Soup to Nuts! (Or ALL the MAKINGS for an informal Design Charrette)

Former Ferndale mayor calls for brief protest at 9 and Woodward

By BILL LAITNER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

   An Occupy Wall Street-type demonstration is to hit Fern-dale.

   Occupy Ferndale is scheduled 4-7 p.m. Friday. The organizer is Craig Covey, a former mayor, now Oakland County commissioner for Ferndale, Hazel Park and south Royal Oak.

   “We’re not camping out or setting up tents, but a lot of people here wanted to make a statement,” Covey said Wednesday.

   He said he expects as many as 100 people to gather at all four corners of 9 Mile and Woodward — a site that some consider to be Oakland County’s liberal soapbox, known for years of antiwar demonstrations in the 1990s.

   “I’ve got seniors coming, union members, students, and we have peacekeepers” who will monitor the crowd and keep participants from violating any ordinances, such as those against obstructing pedestrians and traffic, Covey said.

   A Facebook page called “Occupy Ferndale” showed Wednesday that 77 people “liked” the page and that many said they will be at Occupy Ferndale. The page links to Covey’s blog, where he lists political demands he believes the protest movement shares, including a need for more government oversight of “Wall Street and Big Banks,” the end to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a halt to “attacks on labor unions (and) Social Security.”

   Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter said Wednesday he plans to join the crowd, as did Oakland County Commissioner Marcia Gershenson, D-Bloomfield Township.

   Besides the Detroit site at Grand Circus Park, other Michigan sites with Occupy demonstrations include Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon and Traverse City. The nationwide protest generally opposes Wall Street greed, unemployment and the nation’s widening wealth gap.

   Headquarters for the three-hour presence on Ferndale’s sidewalks is to be an eatery, AJ’s Music Café at 240 W. Nine Mile, one-half block west of the Occupy site on Woodward. Owner A.J. O’Neil said he would be facilitating the event with at least four kinds of soup.

   “This is right up our alley. We’ve been talking for years about what’s wrong with the economy here,” the 49-year-old Hazel Park resident said Wednesday.

   On Nov. 4-6, the café will host a summit where business, labor and community leaders will discuss the region’s problems — and perhaps have soup, O’Neil said.