Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Thursday: Is Equity Planning Practical?

Posted by Brandon on 28. March 2005

This Thursday, March 31st, from 6 to 7:30 pm in room 1180 at the Duderstat Center is the first event in the Equity Planning Lecture Series. The Lecture Series provides an opportunity to learn about the issues and themes surrounding equity planning from a practical and theoretical perspective.

This first event is a panel discussion which explores the question, “Is equity planning practical?” Come hear representatives from MOSES, LISC- Detroit, and the Michigan Suburbs Alliance as they discuss their work, experiences, and how to implement equitable practices on a regional scale. A reception will follow. Panelists include:

Ponsella Hardaway, Executive Director, MOSES

Tom Barwin, Chairman, Michigan Suburbs Alliance

Meredith Freeman, Program Officer, LISC- Detroit

The Lecture Series is sponsored by the Michigan Chapter of Planners Network, the Urban & Regional Planning Department, and the Urban Planning Student Association.

Comment [3]

Experimental . Ambient . Live . Music

Posted by MarkDilley on 28. March 2005

At the Totally Awesome House, Tuesday March 29th – 9 PM

Supper Club 33 – excellent eats, then excellent ear massaging:

Burning Tongue Records presents a 3-inch CDR release show for “DURATION” by Jason Adam Voss & Sean Schuster-Craig.

+ a lecture on the socioethnomusicology of underground music by Andrea Malek

+ Seams?

+ Silver Key (formerly Peace Corpse)

+ Ronen Goldstein

This looks like an excellent show. For more info, check out TotallyAwesome.org

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D'Anieri on DDA Debate

Posted by Brandon on 27. March 2005

When the Ann Arbor City Council last week rejected the latest attempt to short-circuit development in the city’s urban core, it was hopefully taking one step in a sustained journey away from the anti-city, pro-sprawl politics that have lately, regretfully, been making our city look like just another exclusive suburb.

If we’re lucky (actually, if citizens work hard to lobby their elected officials), we might in a few years look back on last week’s vote as the point where Ann Arbor began to once again embrace its identity as a city, and rejected its brief dalliance with the depressing politics of suburban exclusion.


Opposition to development has been successful in recent years in large part because it has been wrapped in the imagery of parks, as if opposing in-town development is somehow “green” or “environmental” or in accord with the principles of “smart growth.” Parks have become to the anti-city lobby what tax cuts are for Republicans: the solution to every problem, the answer to every question. But this incessant drumbeat, no matter what the circumstances, has betrayed this strategy for what it is: the same kind of NIMBYism that is the lifeblood of sprawl.

-Former Park Advisory Commissioner Phil D’Anieri, in an “Other Voices” essay in today’s Ann Arbor News.

Comment [64]

Rep. Levin (D-MI) Blasts Social Security Reform

Posted by Ari Paul on 26. March 2005

CNN reports:

President Bush’s proposal to change Social Security by creating retirement investment accounts for younger workers would shatter the New Deal-era program and burden future generations with debt, a Michigan congressman said Saturday.

“This would have dire consequences including major borrowing and massive benefit cuts. It would mean the dismantling of Social Security as we know it,” Rep. Sandy Levin, the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, said in the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address.

National Petition Drive to Restore Privacy to Student Records

Posted by MarkDilley on 26. March 2005


Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) gathered with the band Anti-Flag Thursday on Capitol Hill to help launch the site MilitaryFreeZone.org and a national petition drive to restore privacy to student records in schools.

The petition aims to rewrite the provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that forces schools to hand over personal student information to military recruiters. MilitaryFreeZone.org also has published a form students can submit in order to block the military from accessing personal information about them.

via CounterRecruiter

Join UFCW in asking ABC News to drop Wal-Mart's sponsorship

Posted by MarkDilley on 25. March 2005

“Please join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) in asking ABC News President David Westin to drop Wal-Mart immediately as a sponsor of Good Morning America’s Only in America series.

This series purports to report people who have contributed to the welfare of this country.

Wal-Mart, in glaring contrast, is responsible for sending more jobs overseas than any other American corporation. Wal-Mart systematically drives down wages in our economy, exploits the work of immigrants, discriminates against women, violates child labor laws, breaks up small businesses and their communities, and denies workers their legal right to organize. Wal-Mart’s practices and the policies it supports divide the world’s workers against each other and drive working conditions down in wealthier countries rather than lifting them up in poorer ones. While workers are exploited, heirs to the mushrooming Wal-Mart fortune pour their money into manufacturing a “movement” against public education and for vouchers. Wal-Mart gives the phrase “only in America” a bad name. Please take 60 seconds to do something about it.

Tell ABC News what you think

The labor movement in this country is drawing up plans to go after Wal-Mart in a big way. They will need community support and political support. PDA plans to be a part of that effort and we need your help.

>Read the UFCW’s press release

>Read Unions to Wal-Mart: The Gloves Are Off

>Read a collection of 50 articles on labor and Wal-Mart

BUT, MOST IMPORTANTLY, take one minute to tell ABC News what you think of their sponsor

via an email from Progressive Democrats of America

> also check out – PurpleOcean.org

Assembly to file weak appeal on PIRGIM case, student support can make a difference

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 25. March 2005

BACKGROUND – TRIAL NUMBER ONE

As a representative on the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) I have been following closely the course of PIRGIM’s attempt to establish a pilot chapter on campus. In this process, it ran into a large obstacle when Assembly Chief of Staff Elliot Wells-Reid filed for an injunction preventing the vote, citing concerns over tax code, forced speech, and (eventually) MSA’s lack of certain funding guidelines.

The Central Student Judiciary (CSJ) ruled on the issue last week during the MSA’s widely publicized meeting in the Union ballroom, and it made many orders to the Assembly. The orders compelled the Assembly to (among other things):

  • not vote on the PIRGIM chapter
  • implement guidelines which go beyond those required by legal precedent
  • follow a strict process to establish these guidelines which is not required by legal precedent
  • allow the CSJ, not the elected representatives, to establish rules for student organizations

SEPERATION OF POWERS – NOT JUST ABOUT PIRGIM ANYMORE

It is clear that PIRGIM suffered a serious blow here. But I became aware of an even greater problem with the ruling. If left unappealed the ruling risked setting a dangerous precedent which takes legislative power away from the elected representatives. Essentially, the Judiciary violated the principle of the separation of powers, assuming powers specifically assigned to the Assembly. To use a common legal cliche – this amounts to legislation from the bench.

As of this week, Student General Counsel (SGC) Jesse Levine, who represented the Assembly in the initial trial, had not yet filed an appeal. He was running for president of MSA, and this is one possible reason he did not have the time to digest the situation and assess the Assembly’s interests in an appeal. This past Tuesday, he stated that he did not yet see the need for an appeal. And because of the provisions and organization of the Assembly, he is the only one who can file an appeal. Students for PIRGIM will appeal separately and for their own interests.

Either way, me and several other representatives saw the need for something to be done. Along with Nicole Campbell (Rackham), we drafted an outline of the legal arguments for a full appeal of the decision. We began contacting constituents, fellow Assembly members, and the representatives in other student governments on campus to build support. We have been successful in this regard, and Jesse met with Nicole and I Thursday evening, at which point he made us aware of his intention to file an appeal, albeit only on some of the weaker arguments. He promised to consider some of the other arguments overnight.

‘AMICI’ AND THIS POINT FORWARD

Jesse will be meeting with Nicole and I this afternoon to discuss the final terms of an appeal by the Assembly. We intend to hear his case, and file an Amicus brief on behalf of the Assembly asserting that we believe the Assembly’s (and thus all students’) interests are not being duly represented before the Judiciary. This brief will highlight the arguments that Jesse chooses to leave out of his filing.

You can read our legal arguments at umich.edu/~mhollerb/appeal/AmicusBrief-03.25.05.doc. If you are a student who is concerned that the Assembly may not be acting in your best interests, please e-mail msa.reps@umich.edu and let them know. The more constituent support, the more likely a proper appeal will be filed.

Please contact me with any questions.

Matt Hollerbach
mwh@umich.edu

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Jurassic Park IV - not a movie

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 25. March 2005

Looks like John Hammond and InGen may get their way after all:
> YahooNews: Scientists Find Soft Tissue in T-Rex Bone

Thanks to slashdot for the tip.

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Sgt. Camilo Mejia-Recipient of the Peace Abbey's "Courage of Conscience" award.

Posted by MarkDilley on 24. March 2005

“We were honored to have Sgt. Camilo Mejia speak just weeks after being released from a jail cell, having served nine months for refusing to return to Iraq for his 2nd tour of duty. He talks of being home on leave and the moral deliberations and questioning he put himself through before deciding to apply for conscientious objector status.”

Check out the speach – an mp3 embedded in the page. “Introduction by Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton; Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit.”

For more info on Camilo:

http://www.codepink4peace.org/National_Actions_Camilo.shtml

http://www.freecamilo.org/

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Campus Neighbors seeking student feedback

Posted by Murph on 24. March 2005

MSA’s Rese Fox says that the Campus Neighbors Taskforce is looking for stakeholder feedback in order to prioritize their efforts, and asks that students respond to a survey so that they can be properly represented as a stakeholder group.

The survey asks for degree of support or opposition and for degree of importance on items like,

>“Encourage MSA to publish list of Clean Community violators (including tenant names)”
>“Allow/ require owner inspections, with follow-up from city inspectors of alleged violations”
>“Facilitate tenant inspections by providing additional information about how to request city inspection”
> “Encourage city or UM to provide modestly priced overnight vehicle storage spaces”
> “Expand UM/ AATA routes and hours to better service student destinations”
> “Prohibit landlords from requiring lease deposit more than six months before a move-in date”

Students are encouraged to take the survey, either by cutting-and-pasting from Fox’s blog or by downloading the Word doc I’ve mirrored, and e-mail their completed survey to Prof. Elisabeth Gerber (e-mail address in the survey).

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