24 years on Lansing City Council: Carol Wood's legacy is one to remember

LANSING — When Councilwoman Carol Wood thinks about Lansing, she pictures a patchwork of neighborhoods including the Eastside, Scott Woods, Sycamore Park and her own Genesee neighborhood.

Growing up watching her mother working to make their Genesee neighborhood safer, Wood was drawn into public service.

"My mother knew that if you don't feel that you're safe, you can't walk your neighborhood, you can't go to the neighborhood park, you can't walk the river trail and do all of those things," said Wood, who later as an adult returned to the historic Genesee neighborhood near the state Capitol.

She stayed tuned to her neighborhood, and others, throughout 24 years on council. The potential to improve neighborhoods always guided her leadership. Now in her last month on council, Wood said the most important task for the next generation of Lansing's leaders is to keep recognizing neighborhoods as the lifeforce of Lansing.

"I often call the corridors of Lansing the front porches of our neighborhoods," Wood, 73, said during a lengthy Dec. 1 interview. "And if the corridors are not taking care of people, people don't see that as inviting.

"Martin Luther King and Pennsylvania and Saginaw (roads) are some of the major arteries that get us from one section of the city to another. But if you don't get back into the neighborhoods, you don't see the quality of housing that's behind those."

Wood said it's like a dilapidated exterior of a home. No one would know that the inside has luxurious furnishings and a great floor plan, so the city needs to spruce up its corridors to boost growth and build pride in communities.

"We have to have those corridors taken care of to keep Lansing growing and make sure that the housing market is something that is enticing people to buy into Lansing," Wood said.

Wood has spent her entire tenure as an at-large council member and unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Mayor Virg Bernero in 2009. Even as she's retiring at the end of the year, she plans to still work Lansing's neighborhoods, advocating for better policing and more jobs.

She is known for dialogue — promoting, committing to and nurturing an exchange of ideas when it comes to ways to improve Lansing.

"Am I going to miss it?" Wood asked of her time on council. "Absolutely. Does that mean that I'm going to be silent? Well, I wasn't silent before I got on council; I don't expect that to stop. A lot of people know my phone number and have my email. And I still live in Lansing and will be actively pushing current council members on issues that I believe that are important out there."

Long legacy

Wood is the executive director of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, which places seniors in volunteer roles like reading, knitting and foster-grandparenting.

Many also know Wood as one of Lansing's longest-serving council members who, over the years, has helped the city navigate everything from the 2008 economic crash to an ice storm for the history books to population stagnation to a pandemic to much, much more.

Wood's 24 years on council isn't record-setting: That record belongs to Lucile Belen, who served for 36 years from 1957 to 1993 and is the longest-serving council member of the modern era, according to records compiled by Tim Bowman for the Historical Society of Greater Lansing. Before 1957, the elected officials were known as aldermen, the city had a different ward structure and long terms weren't common.

But Wood's tenure places her in rare company. Only one other person, Tony Benavides, served two decades as a council member. He went on to serve as mayor, and the city council chambers are named after Benavides.

Wood announced, soon after winning her sixth term in 2019, that it would be her last term.

"I always looked at elections as being an evaluation of me as an employee," Wood said earlier this year. "The public gets to tell me if they think I'm doing a good job by re-electing me. I'm not having that evaluation this time."

Her retirement is weeks away, and many are ready to give her a fond farewell because of Wood's activism and concern for residents.

She opposed former Mayor David Hollister, as well as former mayors Tony Benavides and Bernero and current Mayor Andy Schor on some major issues, Hollister said.

The city's mayor from 1993 to 2003, Hollister said Wood was always willing to go behind closed doors and have a discussion and to sometimes come out with a new outlook. She worked on such issues as neighborhood noise complaints and anti-violence campaigns, as well as helping keep GM in Lansing, he said.

"She's a real pro. I have a real sense that this was her calling. It was more than just a job," said Hollister, who has known Wood for four decades. "She's a natural council leader. I think it's in her DNA."

While having support from police agencies throughout her council career, she said an early attempt to bring police together with neighbor residents at community meetings did not go well.

"They were used to stopping people for speeding and talking in that situation," she said. "This was a different kind of communication."

An officer inadvertently insulted the residents, saying he had been in all of their homes at some point for drugs, which wasn't true, but Wood said the officer ended up working with the community well and when he retired years later, the neighbors pooled together to buy him a gift card in appreciation.

Her mother's footsteps

The work with Lansing's neighborhoods, her own and many others with organizations she helps, led Wood to council in the late 1990s. Howard Jones, a city council member who succeeded Belen, had taken an interest in Wood's neighborhood activism and encouraged her to run.

“The whole reason I got involved was to give neighborhoods a voice,” Wood said.

Wood's mother, Ruth Hallman, was a pioneer of neighborhood activism in Lansing and taught Wood how to work with people. Hallman was killed in her Genesee neighborhood home in 2007, by a serial killer.

According to Hallman's online obituary, she was a strong advocate for the Genesee Neighborhood, "pushing Lansing politicians to help improve the safety and security of the neighborhood." She was president of the Genesee Neighborhood Association and had received a Bea Christy Award for her commitment to the community.

Wood continues to take inspiration from her mother's memory.

"She cared about her neighborhood," Wood said. "She cared about making sure that things were safe in the community. People need a livable community and making sure that you have adequate police and fire, those are the first things that a city is responsible for."

Wood said she decided to return to her own home, next door to her mother's, as soon as the police allowed.

"She wouldn't run and I'm not running either. This is my neighborhood," Wood said. "That's where I live now. It's where my mom lived. Across the street is the church I grew up in, and it all just makes it home."

Nancy Mahlow, president of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization, said she has known Wood since before her council elections, and neighborhoods have always been key to Wood's success and the tragedy of her mother's death made her activism more personal.

Mahlow said Wood is able to challenge city leaders while being courteous, which helped her gain support from those she had opposed on some issues.

"Her strong-willed temperament, she is not afraid and does not back down, but she can do it in a way that she’s still showing respect," Mahlow said. "Anybody that has come into contact with her, she would show you respect and expect the same. Her mother would be very proud of her."

Wood said the neighborhood organization system in Lansing — from independent neighborhood watches and formal organizations to informal Facebook groups and city-organized support — has grown in the last few decades.

"When I first got on council, it was business that everybody was worried about. Decisions were made on what was important for them, not what's important to the neighborhood. And that had a huge impact on whether neighborhoods grew or whether they ended up being stagnant or if people fled from the community."

The number and variety of organizations and involved people today make it easier for those struggling to voice a problem, Wood said.

"Somebody might come up to you at the store, or at your church, or knock on your door at home and they wouldn't be coming to a council meeting," she said.

Inspiring others

Loretta Stanaway, who has known Wood for decades since they started working together on cemetery issues, will miss the councilwoman and her institutional knowledge.

Stanaway will be one of the presenters at a Dec. 12 ceremony to honor Wood.

"She's always been approachable, cooperative and positive," Stanaway said. "A friend to the citizens as a whole."

Her commitment has inspired others like Patricia Spitzley, a council member who is also retiring at the end of the year.

Spitzley said Wood inspired her run for council, when Wood was a reliable and active source of information during a snow and ice emergency in 2013 that left many in the area out of power and looking for answers.

Wood's connection to her neighborhood and her Facebook page kept people informed and connected them with the help they needed, Spitzley said.

Tamera Carter and Trini Lopez Pehlivanoglu won a crowded primary and the November election. They will fill the two at-large seats being vacated by Wood and Spitzley, which cover the whole city.

Pehlivanoglu said Wood has been an inspiration, with her years of dedication.

"She is connected to the neighborhoods in a way that helps people to work together, and I hope we can move forward with that," Pehlivanoglu said. "Those are some big shoes to fill and it really is an honor to be entrusted with the decision making as women and as community leaders to make Lansing a great place."

Wood said she believes the city is in good hands now, with more elected officials interested in neighborhood work, like city council members Adam Hussain and Jeremy Garza.

“Is there more work to do?" Wood said. "Absolutely. But we have more council members on the board today that are actively involved in the neighborhoods they represent.”

Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 24 years on Lansing City Council: Carol Wood's legacy is one to remember