More than 100 people took a bullet this year in Lansing as record-breaking levels of gun violence continued to soar — resulting in at least 24 people killed in 2021, up from 21 homicides tracked citywide in 2020, according to the Lansing Police Department. (For a look at the victims, see P. 10.)
All told, Lansing police have counted 45 homicides, 112 non-fatal shootings and more than 1,000 gunshot reports over the last two years. City officials have pointed the blame largely toward an influx of illegal firearms, with at least 1,200 guns seized since 2019.
Authorities also suspect that most of the violence has been tied to a subsection of the population: young Black men turning from fists to bullets in personal disputes, often in retaliation for other criminal behavior.
In response, Mayor Andy Schor announced plans to hire five more officers (and another social worker) at the Police Department as quickly as possible. Newly installed Police Chief Ellery Sosebee has also strategically ramped up police patrols in certain neighborhoods.
Schor also launched a gun violence task force in June and has since rolled out several grant-funding opportunities to help create more afterschool activities. City officials have formed partnerships with school district officials, opened up community centers and pledged more than $250,000 toward a gun violence intervention program in 2022.
Nonprofit organizations and local faith-based organizations have been hard at work to launch community-focused solutions that include direct mentorship with troubled teenagers. Lansing’s congresswoman, Elissa Slotkin, introduced legislation to make it a federal crime not to secure weapons properly. Slotkin also represents Oxford, site of the high school shooting last month allegedly carried out by a 15-year-old who authorities say easily obtained the handgun at home.
Still, many local residents are heading into the new year frustrated over what some have labeled as a lack of meaningful, equitable, short-term solutions to curbing violence in Lansing.
Michigan tracked about 1 million more COVID-19 cases in 2021 — bringing the statewide total to about 1.5 million cases reported since the pandemic arrived in the state about two years ago. Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties have tracked a total of about 65,000 cases and 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with about 700 of those deaths reported in 2021.
All told, the coronavirus now marks the deadliest pandemic in American history, with about 815,000 people killed nationwide from the virus compared to about 675,000 during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
A limited vaccine rollout in January helped to fight the spread of the virus while state mandates on masks and social distancing were lifted and bars and restaurants reopened in March — allowing some businesses to narrowly cling to life after a year of state shutdowns.
City officials also caused a stir in January after Mayor Andy Schor and Councilmen Peter Spadafore and Brandon Betz got their shots before they were technically eligible to have received them. That controversy quickly fizzled out after supplies caught up with demand.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal, state and local grant funds also continued to flow to individuals and businesses to help them weather the economic storm created by the pandemic.
Schor triggered another local controversy in November after he decided to briefly lift a requirement that face masks be worn at City Hall before reversing himself about a week later.
As of this month, about 6.3 million residents (about 63% of Michigan’s population) have been vaccinated. Most cases tracked in the last several months have been among the unvaccinated.
Still, medical experts have predicted a continued uphill battle against the virus following the recent emergence of the omicron COVID-19 variant, which was first spotted in the country Dec. 1 and detected in Ingham County two weeks later. That variant — which may be more contagious than other forms of the virus — now reportedly accounts for most cases nationwide.
A new pill manufactured by Pfizer received FDA authorization this month and reportedly serves as an effective, in-home treatment for those who test positive for the virus. State officials hope it will help alleviate a burden on health care workers and hospitals as caseloads continue to rise.
Although there wasn’t much turnover this year, election season in Lansing dominated the news.
By about 5,000 votes, Lansing Mayor Andy Schor defeated Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar at the polls in November, garnering about 64% of the city’s vote and securing a second term as mayor.
Outside of the mayoral race, incumbent City Council members also reigned supreme. Council members Peter Spadafore, Jeremy Garza and Brian Jackson each fended off their challengers. And City Clerk Chris Swope also sailed into another term unopposed in the General Election.
All told, the results marked a roundabout win for the political establishment in Lansing. Dunbar and Council candidates Claretta Duckett-Freeman and Oprah Revish had formed an alliance ahead of the election called “The Crew,” which then billed itself as the “progressive” alternative to the existing roster of city leaders — one that supposedly represented an equitable shift to government that planned to focus more heavily on the needs of disenfranchised residents. The Crew also called for reducing funding to the Lansing Police Department, a conceptual policy that failed to gain any real traction at City Hall in the last year.
George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis in 2020 helped to ignite a social uprising against institutional racism, police brutality and the disproportionate rate at which police have systematically targeted and killed people of color. And more than a year later, racial equity remains a priority.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor — whose administration has faced its own allegations of racism — dedicated $300,000 this year to a permanent “equity committee,” earmarking most of the cash for employee training, assessing the racial landscape in Lansing and soliciting community input as longer-term plans unfolded. The City Council also approved a resolution committing the city to continue to “reimagine policing” to address the root causes of crime.
Still, the results of an “environmental scan” showed that a significant portion of city employees have concerns over inequitable employment opportunities and work-related practices based on race as well as biological sex. Staff also reported inequities over how grievances were handled. Only about 7% of employees said they were satisfied with city efforts to bolster diversity.
At the county level, Prosecuting Attorney Carol Siemon shook up many law enforcement officials as well as Schor in June when she announced policy changes designed to reverse the disproportionate rate in which people of color interact with the local criminal justice system. One change directed her staff to deny warrant requests for possession of drugs, stolen property and firearms during traffic stops initiated by cops solely for minor, unrelated infractions. Siemon said that police have been known to use those stops as “fishing expeditions,” which disproportionately target Black people.
The other policy shift dictated that those arrested for crimes that involve guns will no longer be charged with a separate two-year felony count for possession of a firearm in commission of a crime — except only in “the most extreme circumstances,” according to the revised policy. Statistics showed that about 80% of those sentenced for that crime in Ingham County are Black.
Law enforcement officials countywide, led by Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth, and Schor have pushed back against the changes, but Siemon has refused to budge, insisting that the policy shifts will help curb inherent racial discrimination while allowing prosecutors to focus on more severe criminal charges and police investigations.
Siemon, for her part, has also used several startling statistics to defend the recent changes. Among them: Since 2019, Black people in Ingham County have been about five times more likely than white people to have had criminal charges requested against them by police. Black people in the county are also seven times more likely to face a felony charge than white people.
Dozens of businesses have closed — either permanently or temporarily — since the COVID-19 pandemic struck Greater Lansing in 2020 and lingered into 2021. But that still hasn’t stopped local developers from advancing several significant construction projects throughout the year.
The nonprofit Community Foundation broke ground on the first “universally accessible” playground in the tricounty area at Adado Riverfront Park on the west bank of the Grand River. Across the river, Detroit Rising Development is still working to transform the old City Market building into the Lansing Shuffleboard & Social Club, inspired by the Detroit Shipping Co.
Pat Gillespie put the former Sears building, near Frandor Shopping Center, up for redevelopment and plans to transform the old Clara’s Restaurant into a Starbucks coffee shop. The city is also still trying to entice Emergent BioSolutions to build a large manufacturing facility on a vacant 34-acre Dewitt Township property near the Capital Region International Airport.
As part of Meridian Township’s mixed-use “Village of Okemos” project, the long-vacant Travelers Club International Restaurant & Tuba Museum building was demolished this year, as well as the former home of Bottoms Up Lingerie and Okemos Ace Hardware, to make room for new development plans. Trader Joe’s also announced plans to build a highly anticipated grocery store in East Lansing.
Construction is underway to transform the former Bethlehem Temple Church in Old Town into an office space and 31 middle-income apartments. Its developers bought the Old Town Diner too. The Masonic Temple on Capitol Avenue was also sold this year by WMU-Cooley Law School.
Child and Family Charities announced plans to consolidate services and move into the western half of McLaren Greater Lansing’s Greenlawn campus while the healthcare system continued to hammer together its massive new campus near the western edge of Michigan State University.
Out-of-state developers also pitched plans to renovate the shuttered West Junior High School into a three-story apartment building. And Mayor Andy Schor cut the ribbon at an upgraded Turner Mini Park in Old Town at the corner of Turner Street and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue.
The biggest cherry on Lansing’s development cake this year, however, was from General Motors, which proposed building a $2.5 billion battery cell production plant for electric vehicles in Delta Township that could create 1,700 new jobs through 2026. GM is expected to decide next month. City and state officials are still courting the automaker with tax incentives.
Former Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero bowed out of an early bid to run against Schor for mayor this year after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted touching. One woman told City Pulse that she was groped by the former mayor in 2010. Another woman said that Bernero made unwanted sexual phone calls to her in 2004 while he was a state senator.
Those accusations came to a head in October after Bernero paid out $4,500 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him this year by former mayoral aide Liz Hart. Bernero has since largely receded from any public-facing political or professional responsibilities in Lansing.
Bucholz — who was once described by Sen. Curtis Hertel as “the best spin doctor in Lansing” — has since closed his firm, moved out of his downtown offices and vanished from public life.
A new three-year contract between Sparrow Health System and its 2,200-member Professional Employee Council was reached in December, averting the possibility of a strike following several months of tense contract negotiations that led to a picket at the hospital in November.
The new contract reportedly includes a 20% wage increase for average bedside nurses over the next three years, as well as no increases in staff healthcare premiums or reduction in sick days.
In the months leading up to the new collective bargaining agreement, nurses and union leaders had voiced concerns to City Pulse over the administration’s unwillingness to offer a “fair” contract amid an already stressful working environment at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.
Hundreds of employees crowded the sidewalks near the hospital for an “informational picket” while the negotiations continued. Nurses also voted to authorize the union to declare a strike — a move that was ultimately unnecessary after both sides worked out a mutually agreeable plan.
City Councilman Brandon Betz faced a deluge of public criticism — including hundreds of calls for his resignation — after he sent a series of profane text messages this year in which he labeled Michael Lynn Jr., the former co-leader of the Lansing chapter of Black Lives Matter, a “dickbag troll who no one listens to” and a “weak ass bitch” who only wanted more political clout.
Lynn had asked Betz to stop sending him text messages, but Betz kept going, later telling Lynn that he doesn’t “represent assholes.” So, Lynn decided to send the messages to news outlets.
After headlines surfaced and public criticism started to flow, Betz and his wife departed to Alaska to “take care of personal affairs.” In the meantime, he was formally censured by the Council, fired from his job at the Michigan League for Public Policy and widely criticized by several local political groups — including the Ingham County Democratic Party.
In an August reversal, Betz turned his back on the socialist agenda that helped to get him elected and abandoned his plans to seek a reduction to the Lansing Police Department budget. And despite calling for Mayor Andy Schor’s resignation for almost a year, Betz decided to break any remaining political ties with Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar and endorse Schor for reelection.
Betz also went on to label Black Lives Matter, among other groups as “niche” organizations run by a “small group of activists” that don’t necessarily represent the best interests of the city. His rollercoaster ride of a first term also took on some new momentum last month when local attorney Elizabeth Abdnour filed recall petition language with the county’s Election Commission.
That three-member panel denied the language, but Abdnour has since filed an appeal. Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady is set to decide next month on whether Abdnour can begin circulating the petition against Betz for a special election that could be set for as early as May.
A massive statewide recall of marijuana forced just about every pot shop in Greater Lansing — and hundreds more across Michigan — to pull thousands of products from their shelves in November due to concerns over inaccurate test results from a lab in Lansing and Bay City.
The recall was originally estimated to have impacted more than 50,000 lbs. of cannabis products sold at more than 500 provisioning centers across Michigan, specifically on flower that was tested by Viridis Laboratories in Lansing and Bay City between Aug. 10 and Nov. 16.
Portions of the recall have since been lifted on products that were tested in Viridis’ Bay City laboratory, but some local economic damage was unavoidable. Todd Welch, the chief operating officer at Viridis, told City Pulse in May that his laboratories provided testing services for more than 250,000 pounds of licensed cannabis products annually — about 70% of the state market.
The state has fought to uphold the recall in court. Still, an unknown quantity of initially recalled marijuana that had failed testing for unacceptably high levels of mold, yeast or fungi has reportedly been released for sale by the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency under a judge’s order.
Despite the recall hiccup, the marijuana industry in Greater Lansing still boomed in 2021. Lansing has now granted preliminary licensure to the maximum number of growers and retailers allowed under ordinance. Pincanna opened in East Lansing. Local Roots Cannabis Co. opened in Laingsburg. And Meridian Township is still tinkering with an ordinance to allow for pot shops.
Following a tumultuous presidential election, detachments of dozens of Michigan State Police troops and several rows of National Guard Humvees converged on the State Capitol building on Jan. 18 in anticipation of a large and potentially violent post-inauguration protest in Lansing.
Cops marched with bulletproof vests and wooden batons, tear gas canisters tucked into their bags. A police helicopter circled overhead for most of the afternoon. Sharpshooters were stationed on nearby rooftops. City Pulse even supplied its reporters with gas masks that day.
The striking show of military and police force in Lansing may have prevented political violence from breaking out locally in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrectionist riots — or it could’ve been largely unnecessary. Only about three dozen demonstrators actually showed up to the scene.
There was a lot more news in 2021: Halloween was canceled at six elementary schools in East Lansing; Lansing City Councilman Peter Spadafore stuck around for another year as the Council president; former Chief 30th Circuit Judge William “Wild Bill” Collette was accused of repeatedly harassing and bullying his former female benchmates after he admitted to pulling another woman’s hair in an Okemos restaurant over the summer — an incident that has since led to assault charges; crews finished clearing out an encampment of homeless people near the corner of Larch and Saginaw streets known as the “Back 40’; bus drivers at CATA failed to hash out a a new union contract following more than a year of negotiations; Shawn Deprez, the first woman battalion chief at the Lansing Fire Department, alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a superior and subjected to unchecked harassment; Okemos Schools finally dropped its “Chieftain” mascot in favor of something less offensive; emails revealed an undercover police operation at a local sex club; a leak flooded out three floors at City Hall; neighbors complained and local cops tried harder than ever to crack down on speeding and reckless driving in Lansing; City Councilman Brian Jackson worked to repeal several dated and obsolete city ordinances; Michael Lynn Jr. was fired from the Lansing Fire Department after he shared former Police Chief Daryl Green’s personal cell phone number with thousands of people on Facebook; Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing announced plans to retire; print circulation at the Lansing State Journal plummeted to an all-time low; Councilwoman Kathie Dunbar helped lead the city into at least $2 million in savings after negotiating a new contract for the Lansing Lugnuts to play at a newly improved version of Jackson Field; newly formed social districts allowed local residents to take to-go cocktails from several Lansing bars and enjoy them on the sidewalk; Lansing Township leaned on another assessment for taxpayers to help save itself from a potential bankruptcy; an East Lansing real estate developer lost a defamation lawsuit he filed against East Lansing Info; repairs were ordered at Rivershell Apartments following code violations; and the entire city was captivated by a giraffe statue at a gas station.
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Editor's Note: This story was corrected to accurately reflect the status of a union contract for drivers at the Capital Area Transportation Authority.
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