Commentary: Got a couple of minutes?

Everything we have been able to do in the past 26 years has been a direct result of the support provided by your neighbors.

The quality of our contents has depended on the skills your neighbors have provided. Which families have gotten the magazine has depended on your neighbors' willingness to distribute. We have been able to pay the production costs because your neighbors have contributed the money.

The East Village Magazine is not an advertising throw-away, an institutional newsletter, or a government supported newsletter provided by some group or business. Since it began July 4, 1976, it has been a publication produced and paid for by your neighbors.

If you believe the magazine is valuable you should contribute in some way to ensure the magazine continues.

Whether or not we will continue is still up to you — not the people who have already contributed time or money or those who find the magazine of little or no value.

Why should you support us?

For almost 27 years we have provided you information you could not easily have gotten anywhere else.

The East Village Magazine is the only publication to cover neighborhood groups — the groups which deal with the most basic neighborhood problems. We give a voice to the people in the neighborhoods while they attempt to solve the specific problems which make Flint a better place in which to live.

The East Village Magazine is the only publication to regularly cover the Flint Planning Commission, Flint Historic District Commission and the Flint Zoning Board of Appeals — the most important groups in determining the viability of neighborhoods in Flint because they say what can and cannot be in neighborhoods.

The monthly column, "Good books, old friends" provides a look at books, primarily books written for children, but occasionally other types of good books that may be overlooked by the average reader.

The photography has created a valuable visual record of our city which has helped our readers to see their surroundings in new ways.

The "Events, meetings, exhibits planned" column provides our readers information about things that make life a little more worth living with priority given to events and exhibits held by formal and informal non-profit organizations who often would get little or no mention in the press.

In short, East Village Magazine is unique in Flint.

How can you support East Village Magazine?

There are many ways.

Contribute your time and skills. Spend five or more hours a week writing news stories. Spend as little as an afternoon a week selling advertising or doing administrative work. Spend about 45 minutes a month distributing the magazine to your neighbors.

Do not worry about experience, we will train you.

Or, if you have experience, we need someone who can design and maintain a professional web site, direct development projects or help solve computer problems.

You can advertise. It's really a good buy for most businesses or organizations. It has several advantages over newspaper ads.

Your message will reach potential customers, 16,000 to 20,000 readers. Your message stays in the home longer — a month or more rather than a single day.

Your ad is more likely to be seen in East Village Magazine because it is not included with a jumble of your competitors' ads or in a section of the paper which a good portion of the readers skip completely.

The cost is reasonable — less than nine cents a household for a full-page advertisement.

An ad in East Village Magazine is generally more effective than direct mail advertising. It is much less expensive, better read and stays in the home longer.

Finally, you can contribute money. Our expenses are minimal, no staff salaries for example, but we have to pay them. Printing and typesetting are about 90 percent of our costs, telephone and internet about four percent, postage about three percent and paper, envelopes, computer discs and other office supplies about three percent of our total budget of about $2,300 a month.

Tell us if the organization you work for matches contributions. It increases the value of your contribution even more.

Finally, you can write us. Your opinions are important to us. We want to know what you think about what we have or have not covered and issues that affect your neighborhood.

Send your letters to 720 E. Second St., Flint, Mich. 48503 or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

G.P.C.