Side Note

[shinblind]

Opinion of PM Bayou from the Waterfront Master Plan, about page 18.

Charter Fishing Area-Washington Street.

This is the historic charter fishing area in the vicinity of the Washington Street bridge. The area has recently suffered a period of deterioration and is in need of improvement. There is no organization to the area which would direct persons desiring to charter a boat. There is no clearly identified parking area or a central information and reservation area. Additionally there are areas of deterioration, with docks in need of repair and paint and the appearance created by stagnant water which accumulates at the end of the bog along Madison Street.

Page 18 of this document:  http://www.ludington.mi.us/DocumentCenter/View/187

The Master Plan isn't dated but Jack Scott was mayor, Jim Miller was city manager and Barry Neal was heading the DDA, so sometime in the mid 90's.

It looks like this area was always regarded as Ludington's Waterfront equivalent of the red haired step child. They certainly treat it that way.

[XLFD]

shinblind, I added a link and directions to the document you point to.  Weird that it doesn't date itself, the only reference to date of origin being the discussion of the original citizen advisory committee meetings in the summer of 1996 and no clarity as to whether that was years ago or not.  Due to the context clues you noted it must have been between July 1996 and December 1997, when Mayor Scott was succeeded by Mayor Pomorski.

Let's not forget that the city had been in direct competition with this area for at least 16 years, taking in charter boats at the Ludington Municipal Marina during almost all that time against their agreements with the state and their covenants made with the local marinas before the LMM was constructed and regularly getting state-subsidized improvements along with tax breaks for being a public entity and you begin to see why the area was in decline. 

The old private marinas being unable to fairly compete with the LMM and the public/private partnership 'new marina' at Harbor Front was one of the big reasons this area was going into decline, and a major reason why the city neglects and will neglect having anything to do with the area they had allowed to be used for a dumping area before (and even after) the rise of the private marinas.