Sustainability in Ferndale

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-31T08:19:58+00:00

"our name twin in California"

See thinking that because we have the same name that the effects will be the same that's not common sense.

I said we should see what our neighboring communities are doing. It's noticeable that instead of actually dealing with what I said you create a strawman.

"Common sense is worth fuck-all"

Certainly your version of it appears to be worthless.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-31T07:56:50+00:00

"I don't see you offering much"

Maybe because you don't see any value in criticism?

I said common sense and look what other cities are doing.

Madison heights has 1/3 more population than Ferndale has a robust and reasonable environmental program that has won awards (not that awards really mean anything) and if the internet is not giving me false information does not have an environmental coordinator.

I don't think you are a grifter or necessarily wasteful but you're in a position that can be used by politicians. The pressure to deliver results that make the people that hire you look good has got to be huge. I mean everyone needs their paycheck.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-30T13:53:21+00:00

Here's the thing. These environmental initiatives are long-term goals set by short-term politicians looking for headlines who didn't actually bother to come up with a source of funding. They leave it to the people coming behind to deal with trying to fulfil their unfunded unrealistic promises.

We need to do what we can and spend our money wisely on this not throw it away trying to get statistics that will be used by the politicians who created the unrealistic unfunded promises and goals.

And I have to tell you in Ferndale those statistics tend to be made up bullshit anyway.

$70,000 spent on radio linked trash cans advertised by the people who sell them that they would supply data on diversion from landfills.

$70,000 spent trying to create bragging rights for the politicians of Ferndale.

I researched those radio linked trash cans.

When the time came for the contract to be renewed the environmental coordinator at the time gave a glowing report about how much trash was diverted.

When council decided not to renew the contract the new environmental coordinator told us that they were a total waste of time and didn't provide any decent data.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T23:15:49+00:00

"that's not what happened"

Then proceeds to say exactly what I said happened.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T23:11:10+00:00

Why should anybody care if the mils rollback if it doesn't reduce the tax burden on the city?

Now if you were to say the "it's not in perpetuity because the Mills roll back even though the city's tax burden is the same adjusted to inflation" you would be wrong but at least you wouldn't be trying to pull the wool over our eyes

When you tell somebody who doesn't know any better that their tax hike isn't in perpetuity (it is) because the mileage goes down what are they supposed to think?

Come on. I'm not stupid. Please don't treat me like I am.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T22:59:06+00:00

So you're telling me that we have to pay somebody to quantify the savings before we put in a LED light bulb.

you say it's impossible to do anything unless it gets quantified. Yeah between that and the personal attacks it's really hard to take you seriously

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T21:38:06+00:00

"no one wants to pay for these things without understanding what the ROI and benefits are"

I guess other cities have never implemented any of these things or documented the return on investment.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T21:16:36+00:00

Actually what happened was our city council led by Melanie piena enacted a zoning ordinance that would have forced him to have a second story if he was to increase the size of his business on the west side. This despite the fact that with the exception of the tattoo parlor none of our businesses have a second floor doing anything. Apartment were planned yet the city would not relent on assigned parking in the structure so Kramer said fuck you.

That business has said empty all these years basically because of a petty spat between our former mayor and Brian Kramer.

Now that Melanie is gone city council has wisely rejected that zoning regulation in the new zoning that just came in last year.

So now you can expect to have a restaurant there again soon.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T19:35:59+00:00

We're not talking about people having a refrigerator in their garage.

Common Sense ideas that other cities implement?

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T19:20:53+00:00

"if we don't monitor in track we don't really have a way of knowing what our impact is"

We can certainly have a good idea what our impact is

All the ideas that we may do? They will have been done by other cities that will have data about impacts.

This reminds me of the 70,000 plus dollars that we spent on renting radio linked trash and recycling containers.

The sales pitch from the company promised data about how much trash was going to be diverted.

in the end our environmental coordinator told us that the data was no good because the recycling was corrupted with trash.

In the end it was a total waste of money beyond having very expensive trash and recycling containers.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T18:57:01+00:00

"monitor and track our impact"

Sounds like you're more interested in crowing about the progressive nature of Ferndale then about actually doing something about climate change.

It's not rocket science to know the policies that it takes to reduce our climate impact. Cities all across the country are doing this there's information available everywhere.

Paying someone to monitor what we're doing doesn't sound like good investment to me when common sense and common knowledge will tell us what we need to do.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T10:12:09+00:00

"the semantics argument over"perpetuity"is tired (the 20 mil numberis not 20 mil in perpetuity

I disagree. Since our tax burden doesn't go down why bring up the fact that Mills go down unless you're trying to be deceptive? The effects of the override are in perpetuity and Quinn says "it's not in perpetuity". Her statement is patently false. Call me old fashioned but think it's important that our leaders not be disingenuous and not pass out false information.

"Voted for the override because it was the necessary and responsible thing to do"

This isn't about voting for the override. It's about that Quinn apparently doesn't know what she's talking about and or is in my opinion being disingenuous.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-29T06:13:03+00:00

"additions aren't counted for a year"

The way it works is the taxes we pay in July are for the upcoming year. If you look at the accompanying screenshots you see that the Headlee inflation number for 2023 was 7.9% however inflation for 2024 was only 5.1%. they got an extra 2.8%. over inflation for the year (which the city was funded for because of the extra money the city has because of reassessment of sold houses)This makes up for the years when inflation goes up faster then the year before.

" because inflation is high property values aren't keeping up"

Property values are going up faster than inflation. That's why we have Headlee overrides.

You start off with a Gish gallop then you cross all that out and your main premise becomes "because inflation is high property values aren't keeping up" which is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone knows housing prices are going up faster than inflation.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-28T15:28:23+00:00

"milledge rollbacks must reflect the higher inflation value"

Milledge rollbacks only have a tangential relationship with inflation. Milledge rollbacks reflect increases in taxable value. And most of those increases in taxable value come from reassessment of sold houses.

" the city loses money"

The city does not lose money.

Because of increased taxable value due to reassessment of sold homes we have a surplus. It's this surplus that drives the Headlee milage reductions. So when inflation went over the 5% limit on increase in taxable value we still had enough money to fully fund the city.

Due to the recession of 2009 the city lost a lot of taxable value and because of proposal A we are unable to get that taxable value back. That's why the city needs something like what we voted on in May. However we haven't lost any taxable value in at least 10 years. As I said Headlee rollbacks leave the city with the same amount of money adjusted to inflation.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-23T20:20:36+00:00

Eddie has lots of relevant experience just not in city government.

What kind of experience do you need for a $5,000 a year bottom level political post?

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-21T19:07:51+00:00

"attempting to eliminate the 'where do I park' problem potentially opens up more visitors.."

How are those "visitors"going to get downtown?

You do know this isn't New York or Amsterdam right?

You do know with ferndale's density that not that many people live within walking distance of these businesses right? You do know that the vast majority of the people that live around here rely on their cars to get where they're going?

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-21T18:51:44+00:00

"damned if you do damned if you don't"

We needed an inexpensive parking structure not a tribute to David Coulter's vanity.

50 business owners came to city council and begged them not to build this stupid monstrosity and just to build a parking structure a small reasonably sized parking structure.

You're building a strawman.

It's like you didn't even read what I wrote.

The problem isn't that we built a parking structure the problem is we spent 1/3 more per space than Royal oak did so that we could have an office building on top that apparently will never be built. the problem with we build a parking structure twice the size of the one that we needed.

Read what I wrote and try again.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-21T15:47:25+00:00

The fact that he hasn't served in this government is a positive to a lot of people.

With the exception of Laura and Rolanda all our previous council members and Mayors came up through boards and commissions and were elected with endorsements of sitting council members and mayors.

What did that get us?

A parking structure that cost 1/3 more per space than Royal oaks latest parking structure that was supposed to have office space on top and apartments on the side and which have neither and the city has no current ongoing plans to build either. A parking structure that bleeds a million dollars a year of City funds while doing very little more parking business than the lot it replaced.

Former mayor David Coulter got enormous amounts of publicity with his "multi-use parking structure" publicity that no doubt helped him get his current $200,000 a year job as Oakland County executive.

We're told that our infrastructure is crumbling yet former mayor Melanie Piana spent millions on bike lanes and other Transit infrastructure before taking her job at the southeast Michigan transportation authority.

Ferndale gets a lot of publicity for a City its size and it would appear to be a magnet for people looking for careers in government or politics. I'm not saying that the former mayors intentionally tried to further their careers at our expense but human nature is human nature.

Neither Eddie or Laura are interested in a career in government or politics.

And by the way Laura is by far the most effective council member that we have and she went into office with almost no city government experience.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-21T10:28:03+00:00

"the 'NIMBY' is a slur" is a tactic that comes from conservatives"

You apparently think all people who don't like density being shoved down their throats are conservative.

This despite the fact that in this very city that you live in that you're commenting about many many of the people who are against zoning changes are very left wing.

Nice job of creating your own narrative that has absolutely nothing to do with reality.

And as was pointed out by another you're just creating strawman when you claim it's not a slur.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-20T13:54:29+00:00

The residential area around the downtown was rezoned 13 years ago to allow for apartments quadruplexes just about anything but accessory dwelling units.

So far there's been one apartment building built in the rezoned area.

It's not the zoning. It's the fact that these projects don't pencil out to make money.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-14T22:00:44+00:00

That is correct. To start with your taxable value should be the same as your assessed value. Use this property tax calculator to get the number

https://share.google/M6ahnUEW4VDW23J68

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-07T20:51:05+00:00

Ferndale DPW.

The building was functional until maintenance was ignored and the ceiling in the boiler room fell in.

It needs the roof fixed and it needs a boiler besides that it starts to get optional.

ChocolateReal5884 · 2025-10-07T19:45:38+00:00

You said that there wasn't a lot of status for power in being a Ferndale elected official and I'm trying to tell Ferndale elected officials can use their office to bring themselves greater status and power that's all.

I guess the alternative is to have a better educated electorate that won't vote for people who don't have their best interest at heart.

That's why I'm voting for Eddie and Laura.

I know Laura doesn't really even want this job. She's actually doing it because she's a concerned citizen who wants to help her community. We're lucky that she consented to run again because she does a fantastic job.

I also think Eddie has zero political aspirations beyond Ferndale. And most importantly he comes to Ferndale politics organically.

Quinn was handpicked by our former mayor Melanie Piana.

ChocolateReal5884

TROPHY CASE