By Bobjohnson
February 1, marked a day of diologue that will begin to change Saginaw. I had the honor of serving on a panel with distinguished leaders including former Saginaw Mayor Joyce Seals, Saginaw Mayor Pro-tem Amos O’Neal, 70th District Judge M.T. Thompson, Saginaw Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas, B.V. police Chief Brian Booker, Buena Vista Police Chief Gerald Cliff, and Pastor Larry Camel.
This panel discussion was sparked from the now-infamous Jan. 15 comic strip in the Delta Collegiate which painted Saginaw in a negative light. The strip was part of a news package about the fact that for the sixth time, Saginaw ranks as the most violent city per capita according to the FBI.
While the comic was the impetus for the discussion, the mail focus was this: Violence that plagues our city. How can we fix our image?
Now Saginaw is not by far as violent as cities like Chicago, Miami, or Compton, but for a city of its size, it is pretty violent. But part of the problem with the FBI ranking is numbers. Despite a decline in population, crime stats have stayed the same. Say, for example, twenty-five violent crimes are committed in a neighborhood of one hundred people. Then fifty people move away. The chance of becoming a victim has gone from 25 percent to 50 percent pretty fast.
And there’s a trickle down. As a result of the 50 people moving away, houses are abandoned. Property is not maintained. These houses become hubs for crime. Then, when images of these unkept properties are on the news at the scene of the latest shooting, outsiders develop a negative perception of all of Saginaw.
Run a Google search on Saginaw images and one of the first things you will see is a smoking pistol and bullet holes on a sign that reads: Come back to Saginaw, we missed you the first time. The new name for Saginaw that I hear often on campus is “Sag-dad” referring to Bagdhad- the violently large city in Iraq. So not only do we have a violence problem, we also have an image problem.
While we have law enforcement officials and community leaders working on the violence problem, who do we have working on Saginaw’s image? How can we attract and retain people in a city with fewer employment opportunities than ten years ago? How do we attract employers to a town where factory owners on the local news threaten to relocate their business because of stray bullets striking employee vehicles?
I don’t have a solution to the image problem, but I can offer some suggestions. First, we have way too many meetings. Townhall discussions, panel discussions, protests, and marches, but no action or real solutions. We rush to throw together things that look good on camera or makes for a nice write up in the local paper, but there’s no follow up to see what progress was made.
I suggest that before we hold these big meetings and discussions, we find ways to fix the problem and then introduce solutions. This is the part where we hold everyone accountable. We make everyone a part of the problem-solving process.
I suggest that we educate our community on the importance of helping out and giving back to our city. I’m not talking about requiring high school seniors to do X amount of community service hours in order to graduate. I’m talking about starting a campaign as strong as the “Going Green” or the anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign. We want our residents to be proud of Saginaw. The only way to do that is to educate them on the benefits and consequences of a healthy community.
The last thing that I suggest is ownership. We are more likely to take a better care of things that we have a vested interest in. Think about it, who is more likely to take care of their home, a renter or an owner? Saginaw is our home and if we don’t feel ownership, we won’t care about the present or future state of our city – and our region.
Surrounding counties should also be taking notes. I am reminded of an analogy given by Judge M.T. Thompson. Thompson told of a house burning and the neighbor decided not to call 911. He assumed the house was burning because someone was inside smoking crack. What the neighbor did not realize is that while the house was burning the wind was also blowing- towards his house.
The moral of the story is: if Bay City, Midland, and other counties don’t get involved in the solution side of Saginaw’s problem, it won’t be long before it spreads to them. Same as Detroit’s problems have spread to Flint and Saginaw.
A follow up panel discussion is tentatively planned for April 23. The theme of this panel discussion will be “Future or Next Generation.” I feel this will be an exciting panel as well and I am eager to see what some of our “future/next generation leaders” are proposing to do about our problems in Saginaw. All of the former panelists are invited to attend. We also hope to add a younger more diverse set of panelists on stage. Watch for more information on this event. In advance, start thinking: What can I do?
(This column will run in the Delta College Collegiate Friday Feb. 26)
Posts
