Diabetes Walk

Hi Everyone,I hope everyone is well and healthy.I just wanted to invite everyone to join the Diabetes walk that takes place in Oct 11th at the Detroit zoo.I am the Recur ting /Fundraiser Chair this year. I would like to see alot more people there then last year. Diabetes affects a lot of people in the community.If you would like to make your own team please go to http://main.diabetes.org/site/TRC. If you would just like to support me and my team go to http://main.diabetes.org/goto/ella. If you would like to join my team and raise funds for the cause you can go to http://main.diabetes.org/goto/diabetestrackers . I Thank you all.Thank you,EllaAlbweitel


P.s If you know any area businesses that will support cause please let me know!!!

Pre -diabetes and diabetes is growing plz help find a cure!!!!

Garbage, Garbage EVERYWHERE!!

Oh how I wish I had my camera the other day at Halmich park! It was Sunday afternoon - EVERY SINGLE garbage can was overflowing!! I sat down with my family to eat a picnic - I felt I was sitting in a land fill. We left shortly after because we had to go home and take a shower. I don't know who to be more upset with - our city who is responsible to empty the garbage recepticals, or our residents who FLAGRANTLY litter and dcsrespect our community. It is not just the parks - look along the side of all the roads. How ridiculous is it to see street cleaners get the dust off the road, while the garbage on the grass and in the weeds is EVERYWHERE!!! Here is a suggestion...in stead of charging Warren residents with a fine for blight - why can't we make that person do 8 hours of community service CLEANING UP THE GARBAGE!! And where are our young people? Adopt a Highway, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, NHS, High Schoolers, why haven't they been enlisted to put time into THEIR OWN COMMUNITY?? Is it any wonder when people come here they think they are in the ghetto? If WE don't care about ourselves - who is going to want to come live here? Who is going to want to invest here? If YOU CARE , IF YOU ARE MAD AS HECK, OR IF YOU JUST WANT TO TELL ME TO SHUT UP - PLEASE POST AN OPINION OR THIS BLOG MAY DIE OF LONELINESS!!

Unemployment Agency - HORRENDOUS!!!

My husband is an electrician who was unfortunate enough to be unemployed for 3 months last year. He collected only 4 weeks of unemployment benefits, and has since been engaged in an almost year long battle with the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) because now they want him to PAY THEM BACK. If anyone is interested in what happened, please ask and I will be glad to elaborate - but in summary - we missed a filing date for an appeal. Heck- we didn't even know what an appeal was that is how dumb we were!! But we are learning quickly that their system of ENDLESS forms and filing is almost IMPOSSIBLE to understand. It is far beyond the ability of one simple blogger - let alone the average construction contractor. My husband keeps asking me - do you know what I would do if I didn't have you? I would just say to heck with it and let them garnish my state tax return. That is what they are trying to do now. And to top that off - the lovely State of Michigan also 1099'd me because they EXPECT me to pay taxes on it too. So I pay them back, and then pay taxes on it? We are now at the "appeal" level and we had to go out to their office on Big Beaver. The judge (I won't mention his name yet) was RUDE and ARROGANT and had long forgotten that he is a PUBLIC SERVANT who works at the good graces of shlumps like us whose taxes pay his salary. Has anyone else experience anything like this? Please send a link to this blog to them - I would like to hear their advice or comments on their experience.

New Column "Only In Warren"

Due to the favorable response of my humorous last posting of my neighbors couch in his front yard, it occurred to me that this might just be the place to begin a regular column of the many oddities that can be observed while sight-seeing in our fair city. Please forward any funny pictures or experiences you (or someone you know) has had that you feel is unique to the "Warren Experience". I will be happy to post it here and forward it for pure entertainment purposes of course. To get you all started - here is an example of mine. I was once verbally accosted by a teenage girl in front of my local grocery store and reprimanded for "taking her parking space". I was puzzled, as I had no idea that she apparently had an assigned parking space. My reaction was to laugh and walk away - an unexpected reaction from the look on her face. I guess it is customary to come to blows with a total stranger because one fails to observe the parking lot pecking order?? I could be true - but only in Warren.

Only in Warren!

I live in Warren, South Warren to be specific - which means I live in the long forgotten part of the city that was unfortunate enough to find itself south of I-696. I LOVE MY CITY, but I must say that it takes a certain type of personality to appreciate our culture. For instance, I truly believe that only in Warren, Michigan, will someone begin raking their leaves on Christmas Eve, only to bag those same leaves into 24 compost bags and leave them at the side of their house until they actually BECOME compost NINE MONTHS later. Is it only in Warren where people decide the DAY AFTER garbage day to discard a broken and unsightly couch?? (See Photo). The BEST PART about technology is when your neighbor decides to do something really moronic or something that just makes others shake their head in wonder, you now get to take a picture of the display (or action) and put it on your blog! GOD BLESS AMERICA - AND GOD BLESS WARREN!!

CL Fire Department Failure?

Many residents observed that on the night the Carr home fire tragedy, that the Center Line fire department took 17 minutes to arrive on the scene. Considering that the fire department is only 1/2 a mile away, does anyone know why this is? If there is a good reason that could explain why they couldn't have gotten there sooner, it could go a long way to putting many angry sentiments to rest.

New Charter School

So what do you think about the new charter school going up on Ryan Roaad? I guess Fouts was granted an appeal - but the building is already begun! Why is it that the court approved the school to be built when it clearly violates the law with regard to lot size? Does anyone have answers to this, because I read the paper about it all the time, and there are no answers as to why Viviano approved this school in the face of all of the supposed violations.

Rec Center OVERCHARGE??

I myself use only the pool - and when I do, I take several kids, and stay for only a couple of hours. So I often end up spending $25 or MORE for 2 hours of fun. I love the pool, and want to go more often, but why is the cost to use the facilites NOT broken down for those who WONT or CANNOT use the workout room? And in order for my kid and daughter to use the gym to play basket ball for an hour or two in the winter, they have to pay $10!! That is ridiculus, considering that they don't want to use ANY of the other facilities, and most of the time that HUGE gym just sits there empty - what a waste! Perhaps if it was more affordable, more people would go? For those of our neighbors in Center Line - don't you think charging them $10 for the facilites is a bit much? How about a $1 more - after all, they open many of their services up to Warren residents for no charge - so why not return the favor. I have sent a few letters to our new mayor and to the P&R director regarding many of these questions. The response was pretty vague like "we will think about it". Do I have to write a bill and bring it before council or what?? Your comments are welcome!!

Daddy Daughter Dance

So what did y'all think of that Daddy Daughter dance held by the City of Warren? My girls and husband had fun, but they felt they went el-cheapo on the food - and it was COLD. If you went, you should have received a survey - if you got it FILL IT OUT and send it in. If you didn't get it, call the city for one. I hope that they listen - because it could be even better next year!!

Walmart - Working Hard to RUIN WARREN!!!

Have you been there? 14 Mile and VanDyke??

I have and and I think it is even MORE POORLY MANAGED than the 12/VD store used to be. It reminds me of Super Kmart. No one there knows what the heck they are doing.

And they have taken a VERY HARD LINE on returns. Get ready to ship that vacuum cleaner back to the manufacturer!!!

I also predict this will cause more BLIGHT in our community. No only does having a Walmart SuperCenter in our community virtually GUARANTEE that our wages here will go down 5% or more (like we can afford MORE???)

Does anyone know what will happen to that HUGE WASTE OF SPACE at 12 mile and VanDyke? Everyone else there will leave, and it will become VERY DIFFICULT, if not impossible to protect and maintain.

Let me know if YOU have heard anything.
Considering that Warren (and Macomb County) Michigan has been in the news as "ground zero" of the "Michigan Recession", I doubt there are a bunch of retailers in line to take that space.

Read Article Below taken from wakeupwalmart.com

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/

Wal-Mart's empty stores are blighting communities
As of May 2006, Wal-Mart Realty has listed 320 vacant or soon to be vacant properties that the company is looking to lease or sell. They total to over 25 million square feet. Combined they are more than 6 times larger than the Pentagon building and larger than 440 football fields. [www.walmartrealty.com]
Wal-Mart's rapid expansion of Supercenters and Sam's Clubs has contributed to hundreds of vacant stores across the country. ["Wal Mart site: Use as is or rebuild?", Dallas Morning News, 2/20/02]
When Wal-Mart decides to convert a discount store into a larger Supercenter, it is often cheaper or easier simply to relocate entirely. David Brennan, associate professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn, noted that Wal-Mart stores relocate so regularly that, "it is not uncommon to relocate right across the street." ["Home Depot to Move from Old to New Store Next Door," Providence News-Journal, 8/17/03]
Wal-Mart's stores are uselessly large for most other tenants. An average discount store is 97,000 square feet. Wal-Mart's Supercenters are on average nearly twice as large at 186,000 square feet. [www.walmartfacts.com]
Also Wal-Mart often resists other large retail stores moving in. A president of a major real estate developer in Dallas said in 2002, "They're not going to be very receptive to any retailer going into it and even if they sell it, they might put a non- compete clause in there." As one Wal-Mart spokesperson said in 2004, "There are times when it's in our interest to get the property moving faster, but we're certainly not going to give a competitor an advantage." [Dallas Morning News 2/20/02, Wall Street Journal, 9/15/04]
Wal-Mart planned to build another 60 million square feet of store space in 2006, or roughly the equivalent of 1,040 football fields or 16 Pentagon buildings. [Wal-Mart Stores, Twelfth Annual Analysts' Meeting, FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire October 25, 2