11 replies to this topic

[coolbrezze]

Where should Lansing, Grand Rapids, Detroit suburbs, Flint, Ann Arbor ( and any other cities you have in mind) merge?
Pro's and Con's?

-There have been discussions of Lansing and East Lansing merging along with other areas
-Wouldn't be surprise if there was discussions of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, East Grand Rapids, and/ or Kentwood merging
-Ann Arbor seems to have no near by place to merge besides Ypsilanti and Pittsfield
-Due to Flint high crime, a merge with Grand Blanc or Burton may be highly unwanted
-Detroit being one of the most dangerous large cities, with safe suburbs merging with each other.... think it could be one of the safest cities and/ or fade out high crime in Detroit?

I thought this would be a interesting topic, due to how it can change a city.
_____________________________________________________________________
Most recent large merge of a city article:
http://www.usatoday....ille-usat_x.htm

[OneSweetWorld]

coolbrezze, on Dec 21 2008, 08:57 PM, said:

Where should Lansing, Grand Rapids, Detroit suburbs, Flint, Ann Arbor ( and any other cities you have in mind) merge?
Pro's and Con's?

-There have been discussions of Lansing and East Lansing merging along with other areas
-Wouldn't be surprise if there was discussions of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, East Grand Rapids, and/ or Kentwood merging
-Ann Arbor seems to have no near by place to merge besides Ypsilanti and Pittsfield
-Due to Flint high crime, a merge with Grand Blanc or Burton may be highly unwanted
-Detroit being one of the most dangerous large cities, with safe suburbs merging with each other.... think it could be one of the safest cities and/ or fade out high crime in Detroit?

I thought this would be a interesting topic, due to how it can change a city.
_____________________________________________________________________
Most recent large merge of a city article:
http://www.usatoday....ille-usat_x.htm

Interesting topic. I believe it's been discussed on here before. I also seem to remember a few decades ago when the voters of East Grand Rapids voted down a proposal to be annexed by Grand Rapids. The only cities around here I could even find vaguely comparable would be Grand Rapids and Wyoming, and that's a long shot. It would have to strictly be northern Wyoming (maybe using around 32nd street as a boundary?) merging with Grand Rapids.

I don't know much about local government, so I can't contribute with any useful opinions. But I do find the issue intriguing.

[coolbrezze]

Thanks for the reply, more is welcome.


I'm surprise Wyoming haven't thought to merge with Grand Rapids, since it seems to be growing more positively. I'm also surprise many of the suburbs of Detroit haven't consider to merge with each other forming one large city. May form a large rich community and possibly fade out the danger of Detroit. Other words, they ( becoming one large city) would no longer be consider a suburb... new downtown center etc... and maybe would attract more people ( due to advantages of a city).

Lansing seems to be growing positively also, and wonder if East Lansing, Okemos, Holt, Haslett, DeWitt etc... thought of merging.

[LA Dave]

coolbrezze, on Dec 26 2008, 01:09 PM, said:

Thanks for the reply, more is welcome.


I'm surprise Wyoming haven't thought to merge with Grand Rapids, since it seems to be growing more positively. I'm also surprise many of the suburbs of Detroit haven't consider to merge with each other forming one large city. May form a large rich community and possibly fade out the danger of Detroit. Other words, they ( becoming one large city) would no longer be consider a suburb... new downtown center etc... and maybe would attract more people ( due to advantages of a city).

Lansing seems to be growing positively also, and wonder if East Lansing, Okemos, Holt, Haslett, DeWitt etc... thought of merging.

Wyoming has a long and difficult relationship with Grand Rapids.  Wyoming was formed in 1959 from unincorporated areas that didn't want to be part of Grand Rapids.  Wyoming and Grand Rapids fought a bitter battle over which city would get the property that used to contain the old Kent County Airport (an area far to the east of Division Avenue, the eastern boundary of most of Wyoming).  Now that Wyoming is facing some of the same problems as other "inner-ring" suburbs (urban blight, lack of good retail), it may be somewhat more sympathetic with the plight of its bigger and older brother.  However, I still don't see any urge to merge from Wyoming residents.  

Once an area incorporates, formal merger becomes more difficult.  Cities in Michigan during the 1950s and 1960s grew in area through annexing unincorporated township areas.  This was true in Grand Rapids.  Grand Rapids, for example, substantially added to its area in 1961 by annexing areas to the west and north (including the North Park area north of 3 Mile Road).  Over time, the residents of the township areas, perhaps fearful of crime, school issues, etc., sought to incorporate the townships as cities (see Walker, Wyoming and Kentwood) or formed the townships as "charter townships" which are more light incorporated cities (see Plainfield, Grand Rapids and Georgetown Townships) to avoid being absorbed by the larger cities.    My guess is that incorporation or charter status makes annexation much more difficult probably through requiring majorities in both areas required for the annexation to occur.

[jas49503]

When I lived in grand blanc there was a push by the city to merge with grand blanc township. I was defeated by the township voters and was opposed by the township government mostly on the basis of increased taxes in the township.  There would have been a great synergy between the two dramatically increasing governmental efficiency but without local support by the township leadership it was doomed. I personally believed that the main motivation was job protection (mainly their own).  I don't think that the issue is specific to grand blanc township. When two towns merge you are going to lose a mayor and several other elected officials. it would be hard to for them to support the issue when it means losing their jobs. never mind the best interests of the cities.

[coolbrezze]

Yeah I would assume that's an issue, but I'm sure they would find some role until their term is up.

[tamias6]

I think the topic of Merging cities has been talked about here before. But I will say that merging would be a good idea as it would consolidate services and get rid of redundancies which would lower operation costs. Indianapolis in its current form is an example of a core city and surrounding communities merging to reduce operational costs by combining police, fire, schools, etc. The city of Louisville, KY merged with its county for the same reasons.

[Phizzy]

Merging of communities in Michigan is fairly rare, particularly more populated communities. However, on July 1, 2000, the cities of Iron River and Stambaugh, and the village of Mineral Hills all merged to form the new city of Iron River. Those communities were fairly small, but Iron River was adjacent to Stambaugh and Mineral Hills. According to the article Think Local, Act Regional, this is "...Michigan's only example of city consolidation". The new Iron River is adjacent to the city of Caspian, and Caspian is adjacent to the city of Gaastra, so perhaps there will be additional mergers in this area.

In 1982, the city of Battle Creek and Battle Creek Township merged, but that was only after a threat from Kellogg's to move their HQ. (See Kellogg's Delivers Ultimatum to Battle Creek)

Edited by Phizzy, 23 July 2009 - 08:50 AM.

[MJLO]

There is talk of this rumbling thru GR again, the mayor in his state of the city, pondered why the six GR cities couldn't merge into one.  Once again townships start barking.  But GR and Wyoming move closer and closer to sharing services   This is a good, I'd love to see all the cities merge into one.  Could you handle if it if the cities population was 350k?

[Rybak 187]

A combination that I would like to see in the Bay City area would be the merger of the school districts that are in and around the city. Another that I would to see would be the combination of Bay City and Essexville.

[LA Dave]

Well, as a start, Wyoming could merge all of its many school districts into one.  The duplication of boards is ridiculous, and since the tax base that once made Godwin Heights the envy of the others (Fisher Body No. 1) is gone.  

It is remarkable to see the lion lie down with the lamb (I will leave to others which City characterizes which animal), but one of the themes of my youth was the constant bickering between Wyoming and GR, and obdurate refusal of Wyoming to cooperate in any sort of regional government.  (I seem to recall that where all the Kent County and eastern Ottawa County libraries cooperated so that if you had a GR public library card, you could take out a book in, say, Georgetown Township, Wyoming refused to play.)  Wyoming of course built its own pipeline to Lake Michigan, so as to avoid being beholden to GR.  That was great when the pipeline was new, but now that it is probably nearing 50, there are big bills to be paid.  

West Michigan clearly needs to trim the layers of bureaucratic and governmental overlays that were a relic of a richer, more populous past.

[Rybak 187]

Definitely school districts need to be merged in many areas. In the Bay City area there are three school districts covering a city/township area with a population of 30-40 thousand people. I am sure that the over districting of schools is even worse in the bigger cities and metropolitan areas around the state.