Introducing YOUR ELI

Image: Time-lapse photograph of Grand River Avenue by East Lansing photographer Dylan Lees

Do you ever hear people around town say, "In East Lansing, there's no there there," or "No one knows what's going on in this city"? If you've been reading ELi, you know we are working to change both of those perceptions. This new weekly feature, Your ELi, will help by giving you an overview of what's happening this week in your East Lansing.

But before we get to that, a quick note about how we operate:

ELi is different from other local news sources because we're a citizen-run news cooperative. We produce news—and only news—of the people, by the people, and for the people of East Lansing. Our standards are high: we require accuracy, clarity, and nonpartisanship of all our embedded reporters. We make sure when you come to ELi, what you find is news that is smart, relevant, interesting, fair, and focused on East Lansing. What you won't find at ELi are ads (ELi is noncommercial), nor will you find editorials, reviews, satires, or opinions. Much as we all have opinions—much as our Nature reporter would prefer sometimes to write satire—when we come to ELi to report, we understand we have to leave our opinions at the door.

ELi is a public service organization—a registered 501c3 nonprofit—and it has among its missions improving civic pride in East Lansing and educating the citizenry, to help people of this city feel more informed and be more engaged with each other. We hope you will agree that ELi is meeting its mission and giving to East Lansing something we have long needed.

If you do agree, it's important for you to help us keep bringing this public service to you by donating generously with a tax-deductible contribution. We would especially love it if you sign up as a monthly donor (click here and choose "make this recurring") because that helps us budget! But you are also welcome to donate by check. ELi’s lifespan won’t depend on its importance or on the dedication of its workers; both of those are well established. How long ELi operates will depend on the willingness of readers like you to support our work financially.

Many of ELi's citizen-reporters donate their services voluntarily. In fact, I'm one of them; I make no money from ELi. Instead, I am a financial donor to ELi! Why? Because as ELi’s publisher, I know we have to have a paid team of editors, regular reporters, and tech wizards if we're going to be able to operate steadily, bringing you the news you want. These local folks don’t get paid a lot, but we pay them enough to allow them to make room in their lives to do the great work they do for us all. (And remember: when you donate to ELi, by supporting our staff, you are putting money into the economy of East Lansing.)

So please join me in donating to ELi. In return, we'll send you a receipt for your tax deduction and we'll keep bringing you high-quality news of your community.

Okay, what’s coming up this week?

On Monday at the East Lansing Black Student Union will be holding a “Unity March” at the high school, starting at 3:15 pm. Stay tuned--we’ll be covering this story at ELi.

On Monday night at the Pump House you can enjoy Decembersongs ’14—“a little bit low rent, a whole lot of great new songs, some sentimental favorites and a lot of belly laughs.” Read more about it in our report from Smitty Smith.

On Tuesday, City Council will be discussing options for the Bailey Day Care, which the City has been looking to close, perhaps along with the Bailey Community Center. You can read more about the discussion that occurred around this issue at this week’s Council meeting in our Council Capsule.

On Tuesday, City Council may also continue discussion of the controversial PDIG proposal for the blighted corner. If you need to get up to speed on the controversy, read our report about Council’s discussion of how to manage questions about the company’s owners and their track records. This week in Ask Eli to Investigate, we brought you details—lots of details—about why people are worried about this development company and the odds that it will end or prolong the blight.

If you need something less controversial to read about on Tuesdays, consider Ann About Town, the weekly column from our Managing Editor Ann Nichols. This week, Ann went to Red Haven and gave us her report—a report that earned us more “likes” than any other article to date. I can’t tell you what’s in store for this week because Ann’s columns are always embargoed, but you can expect another chance to realize, via Ann, that there is a there here after all.

This past week, our resident nature reporter, Aron Sousa, came down from the skies and into your backyard to talk about bird feeding, and what impact it has on you, the little birds, and the big birds who eat the little birds. (Disclosure: I’m the squirrel-lover mentioned in the article.) Coming up this week is—also embargoed.

Finally, if you need a suggestion about what random act of kindness you might be able to commit before we bring you another great idea on Sunday, consider committing the act of helping Shawn Heiler and her East Lansing Girl Scout troops bring toys to underprivileged children. Read more here from our Schools editor, Rebecca McAndrews.

To find out more goings-on in our small city, check out ELi’s calendar in the lower-right side of your screen. And remember, ELi is yours, so tell us what you want on the calendar, send us your questions to investigate, and consider adding to the ranks of our three-dozen embedded citizen reporters! We would love to have even more of you on our citizen-reporting team.