Last night, we had another meeting to discuss the concept of the Ypsilanti-centric community reporting site (code name “Spitting Cat”). After a few productive hours of work, we all went our seperate ways. Brett asked me to have a beer, but I had to get home to help Linette with the baby, so I declined. What I didn’t realize at the time was, had I stayed out with Brett, I would have been involved in his second big Ypsi reporting scoop in less than a week… You see, as Brett was sitting at the bar, he received a call from his wife informing him that the apartment building next to theirs was on fire… At that, Brett grabbed his notebook and camera and sprinted down the railroad tracks toward the blaze.

If you have a chance, check out his coverage (even if you don’t live in Ypsi). I think it illustrates perfectly why it is that we, the “Spitting Cats,” feel so strongly about this project of ours and its potential. This is a story that, had it not been for Brett, we probably wouldn’t have heard about, at least not in such detail.

If it weren’t for Brett, I wouldn’t have known, for instance, that the fire alarms didn’t sound, that the tenants suspect faulty wiring, that the first hydrant tried by the firefighters didn’t work, and that a Township engine apparently beat our own city firefighters to the scene… Brett, once again, has demonstrated to the rest of us what a community news website has the potential of being. (If he raises the bar any higher, we’ll have to kill him, but that’s beside the point.)

Here’s a quote from his post:

I am very uneasy. Last night I personally observed a building, identical in composition to my own, located only yards away, catch fire for an unknown reason. The residents were not alerted in time to same anything but the clothes on their backs. The fire departments were slow to arrive, the first responder was unable to provide water due to a faulty utility, and the company which ended up primarily solving the situation is from a township 5 miles from us.

Is this what the first sign of a bankrupt city will be like? Politicians from the top to the bottom, claiming the best government is a small government, using the Headlee Amendment and privatization campaigns to squeeze every service from the public domain, until we are left with crumbling residences, filled with code violations the city doesn’t enforce, an infrastructure they don’t maintain, and a safety department incapable of doing its job due to the limitations imposed upon it by a City Council focused primarily on being ‘Cool’.

I have spoken previously of my feelings regarding the area where I live. As the city zoning map shows, it is classified as ‘high density,’ and not surprisingly, color-coded as ‘shit brown’. It is obvious by the statements made at numerous meetings that the City of Ypsilanti intends to marginalize certain demographics by moving them from town, restoring their treasured ‘single family dwellings’, and all the while asserting that a non-existent increase in the student population requires additional residences to be constructed.

I had thought it was enough that, as a person of moderate income, I might be caught in a political game and ostracized to the other side of the river along with the rest of Ypsilanti’s working poor. Now, I grow increasingly wary of the possibility that there is more to the land use plan than simply moving undesirables away from downtown.

Congratulations, Ypsilanti. You’ve finally succeeded in scaring me to death.

UPDATE: A former member of the Holland (Michigan) Board of Public Works, who has some knowledge of how fire departments operate, offers an analysis of the situation on his site. Here are his central thoughts on two major issues:

Problem: The fire department had a long response time.
Answer: The dept. is understaffed and over-extended. The City of Holland Fire Dept. serves 39,000 people (give or take a few). Ypsilanti’s serves around 45,000, according to their website. Holland has 3 stations, two of which are manned full time. Ypsi has 1 (ONE) station, also manned full time. From what I can tell, Ypsi has one truck, two engines, a rescue and a support van. Ypsi is also a full time only department, which means that off-duty personal are called back on big fire calls. Holland, on the other hand, has one truck, three engines, one reserve engine, one medium rescue, one light rescue, a brush truck, and a tiny boat. Holland’s two full time stations are complimented by a large amount of paid on-call members, who only respond to fires and big events. I’d imagine, since Pittsfield Twp. was first on scene to Ypsi, that Ypsi has an automatic aid agreement set up to save its ass. It looks like that worked – but is that safe?

Problem: First fire hydrant attached to did not flow.
Answer: Inadequate maintanence, poor communication, poor fire department operation… all could be problems. Over winter, some fire hydrants are prone to freeze and crack, leaving them out of service. Unless the Water Dept. goes around and checks all hydrants, this problem may not be found in time to correct before a fire. A better maintanence program may be of merit. Also, the water and fire departments should talk together more often, sharing information about out-of-service hydrants. A good system should be worked out to inform the fire dept. which hydrants are unusable, even as simple as duct-taping a trash bag over the bad hyrdant (we started doing that in Holland). And, just to say… the firefighters should flow the hydrant quickly before attaching hose, just to make sure it works.

Our Mayor, by the way, has yet to respond to my note on this matter. When she does, I’ll let you know.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Former firefighter, and friend of this site, Hillary Cherry, had this to add:

Good anaylsis by the fellow from Holland, though the last census counted Ypsilanti’s population at 22,362. Holland’s is listed as 35,048. Holland also occupies almost 4 times the land area that Ypsilanti does. Also, the median income in Holland is $14,000 more. Not saying that excuses Ypsilanti’s poor maintenance, just that Ypsilanti should try harder at providing basic services and not so hard on dressing town up to look like Holland.

Also, I’m not sure exactly how Ypsilanti Fire is structured, but labor unions are more common on the east side of Michigan, while paid-on-call is the dominant paradigm elsewhere in the state. In Hamtramck, 100% of the firemen are union and full-time. In some west side towns, they still have unpaid volunteer firemen. In any event, it’s more expensive to run an east side department because Ypsilanti’s competition for hiring is Hamtramck and not Freeport.