By David Hoppe There is heavy equipment lined up on Lakeshore Drive, the main thoroughfare in my Michiana town, Long Beach. Workers are trying to keep the road from falling into Lake Michigan. What’s left of the beach in places now looks like a dump, as people have piled what they can, from parachute-sized sandbags […]

Letter From Michiana: Meet the candidates

By David Hoppe Saturday was bearish. It rained and rained, waves that were ten feet or more pummeled the shore and wind made the treetops sway as if they were children in dire need of a bathroom break. It was tempting to build a fire, turn on Netflix and curl up. But the Michigan City […]

Letter From Michiana: New Year’s Eve

By David Hoppe: I’m not sure when we started. On New Year’s Eve, just after the ball drop, the loving kisses and the sips of champagne, my friend John and I pull on our coats and hats, fill a couple tumblers with the most sincere liquor that’s left in the bar and make our way […]

Letter From Michiana: Controlled burn

By David Hoppe The smell of wood smoke — caressing, rich and warm — filled the air. The bonfires we’d set ablaze hissed and popped. We leaned on our shovels and rakes and stared into the flames. It was over a year ago that a group of us assembled in Stockwell Woods to wrangle an […]

Letter From Michiana: Lake Michigan (keeps) rising

Nature is bursting its seams. Something must be done.

Letter From Michiana: Falling leaves

By David Hoppe When we left town to visit our son in Raleigh, North Carolina, for Thanksgiving, the trees around us were still bedecked with plenty of leaves. High winds over the course of the holiday weekend brought almost all of them down. What amounted to a great, russet mattress covered the ground upon our […]