Send a message: Defeat Garza

(This editorial has been updated. The previous version said that Clara Martinez, an at-large candidate for the Lansing City Council, is a member of the Lansing School Board. She is not. Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, the 2nd Ward candidate, is a school board member.)

Lansing voters have two opportunities on Nov. 4 to show their support for historic preservation. One rests with 4th Ward residents, whom we encouraged last week to choose Heath Lowry over Peter Spadafore, a cheerleader for University of Michigan-Sparrow’s successful plan to demolish old Eastern High School.

Voters citywide will also have a chance to send a message to City Hall about preservation’s importance by turning out of office Jeremy Garza, an at-large candidate after serving the 2nd Ward for two terms.

We note an important distinction between Spadafore and Garza. Spadafore was forthright in his advocacy for UM-Sparrow’s plan to tear down Eastern’s historic, century-old building on Pennsylvania Avenue to make room for a psychiatric facility. Garza turned tail.

In July 2024, five Council members resolved unanimously to urge UM-Sparrow to save old Eastern. Garza was among them. Spadafore was absent. A month later, though, Spadafore made his position clear in a column in the Lansing State Journal. In doing so, he abetted UM-Sparrow’s effective public-relations effort to falsely paint save-Eastern supporters as anti-mental health. (Their ad hoc organization was the Committee to Preserve Historic Eastern AND Promote Mental Health.)

But at least Spadafore was straightforward. Not so Garza.

Garza is vice president of UA Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 333. Yet he claims ignorance of local labor’s adamant opposition to saving old Eastern, which threatened nearly $100 million in construction work and potential jobs. Feigned may be a better word. Most every elected official in Lansing pays heed to the wishes of labor, whose political clout is formidable, but Garza more so. His incentive arrives in every paycheck.

Labor delivered its message loud and clear to City Council in late August 2024 after the Historic District Commission proposed that the Council study whether old Eastern should be designated a historic district. At a minimum, that would have slowed the demolition train.

DON’T, a half-dozen local union officials told the Council at its Monday night meeting, City Pulse reported the next day. That killed even an attempt to consider the study. “Union opposition apparently played a prominent role in dooming the effort,” the story said, citing a source. “Another source told City Pulse that Council President Jeremy Garza, vice president of UA Local 333 Plumbers & Pipefitters, and At-Large member Trini Pehlivanoglu would oppose a study committee because area unions are against it, fearing a loss of jobs if U of M decides to build the mental hospital elsewhere. Another likely vote against it is Adam Hussain, another source said.”

It is true that Garza was absent from that meeting. Yet Garza had the audacity to say last month he knew nothing of labor’s opposition. “I was not aware of the unions getting involved in that,” Garza told City Pulse in his endorsement interview. “And maybe they did, but it wasn’t a big subject. I mean, we supported the resolution to look at it. And then it went off into a committee I didn’t serve on. And I’ve heard none of it since.”

That we cannot believe. Moreover, the resolution to which he refers was not to “look” at anything. It was “to urge U-M Health to preserve the school building while at the same time supporting plans to convert the Pennsylvania Avenue building into a psychiatric facility, the State Journal reported — exactly the same position as preservationists took. But when labor put on the pressure, Garza caved. And now he wants voters to believe his hands are clean.

Fortunately, voters citywide have better choices two Tuesdays from now in filling two open at-large seats. We recommend they support Julie Vandenboom and Clara Martinez. Both are thoughtful progressives with a desire to serve. Vandenboom just missed being elected to the Lansing Charter Commission. Martinez teaches at Everett High School and is a “proud” union member. They are worthy of your vote.

Make a statement about preservation: Defeat Garza and Spadafore.