The Place Where Ludington Talks

Ludington is Number 208 in the Best Places to Live in Michigan

Humility is something you rarely find in an elected official. It's also uncommon for other civic leaders and the media of an area. They are proud mothers and fathers of any good news that come up concerning the area they represent, while being quick to lock the bad news in the cellar after disowning it.

This is perhaps a good thing to have when you're a tourist town and your city leaders are acting responsibly and with the citizen's and visitor's interest in mind. While our leaders have been pushing for multimillion dollar changes for the West End of Ludington Avenue over the last dozen years, when it is already receiving accolades from visitors and tourists alike, the infrastructure has been sorely neglected.

This was very evident over this last year, when the word was getting out that the MI Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ's) discharge permit for the Ludington's Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) expired in 2011, and the unelected city manager and contracted city attorney covertly tried to legally get around the costly improvements the DEQ and MI DNR suggested. Failing this, they stalled the process, the city manager funneling money to Attorney Richard Wilson to get a costly cost of service analysis to avoid any public announcement of the problem.

These leaders and their accomplices are among the first to trumpet any list, poll, or contest that portrays Ludington in a good light, and that's not a bad thing, I have done it myself on numerous times (such as in Ludington State Park Ranked #2 Best Place to Camp in the USA).

Leaders and media were positively ecstatic when Outside Magazine's contest gave Ludington a Final Four appearance as the country's best beach town earlier this year, due primarily to a concerted effort by those who found out ways to vote often taking the time to vote for Ludington over its competitors. These were the same people decrying my efforts to make Walhalla the #1 town in Mason County in a couple of Reader's Digest contests successfully (Walhalla Wins Again) in order to make a point.

But they all seem to ignore the mediocre evaluations such as when Thrillist claimed Ludington's Number Fourteen on Michigan Beach Towns. Instead of logically disputing the list, or claiming the author is dead wrong (like I did), they tacitly agree with them by not doing so. They refuse to look at or respond to such negative-speak, because they believe they love 'Ludington' without qualifications.

But those who turn a blind eye on such critiques or dismiss them can only be considered propagandists, for Ludington isn't perfect; it can be improved. These folks are typically the same ones that think we need to sink millions of dollars on the West End of Ludington to make it better, when most of us think it could be perfect if the city's DPW only maintained what's there.

Ask them: If you Love Ludington so much, then why are you always trying to change her appearance? If you Love Ludington so much, why do you always spend money on her cosmetics rather than on her health?

Those who don't share their naïve Pollyanna ideas are destined to be ignored, ridiculed, or publicly sanctioned by this bizarre clique. But the very real problems that Ludington has, cannot be solved if they are not properly defined. A recent ranking of Michigan cities by Niche.com, an internet site that rates areas, school districts, and many other things in the USA will thus be ignored when they list the best cities of the state of Michigan and not only fails to put Ludington in the top ten...

https://local.niche.com/rankings/places/best-places-to-live/s/michi...

But also fails to put them even in the top 100 or even 200-- even though several counties in the northern parts of Michigan haven't any cities that qualify, like neighboring Lake and Oceana County, due to their town's populations being too small. Ludington ranks a disappointing 208 using the metrics explained in the picture above.

Now I surely find that ranking hard to believe, but I do take some comfort in knowing we finished higher than Muskegon this time, and other places like Flint. This isn't some unscientific poll or rigged voting scheme that determines ranking, but a definitive set of criteria that someone has tried to rate objectively for each city in Michigan.

I find it hard to ignore something like this, however, because it isn't a blatantly subjective ranking of cities that puts this town at #208. Nor can it be credibly ridiculed or sanctioned without meticulously reviewing the process and determining them faulty on some basis with merit. Job opportunities, home values, and income seem to weigh heavily against us.

Our city council has embraced progressive and socialistic public policies in order to make us better, our downtown development initiatives take more money from the businesses that are here and return very little, unless they are represented on the board. They both often inhibit new business start-ups if they interfere with what we already have, stifling competition and keeping them uncompetitive with the PM Township retailers. They frequently set an unfair table for small businesses, as they've done with the private marinas and mom-and-pop landlords. They befoul the air and water with raw sewage, because they neglect the infrastructure.

All of these directives by our public officials work against our current problems with job opportunities, home values, and income, but instead of encouraging businesses to invest in the city, our leaders opt to take more money from the state, those businesses and the citizens, and usurp more power to do so-- taking away their rights and exacting more duties and fees from all. Is it any wonder why we are more likely to continue in a downward spiral if this 'leadership' is left unchecked?

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Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on July 15, 2016 at 1:03am

I think the "leadership is left unchecked" mostly because many locals want a simpler and less complicated system in Lud. to run for office. This just cannot happen until concerned and loving locals make a stand, at the ballot boxes, and also running for offices that WE can surely IMPROVE! AND WIN! If council and other committee members continue to be appointed and run unopposed, the present situation only gets worse. And " Shyters like Shay" only get more power, and authority, over ALL OF US!