from other states that have already legalized as well as the regulatory system set by the legislature in 2016 • Local communities will have the authority to regulate marijuana businesses within their jurisdictions or ban them altogether “Multiple polls show that roughly 60 percent of Michigan voters want to see marijuana legalized and regulated but, as we saw with the legislative debates these past few week, there is still a lot of misinformation out there,” said Hovey. “The fact is that our proposal is carefully written to be a model for responsible cannabis regulations and closely follows the medical marijuana licensing law passed by the state legislature in 2016.”
WHAT’S INSIDE
Gov. Rick Snyder signs his final education budget, which once again raises the threat of closure for the state's lowest p erforming schools.
Gov. Snyder signs budget that seeks to s tiffen consequences for low-scoring schools By Koby Levin Dozens of struggling schools could face closure once again after Gov. Rick Snyder signed an education budget on Thursday that seeks to stiffen consequences for low-scoring schools. The budget requires the state’s lowest-performing schools to change their “partnership agreements” with the state, amending the contracts to include the possibility of closure if their test scores don’t meet agreed-upon targets. In signing the budget, Snyder highlighted an increase of $120 to $240 in spending per student in K-12 schools. The budget does not reduce spending on “shared time” programs, as Snyder hoped. Funding for the programs, which allow private school students to take free classes from public school teachers, increased sharply in recent years, but will remain flat in 2018. It is the latest salvo in the debate over the future of Michigan’s lowest perform-
ing schools, Snyder last year initially pursued an effort to close 38 Michigan schools whose test scores had been among the bottom five percent statewide for three years in a row, but his plan was met with strong public opposition and was eventually shelved. Former State Superintendent Brian Whiston sought a middle road in the form of “partnership agreements” with the state, which allowed the schools — including 24 in Detroit — to stay open while working toward improvement targets. Whiston died in May. The Legislature raised the stakes this month when it put language in state education budget requiring partnership schools that don’t meet their targets to be closed or “reconstituted,” but Kurt Weiss, a spokesman for the state Budget office, said the future of those schools will likely be decided by the Michigan Department of Education, not by the Legislature. Closing schools “may be the Legislature’s intent, but in the end this would
all have to be Department of Education policy,” he said. Twenty-four Detroit schools were among the first to enter state partnerships one year ago. They are nearing the end of the three-year agreements, and would be the first to face closure if their scores don’t improve. In all, more than 50 schools have been singled out for low test scores in Detroit’s main district alone. Detroit accounts for roughly half of the statewide list of more than 120 schools. After the state backed off plans to shutter dozens of schools, many of them in Detroit, Republican legislators worried that the state lacked adequate accountability measures. “Without those guideposts, those guide rails, it’s easy for schools to fall back and not be as concerned about the performance that the students deserve and the state deserves,” House education committee chair Tim Kelly, the sponsor of this year’s budget, said in a 2017 interview.
City seeking developer to build mixed-use, mixed-income housing on vacant land at Bagley and 16th By Michael V. Hubbard The City of Detroit is seeking developers to build mixed-use, mixed-income housing on vacant, city-owned land on the border of Southwest Detroit and Corktown. The development, which will bring new retail and affordable housing to the area, aims to build upon the strengths of the commercial corridor and enhance connectivity between the two neighborhoods.
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The development, located in the Southwest/West Vernor area, is in one of ten neighborhoods of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund (SNF). SNF is a fund dedicated to comprehensive neighborhood development. Through the Planning and Development Department’s West Vernor planning study process, this property was identified as a development opportunity site. “As the city’s revitalization spreads into the neighborhoods, we are focused on developing high-quality, well-designed and affordable mixed-use projects that fits in with the existing culture of the neighborhood,” said Donald Rencher, director of Housing and Revitalization for the City of Detroit. “The vacant land at Bagley and 16th is a gap in this thriving area, and we want to make sure that when that gap is filled, it meets the needs of the long-term residents there.”
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The city is looking for developers to submit proposals that include both retail space,
Concept rendering of Bagley and 16th (Photo: City of Detroit, City of Detroit) ideally along Bagley, and at least 20 residential units. The city is also requiring a high-quality site design, given the visibility of the site as a gateway between Southwest and Corktown. Designs must integrate the development with the existing street grid and further the development of the neighborhood as a dense, walkable community. Building for people of all incomes and backgrounds Potential developers will also be required
by the city to provide an affordable housing program that includes a minimum 20% rental units be set aside for households making 80% of area median income or lower. The area median income at 80 percent, set by federal housing rules, is about $38,000 a year. Affordable housing offers stability for the city’s low-income residents and provides options to households at a range of incomes in all neighborhoods. The city will work to
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