Rockets Red Glare

This morning I should be waking up for the day, right around the time of this 9AM posting, with a dehydration headache and a sunburn. It’s become an annual tradition that came to an abrupt end last year. I know, sunburns aren’t healthy and I need to drink more water when I’m in the sun all day, but it’s one day a year so please, cut me some slack. Last night should have been the annual fireworks display in Michigan City, the culmination of an entire day of beach-going fun, but it didn’t happen.

Like so many people, I love going to see the fireworks. Any chance to see colored explosions in the sky is an excuse to go see a firework display and the festivities surrounding the birthday of our nation’s beginnings is the best excuse of all. There are a ton of displays on July 4th to choose from every year and the competition to pull an audience is fierce.

In past years, Michigan City has had the forethought of putting the air show off a week or so and holding it the Sunday following the Fourth of July unless the Fourth was Thursday, Friday, or Saturday; then it’d be a week from the Sunday immediately following. In this year’s case, it should be July 12. Mayor Ron Meer has unilaterally chosen to hold the festivities on July 4th in an effort to make it more of a local event. That’s a great gesture since he also killed the fireworks a year ago. With the competition for attendance at a 4th of July celebration, especially from its nearest neighbor, La Porte (the annual honorary state capital for the day).

The Michigan City Air Show (“air show” is another word used for firework shows that some communities use) is more than a holiday celebration and more than just a local community event. In the 1990’s there had years with a confirmed 50,000 people in attendance and estimates have ranged anywhere between 75,000 and 100,000 attendees. People make a full day of it and if you weren’t in Washington Park by 11:00 AM, you had to park off-site and walk to the park. There were food vendors, face painters, and helicopter rides till near dusk; it was literally you and 70,000 of your new closest friends in what looks like a Moroccan bazaar. Michigan City has a population of around 30,000 and if my math is correct, unable to produce the 50,000 people that would show up unless those people were visiting from out of town and having been part of the mass exodus at the conclusion of the show, I can assure you on the excessive traffic flow east out of town and at least ten miles of stop-and-go driving. Over the years, I’ve gone all major directions out of town after the fireworks and it’s like that in every direction.

This year Michigan City has a budgetary shortfall and with the economic impact that 50,000 plus people can bring to the city for just one day, it’s no small wonder the city has such a crisis this year. Thanks to the shortsightedness of Mayor Ron Meer, the city has to make even more cuts than already and that means cuts in services to the city’s residents.

The fireworks have a long standing tradition in the area of being plagued with crime and it’s pretty accurate. There used to be an annual shooting or stabbing and you can clearly see drug deals all around you. Poverty is a leading contributor to illegal activity, so if the city wants to eliminate crime, make it illegal for people whom are impoverished to be anywhere in public. This will be a fun feat since Michigan City has the second lowest cost of living in the nation right now and with nothing on the horizon to fix that truth; the city is impoverished and this tradition has been a source of community enjoyment for decades.

I ask that the next Mayor of Michigan City to have the vision lacking in Mayor Meer and restore this city-wide festival to its rightful day, away from any competition for other displays.

Mayor Meer’s solution was to cancel the fireworks last year because the city needed to cut costs and put it at a date and time where there is heavy competition for the event to reduce the economic impact tourists have on Michigan City for this year. A private group of citizens even tried finding it last year and was told that they needed 90-days notice to hold an event at Washington Park. Basically, the Mayor just didn’t want this to happen. He felt The People doing something on their own circumvented his authority over the city and he couldn’t tolerate that kind of descent. I hope The People remember his short sightedness when they go to the polls on Tuesday, November 3rd this year.

Mayor Ron Meer has failed Michigan City.

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