[JGatti]

I don't mean to offend anyone that might live in Allen Park. But why in the world would they decide to put the new Movie Studio there of all places? It's my understanding that they are building at an old plant but I don't see how Allen Park could beat out other area's. Hell I heard a studio was looking at the old Ford Wixom plant. With the location and the way that area is built I would have thought that would be a more prime location for a movie studio.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by JGatti

I don't mean to offend anyone that might live in Allen Park. But why in the world would they decide to put the new Movie Studio there of all places? It's my understanding that they are building at an old plant but I don't see how Allen Park could beat out other area's. Hell I heard a studio was looking at the old Ford Wixom plant. With the location and the way that area is built I would have thought that would be a more prime location for a movie studio.

The site was probably a lot cheaper for one, it's also a Brownfield Site that qualifies for more tax credits, and Allen Park needs it more than Wixom, would be my other guess.

The pictures look pretty impressive:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...369/1001/rss21

Plus, if I were a young creative class type, I wouldn't want to work off of some highway interchange in exurb/Applebee's land (like that Wixom area). That's the kind of talent they are probably going to try and attract.

[webdox]

Allen Park writes so many speeding tickets and generates so much revenue because of these fines that they can afford to offer HUGE tax breaks to corporations that chose to do business there. But that is a double edged sword; so many people get fed up of getting $150 5-over speeding tickets on the Southfield Fwy. leading into the city by the never patrolling the streets AP cops that they simply choose not to frequent the city any more. I have many friends, colleagues, and relatives who have returned to shopping at the Fairlane Shopping Center in Dearborn (Of all places) so as to avoid the overzealous ticket writing pigs in AP. It has been reported that Allen Park is consistently in the top 5 cities in the entire country for speeding tickets. What a shame. You pay police to defend and serve, not to sit in their cars with their fancy new $20K lidar guns. Case and point

A nephew of mine was shopping at the Fairlane Green Shopping Mall off the Southfield and Outer Drive this past Christmas. He was mugged and beaten up pretty good after shopping at the Best Buy, the incident went on for 10 minutes. No police ever responded. However, after getting in his car and leaving the hill mall and entering the expressway to drive to the Dearborn police department to file a police report, (yes, he went to the wrong dept., he thought it was Dearborn over there) he found 2 of Allen Park's finest sitting on the side of the road writing speeding tickets, one after the other. How nice is that?

It has gotten so bad that some Wayne Country sheriff and State Police have taken it upon themselves to park a half mile upstream of the parked AP police traps in plain view and flash their lights to warn drivers of the impending speed traps! I love that poetic justice. When members of your own brotherhood of officers from other cities step in to police your own departments overzealous ticket writing cash cows, you know you have made the big time.

So if you are looking for a city whose police department values the might dollar over the safety of its citizens, Allen Park, Michigan is the place for you to raise a family.

[Dyenimator]

Yes, the speeding tickets leads right to the tax breaks. That's quite a leap you made there.

Anyway, I'm willing to bet the land is cheaper here. There's already some buildings in that complex where they're building, so that would drive the cost down. It's close to downtown (15-20 min on 94), the airport (10 min on 94) and there are decent hotels nearby in Dearborn.

[MICoastieMom]

Well, actually, Allen Park was one of the two locations in contention for the first movie studio that is being built in Michigan. I believe that one ended up in Oakland County near Pontiac. I would assume that the second company is merely taking advantage of the research done by the first one.

[MI-IRISH]

They should maybe do a porn or two,being from michigan,how about "the politician that screwed me" or "anally-retentive business plans" to start?

[michigan83]

Originally Posted by webdox

Allen Park writes so many speeding tickets and generates so much revenue because of these fines that they can afford to offer HUGE tax breaks to corporations that chose to do business there. But that is a double edged sword; so many people get fed up of getting $150 5-over speeding tickets on the Southfield Fwy. leading into the city by the never patrolling the streets AP cops that they simply choose not to frequent the city any more. I have many friends, colleagues, and relatives who have returned to shopping at the Fairlane Shopping Center in Dearborn (Of all places) so as to avoid the overzealous ticket writing pigs in AP. It has been reported that Allen Park is consistently in the top 5 cities in the entire country for speeding tickets. What a shame. You pay police to defend and serve, not to sit in their cars with their fancy new $20K lidar guns. Case and point

A nephew of mine was shopping at the Fairlane Green Shopping Mall off the Southfield and Outer Drive this past Christmas. He was mugged and beaten up pretty good after shopping at the Best Buy, the incident went on for 10 minutes. No police ever responded. However, after getting in his car and leaving the hill mall and entering the expressway to drive to the Dearborn police department to file a police report, (yes, he went to the wrong dept., he thought it was Dearborn over there) he found 2 of Allen Park's finest sitting on the side of the road writing speeding tickets, one after the other. How nice is that?

It has gotten so bad that some Wayne Country sheriff and State Police have taken it upon themselves to park a half mile upstream of the parked AP police traps in plain view and flash their lights to warn drivers of the impending speed traps! I love that poetic justice. When members of your own brotherhood of officers from other cities step in to police your own departments overzealous ticket writing cash cows, you know you have made the big time.

So if you are looking for a city whose police department values the might dollar over the safety of its citizens, Allen Park, Michigan is the place for you to raise a family.

Man, I wish I could think of a way to drive through Allen Park without getting a ticket and helping to support tax breaks for movie studios.

Oh... wait... that's right. I could just go the speed limit.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by michigan83

Man, I wish I could think of a way to drive through Allen Park without getting a ticket and helping to support tax breaks for movie studios.

Oh... wait... that's right. I could just go the speed limit.

Now don't start doing that! If you do that, pretty soon everyone will. THen how will they finance the government? Your idea would result in fewer wrecked cars as well and many cars wouls last longer. We cannto have that, GM needs to sell cars!.

You are going to ruin everything.

[hopeanjoy]

Originally Posted by JGatti

I don't mean to offend anyone that might live in Allen Park. But why in the world would they decide to put the new Movie Studio there of all places? It's my understanding that they are building at an old plant but I don't see how Allen Park could beat out other area's. Hell I heard a studio was looking at the old Ford Wixom plant. With the location and the way that area is built I would have thought that would be a more prime location for a movie studio.

When they were scouting the location - they drove past the tire, wondered what was behind it and stopped by city hall. The staff at city hall called the mayor, he was in the building within minutes, gathered the powers that be and they made it quite clear that the city would do anything in their power to work with the studio if they chose Allen Park. Want to know why Allen Park got that studio? Allen Park's local officials care about about their city and citizens - we should all be so lucky!

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by hopeanjoy

When they were scouting the location - they drove past the tire, wondered what was behind it and stopped by city hall. The staff at city hall called the mayor, he was in the building within minutes, gathered the powers that be and they made it quite clear that the city would do anything in their power to work with the studio if they chose Allen Park. Want to know why Allen Park got that studio? Allen Park's local officials care about about their city and citizens - we should all be so lucky!

Allen Park seems to have a pretty decent City government. All joking aside, the complaints about exceissive ticket writing cna be heard about Cities all over the place. I have heard this complaint about Romulus, Wyandotte, Lincoln Park, Troy, Brimingham, West Bloomfield, and Northville. It is a common complaint. In our personal experience, there is some truth to the concept that tickets are being used by some municipalities as a source of revenue. However I have no idea whether Allen Park is one of them. I visit Allen Park fairly often (they have a $1.50 movie theater and we have a large family that needs a $1.50 movie theater). I do nto see an inordinate number of police officers pulling people over or crusing/parked on the streets looking for speeders. I cna see the appeal of Allen Park for this studio. It has a decent downtown, a great location, rational city government, very affordable real estate, a strong working class population, and an empty avaialble site. It is a good choice for this studio.