Battle Creek, Michigan is facing a grim future. The town Kellogg and Post Cereal built, and the home town of Michigan Gov. Snyder, plans to make homelessness and panhandling illegal with the passage of a new city ordinance. In the debate surrounding the new law, the discussion centered on appearances. “The city council is concerned that the homeless and panhandlers are making the city look bad instead of doing something real about it,” says a local activist.
Battle Creek, like so many other Michigan industrial towns, is declining and unable to support the surrounding community with enough jobs. With just one large employer, Kellogg and Post Cereals controlled and dominated the city’s history. Their aim has been to keep profits high and keep other industries out of town so as to not compete for the labor. With robotics taking over production of the cereal industry, they won’t even need the few workers that are still employed. Whatever plans the corporate government has for “gentrifying” the area, including kicking out the homeless, the people are beginning to discuss the kind of new society we need.