Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. has written an open letter to Pastor Terry Jones, who is planning a protest in Dearborn.

Earlier, the mayor did a video interview with the Dearborn Press & Guide.  Mayor O’Reilly does a nice job of explaining why the location for such a protest isn’t suitable. The mayor also explains how Dearborn is not preventing free speech, despite what others have said.  In fact, Dearborn is one of the only cities that has established, by ordinance, “Permit Free Zones” intended for demonstrations and free speech. The video begins right after a short commercial. 

The mayor’s open letter to the pastor begins below. With all of the nonsense being misreported by media on this protest, someone needed to explain the facts and defend our city. Mayor O’Reilly does just that in his well-written letter:

Dear Pastor Jones:

I watched you on television speaking about the Constitution and Dearborn, and it appears you need more information about both before you come to our city. I can provide insight on the Constitution, and expertise on Dearborn.

First of all, Dearborn supports the Constitution as well as any city in America. Our commitment to the Constitution is unwavering, not merely convenient, which makes your hyperbole about Sharia Law being practiced in the courts or civil law of Dearborn nonsensical. So, you are coming to protest against an imaginary threat that doesn’t exist in our community. Not in our courts, not at our City Hall, not on our streets and not in any of our places of worship.

Still, because we do understand the Constitution here, we are not preventing you from expressing your free speech. In fact, in Dearborn, we’ve even gone one step farther than most communities in support of free speech. We established, by ordinance, “Permit Free Zones” intended for demonstrations and free speech.

One of those zones is at City Hall, where from my office I have heard many rallies being conducted in response to international, national or regional issues. This is a high visibility spot, seen by thousands of motorists but safe from traffic, with plenty of public space for protestors, supporters and the media. It is where we are asking you to conduct your demonstration. The steps of City Hall even make an impressive platform for speeches.

And, if you are unhappy with what you think is going on in Dearborn, than what better place to protest than with City Hall as the back drop?

Instead you insist on protesting in an area that has no public property to accommodate crowds, spectators, parking or the media. There is just a small public road with limited access which can’t be blocked and an adjacent grassy area for drainage. It is parallel to a major state road, but the small shoulder can accommodate people only when they have auto emergencies.

And, this property you are focusing on, in front of the Islamic Center of America, is also adjacent to four Christian churches, all of which will be hosting Good Friday services, adding to the traffic flow and congestion. It is ironic that the road that you want to protest near is called Altar Road, so named because it was first constructed to provide access to a row of churches constructed in the 1950s reflecting Dearborn’s diverse faith communities.

But I can understand if you don’t know the details of the site, or the particulars about Dearborn. But you should know about the Constitution that you claim to be defending.

The Constitution says that your rights must be balanced with the rights of others under the same document. Your free speech rights do not allow you to trespass on the private property of others or prevent them from the Constitutional right to freely practice their religion. I am not just talking about Muslims but members of all faiths.

The members of the Christian churches on Altar Road asked me last week if they should cancel their Good Friday services because of your planned visit. I assured them that they should not because the Constitution does not allow you to violate their rights. I don’t know why you selected Good Friday but it wasn’t very considerate of the significant Christian services being held at that time. I assure you that you will not make them forfeit their services.

You claim that you are coming to protest the radicalism of Islam. Like all of America, we are concerned about the radicalization of any religion that would rationalize extreme actions. However we have not let this concern turn into a twisted paranoia that promotes fear-mongering and misleading generalizations. You state that you are coming to the Islamic Center of America because it is the largest mosque in America. What does that have to do with the radicalism of Islam? While size may matter to you, we prefer to focus on actual behavior. And according to our Police Department and the anti-terrorism agencies they work with, there has never been evidence of any wrongdoing in any of Dearborn’s mosques.

It appears your choice of the Islamic Center of America is not because it has any relationship to the stated object of your free speech but because it symbolizes the Islamic faith in general. If so, that is not truly in line with the Constitution you say you are defending.

There is no Sharia Law in Dearborn, only Constitutional Law. Sharia Law is church- or faith-based law that is applicable only to the followers of that faith. For me it is Cannon Law of Catholicism, in Judaism it is Torah Law, and for Muslims it is Sharia Law. The actual originator of the event you plan to hold in Dearborn, Frank Fiorello of the Fraternal Order of the Dragon, accepted my invitation to learn more about Dearborn, and after seeing the truth, he canceled his protest.

But, if you don’t believe that Dearborn follows the Constitution, here are some realistic facts for you. Businesses in Dearborn lawfully meet the diverse needs of our Greater Detroit area, but if Dearborn practiced Sharia Law, would we have three adult entertainment bars and more alcohol licensed bars and restaurants per capita than most other cities? None of that should be allowed under Sharia Law.

How about this? A business we boast about, the nationally known Dearborn Sausage, opened more than 60 years ago across the street from the first mosque in Dearborn and is famous for its sausages and spiral sliced hams. It is one of many meat packing operations in our City and no one has ever objected.

Dearborn is also famous for The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, where more than 1.5 million visitors come each year from across the country and the world to learn about the foundations of our American way of life.

Dearborn is a diverse, safe and unified City that is addressing its future in a proactive manner. We cherish the American Dream that brought so many people here during the last century to earn a decent wage and enjoy a high quality of life thanks to Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. And for Dearborn, our success and our identity is tied to welcoming people of all backgrounds who have chosen to make America, and our community, their home. We are proud to have welcomed them.

As we work hard to balance your rights with the rights of others in Dearborn, you will be extended every courtesy during your visit – as long as you follow the law based on the Constitution’s protection of everyone’s rights. That should be a familiar statement to you.

You have said over and over that “Muslims are welcome as long as they follow the Constitution.” Surely, then, you wouldn’t ask less of yourself.

Look for some heated discussions at Dearborn City Hall in the coming weeks as several pools and library branches are now on the chopping block, actions city leaders will need to take to wrestle down a $20 million budget deficit.

These are both hot topics with residents and it will be interesting to see if the City Council is up to making the tough decisions that need to happen in our city.

Snow Library on the west side and the Esper branch on the east side are the current branches in the crosshairs of the city, according to the Dearborn Press & Guide Henry Ford Centennial and Bryant Library will not be touched as they were donated to the city by Ford and are required to remain libraries or they would revert back to Ford Land ownership, Mayor John O’Reilly told the paper.

As for pools, it appears Ten Eycke, Whitmore Bolles, Lapeer, Crowley and Hemlock are on the endangered list.

Pool usage and geography will be the determining factors for what pools will remain, according to the paper.

“The ones that look to be the most likely for staying open start with Dunworth,” O’Reilly told the Press & Guide. “That’s one that’s not proposed for any cuts or closure – and Ford Woods in the east end. Then after that, the next highest in location and usage is Summer-Stephens and then after that we get into a whole other situation where geography really factors in more.”

O’Reilly told the paper that Crowley and Lapeer are the highest priority to keep open because they are located in neighborhoods hemmed in by major roads.

“The goal is to provide reasonable access to everyone,” O’Reilly told the Press & Guide.

The thorny issue of police and fire staffing levels in Dearborn is the subject of a column today in the Sunday edition of the Dearborn Press & Guide by Joey Thorington, president of the Dearborn Firefighters, IAFF Local 412.

In his column, Mr. Thorington reminds us that every member of council (including Mayor O’Reilly who was then council president) and the late Mayor Michael Guido signed an endorsement for the staffing level proposal.

The language of the staffing requirement stayed the same even after the City Charter was reviewed by a board of elected officials in 2007, Thorington writes. “They recognized the importance of the staffing language and chose to leave the police and fire staffing levels as originally stated in the charter . . .”

“Do not forget; public safety workers are not the ones who broke the financial system,” Thorington writes. “It was big banks and the housing market crash that made things fall apart. We are here, like the rest of you, trying to put the pieces back together and make it work.  We are working with the city to make ends meet. It is in the best interest for all of us involved to have Dearborn remain a strong, vibrant city.

“We have been adjusting how we do business and how we operate for many years.

• In 1980, we ran 5,908 calls. We were a Basic Life Supporting agency, staffed with 125 firefighters.

• In 1990, we ran 6,882 calls. We were a Basic Life Supporting agency, staffed with 117 firefighters.

• In 2000, we ran 9,111 calls. We became a transporting, Advanced Life Supporting agency, staffed with 120 firefighters.

• In 2010, we ran 10,029 calls. We are a transporting, Advanced Life Supporting agency, staffed with 120 firefighters.

“The Dearborn Fire Department has evolved into a “we fix it” department for the public. As long as it is not a burglar, when the public calls for an emergency, we show up and “fix” the situation, no matter the reason (many times in conjunction with the police performing their duties).

“Sometimes it appears that the firefighters are solely fighting for our own jobs. You need to look deeper into the arguments. We are fighting to adequately and safely perform our jobs, which is protecting and assisting residents in their greatest time of need.”

To read Mr. Thorington’s full column, click HERE.

Dearborn parents, teachers and community members are organizing to march on Lansing on April 12 to push back on Gov. Snyder’s proposed budget cuts to schools.

Four buses – provided by the Dearborn PTSA Council – have been reserved and will leave Dearborn School’s Administrative Services Center, 18700 Audette at 9 a.m.

Organizers are asking that attendees pack a lunch and arrive no later than 8:45 a.m. Buses will return from Lansing to Dearborn about 2:30 p.m.

Those interested in attending should email Colette Dunsmore, Dearborn PTSA council president, by Friday, April 8 at donoval@dearborn.k12.mi.us

“We want everyone to know up in Lansing that Dearborn is there and that we want to make sure our quality education continues,” said Dunsmore in an email to DeepsaidWhat.com. “Make signs, bring letters to the Governor, have your children write letters for you to bring up with you! WE NEED PEOPLE and lots of them!! So, please spread the word! . . . Let’s make Dearborn proud with the strong support and showing of our people in Lansing on Tuesday, April 12th!”

Separately, Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, past president of the Dearborn Democratic Club, a longtime political activist and observer and regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com sent along this column asking “Did you get what you voted for?”

Goodman says that July 1, 2011 cannot come soon enough because that is when Gov. Snyder will have been in office for six months  . . . and a recall can then be started.

His column begins below:

When the polls closed on August 6, 2010 in the Michigan primary election, 34 percent of Republicans voted for the Bill Milliken and Bill Ford endorsed self proclaimed non-ideological nerd Rick Snyder for Governor. Forty-two percent of Democrats voted for the two term moderate Majority leader of the Democratic controlled Michigan House of Representatives Andy Dillon.

How many of those Snyder primary voters thought he would put forward the kind of draconian cost cutting and tax burden shifting agenda he has so far? How many of those Dillon primary voters thought he would not endorse for governor the candidate he lost to, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, and later go to work for the Snyder Administration as Treasurer?

(more…)

Dearborn's popular Ciao Italian restaurant is expected to soon reopen on Michigan Avenue.

Two years after a fire closed the popular Ristorante Ciao in Dearborn, the chef from the popular Italian eatery is preparing to reopen the restaurant on Michigan Avenue in the building that once housed Kasey’s Salad Bar.

Hassan Aoun recently opened the iburger lounge in the West Village Commons, serving some fantastic burgers, gourmet pizzas (better than the ones Aoun served when he was chef at Ciao), soups and salads. It’s worth a visit if you haven’t done so already.

Aoun is now turning his attention to reopening Ciao. Many of you will recall the Salad Bar, which later was sold and became Parisian Bistro. Well, Ciao will move into that building in the coming weeks.

Hopefully, the second time around for Ciao will be even better than the first . . .

In other restaurant news, the new business moving into the former Little Cafe that we wrote about a couple months ago is now open for business. The restaurant is called “Good Times Caffe”. We haven’t had the opportunity to stop in yet but signs say it serves soup, subs and a host of other foods.

We plan to check out the place later this week and provide an update for all.

Dearborn's Public Service Days begin April 4 and continue each week through Dec. 2.

Dearborn’s Public Service Days – established as a way to keep our neighborhoods well-maintained – begin April 4 and will occur every week through Dec. 2, which means parked vehicles must be off streets between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during each neighborhood’s trash collection day.

Vehicles left on the street during Public Service Days will be ticketed. Vehicles in a driveway may be parked across the public sidewalk without penalty, but city officials say parking on the grass is always prohibited.

Public Service Days are the same day as trash collection day in a neighborhood. On these days, city crews provide neighborhoods with services like street-sweeping, loose leaf collection, tree trimming, and sewer maintenance.

Signs in every neighborhood alert drivers to the Public Service Days applicable on the surrounding blocks.

Check www.cityofdearborn.org or call 313.943.2886 for general information on Public Service Days.

For parking issues related to Public Service Days, call 313.943.2276.

The free 2011 City of Dearborn Calendar, which is available at the City’s libraries and City Hall, is also handy for additional information. Page 30 of the City Calendar has more details, as well as a map of Public Service Days/Trash Collection Days.

Nearly 20 table sponsors have already signed up to support the Rotary Club of Dearborn’s “Shares & Cares” breakfast fundraiser on Friday, April 1, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the programs of Pro-Literacy Detroit, Michigan’s largest literacy agency which provides services to adult learners at no cost.

“We are delighted with the outstanding number of sponsorships we’ve received from community leaders, local businesses and organizations along with other Rotary clubs,” said Margaret Blohm, 2010-11 president of the Rotary Club of Dearborn.

Table sponsors include Rotary District 6400, Dearborn Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Clubs of Dearborn Heights, Detroit AM, Fairlane Sunrise, and Grosse Pointe Rotary along with the HFCC Federation of Teachers, Pro-Literacy Detroit, and Sanford Brown College.

Individual sponsors include Michigan Representative George Darany, Rick Goward, Kerrie Peterson, Sue Surducan, Jim Thorpe, Brian Whiston, Judge Richard Wygonik and Bob Ziolkowski.

Each table provides seating for 10 guests to attend a free breakfast program emceed by WWJ Newsradio 950 personality and Dearborn resident Matt Roush with remarks by Pro-Literacy Detroit CEO Margaret Williamson, volunteers and adult learners.

Barnes & Noble of Fairlane Green in Allen Park is providing beautiful leather-bound book centerpieces for the event, and will in turn be donated to Pro-Literacy Detroit, www.proliteracydetroit.org. The bookstore will also hold a Bookfair on April 1 to benefit the agency.

It is estimated that 47 percent of metro Detroiters are unable to read and that 44 percent of Michigan adults are unable to read above the fourth grade level. During the past 25 years, Pro-Literacy Detroit has tutored more than 12,000 adult learners and trained over 8,000 tutors to help metro Detroiters over the age of 16 to read.

The “Shares & Cares” fundraising breakfast is one of several efforts to benefit literacy programs now underway throughout Rotary District 6400, which includes southeast Michigan and southwest Ontario, Canada.

“We are extremely grateful to Rotarians for their support, by volunteering as certified tutors and through their generous financial and book donations,” said Williamson.

The cost to become a table sponsor is only $100 which covers the cost of breakfast for the sponsor and nine guests. Breakfast fellowship will begin at 7:30 a.m., and the event will conclude by 9 a.m. on Friday, April 1.

“If you don’t know any of our table sponsors and would like to attend the event, please let us know,” added Blohm. “We’ll make sure you have an opportunity to participate.”

For more details about becoming a sponsor or attending the event, please email event chair Amy Bazzy at ajbazzy@comcast.net or call 313-433-0013.

In the event you missed the Census news this week, Dearborn recorded a population increase, climbing to 98,153 in 2010 compared to 97,775 in 2000.

Of the 18 cities that border Detroit, Dearborn was the only city that grew, albeit a mere 0.5 percent. Even so, it is better than going the other way, which is what many other communities did.

The news should be taken as a testament to the relative stability of the two communities one expert told the Dearborn Press & Guide this week.

“When you look at the surrounding Wayne County communities this is definitely a positive for Dearborn and Dearborn Heights,” Dale Thomson, an assistant professor of political science at University of Michigan-Dearborn told the Dearborn Press & Guide in Wednesday’s edition. “I think it’s a testament to the service mix they’re providing and the kind of communities that exist there.”

For a look at the full Census figures for the state of Michigan, you can click HERE.

Henry Ford Centennial Library

A major renovation project has begun at the Henry Ford Centennial Library, with the entire third floor mezzanine-level of the building closed to the public through June.

Nearly all library material is available on the second floor of the building, so access to the collections will not be impacted.

However, the study space, beverage machines, and some stored reference material will not be available until the project is complete and the third floor is re-opened.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of June.

The plans call for the conversion of existing space into three medium-sized study rooms; one large, quiet study room; and one large conference room, which will be available to organizations to book for group meetings.

Restrooms, and a kitchenette that will be available for groups booking the large conference room, will be added to the area to make the space more usable and comfortable.

Running Fit, Inc. will be conducting its 2011 Annual Martian Marathon for the fifth time in Dearborn on Saturday, April 2.

The Martian Marathon event’s mission is to promote an active, healthy lifestyle for adults and children, with the long-term goal of ending childhood obesity and diseases related to poor nutritional choices. Partial proceeds from the event go toward the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and certain youth track and cross-country programs.

Around 3,000 – 4,000 runners are expected to participate this year, along with added crowd support. There are six different races, each of which will begin and end at Dearborn’s Ford Field.

The runners will travel through the neighborhood of Brady Street, Morley Avenue, Military Street, and Golfview Drive, and to the Ford Road entrance to Hines Drive. A map of the course is on the Martian Marathon website HERE.

The Dearborn Police will be regulating the event, and neighborhood streets will be temporarily shut down as the runners pass through. The following will be closed from approximately 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the day of the event:

• Part of eastbound Ford Road, between Golfview Drive and the exit ramp to Evergreen Road

• The exit ramp from southbound Hines Drive to Ford Road and the exit ramp from eastbound Ford Road to Evergreen Road

• Part of westbound Michigan Avenue from the Greenways Trailhead at Andiamo to Brady Street.

For more information, visit the Martian Marathon website or call the Department of Recreation at 313.943.2350.