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voorhees enters wyoming mayoral race


daniel nudnik

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WYOMING -- The race for mayor is beginning to take on roller-coaster aspects as high-profile candidates drop in and out of the race.

Days after Mayor Doug Hoekstra said he would not seek a third term, former mayor, former state representative and current Kent County Commissioner Harold Voorhees is jumping into the race.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss...57381013220.xml

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I'm glad I don't live in Wyoming. :) His views about Diversions renting space in a county building show his true colors.

Joe

WYOMING -- The race for mayor is beginning to take on roller-coaster aspects as high-profile candidates drop in and out of the race.

Days after Mayor Doug Hoekstra said he would not seek a third term, former mayor, former state representative and current Kent County Commissioner Harold Voorhees is jumping into the race.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss...57381013220.xml

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I'm glad I don't live in Wyoming. :) His views about Diversions renting space in a county building show his true colors.

Joe

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What a yahoo.

When I lived in GR, Wyoming was always the odd man out; built its own Lake Michigan pipeline, wouldn't join the library cooperative, etc. etc. Now, with its industrial base eroding and older neighborhoods starting to decay, I wonder what it is like living in the suburban paradise now.

(But I will never forget playing a concert at Godwin Heights High; they had a planetarium! a planetarium!; our high school couldn't even fit in the whole school for an assembly.)

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Campaigns tend to uglify all who enter them, so we dont know. I just hope this looney doesn't get elected. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, and thats the sad part. But having him out of county politics might be a bonus to Grand Rapids.

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This could futhur put wyoming on a one track for demise. I think GR should just annex the beotch already..pool resources and money.

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NOOOO let voorhees run for mayor in wyoming, to get him out of the county council.

Its starting to make sense now, he affects less people this way.

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Come on people! Wyoming isnt such a bad place. They have one of the most wonderful downtown areas in west Michigan. If youre driving past it be sure to notice all of the new improvements. For example:

The Mile long parking lot that runs from Clyde Park all the way to their city hall.

The empty shell that once was Rogers department store.

All of the wonderful payday loan stores especially the one right accross the street from city hall.

(If youre not sure which one is the city hall, just look for the thing that has "Wyoming City Hall" written on the outside. It isnt very obvious.)

The new plastic exterior for the still empty Rogers Plaza mall.

The fake antique street lamps that run the lenght of Wyoming's "central business district"

The run down strip malls.

The gigantic parking lot ("community gathering plaza") behing Studio 28.

There is so much more, but it would take too long to list all of the wonderful attractions in downtown Wyoming. You will just have to see it for yoursef!

when you go, say hello to Wyman. Just look for a fat guy in a spandex suit with a black cape. He will be the only human on foot.

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man, I had forgotten all the reasons I haven't been to wyoming since the winter.

now that you describe it to me it makes so much sense that someone like harold voorhees lobbied for so long to get wyoming out of the grand valley metro council. wyoming can go it alone, be isolationist, keep on planning malls and car-centered neighborhoods like it's 1955. never mind the obvious and instant structural failures this kind of approach creates. forget the fact that 28th street started declining as soon as it reached build-out.

wyoming is an aging suburb on its way to big trouble because its government is stuck trying to make it the livonia of grand rapids. I bet, like the nutcases in livonia, voorhees would try and push wyoming out of the bus system. I could see denying people transportation fitting into his moral philosophy.

it's funny how aging suburbs have the potential for mismanaging themselves literally into the ground, and people like voorhees proudly ride them into their graves.

Come on people! Wyoming isnt such a bad place. They have one of the most wonderful downtown areas in west Michigan. If youre driving past it be sure to notice all of the new improvements. For example:

The Mile long parking lot that runs from Clyde Park all the way to their city hall.

The empty shell that once was Rogers department store.

All of the wonderful payday loan stores especially the one right accross the street from

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Hey dont you knock my flea market!

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I actually liked going to that flea market. My family started going there back when it was all gravel, and still a working drive-in. However, it has seen better days. Barely half of the available spaces are filled on most weekends. It's unfortunate that the GR area does not have a more well attended flea market.

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LOL! you guys crack me up with all of this "Wyoming talk" that city sucks! Grand Rapids should annex it! Does anyone have civic pride there? That city is so old it dates back all the way to 1959. I mean I left my " my grand parents went to the ghetto part of 28th st. and all I got was this silly shirt" souvenier at home, but I wear it all the time. And whats with the five seperate school districts in one city, that seems like a disorganized mess. There is no identity there, let mr vorhees, re-arrange chairs on that sinking ship, maybe if we are lucky we can talk to canada about trading the Godfrey Lee Neighborhood, for sascatchewan or something.

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LOL! you guys crack me up with all of this "Wyoming talk" that city sucks! Grand Rapids should annex it! Does anyone have civic pride there? That city is so old it dates back all the way to 1959. I mean I left my " my grand parents went to the ghetto part of 28th st. and all I got was this silly shirt" souvenier at home, but I wear it all the time. And whats with the five seperate school districts in one city, that seems like a disorganized mess. There is no identity there, let mr vorhees, re-arrange chairs on that sinking ship, maybe if we are lucky we can talk to canada about trading the Godfrey Lee Neighborhood, for sascatchewan or something.

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Nice. ;) Wyoming definitely has an identity crisis. I also consider an area's viability indicator when Pawn Shops and Check N' Go's start popping up everywhere. I hope Wyoming doesn't go down without a fight though. It just needs to reinvent itself. It could be a great starter home city, attracting DINKS. It needs to pull up its boot straps and realize that Wy-Man is not going to save it. Remaking itself is the only answer. It has a great location, some nice parks and a lot a Bungalows (my favorite home architectural style). Resident's short-sightedness stopped a push to turn one of the main Bungalow areas into a historic district. This is the kind of thing Wyoming needs. Come on Wyoming, let's see some re-tooling and innovation. It isn't all about retail. You will survive without Rogers if you just think outside of big-box retail.

Joe

LOL! you guys crack me up with all of this "Wyoming talk" that city sucks! Grand Rapids should annex it! Does anyone have civic pride there? That city is so old it dates back all the way to 1959. I mean I left my " my grand parents went to the ghetto part of 28th st. and all I got was this silly shirt" souvenier at home, but I wear it all the time.  And whats with the five seperate school districts in one city, that seems like a disorganized mess.  There is no identity there, let mr vorhees, re-arrange chairs on that sinking ship, maybe if we are lucky we can talk to canada about trading the Godfrey Lee Neighborhood, for sascatchewan or something.

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Some parallel analysis:

Only 15 years ago, the inner Detroit suburb of Ferndale was a typical aging suburb with unexciting future prospects, uninteresting businesses, bad finances, and a stock of cheap old bungalows. With the help of incoming residents, it reinvented itself as one of metro Detroit's most progressive places to live and reaps the benefit of this reinvention more and more every year.

The story of Royal Oak is similar too.

I guess one difference between Detroit and GR is that, right now, people in GR are moving into the city looking for what Wyoming could offer, instead of looking to the suburbs, as they do in Detroit. I am fine with that. But Joe, I think you have a point: if Wyoming quit pretending like it was still in its suburban golden age, if it quit trying to attract people with a homespun Flash Gordon figure, and started reworking itself to fit the times, it could do quite nicely for itself.

Nice. ;) Wyoming definitely has an identity crisis. I also consider an area's viability indicator when Pawn Shops and Check N' Go's start popping up everywhere. I hope Wyoming doesn't go down without a fight though. It just needs to reinvent itself. It could be a great starter home city, attracting DINKS. It needs to pull up its boot straps and realize that Wy-Man is not going to save it. Remaking itself is the only answer. It has a great location, some nice parks and a lot a Bungalows (my favorite home architectural style). Resident's short-sightedness stopped a push to turn one of the main Bungalow areas into a historic district. This is the kind of thing Wyoming needs. Come on Wyoming, let's see some re-tooling and innovation. It isn't all about retail. You will survive without Rogers if you just think outside of big-box retail.

Joe

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The come back of Ferndale and Royal Oak were fueled by a diverse influx, including a large gay and lesbian population. Electing a homophobic man will keep Wyoming as a cultural and intellectual backwater. The "creative class" will run from an intolerant place like that.

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The come back of Ferndale and Royal Oak were fueled by a diverse influx, including a large gay and lesbian population. Electing a homophobic man will keep Wyoming as a cultural and intellectual backwater. The "creative class" will run from an intolerant place like that.

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Yeah, but its more a matter of Wyoming needing to hit rock bottom before it can come back up. Voorhees will ensure Wyoming will piledrive into the ground, thus creating a large shift towards actually revitalizing the area with a new mayor after voorhees is out, and is publicly ridiculed out of office.

Its a 2for1 deal really.

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Yeah, but its more a matter of Wyoming needing to hit rock bottom before it can come back up. Voorhees will ensure Wyoming will piledrive into the ground, thus creating a large shift towards actually revitalizing the area with a new mayor after voorhees is out, and is publicly ridiculed out of office.

Ummm...he's barely done anything but make an announcement yet, right? I honestly don't know enough about the guy, but if he's really that bad, maybe Wyoming citizens will elect one of the other canidates, no? :thumbsup:

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Ummm...he's barely done anything but make an announcement yet, right?  I honestly don't know enough about the guy, but if he's really that bad, maybe  Wyoming citizens will elect one of the other canidates, no?  :thumbsup:

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Well i hate to say it, but voorhees probably has the majority of the right wing support im sure. Which is a good part of wyoming

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  • 5 months later...

Well i hate to say it, but voorhees probably has the majority of the right wing support im sure. Which is a good part of wyoming

But...

Wyoming voters place trust in Sheets

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

By Barton Deiters

The Grand Rapids Press

WYOMING -- She was out-spent, out-yard-signed and out-billboarded -- but Carol Sheets will be the city's first female mayor.

Sheets won in 26 of 29 city precincts, outpolling the well-funded campaign of former mayor, former state representative and current Kent County Commissioner Harold Voorhees.

Voorhees' candidacy turned what could have been a sleepy election into a hotly contested race where more than $60,000 was spent for a job that pays less than $12,000 a year.

Voorhees framed the election issues around trust of City Council members -- where Sheets served for 12 years, 10 as mayor pro-tem -- and the need for improved fire and police services.

He put forward a plan that called for using fund reserves and other dedicated funds to reopen a closed fire station and rehire police and firefighters. Sheets responded with a plan that kept fund balances intact.

"People trust me, and they believed what I told them," said 61-year-old Sheets, who criticized Voorhees' plan as irresponsible, unworkable and possibly illegal. "They saw through the rhetoric and heard our message."

Voorhees agrees people voted on the message and on fire safety.

"People saw my plan and they heard Carol's ideas and, in the end, they chose her ideas," Voorhees said.

Voorhees will continue as a county commissioner, but his wife -- former State Rep. Joanne Voorhees, has indicated a desire to move to the State Senate as a Republican.

"I hope this doesn't have too much impact on that," Voorhees said. "I think it may encourage other people to get into the race."

State Rep. Kevin Green, a consistent political ally of the mayor-elect, said voters looked at Sheets' service in the city and decided she deserved the job.

"Carol has been working hard to set herself up as a leader in Wyoming," Green said. "Carol went head to head with him, and her ideas won out."

Newly elected 3rd Ward City Council Member Roger Haynes, a lawyer and lobbyist, said Sheets may have been outspent by twice as much, but she did the work necessary to win.

"She out-grass-rooted him, I guess you could say," Haynes said. He said Sheets did the hard work of getting out in the community and that she also seemed to do well among female voters.

Voorhees, who lives in the far southwestern corner of Wyoming, won in areas near his "panhandle" neighborhood where new and expensive homes are being built. But he also won with a three-vote margin in the city's most impoverished and highest crime area south of 28th Street, between Byron Center and Burlingame avenues.

But those precincts were not enough to overcome the more than 1,300 vote buffer Sheets had built in the rest of the city.

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