Saginaw’s East Side apparently is getting redlined again.
This example is not over home mortgages, the old-time origin of the lending bias term for mapping red lines to surround minority areas where business will not be done.
Now it’s marijuana.
Of the first 10 cannabis dispensaries to open locally, seven are on the city’s West Side and only three on the East Side. The other is based in Buena Vista.
Could this be called reefer redlining?
“It’s the best discrimination in the world,” says Joyce Seals, former mayor and a leading critic of the 2020 City Council’s decision to legalize. “Thank God.”
Count BV on the East Side, and here’s the list:
- House of Dank, 3154 E. Holland
- OUI-D Shop, 3465 Sheridan
- Kush Kween, 2225 E. Genesee
- Premier Provisioning, 910 E. Genesee
On the West Side, sites are:
- Lume Cannabis, 3446 State
- Sozo Saginaw, 2617 Bay
- JARS Cannabis, 2301 N. Michigan
- Courtside Gardens, 1321 Court
- Primo Provisioning, 1205 Court
- Skymint Saginaw, 700 Gratiot
- Premier Cannabis, 1034 Gratiot
Premier’s scheduled Gratiot opening in September completes the First Ten. This move has sparked mild protests because the location is the former Hamilton Bakery and a zoning border was involved. Earlier, on the East Side, neighbors and Saginaw High parents successfully protested a location near Sheridan and Webber, causing the potential investor to have second thoughts.
Will the number grow?
Seals comes from a medical family. Her husband, Eugene, became a family physician. Daughter Delicia Pruitt followed in her father’s footsteps and now is medical director for the Saginaw County Health Department. Joyce is a leader of the countywide Health Equity Council and the Prevention Coalition.
Regardless of the side of town, she asks, “What’s the saturation point? If we get 25 to 30 of them, can any of them make any money?”
For sake of comparison, state records indicate the city of Saginaw is home to 80 stores that sell beer and booze, and another 52 bars and taverns.
In a National Institutes of Health survey, one in five white adults answered that they are regular or occasional marijuana users, compared to a slightly lower one in six among blacks and Latinos. However, analysts point to economics instead of lower use rates for a comparative lack of dispensaries in low-income areas.
Saginaw NAACP President Terry Pruitt says he personally would prefer no dispensaries at all, but he’s not surprised that the East Side lacks cannabis-shop investment compared to the West Side.
“These are corporate-owned and they have business plans,” Pruitt says, based on neighborhood income levels. “You could say it’s no different than all the grocery stores locating in the suburbs, with none in the city.”
Cannabis customers pay a 10 percent excise tax on top of the 6 percent sales tax. Saginaw’s share of that revenue is about $60,000 per annum, per dispensary, which will add up to more than $500,000 for the upcoming year. City officials have not indicated whether they will use the cash to restore any cuts in the $40 million general fund budget, such as bringing back police officers or re-opening the Hess Street Fire Station.
Legalization critic Saleem Mannan, who described dispensaries as “dope houses” during his most recent City Council speech, says the local aid statistics do not account for lost productivity and wage earnings on account of cannabis abuse
“Then we have the car accidents caused by people driving while they are high,” Mannan says, “Some people still don’t realize it’s the same as drinking, where you cannot use and then go to work, and besides that, marijuana stays in your blood and when you apply for a job, the employer will see this.”
One provider on both sides
Only Vassar-based Premier is setting up shop on both sides of town. Plans call for moving into the former bakery on Gratiot within the next month, while the East Side location near Janes and Genesee consistently overflows the paved parking area onto an adjacent gravel lot.
We attempted without success to reach Premier’s owner or a spokesperson for their feedback on why, different from the other dispensaries, they have invested on both sides of the city.
Council members Michael Flores, Monique Lamar Silvia, George Copeland and Priscilla Garcia were not yet in office for the vote three years ago to allow the dispensaries. similar to most larger cities, including conservative Grand Rapids, in dire need of revenue. Meanwhile, most suburbs, including Saginaw Township, have said “no.”
Lume is based near the township at Court and State, while Sozo sits directly on the city limits at Bay and Weiss, positioned to draw customers from the burbs as well as the city’s outer West Side.
Members Michael Balls and Reggie Williams II have said they feel second thoughts about their 2020 votes in support.
“I don’t smoke weed,” Balls said, “but people tell me there are so many stores that the prices are starting to go down.”
Reports indicate that prices indeed are dropping, but the cause is product overproduction, not the number of dispensaries.
Councilman Bill Ostash sticks by his decision, noting that two-thirds of city residents have supported regulated legalization, many as an alternative to mass imprisonment from the War on Drugs.
He added that not all cannabis products are mind-altering. He personally uses CBD oil as a sleeping aid, and also to ease joint pain suffered by his pet dog.
Visiting ‘Dr. Feelgood’
To make a purchase is similar to visiting a neighborhood party store for beer and/or booze. The difference is that a customer remains in a waiting area, similar to a doctor’s office, until their turn to enter one-by-one.
City planners crafted a 1,000-foot minimum distance from schools that are open and operating, but the limit is only 100 feet from churches. Zoning officials said there are too many churches for a stricter rule in that regard. None of the 10 locations to date is next to a church or near a school, although Premier on the East Side is adjacent to the soup kitchen.
The one “sin tax” that is more severe than the 10 percent for marijuana is $2 for a pack of regular cigarettes and 32 percent for other forms of nicotine. State annual revenue collections this year, rounded off, are:
- $1.3 billion for lottery
- $1.2 billion for gasoline
- $830 million for tobacco
- $130 for beer, liquor, wine
- $111 million for marijuana
This does not mean pot has become nearly as common as booze. The closeness in the dollar figures is because the tax for a Bud remains far lower than for a bud, so to speak. But the usage gap is narrowing.
