Toasting Local Issues

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Aug. 3, 2024

Time for a shallow dive into the still frigid waters of some local issues. Our county Republican party can’t seem to do anything without squabbling. Elk Rapids actually considered, briefly, an ordinance that referenced half parking spaces. Garfield Township and Traverse City have an issue over water that needs resolving.

But let’s start elsewhere. What Traverse City apparently needs is more liquor licenses and social districts. There are still a couple of residential areas with no bars, craft breweries, or tasting rooms, much less any liquor or beer and wine licenses. And there’s hardly any place we can wander around aimlessly with a drink in our hand. It’s shocking.

In 2021, concerned with some alcohol related incidents of unpleasantness, the city conjured up a Healthier Drinking Culture plan involving a number of stakeholders including business owners, police, and treatment professionals. They adopted several strategies, but according to the most recent data, we are still way above average when it comes to drinking, binge drinking, and problem drinking.

The one and only thing that would truly create a healthier drinking culture would be to encourage a lot less of it.

The problem is pretty basic—alcohol is poison. Not just a poison but also a known and proven carcinogen. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) categorize alcohol as a Psychotropic Central Nervous System Depressant and a dangerous drug. (“Psychotropic” means it has an impact on cognition, emotions, and perception.)

According to the NIH, alcohol has been directly or indirectly linked to cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, colon, rectum, liver, and, in women, breast cancer. They attribute 5.5 percent of all new cancer diagnoses and 5.8 percent of all deaths to consuming alcohol. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 32 percent of all traffic fatalities involve alcohol, and a stunning 64 percent of all murders involve alcohol consumption on the part of the victim, the perpetrator, or both. Altogether, they attribute 200,000 deaths annually to alcohol consumption. That’s nearly twice the number of deaths from non-alcohol drug overdoses.

But it isn’t difficult to understand why restaurants want the opportunity to sell alcohol. According to Restaurant365.com, the average profit margin for restaurants, not including alcohol sales, ranges from 3-5 percent. Very, very thin. It’s likely why the National Restaurant Association says fully 60 percent of new restaurants fail in the first year and 80 percent of the remainder don’t make it beyond five years.

But adding alcohol helps because the profit margin for beer, wine, and liquor ranges from 10-15 percent, a nice bump and perhaps the difference between success and failure. But there is a cost to their alcohol-consuming customers.

This is not the ranting of a teetotaling neo-prohibitionist; many of us enjoy an alcoholic beverage on occasion. It is to suggest that if we really want a “healthier drinking culture” we’ll have to acknowledge healthier drinking will require less of it.

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Next up: In order to make sure all people have access to a new, short trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes, we have to destroy a chunk of the nature meant to be enjoyed. Seriously? The removal of over 7,000 trees, including more than 3,000 mature examples, is hardly some “minor” landscaping.

Yes, it would be just lovely if everybody of every age and ability could enjoy every outdoor experience northwest lower Michigan has to offer but not if chainsaws, bulldozers, and metal sheet pilings are required where nature used to be. Is there not a less destructive but still accessible alternative?

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Some in the Michigan Legislature keep wanting to prohibit local jurisdictions from banning short-term rentals (STR). The very folks who recoil in self-righteous indignation demanding local control when they don’t like federal mandates are only too eager to force their rules on local communities whenever they get the chance.

This isn’t about private property rights or consistent regulations, it’s about our overlords in Lansing wanting to exert more control over us vassals. Apparently, we have to believe downstate legislators know better than local leaders what our communities want and need.

On the other hand, the one statewide regulation they should enact regarding septic and sewer systems, or at least provide some guidelines, they continue to ignore. So the state with the most fresh water to protect remains the only state refusing to regulate human waste from leaching into that water.

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Last but not least, Traverse City’s city attorney has decided both questions concerning the Downtown Development Authority’s TIF extension plans currently and in the future should appear on the ballot. There is some question about the legality of the proposals, and it’s more than likely any result, either way, will end up in court.

But letting people decide, whether their decision holds up or not, was a good choice. It’s always better to let people be heard than to keep them silent.