16. August 2005 • Murph
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Ann Arbor City Council last night unanimously passed a resolution to create a “New Greenway Task Force” that would deliver recommendations for a greenway running south from the Huron River greenway along the Allen Creek valley. The Task Force members will be appointed by 6 September, with preliminary recommendations due by 1 November 2005 and final recommendations by 1 October 2006. The resolution calls for the Task Force to include in the greenway at least the portions of the city-owned properties at 415 W. Washington and 721 N. Main that are within the floodway, and asks for a recommendation on the eventual use of the lot at 1st and Washington. Additionally, the resolution directs the City Administrator to begin working with the Ann Arbor Railroad to determine the potential of using the railroad’s right-of-way for parts of the greenway. See the original text of the resolution (pdf) for more details; at least one amendment was made to add a requirement for public hearings before the 1 October final recommendations were presented.
The Ann Arbor News reports that the Friends of the Greenway are not happy. Bill Hanson, who has announced an interest in Kim Groome’s vacated Council seat, “told the council Monday’s actions were an attempt to fool people who want a greenway with ‘green-sounding’ language. He summarized the council’s task force resolution as, ‘We love greenways. Trust us.’” Sonia Schmerl, co-Chair of the Friends of the Greenway, called the resolution ”’murder by task force’ for a full-scale greenway.”
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—js Aug. 16 '05 - 05:04PM #
—dsomers74 Aug. 16 '05 - 06:22PM #
—JennyD Aug. 16 '05 - 07:06PM #
I HATE the phrase “full scale greenway”. It leaves no space for compromise, and makes the ‘Friends’ more and more stubborn. If they were smart they would cooperate in order to get even a small greenway, because I can imagine the backlash against their unrealistic demands resulting in no greenway at all.
—KGS Aug. 17 '05 - 01:04PM #
But, with their tactics, this “Coalition of the Green-Willing” is not succeeding in convincing me that their ideas have any merit. I greatly prefer having people with a diverse group of opinions (or no previously established opinions) look at an issue, rather than stack the deck with a bunch of agenda-bound puppets.
I find it hard to consider a greenway proposal seriously, because its advocates are behaving as badly as the national administration. They are trying to force their agenda because they are absolutely convinced of their own rightness.
—archipunk Aug. 17 '05 - 01:07PM #
You know, I haven’t heard any of them say anything good yet about Chris Easthope’s work to put together something that saved 1st/William from the evil, evil DDA. He managed to drag together a near consensus on the Council that, “No, you may not build a parking structure there,” and not a positive word has been said of that yet.
—Murph. Aug. 17 '05 - 01:23PM #
—Nick A Aug. 17 '05 - 02:02PM #
—js Aug. 17 '05 - 03:05PM #
—Brandon Aug. 17 '05 - 03:42PM #
In the interest of not posting something mean-spirited on this topic, and seeing as how both js and brandon just posted…..(but this goes for the lot of you.)
Don’t walk….run and pick up the 1st release from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
You’ll thank me. Insound.com and amazon.com both stock it. Album of the year so far. If Kevin Shields, David Byrne and Jeff Magnum created a kid, he’d be fronting this band.
JS, if you don’t like it, I’ll buy you two gin on the rocks and then promptly make fun of your lack of musical taste. :)
...allow me the single emoticon, please.
—todd Aug. 17 '05 - 04:49PM #
—Murph. Aug. 17 '05 - 05:14PM #
I use insound.com. Indie shop. Good people. I also use Underground Sound for new releases, and Encore for old releases.
—todd Aug. 17 '05 - 05:20PM #
Only in Ann Arbor can a project that has (a) no cost projections (b) no practical basis (has the railroad even been approached? how do you take property for this? what do you do with all the street crossings?) and© no solid rationale (we need parks to make downtown more attractive and liveable? is that why no one wants to build housing downtown?) get such traction.
To paraphrase Bill Hanson, it must be because it has the word “green” in it.
—Michael Betzold Aug. 17 '05 - 06:13PM #
is working! all they
really want is a little
piece of green and the
stupid hat lady wins!
—LJB Aug. 18 '05 - 02:04AM #
Second, Schoolkids’ll order anything for ya. I’ve got a gift certificate for that place kickin’ around, and I’ll see if they’ll lemme use it for Clap Your Hands…
—js Aug. 18 '05 - 10:16AM #
—Parking Structure Dude! (Parking Structures, Dude) Aug. 18 '05 - 01:14PM #
Michael – as much as I disagree with most of the rhetoric and tactics of the Friends in content, it’s certainly done well.
I think the “we’ve passed a millage to preserve land outside Ann Arbor – don’t we deserve the same inside Ann Arbor?” bit has legs, even though it (a) is completely counter to the spirit of the greenbelt millage as originally stated and (b) ignores the reality of parkland in Ann Arbor. I was walking around a (west side) neighborhood recently with a newcomer to Ann Arbor, who spontaneously observed, “This town certainly has a lot of parks, doesn’t it?”
The “wouldn’t you like a pony?” style of petitioning has worked brilliantly in this case. By pitching a full-scale greenway to random Farmers’ Market shoppers or ToP attendees as a lush, open, natural space, a “refuge” from the city, and not discussing any of the concerns, obstacles, priorities, or opportunity costs involved with the particular vision, they’ve provided something that’s very hard to say “no” to, unless you’ve already invested some thought in the nuances of the situation.
They’ve got good spokespeople. The ACWG folks have passion, Sonia and Margaret are sincere and friendly, Cowherd is brilliantly slick, and Joe O’Neal has all the commanding intensity (Christopher Walken-style) a movement could need. It’s an amazing combination, and, between the vision and the leadership, they’re wonderful at mobilizing the troops to flood the News with letters or show at Council meetings to stand on cue.
(Though, unless they’ve knocked me off their e-mail list again, they’ve been pretty quiet for some weeks now. I suppose they’re at a point where asking a hundred people to show at Council meetings would just drain movement stamina and not achieve anything that could be done as effectively with a few choice quotes to Tom Gantert. I expect them not to turn out in force again until the 2nd Calthorpe workshop, the next time that a show of “community movement” is necessary.)
—Murph. Aug. 18 '05 - 01:23PM #
Too bad I didn’t have the same supporters for off-leash areas…
So, what we have now then is both a City Council appointed task force for a greenway and PAC attention on the matter. How could they complain?! (Rhetorical…)
—Lizz Aug. 18 '05 - 02:14PM #