I attended the County Finance and Fiscal Resources Committee meeting this morning. I learned that Kent County lost over $4.6 million in tax revenues, in 2007, that were captured or abated by local units of government for things like DDAs, Brownfields, TIFAs, Enterprise Zones and Renaissance Zones. Grand Rapids captured the most - $1.7 million. Wyoming was next with $803,000.

Worked at the Arena tonight - Van Halen. Wow, those guys can rock! It was funny to see some people so conflicted by the Wings game. It was on one of the monitors on the mezzanine and gathered quite a crowd. What a choice - Redwings.....VanHalen, Redwings.....VanHalen. :-)

Started knocking on doors today, on E Fulton. Met a gentleman who, as he looked over a brochure, recognized First CRC as the church he often went to as a child (he said he lived on Henry St. 45 years ago) and learned "Onward Christian Soldiers" (not my favorite hymn but a fascinating connection). He remembered Pastor Beelen and was interested to hear that he is still around and his son is pastor at Madison Square CRC.

It's so interesting to meet people and be able to make connections while campaigning! Does this only happen in Grand Rapids?