Ypsilanti income tax and Water Street millage lose by 2-1

Go figure? Tax paying voters, by a 2-1 margin,  just don't trust Ypsilanti city government not take this extra money and piss it away on other stupid shit as well. And with good reason too.

Thoughts on the proposed Ypsilanti city income tax

I'd be more inclined to support this idea if (and only if): The tax revenue it generated was applied 100 percent toward paying off the Water Street redevelopment scheme that subsequently blew up in the city's face and is a big cause of the city's current money troubles. Additionally, the city's authority to collect this income tax needs to expire once the debt is paid off.

And secondly, there needs be an amendment to the city charter that prohibits city-financed real estate schemes of this sort in the future. Without these two commitments established by law I'd have to say "no way" regardless of whatever other promises the advocates for the income tax make. Period.

The goofs on council who set this whole thing up a decade ago are mostly long gone now but the debt is still with them and so promises from the current mayor and council don't and shouldn't be much of a reassurance to the taxpayers given their track record, eh?

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Ann Arbor city council Democrats want a city income tax but seem afraid to vote for it. Look for them to try to slide it in as a ballot proposal.

Detroit PD posted the security camera footage of the suicide attack on the Sixth Precinct last week, complete with an intro by Chief Godbee. I have no idea why they decided to post this footage to YouTube despite listening to Godbee's explanation three times. It looks like a cut from the scene in the original (1984) Terminator movie where the cyborg attacks a police station only for real.

Vigilante Cop story: A Detroit cop made up his personally owned car to look like a department issued one and drove it around off duty pulling people over and harassing them. And he wasn't even fired for it, either. Go figure?

Popular Mechanics list of 50 tools everyone should have. I didn't have all 50 but I was close with around 37. Some stuff I just couldn't imagine ever needing. Which is typically the case, until you do.

An Ottawa, Ontario, Canada fire department spokesman says that use of modern construction materials makes today's houses firetraps compared to thirty years ago. "... [Un]like 30 years ago, when homes, furniture and appliances were made of solid wood and steel, modern day versions are made with glue, plastics and synthetic materials. Such synthetics not only burn faster but produce carcinogenic emissions as they burn." In a modern house, the story says, you have only three to six minutes from the time the fire alarm goes off until flashover occurs which way too short of a time for the firemen to arrive to save you or your home. Yikes! Bottom line: Be prepared and have a plan. (via BoingBoing)

Polar bear swims 426 miles across the Beaufort Sea. Alas, her cub didn't make it and drowned. It must have been hard on the scientists tracking her survival swim with GPS telemetry to just watch this happen and not try to help. It would be for me.

Boom Town and Bust City: A Tale of Two New Yorks (The Nation.com)
"If New York City were a nation, it would rank fifteenth worst among 134 countries with respect to income concentration, in between Chile and Honduras,' writes James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute...".  NYC is run by reform minded progressive Democrats and a billionaire mayor, so why then is it a plutocracy?

Direct Action vs. False-Flag police operations (Reason.com/)
"How much of the looting is bona fide grassroots rioting and how much is false-flag activity by the cops? I don't know, and neither do you; in general, whenever you hear the word 'looter' on the news, it'll probably be days or more before you can speak with any certainty about what has actually been going on. But government agents are clearly involved with the spree, and it's very possible that they're stoking and spearheading it; defense of person and property, meanwhile, has fallen not just on the Army but on civil society, as neighbors form informal protective associations. If Robb's scenario turns out to be true, Egypt has inverted the Hobbesian story of the state: The police are spreading disorder and the voluntary sector is containing it."

Sign of the times...cont'd.

Please stop and pay toll.

Ann Arbor city manager Roger Fraser is again agitating for a city income tax of 1% for residents and 0.5% for commuters.  Tax and spend, tax and spend. From the linked news story it seems that more than a few of the council members are leaning towards supporting an income tax this time around.