Here’s the weird thing. Apparently Jeff is a big fan of the Twilight series of books and movies. So he decided to have a Twilight themed election party for whatever reason. The whole thing was a little awkward.

Like he put on makeup and the whole thing. And there was some kind of “vampire blood” punch that I think had wine coolers in it or something. I dunno, I left before they broke out the glitter.

This isn't really my photo; I snagged it from the southwest Michigan Tea Party's website.

On my way to the Miller Road post office yesterday, I was stopped by a man with a clipboard.

He introduced himself, then launched into a spiel about voting and voters and freedom of choice and some other stuff meant to rouse the populist’s righteous indignation or something. I couldn’t quite follow where he was going, but after a minute or so I finally got out of him that he was collecting signatures to establish a new political party in the state of Michigan.

The party is of course the always controversial Tea Party.

But I noticed the man never actually said the words “Tea Party” to me, I read them across the top of the petition itself. He may have modified his rhetoric a bit in reaction to the “Peace Jam” tee-shirt I was wearing at the time.

So I signed the thing (if the Tea Party wants to go all formal, that’s okay with me) and went on about my business.

Well, it turns out that this isn’t a simple as it sounds. It seems a large number of self-identifying tea party members in Michigan don’t actually want a Tea Party.

The argument goes like this: The tea party isn’t a formal political organization, they are a collection of individuals gathered around a political issue. It’s not about running Tea Party candidates, but about getting the existing candidates to listen to tea party issues. (Note the difference between the lower-case “tea party” and the capital-T “Tea Party.”)

So who owns the Tea Party?

There are several answers to that question.

Of course, the lower-case tea party belongs to whomever shows up to the meetings. It’s an informal group of individuals with an informal collection of beefs about the state and federal governments.

But the upper-case Tea Party evidently belongs to a man named Mark Steffek. We don’t know much about Mark Steffek; he doesn’t seem to like to answer his phone.

Tea Party Statement of Organization

We do know he lives over on the east side of the state in a town called Reese near Saginaw. We know that he registered the Tea Party name with the Department of Labor and Economic Growth back in April.

We suspect he may not actually be affiliated with the lower-case tea party because area tea partiers say they’ve never heard of him. We also suspect he may be a shill for the Democrats, though there really isn’t much to back that up other than a string of contributions to the UAW’s political action committee.

Regardless of the group’s affiliation, the Tea Party petition drive has until July 15 to supply roughly 38,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. Once those are validated, the Tea Party becomes a “real” party in the eyes of the state of Michigan and they can hold a caucus or whatever and put up some candidates to run in November.

Workers install Park Street Market sign

I LOVE grocery shopping.

So, naturally I take my grocery shopping experience very seriously.

Now, I’m not picky, but I like my stores well-lit, easy to navigate and close. The new Park Street Market fits all those criteria.

Additionally, it is well-stocked and the stuff it sells is not overpriced.

The Park Street Market officially threw open its mechanical, fiber-glass doors this morning around 10 a.m.

A crowd moves into Park Street Market just after opening

There was no real fanfare, no ribbon cutting, no speeches by local leaders. The store just quietly unlocked the doors to the waiting crowd (and there was a waiting crowd).

The new store is owned and run by the Shina Group out of Detroit. A manager tells me they run a bunch of similar neighborhood markets all over the state.

The opening is a victory of sorts for the Northside neighborhood, and for Northside business leaders in particular.

The Northside Association for Community Development worked long and hard on the space before Felpausch moved into it in 2003. (Note: I reported on that grand opening too.)

Back then, the store was promoted as a sign of advancement for the area which hadn’t had a grocery store for years. The argument goes that there are a lot of poor people in the area who have no choice but to hop a bus (or walk) to either Meijer on Gull Road or Hardings on Westnedge. That’s a solid-gold pain in the tuchus. Having a real market nearby saves a lot of people a laborious trip while also giving them an alternative to the liquor stores and bodegas they might otherwise do their local shopping at.

But things changed. Felpausch got bought by Spartan Stores (which seems to be dead-set on buying every grocery chain in Michigan, btw). Spartan jacked prices there and then went on a closing spree soon after the economy took a dump.

Northside store finally, sadly, suddenly shut its doors back in May of 2009.

The employees at Park Street Market seem happy to be there.

Fastwind to today, though, and the future is potentially bright for the new Park Street Market. Residents are keen to shop there. The prices are good, the atmosphere is pleasant and the employees are friendly.

If they can avoid problems that many say plagued the old store (such as high prices, shoplifting and a dingy store), they may be around for a good long time.

The old store closed last year ostensibly due to the economic downturn. It was and will be the only grocery store on the Northside. Note though, it will be joined in short order by the People’s Food Co-op when it moves into its new digs sometime in the next year near the corner of Ransom and Harrison. link: www.whykalamazoo.net/2010/02/kalamazoo-peoples-food-coop-moving

I’m meeting lots of nice people at the beach. Some of them have offered to help with my luggage.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here for deets.

Since then, Google’s been pretty quiet about its plans, its timeline, even its criteria for selecting a partner city. Company reps say they’ll let everybody know by the end of the year. Standard wisdom suggests they’ll probably make site visits to some finalists before then.

Meanwhile, there’s more than enough speculation to go round.

Just recently, FiberforAll.org, a site run by a marketing company out of Sarasota, has taken to ranking the various efforts. These are based mostly on rates of social media support.

We're number 12, near the bottom.

Good ol’ Grand Rapids is topping pretty much every chart. They’re number one in terms of percent of population supporting the effort as well as just straight numbers. They’re also one of the top five cities still showing increased support for the effort.

Kalamazoo isn’t doing too poorly though. We rank number 12 in terms of percentage support, with 7.58% of our population having joined the Facebook group. We’re not as strong in raw numbers, but then we haven’t gone nuts like some other places.

The site is promising to update the support rankings daily.

screengrab from wkzo.com - Web, May 5, 2010 9;45 a.m.

Who’s Debra Hiemstra?

WKZO.com refers to her as the Vice Chair of the Kalamazoo County Commission. But I have it on good authority that Deb Buchholtz has held that position for a number of years now.

screengrab from kalcounty.com - Wed, May 5, 2010 9:50 a.m.

And as far as I can tell, there has never been a Debra Hiemstra on the board.

Maybe the folks at KZO know something that I don’t.

That’s not because I don’t like the place – I’ve always loved the Coast. But, I always came away smelling like I’d just spent two weeks inside a Turkish bath house.

Now, three days after a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, I’m in the clear.

Fourth Coast Cafe has this groovy new laptop bar. (sorry for the camera-phone image)

Yeah, the Coast still smells a little bit like the inside of my wallet, but there’s no grey-green haze hanging in the air and there’s this fancy new laptop bar along the wall.

So, what’s the verdict?

Dana, the guy who seems to be behind the counter every single time I’ve come in this place over the past decade, says things have been going well so far.

There’s been a little drop-off in business, he admits, though not dramatic nor unexpected. The cafe has temporarily lowered its coffee price in an effort to build business.

He says he’s also gotten a lot of positive feedback on the change. People like being able to breath, it seems. And as a side note, there’s a certain unsavory cadre of clientele that seems to have dissipated with the tobacco cloud.

As I sit here, there’s been a pretty steady stream of coffee drinkers trailing past the counter. And the atmosphere doesn’t seem to have changed much – the same string of tattoos and piercings; Tom Waits croaks and groans over the house speakers.

In the end, nothing ever really changes, does it? I kinda hope not.

John McNeil over at KZO

John McNeil over at KZO got to flirt with the national spotlight last night.

He was on CNN’s Nancy Grace show talking about a missing Colon woman. Venus Stewart was snatched from her front yard in late April. You can read WKZO’s own account of the story here: Colon Township Woman May Have Been Abducted

Apparently, Ms. Grace and Mr. McNeil hit it off. She’s asked him to come back on the air again tonight. Channel 60 on Charter. 8 p.m. and again at 10.