Gavin on the Run?
We haven’t heard much from Gavin Brown lately, and we likely won’t any time soon. We’ve heard OF him, as in… where’s Gavin Brown?
Brown, as you may recall, was the orchestrator of the ill-fated “Spaceport” project, as part of the Michigan Launch Initiative. He and his Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA) used state seed money to explore the idea of expanding the nation’s space program into Michigan.
Working with about two and a half million bucks, Brown came up with a plan to establish low earth orbit rocket launch sites in a couple different locations, including Powell Township’s Granot Loma property, on the shore of Lake Superior.
Rather than being welcomed as the job creator nobody asked for, Brown found his reception to be colder than the water he assured us he probably wasn’t going to pollute. A grassroots campaign of adamantly opposed citizens came together, morphed into the well-organized Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior (CSCLS), and effectively put a stop to Gavin’s nonsense and sent him packing… carpetbag in hand.
Where’s Gavin?
Fast-forward to today and we hear Gavin is out of the country, possibly trying to stay one step ahead of Michigan’s Attorney General, who is wondering if the state’s investment in the project was money well-spent.
According to a report published by the Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS), Brown, seen above in an older photo, is currently in Accra, Ghana, where he claims some kind of shared ancestry with the locals.
It’s unclear exactly what he’s doing in Ghana, but it’s not with MAMA. Calls to that organization reach a recording indicating the number is out of service. The report from MIRS says, “The aerospace association has been ‘forced’ to suspend its operations…”
So, did Brown just take the money and run? It’s hard to tell. The accounting procedures for something like this are complicated, and require the forensic skills of an AG’s office to parse.
Brown claims, “I’ve made no money off of this. We were trying to bring space business to the state…” As far as I can tell, nothing went further than words on a page. No sites were established… no rockets were launched.
Still Savoring the Victory
Regardless of what the Attorney General ends up doing about Brown, the local opponents of the Spaceport are still basking in the glow of their successful campaign to “Stop the Rocket.”
Denny Ferraro, the force behind the formation of CSCLS, says, “While the outcome of Mr. Brown’s reportedly bizarre self-exile is unknown, the background of this story is very clear and convincing. The people of our community, and beyond, united to thoroughly reject and defeat MAMA’s ill-conceived plan for a heavy industrial spaceport on Lake Superior. The take-away of our experience with Mr. Brown is that people will fight to protect our beautiful Freshwater Lakeshore.”
Motivated by a genuine concern for the environment, while being properly fed and nurtured, grassroots grow strong.
Group Think
I attended another Community Discussion the other night, and again found it informative. As in, this is what I thought, but hearing it from a number of people, confirms it.
A lot of the talk was about… how can we save what’s left of Marquette? The moderators posed questions about what Marquette does well, and where it falls short.
Inadequate mass transit and the lack of housing… affordable and otherwise, was the number one answer for all of our problems. People who’d like to move here and work here, and start a family here, can’t. So our potential for growth is being stopped in its tracks.
Do We Really Want to Grow?
And here’s where the meeting took a turn. While a fair share of public sentiment usually leans towards planned growth, and more of everything, it was suggested by more than one person we discourage growth and just make what we have better.
I’m not sure how you could actively go about putting the brakes on surge of interest in Marquette. More than that, I’m not sure if you should. To discourage growth is to commit the offence of municipal isolationism. I’ve always subscribed to the idea of… what isn’t growing, is dying. Do we want to take that chance?
Not a lot of solutions were offered up, but that was okay for this initial step. The Innovate team is going to form a more focused group to take what they heard at the meeting and keep it moving forward. I would think they try to identify a consensus of opinion and go from there. That’s what I think they’ll do.
A grassroots movement can make a difference, particularly when it gets the necessary organizational support. The louder the voice, the more likely it’s heard by the people who can act on it.
Bringing People Together
The meetings are great. Innovate Marquette is a nonprofit and should be commended for hosting these community forums, presented as part of the Make it Marquette Initiative. When like-minded people find themselves discussing the issues of the day, and discover their shared interests, things get done. Or least started.
One of the commenters who showed he’s given some thought to city issues was Adam Kall. Kall is one of the co-founders of Marquette’s Kall-Morris Inc. They’re the guys working on cleaning up space. I wrote about them in January of 2023 and how they were taking on the monumental task of retrieving space junk and returning it to earth, for safe disposal.
I figure someone who can look at the vastness of space and think, “I can work with that,” might have some good ideas of how we can get things going in the right direction here on our modest tract of terra firma. Like others at the meeting, Kall reiterated the need for better mass transit, as well as less reliance on personal motorized vehicles. “A UP built around walking and bikes would give room for everyone, including car owners, while a UP built for cars only leaves room for those with cars.”
He cites the housing crisis as one issue that could be addressed with better transportation options. “Solving the housing crisis is paramount, and I think county-wide mass transit is one aspect of that solution.”
Kall tends to reference the entire Upper Peninsula when he looks for more solutions to livable communities. For example, he looks at Marquette County as a singular entity, with people living in one town, working in a different town, and finding services in yet another. He believes better mass transit can bring us even closer. He’s not wrong.
Keep it Simple
Housing and transportation. When Kall finishes cleaning up space, maybe he can get his head out of the clouds and take on our two most pressing issues.
We often wonder why we have a housing shortage when the area’s population hasn’t changed much in the last fifty years. Kall explains, “Our population hasn’t changed, because we have a housing shortage.”
When you’re working to solve problems in space, earthly issues become simple by comparison.