Guess what?
I have an opinion, too.
Here are my 2 cents:
If this writer is going to have a tizzy about Bill not having a similar law enforcement moment when it comes to corporate blight, then how come he does not go after Bill for not doing anything about the Detroit Land Bank Authority?
Wait, I know why.
The
Detroit Land Bank Authority is having some SIGTARP issues and The Detroit Free Press is sitting on the big reveal.
Just keeping it real, Nancy.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette is appalled by the condition of
an apartment building owned by Democratic
lieutenant governor candidate Garlin Gilchrist II in Detroit's North End. The property on Marston Street, Schuette says, is so disgraceful, and Gilchrist's failure to rehabilitate it so egregious, that Gilchrist, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer's running mate, should resign from the race.
Hey Bill, do me a favor and send one of your Detroit Assistants down to the Wayne County Register of Deeds and pull the history of the property. That action is a bit out of my economic range for existence having to fix my own house up, all by myself because you keep making me do your job.
The North End apartment building is in bad shape, no doubt. Despite the money Gilchrist has poured into the building, it's not yet inhabitable, and the neighbors on Marston Street have justifiable complaints. Blight is one of Detroit's most intractable problems, and there's no denying the physical and psychological toll it takes.
I recall this Public Private Partnership in Detroit that received millions upon millions to address the blight in Detroit. I vaguely remember that work organization being called the Detroit Land Bank Authority, but considering the fact that when I searched for its corporate instrument of authority filed under a responsibility of Bill and I could not find it, I would need to have my memory refreshed. Perhaps, Nancy can do an opinion piece on what happened to all that TARP money for blight.
But when Schuette slams Gilchrist's ownership of a blighted, vacant building, he's not just reducing a complicated story about land ownership and barriers to property rehabilitation in this city to a political jab. He's tacitly acknowledging a double standard many longtime Detroiters recognize: All too often, Detroiters are held to one standard, while
billionaire investors get carte blanche.
Maybe Bill can give us some clarification on the land ownership issue by explaining how the Detroit Congressional Districts were gerrymandered from severe questionable breaks in the chain of command with these deeds. He can start by investigating the Wayne County Property Deed Fraud Unit if SIGTARP is not already investigating him. Ask Bill, Nancy.
As Michigan's attorney general, Schuette
effectively signed off on generous public subsidies for the construction of the Ilitch family's $864 million Little Caesars Arena,
issuing a 2014 opinion that OK'd the Detroit's Downtown Development Authority collection of Detroit school taxes to fund the private development, a
public benefit of $324 million.
Yea, Bill, how come you granted powers of taxation to the working group Detroit Downtown Development Authority, which has never been audited because is not incorporated in the State of Michigan to levy taxes? Bill is not a king because that title of nobility was granted to the Emergency Managers. And while you are at it, Nancy, go ask Bill how come he lets the Detroit Land Bank Authority levy taxes that do not exist and how come there is state law allowing state public school taxes to be levied across the state then split, 50/50 with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, and the rest going to the Detroit Downtown Development Authority. Ask Bill if this is one of those Social Impact Bond Schemes. I did an SEC snitch, you know.
More:
Who is Garlin Gilchrist? Father, tech expert, Whitmer running mate
"I’m not, I’m not going to comment, nor am I agreeing, you’re charging the Ilitches have a shoddy, spotty, whatever it is, record," Schuette said. "... My point is that I’m not commenting on the Ilitches’ blighted property record, I think that, frankly, Ilitch plus Penske plus Gilbert and a whole bunch of private investments have caused a rebirth in Detroit, and quite frankly, I think that is significant. And I want to encourage more of that."
Of course Bill is not going to comment on the fraudulent foreign operations funding his campaign.
The 2014 opinion, Schuette said, was "a sound, solid decision, and I’m not going to make any apologies on that."
Is Bill compromised? Drop that video!
Nor would Schuette discuss whether, as governor, he would find it appropriate to offer public tax subsidies to other private land owners who oversee blighted properties, or who owe back taxes, as the Ilitch family did during arena deal negotiations.
If I am not mistaken, these corporations are tax exempt.
"I'm not going to get into the blighted issue," he said. "I want Detroit to grow. Detroit is a city of 138 square miles. We’ve seen a huge renaissance, and the issue is how do you help build that out, and I want to help build that out. Frankly, I’m Detroit’s best hope. You may disagree with that."
Whether Bill is the best choice for governor or not is just as a sanguine decision for a kid who has survived foster care of whether to be raped or turn a trick to eat for the day.
When it comes to Gilchrist, Schuette isn't quite as forgiving.
It is called a public distraction, or a LARP. SIGTARP is watching.
Garlin and Ellen Gilchrist aren't deep-pocketed developers or billionaire business owners.
The Gilchrists' bought the Marston Street building, a multi-family property rare for a Detroit Land Bank Authority auction, back in 2016, for $13,500, half of the $27,000 auction price. Because Gilchrist was a city employee, he was eligible for a 50 percent discount.
Nancy, can you pull that payment and see to whom the check was made out to, who cashed it, and any other financial transactions. Bill is more than likely too busy preparing for the foster care public debate.
"We are not real estate developers so much as people who though, t we could bring this building back to life in a part of the city that has meaning to us," said Gilchrist, who played Police Athleltic League basketball as a child at the former Considine Rec Center on Woodward Avenue in the North End, told me this week.
The building was badly damaged, and Gilchrist and wife Ellen borrowed against their home to start work. He says they spent around $200,000 on cleanup of the interior, repairing or removing parts of the structure, leveling the foundation, replacing some windows, fixing the porch and the roof, and on architectural plans and surveys required for the full renovation of the building.
Then the Gilchrists ran out of cash.
So, you mean to tell me "GG, the tech guru" did not even have a sequence of events schedule based upon a complete price estimate before starting anything? That is probably the reason he cannot find any funding. He had no clue on what to do.
Gilchrist left the city shortly after buying the Marston Street property to run for Detroit City Clerk in 2017.
Duggan and the MDP had to make sure to split the vote to keep Janice Winfrey in office since she jacked up their own plans to throw the 2016 election cycle. "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending).
"We've been to a lot of different lenders and had a lot of fits and starts," Gilchrist said. "There are still challenges to get some renovation financing."
It is called organization.
The Gilchrists aren't alone. Detroit has no shortage of housing, or buildings in need of rehab. But funds to complete those rehabs can be difficult to obtain.
Funding is difficult based, mostly, upon jacked up deeds.
Lenders still view Detroit rehabilitation loans as high-risk, with some justification, said Mac Farr, executive director of the Villages Community Development Corporation on Detroit's east side.
The loans are high risk because you never know when the Detroit Land Bank Authority might just swoop in and file another quiet title action without notification, of course, because they have no legal authority to exist which is why they use other operations to cash checks.
"It’s still a touch-and-go activity," he said. "If it works out, it works out very well. If not, it’s disastrous."
If you are in the clique, all you have to do is let the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) get you some funding through the New York Bank of Mellon with a fake LLC, then file bankruptcy so the Detroit Land Bank Authority takes back the home and all the debt is wiped out, which is disastrous for the taxpayers who paid this all through TARP.
A would-be borrower without a track record of completing successful rehabs, Farr said, is at a deep disadvantage: "In the neighborhoods, it's still bootstrappy mom-and-pop (rehabbers) this stuff."
It is called survival.
Gilchrist's North End property is an eyesore. And there's no question about that, or that Gilchrist, who bought the eight-unit apartment building back in 2016, should have done better.
He is just lazy.
That's something Gilchrist himself acknowledges, saying he's dissatisfied with the progress he's made: "We’re still trying to work to get financing. This has been a two-year process, and we are committed to still trying to figure this out. This is something that is important to Ellen and I. We started it and we want to finish it."
Nancy, would you be a love and let Bill know as soon as GG the tech guru gets financing.
It's an explanation that's unlikely to sway Schuette. Maybe Gilchrist should have asked for a multi-million-dollar subsidy, instead?
His handlers already did.
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