I don’t do many short posts here, but there’s a tidbit worth quickly noting. It’s municipal election season here in East Lansing, with three of the five at-large City Council seats up for grabs this November. Six candidates are running, only one of whom is an incumbent.

Over the last 12-14 months, I’ve taken my political junkie tendencies and shifted some of the focus to the local level. (Hence my appointment to the Arts Commission, the (SCENE) drama, my East Lansing Info work, and more.) Consequently, I attended tonight’s candidate forum sponsored by the local League of Women Voters chapter. To my pleasant surprise, the (SCENE) divestiture was explicitly referenced by a candidate in one round of answers. While I can’t recall the specific question offhand — of course the answers sometimes shifted away from the questions a bit — I believe it had something to do with the city’s overall budget and approaches to development and fiscal responsibility. (SCENE) and the closure of a community childcare facility — both ostensibly for fiscal reasons — were highlighted as poor decisions.

[I should mention that the forum was very well run and moderated and featured excellent questions. The major networks should’ve been there taking notes…]

While I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see (SCENE) pop up in City Council meetings and discussions as an occasional talking point, I didn’t expect it to receive mention on the campaign trail. Interesting. (For the record, I didn’t submit the question.)

Since we’re on the topic: separately, earlier this week, the re-opening and new exhibition were discussed in a featured segment on WKAR’s Current State, the local public radio news program.