East Lansing City Council Meeting wrap-up

Community members spoke at the East Lansing City Council meeting last Tuesday expressing concerns about a proposed sports bar and office space as part of the community subsidized City Center II project.  

The community project that is intended to attract a wider range of ages into the Downtown East Lansing area, was met with skepticism when East Lansing city resident Christine Root commented on her concerns of taxpayers supporting a proposed sports bar, and suite floor office space for the Strathmore Development Company.

“I have no doubt that a sports bar would make it financially,” said Root, “but I cannot imagine that a majority of the people of this city would want to subsidize a sports bar.”

East Lansing City Mayor Diane Goddeeris said after the meeting that the citizens have been watching this project closely over the past four years and that the council is working on their due-diligence process.

Mayor Goddeeris said that the site cannot move forward till the development agreement is approved and the council is satisfied. 

The due-diligence process entails employing outside contractors and specialists to research the site and the plan to ensure economically, and structurally the building is what the city will ultimately want and need, according to Councilman Donald Power.

The final decision on the City Center II project will be made Tuesday, July 31, 2012 where they will either move to continue with the project, or move to forgo the project and pursue other development options. 

East Lansing City Council Meeting Tuesday June 19, 2012

The East Lansing City Council continued to hear the concerns of the community revolving around the proposed City Center II project last Tuesday at the council meeting.

The $105 million proposed project site plan was approved by City Council April 6, 2010 for a community development undertaking on the corner of Grand River Avenue and Abbot Road in Downtown East Lansing by the Strathmore Development Company.

The ongoing issues revolving the plans for the city center have left many community members uneasy about the proposed community building, and the developers that don’t have a very good track record.

Council members came to hear concerns about the project and plan to meet for a through due-diligence work session Tuesday, June 26 to go over the specifics of the project plans. 

Both Matlick and Funk have seen an increase in the amount of hours students are clocking into work.  With MSU Greenline’s extra hour shifts, callers can work on their off nights and call during the day.

With the extra hours, students can work up to 29 hours a week during the school year, a time commitment both Funk and Matlick are observing in many students.

With the increase in tuition and decrease in federal funding of MSU, Funk said that there are negative impacts on students.  She said that overall students might look for other ways to gain professional experience other than college. As students have to take more and more out for student loans, and will have to devote more time to work, the commitment of school may be more than some are willing to face, said Funk.

Matlick said that the college experience of joining clubs, gathering for social events, getting really involved with extracurricular activities will continue to decrease, and some of those programs might even lose funding.

Matlick said that as students have had to devote more time to work than ever, their college experience is beginning to suffer. 

Going back to my second out-of-class story for the semester, I revisited the student workers at MSU Greenline that gave me their input on how the increase in tuition, and dependency on student loans is affecting students at work.

MSU Greenline is a student organization, which employs students who call MSU Alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the university throughout the year to raise money for the various programs and students at MSU.

Danielle Matlick, is a Criminal Justice and Psychology Senior. She has been working at MSU Greenline for about three years now and has grown from a caller, to a supervisor, and finally a manager. She now oversees the MSU Greenline Philanthropy department, which organizes community outreach for all Greenliner’s.

Rachel Funk has been with Greenline for over four years and also has grown from a caller, to a supervisor, and finally a production manager. Rachel overseas the callers and makes sure that all the transitional parts of Greenline run smoothly.  

Weeks of unspoken tension finally come to an end for Hannah and Marnie in episode 9. 

Hannah has been living and relying on Marnie for rent and bills for weeks now, and Marnie finally had enough.

In this drama packed episode, the girls attend the book release of one of Hannah’s former college writing classmates Tally Schifrin, who she sees as a talentless writer with the gift of circumstance—her boyfriend committed suicide.

While Marnie and Shoshanna were inspired by the words of the young writer, Hannah remains jealous of Tally’s success.

While at the release, Hannah runs into her former professor, Powell Goldman, who invites her to a reading.  

Realizing her own lack of effort to showcase her work, she ultimately agrees, and talks of nothing else for the remainder of the episode.

Jessa is confronted by her former employer who expresses her anger and concern for Jessa after learning she lead on her husband.

The episode comes to a close when Hannah, embarrassed by her performance at the reading returns home to unload on Marnie, who has heard enough.

The girls erupt in argument and through bitter locution darts flying across the room, ending in a decision find new roommates.

I enjoyed the episode, but as always wish it ran longer. The episodes pack-a-punch, but are relatively short, and spaced a week apart it’s hard to wait for the next one to air.

Episode 10, will air next Sunday the 17^th of June at 10 o’clock on HBO.  

Episode 9 of the new HBO series Girls aired last Sunday, and since I can hardly find time for homework this week, I am only now getting around to watching it.

Lena Dunham is the creator and star of the new series that follows the lives of four 20ish-year-old friends as they live in New York City. 

The season started as Hannah (Dunham), an aspiring writer, gets financially cut off from her parents, and is left in the big city to sort her life out on her own.

Each of the four main characters of the story Allison Williams as Marnie, Jemima Kirke as Jessa, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna, and Dunham as Hannah support a refreshingly unique personality and story within the series.

In episode 8, Hannah and her aloof lover Adam (Adam Driver) are starting to spend more time together as Marnie agonizes over the breakup of her and her boyfriend. 

Frustrated with her flakiness, Marnie is upset with Hannah forgetting their plans when Jessa stops by. Jessa and Marnie decide to hit cocktail hour where they meet an attractive yet irritating venture capitalist and discover a new facet to their girl-on-girl friendship.

Hannah discovers some new sides to Adam’s character from witnessing him perform an amazingly open and real monologue, to watching him impulsively blow-up at his acting partner and yell at a driver, to discovering him posting “Sorry” signs on the corner where the car nearly hit Hannah.