The Inside Dope

THE INSIDE DOPE

BY IFFY THE DOPESTER

Along with our friends in Vietnam, The SUN has a lot to celebrate on May 1-Mayday to all you communist sympathizers out there. Although we can't claim to have liberated any territory from capitalist control ourselves, we can take some pride in now having published continually tor five years, through fair weather and foul. Our everlasting thanks to all the workers, contributors, advertisers, and readers who have helped us progress to this point -including our  old friends in our former home base of Ann Arbor and our fast-growing constituency in-the Motor City and environs. We couldn't have made it without you! If we stick together for the next five, there's no limit to what can happen.

We're proud to be one of the many, many progressively-oriented developments jumping off in the Big D these days, and we'll continue to try to keep you informed of as many of the others as possible-including the Feminist Women's City Club, which recently held its grand opening in downtown Detroit a year after the old Women's City Club was acquired by the Feminist Economic Network. The new club (not to be confused with the Feminist Women's Health Center on 8 Mile Rd.) promises to be a veritable cornucopia of creative activity, services, events, and gatherings for Motor City women. and we'll be bringing you a full report next ish.

We're also happy to announce ihat the suspicious proposition to turn J.L. Hudson's downtown warehouse into a "new" County Jail {SUN, April 22) appears doomed. The County Commissioners' special task force had voted 4-3 in favor of the curious plan, which no doubt would have done more good for certain investors and architects than tor the people of Wayne County. But perhaps due to a storm of protest from citizens and community groups who sniffed a deal, two committees of the Commissioners last week voted unanimously against the warehouse and in favor of a brand new building. If the full Board goes along this week, construction could start immediately (the money was appropriated and land offered by City Council years ago). and the inmates will soon have a home fit for human habitation.

In a way, we're kind of sorry the proposal didn't get further. You see, one of the structural problems with the warehouse were several large pillars severely limiting any revised floor plan. At least one warehouse supporter is known to have seriously suggested simply moving the pillars over, in which case the whole building probably would have collapsed into a useless pile of bricks. Wouldn't that have been a fitting end for the whole mess?

Our Civic Consciousness Award this week has to go to Councilwomen Erma Henderson and Maryann Mahaffey, who along with some forty angry Detroit tenants watched an amusing spectacle at last Tuesday's Council session. While the tenants were presenting their grievances to the assembled body, our leaders began to quietly excuse themselves one by one so as not to miss the first pitch of the Tigers' opener that afternoon. Soon only Henderson and Mahaffey were left, leaving no alternative but to postpone further discussion until a later date. Geez, we're all for the home team, but this is ridiculous!

Nor can we resist a brief comment here upon the News Story of the Year, the infamous Pattania Hearst episode, now drawing to a close (we hope) in that hotbed of rabid urban guerrillas, San Francisco. The mass media will no doubt be hard put to come up with anything to fill their columns -or air time-now that the verdict has been pronounced. The radical rags are trying to substitute Bill and Emily Harris, but somehow it's not the same. And where will the Bay Area rads go for entertainment now that the trial is over?