26. September 2005 • Murph
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Dale tracked down the following event:
This Tuesday night, September 27th at 7:30pm at the South Lounge of Markley Hall will be the MSA Sponsored Ward 2 City Council Debate. Both Tom Bourque® and Stephen Rapundalo (D) will be in attendance, along with the Michigan Student Assembly.
The debate will be limited to one half hour, allowing for each candidate to make an opening statement, answer questions from the chair, and to conclude with a closing statement. MSA President Jesse Levine will be accepting suggested questions by email at jlev@umich.edu, as well as hand-written notes before the meeting begins.
Free pizza, refreshments, and desserts will be made available thanks to the MSA External Relations Committee.
Rapundalo defeated UM student Eugene Kang in August’s primary, disappointing a number of students and bloggers who had supported Kang. Rapundalo seems friendly to student concerns, and has suggested a City-level committee made up of Councilmembers and students for the purposes of informing the student body on city issues and providing a forum for student concerns. No official proposal exists yet, but with this event and MSA’s decision to create a City Council liaison, relations seem to have moved past the earplugs-and-pinnocchio-doll stage.
If any readers make it to the event, please post your thoughts.
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—JennyD Sep. 27 '05 - 01:20AM #
Opening Statement:
Rapundalo stated that he had a vested interest in Ann Arbor’s future. He had addressed many of the issues that come before council because he has experience on a breadth of issues and a record of results. He has a grassroots activist background and a history of fighting for neighborhoods.
His issues were fiscal responsibility, a challenge for many years. In the face of coming development, we must protect our neighborhoods (including student neighborhoods), as well as parks and open space. On student issues, he wants them to have a role in city government (see his proposal); he supports the mayor’s plan on lease renewals; he supports a plan that would include interest returned to renters on their security deposit; he supports availability and affordability of housing.
Bourque is a 13 year resident of Ann Arbor who went here for law school (lived in Miami for 11 yrs between law school and moving back). As a lawyer, he has to learn about issues like an expert so that he can argue on them at trial. His plan will be to take that approach to council to represent constituents and ask about any plan “does it make sense?” He has a history of community service, but not public service, and he wants to make sure Council’s budgets make sense fiscally and for the future. He also supports Rapundalo’s student proposal.
—Dale Sep. 28 '05 - 12:48AM #
B. He will. Wards get tweaked every 10 years anyway. Students can have the voice that they want by getting involved. He will listen to anyone anytime anywhere.
R. Repeats student council proposal. Yes he supports redistricting by it is inherently complicated and would require a ballot initiative.
Q2: Will you vote to ban couches?
R. “No.” Focusing on couches takes away from larger housing maintenance issues.
B. “Generally no.” Aesthetics are covered by other ordinances and council has more important things to deal with. However, he supports aggressive enforcement on yard trash, because people have to take care of their property. With privileges of citizenship come responsibilities.
Q3: Oxbridge parking district—will you support a permit price break to mitigate the district’s harm to students?
B. What harm is it to students? The city should work with the U to develop dorms so that cars are not necessary. The AATA is free, so why is a car in Ann Arbor necessary? He went without a car for most of law school and parked far away from campus when he had one. The more important issue is to decrease the need for cars. No breaks for any group of citizens on parking charges.
R. Parking rules should be equitable. Agrees with Bourque—no breaks. Let’s give Oxbridge district a try and see how it is working. However, he was not happy with how the issue made its way through council. We need to make sure there is alternative transportation and more dorms.
—Dale Sep. 28 '05 - 12:58AM #
R. Yes. Should have waited until school year; he would have waited until fall to encourage public dialogue.
B. Shouldn’t have been voted on when students aren’t there but city government does not stop when students aren’t in town. He would have said “Let’s wait until fall.”
Q5: Why did you choose to run as a Democrat or Republican?
B. Been an independent most of his life, voting on both sides, but found on local issues he found himself more in line with Ann Arbor Republicans.
R. Sided more with Democrats on City Council. He’s fiscally responsible but socially conscious and doesn’t like where the national Republican party has gone.
Q6: Do you support more density on South U.?
R. Was at Calthorpe workshop and his table worked on South U. His table put in one high rise and several 3-5 story mixed-use buildings. Would like to see a grocery and laundromat. They emphasized non-motorized transportation and better linkages to downtown core.
B. Not sure what you mean by density—residential or commercial? Doesn’t want another building like one at Forest and South U (University Towers). Wants more midrise residential and grocery if it can survive. As for downtown, he supports density, it’s “the other half of the greenbelt.” But you’ve gotta have the basics that downtown residents want. As property taxes increase, housing becomes less affordable, so he supports the use of affordable housing money to serve the community.
Q7: In favor of housing inspections every 30 months? (possibly through misspeak, this was interpreted as “30 days” by both candidates.)
B. Supports increasing inspections. Substandard housing should be inspected, addressed, and cleaned up, but do we have the resources?
R. 30 month inspection cycle seems too long but the city doesn’t currently have the bodies to enforce. Maybe we could increase/implement random inspections. Current state bill (House Bill 4473) would reduce inspections, which he opposes.
—Dale Sep. 28 '05 - 01:11AM #
R. Has experience with many issues, was student council president in college (unnamed) and got a student on board of regents. Repeats student advisory council proposal. Experience with fiscal issues, parks advisory commission, housing—gov’t liaison for Habitat for Humanity. As a research scientist, he’s always challenging the status quo and he will not have much of a learning curve if elected.
B. Will bring balance to council. Will investigate issues even if he doesn’t know everything. Students must decide how interested they want to be. He moved to Miami and moved back because he wanted to be part of Ann Arbor. He emphasizes common sense and will ask is it good for the city or not.
—Dale Sep. 28 '05 - 01:15AM #
—mw Sep. 28 '05 - 12:16PM #
I’m fairly unimpressed with the commitment of either to addressing student issues. Rapundalo put the student advisory council idea forward, but I think that’s a half-assed way of keeping them off real committees.
There should be a larger event November 2. Announcements coming soon.
—Dale Sep. 28 '05 - 02:43PM #
One of the things he and I discussed was how the nature of a 3-year appointment cycle makes it hard for a student to even consider an appointment; by the time an undergrad knows enough about what’s going on to hope to keep up with a Committee, s/he is graduating. The grad students who could bring domain-relevant specialized knowledge to a committee are largely masters’ students in 2-3 year programs who, again, have problems committing to three-year appointment, as they can’t know whether the job/housing situation will allow them to stay in town after they graduate.
I hear from other Council members that he had been considering the idea of a council/campus committee before talking to me, so I won’t credit myself for his idea, but I do think it sounds like a good step towards addressing an existing, structural issue.
—Murph. Sep. 28 '05 - 05:07PM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Sep. 28 '05 - 05:37PM #
—Steve Bean Sep. 28 '05 - 06:36PM #
—Lazaro Sep. 28 '05 - 08:06PM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Sep. 29 '05 - 02:24AM #
—Dale Sep. 29 '05 - 02:47PM #
After all, more than a few Council members haven’t served their full 2-year terms.
—Dave Cahill Sep. 29 '05 - 05:13PM #
Is is true that you were a leader in one of the neighborhood associations that pressured city council to vote this down? If so can you explain this to those of us who believe this campaign that was based on irrational and unfair charges and was really all about anti-student politics?
—jack Oct. 1 '05 - 04:23PM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Oct. 3 '05 - 04:23AM #
When can we expect a similar program for Ann Arbor?
—Dale Oct. 3 '05 - 05:23AM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Oct. 3 '05 - 02:18PM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Oct. 3 '05 - 02:34PM #
The second that Downtown Home & Garden started to see a run on torches and pitchforks, the City seems to have dropped the idea like a hot rock.
As a familiar contrast, look to the Three-Site Plan. There was opposition to that idea as well – much stronger opposition – and the City said, “well, hey, let’s talk about this and see what we can do.” Result: a revised plan that preserved most of the good of the original while backing off on the part that had the most serious objection. Not everybody is totally happy, but the City addressed concerns while moving forward.
Let’s hope that, when the question of ADUs is revisited, we can look back at this and say, “Say, maybe we ought to try to hear and address the concerns people have, rather than panicking and running.” Elaborate on the plan, the expected impact, enforcement issues; take questions and answer them; hear concerns and see what kind of compromise can be forged.
Steven, if you get onto Council, I think we’re going to have to talk about ADUs. You’re the perfect person to know what the complaints were with the past proposal, and to figure out how to come up with a consensable solution. We’ll devote a thread to discussing other cities’ programs, figuring out Ann Arbor’s goals and concerns, and crafting a proposal. It can be the first project of the Ann Arbor Distributed Planning Corps.
—Murph. Oct. 3 '05 - 03:04PM #
—Stephen Rapundalo Oct. 3 '05 - 05:13PM #