Meet the Candidates: Ramie Yelle

FLINT, Michigan — Ramie Yelle (Ray-me Yell-ee) is a United States Navy veteran who has traveled the world. During his military service, he traveled across continents to places like France, Turkey, and Spain. Despite spending time in diverse, faraway places, Flint is the city he calls home today. In this upcoming election, he hopes to bring his experience and perspectives to represent the 4th ward on the Flint City Council.

“I traveled. I got to take a look at cultures. I volunteered when I traveled as well, and I would go help clean up, rake, or whatever they needed to do,” he expressed. “And I felt like that was kind of an important part because then I got to understand the culture a little differently than somebody just passing through because I’m actually interacting with the people who live there.”

Before serving in the military, Yelle grew up in Alba and went to Lapeer schools. His grandparents were from Flint’s 4th ward, and he has many fond memories of spending time at their house and in the community as a child.

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Immediately after graduating, Yelle enlisted in the military and worked as an electrician on an aircraft carrier. He served for 4 years and, while serving, began taking night classes in massage therapy and acupuncture.

After serving in the Navy, Yelle moved into his grandparents’ house to care for his ailing grandmother. After some time, he pursued an education at the University of Michigan-Flint. He completed a bachelor’s program in Public Health and continued his education at Michigan State University, also in Public Health.

“When I was in the Navy, I was also going through massage therapy school at night, and there was a massage catalog. [On] the back was like acupuncture school. So, once I got out of the Navy, I felt like there [weren’t] many acupuncturists around the area and it was a niche I could fill.”

Yelle has spent the last two decades as a massage therapist and acupuncturist, generally keeping to himself. He’s decided now is the opportune time to run for office, given the experience and education he’s accumulated. The same day he filed the paperwork to become a viable candidate on the ballot in this upcoming election, he also began going door to door to collect signatures.

One thing that makes Yelle unique in the Flint political landscape is his approach to blight.

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“When I have conversations with people in my ward, people often ask me, why aren’t you focusing on blight? Because everybody does. Everybody makes lofty promises about blight. I could talk about it all day, right, but at the same time there are actually people in my ward that are out doing the work. So, the question becomes: How do I support them?”

Yelle specifically mentions his public health education and how he would like to engage with blight.

“If people abandon houses, that’s a public health issue. People want to see you out there helping and doing your part in cleaning up the city. For example: There’s the Flint Rejuvenation Team, right? They’re a couple in their seventies, and they just started a nonprofit. They don’t just clean 4th Ward; they go wherever they can,” Yelle says. “I just want it to be known that I work really hard at these problems with you. But my job is to, especially as a city council, hold government accountable and make sure we’re supporting people.”

Yelle has a similar position on public safety. Rather than reinventing the current systems or implementing new initiatives, Yelle would like to see more support behind the infrastructure Flint has already established.

“One question people need to ask is: How many police officers live in the city? As soon as an opportunity arises where police officers get paid more money, they’re out of here. They’re gone,” he said. “The city council can only help so much, but also the mayor and those decision makers really need to start taking a look at how [to] keep police officers [living] in and involved in the city.”

Yelle would like to see the reinvestment in Flint’s infrastructure focus on education in particular. His guiding political principle is the value of education, shaped by how learning from others has impacted his own life. One way he’d like to see education platformed across the city is through providing job pathways into the city directly from the surrounding schools.

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“Why are we paying an outside company to come chop down trees, right? Why can’t the city educate people in a trade? Those are consistently high-paying jobs, right? Really, why can’t the city pay to educate their own residents to do that type of work? Same thing with the tearing down of the houses, right? That’s a lot of money. Start doing it themselves.”

Yelle also sees the continued growth of Flint’s arts and culture as a sign that the city’s identity is shifting from automation and industry to education and the liberal arts. He hopes the community will use this opportunity to give more young people chances to express themselves in ways the city may not have seen in prior generations.

“Education doesn’t necessarily need to be strictly like English, math, science, right? Some kids are musically inclined and things like that. If they aren’t getting education, they’re kind of pushed underneath the carpet,” Yelle explains. “It feels like nobody knows that they exist. They don’t have the money in order to take classes, for the instruments, the paint material, the computers, or any of those things. I think that we’re doing a huge disservice to our city, and to us, to our children, by not funding the arts education more.”

This election cycle, at least 5 wards are set to have new representation. This means new faces and a political future that is guaranteed to appear different than the city’s past. Yelle sees this reality and chooses to view it as a positive change. He hopes that after the election cycle on Nov. 3, each member of city council will share the same optimism and enthusiasm for the city that he has.

“I just hope all of us can work more as a team instead of battling as has been common in the past. I see that there’s a younger group coming up right in these positions, including myself,” Yelle said.

“I just have hope that we all work well, and each one of us is specialized in certain areas. Others have knowledge in certain aspects, and we can feed off their knowledge. Let them take the reins of whatever situation they’ve already had their hands involved in.”