Drinking culture study spurs open houses
Sep. 18—TRAVERSE CITY — The long-awaited Healthier Drinking Culture Draft Strategic Plan stirred some long discussion by the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority meeting.
The DDA was the first to get a glimpse of the plan at its monthly meeting Friday morning and the 19-page document elicited a lot of discussion, especially since two board members (Pete Kirkwood of The Workshop Brewing Company and Pam Marsh of Red Ginger) are business owners with liquor licenses in Traverse City.
Kirkwood quickly responded after the unveiling and a synopsis of the draft plan was delivered by Elise Crafts, founder of Statecraft and head of the DDA’s Healthy Drinking Culture project, and Megan Motil, founder and principal of Parallel Solutions.
Kirkwood said the study’s “presumption is Traverse City has a drinking culture problem,” but later added most liquor license owners are responsible and handle things the right way and the aspects that need addressing are “easily fixable.”
Marsh said she believes 80 percent of the city does it right and a small percentage creates the perception of a bigger issue.
Kirkwood said the survey found that the 20.7 percent of ‘excessive’ drinkers in Grand Traverse County is comparable to overall state figures and ranks 25th of Michigan’s 83 counties.
“Let’s make sure we have a healthy drinking culture, but let’s not tell people we are Daytona or Key West, which we’re not,” said Kirkwood, who said tour group operators need to take more responsibility.
Later in the meeting, Mayor Jim Carruthers also evoked the name of the southern-most point in Florida after mentioning Traverse City has made a lot of top 10 lists recently, including one about party towns.
“I don’t want to be Key West,” Carruthers said.
The last section of the Healthier Drinking Culture Draft Strategic Plan highlighted immediate (0-18 months), short-term (1-3 years) and long-term (4-5 years) action steps, including which private or public entity was responsible for implementing and/or supporting.
When asked after the presentation about the aspects each board member was most excited about, these action steps were lauded by several.
Better lighting, more video cameras and an expanded police presence downtown were mentioned repeatedly as measures to increase safety downtown, whether linked to the drinking culture or not.
“Those are all good things, but we have to look at it culturally, too,” City Police Chief Jeff O’Brien said at the close of the presentation.
Crafts and Motil will host two open houses on the plan Sept. 27, the same day the City Commission is scheduled to review it at a study session. The Final Plan will be presented to the DDA Board for consideration at its Oct. 15 meeting before heading to the full City Commission on Oct. 18.
In other business at the nearly 2 1/2 -hour meeting, the DDA board:
* Heard a lengthy presentation from Great Lakes Fishery Commission Executive Secretary Bob Lambe on the proposed FishPass. The proposed dam and selective fish passage project is currently in the Court of Appeals after 13th Circuit Court Judge Thomas Power put a hold on construction in January, days before work on the $20 million-plus project to be paid for largely with federal funds was slated to begin. Lambe said the 400-foot-long channel would be used to test technologies and techniques to block undesirable aquatic species like sea lamprey and pass desirable ones would essentially replace the Union Street dam, is specifically designed for Traverse City and would complete the restoration of the Boardman River.
* Heard a report from Suzanne Schulz of Progressive AE on a community survey and downtown circulation study for the redesign of East Front Street. The survey results will be presented at a series of in-person (Sept. 27) and virtual (Sept. 29) town hall meetings. Schulz said pedestrians are the “No. 1 priority” with the project, but that “we are thinking about all users, all (transportation) modes in all of our designs.”
* Tabled a presentation of the 2021 Tree Management Plan for Downtown Traverse City because of the length of the meeting and time constraints of the board. The board also canceled the verbal CEO report from Jean Dernezy, an Arts Commission update and staff reports on transportation and community development.
