Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Local campaign spending released

Posted by Murph on 16. January 2005

The Ann Arbor News today reports campaign spending by last November’s candidates for City of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County races.

The stories include comment from Larry Kestenbaum on fundraising for County races:

Kestenbaum, who defeated Haines, the longtime incumbent, raised and spent nearly $25,000. About $13,000 of that came from money that he loaned to his campaign.

It’s fairly common for county candidates, particularly those running for county commissioner, clerk, treasurer or drain commissioner, to use their own money in campaign financing, Kestenbaum says.

“There’s not a tremendous amount of interest in those races. It’s not that easy to raise money for county races. It’s typical for candidates to put in significant amounts, like half of their campaign funds. That’s pretty typical,” Kestenbaum said.

It’s also typical, he said, for candidates who give large amounts to their own campaigns to call it a loan.

“And those loans are almost never paid back,” Kestenbaum said. “It’s put down as a device for some flexibility. Before they close campaign committees, they have to forgive the loan to themselves. That’s the way it goes.”

Comment [1]

Davison High School snubs Moore, salts earth

Posted by Murph on 15. January 2005

Michael Moore’s alma mater, Davison High School, has rejected Moore’s nomination to the school Hall of Fame four times in its four years of existence, and this year completely cancelled inductions to the Hall in order to cut off conversation about Moore.

Get Mike In, a website run by Davison grad Ryan Eashoo, collected more than 600 submissions supporting Moore’s induction, prompting Davison to halt the nomination process and suspend inductions indefinitely.

From the Flint Journal,

A lightning rod even before his film career, Moore was notorious early on for wearing a sandwich board and protesting at Davison’s main intersection and often was criticized for sparking debate while a member of the Davison School Board [at age 18].

In recent articles, other members of the nominating committee pointed to Moore’s practice of picking at his toes during board meetings as behavior unbecoming of someone who might be considered for the hall.

Moore proponents, meanwhile, see such thinking as short-sighted.

“All we want to do is get this man in there because of all the accomplishments he’s achieved. But the members told us not to waste our time when we began submitting his name,” said Ryan Eashoo, the Davison High School alumni leading the recent effort to induct Moore.

Former Davison Mayor Kay Adair has criticized the decision, saying,

“Bottom line, they’re cowards for doing this. ... I’m disturbed at what they’ve done,”
. . .
“Do we not want to encourage our young people to be independent thinkers? Obviously not.”

See also,
> Detroit Free Press, 14 January, Moore missing from hall of fame
> Detroit Free Press, 15 January, Following attention, Moore’s high school cancels hall of fame inductions

Comment [16]

University Deploys Spam Block-list

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 14. January 2005

The U-M has deployed an opt-in spam block list for folks with University email accounts.


ITCS has purchased access to published lists of IP addresses of known spammers, open relays, and open proxies from the Mail Abuse Prevention Service (MAPS). Users who choose to do so will be able to block mail originating from the IP addresses on these lists for their own e-mail address and for the addresses of directory groups that they own.

> U-M SpamBusters
> Using the Do Not Spam List to Reduce Spam

The previous anti-spam plan to deploy dspam has been unfortunately aborted due to scaling issues.

Comment [2]

Harry's Army Surplus to close

Posted by Murph on 14. January 2005

In further Liberty Street news, Harry’s Army Surplus, which has been in Ann Arbor for 30 years and on Liberty for 15, has stated that it will not renew its lease on the Liberty Street storefront, which expires April 1. From the Ann Arbor News:

“We have a store that is doing really good in Dearborn and probably we will open another store in the Detroit area,” [operations manager Rob] Davis said. “That store (on Liberty) used to be a great store. Then all of a sudden people stopped shopping.”
. . .
Davis said Liberty Street has become depressing because of the departure of other businesses, including Mast Shoes and National City Bank.

“We had a lot of loyalty for years, but I don’t think people are shopping downtown,” he said.

Meanwhile, Business Direct Weekly reports that the National City Bank site, Tally Hall, has been purchased; currently most of the space is leased by Borders, but that lease expires this year. The buyer has stated that short term uses may include leasing space to the city while it looks for long-term solutions to crowding at City Hall, or to University departments displaced from Frieze until new space is found. The buyer also mentions the possibility of adding up to three stories to the single-story portion of the building in the long term.

Comment [11]

Liberty block may face redevelopment

Posted by Murph on 14. January 2005

The block of Liberty Street that hosts Le Dog and a number of other businesses was auctioned yesterday for $1.6m, with Dale and Beverly Bell beating Beverly’s brother Tom Clark for control of the property. Six developers participated in the bidding, but Bell and Clark were the final two, aided by the fact that each would receive half the winning bid.

The Ann Arbor News discusses the Bells’ plans for the site, which may include a seven-story mixed-use building,

Bell will be required to come up with the money for the land within three weeks. As to what happens after that, redevelopment into something else is almost certain.

“It’s inevitable the property must be developed eventually,” Bell said.

Rian Bauer, project manager for local attorney and developer Michael Concannon, said he already has been talking to Bell about building a seven-story building with retail on the first floor, sub-surface parking and six stories of condominiums.

To build something that tall, the Bells likely would need to acquire the properties directly south of the land fronting East Liberty Street. That might not be difficult considering they already own half the interest – along with Clark – in a rental house on Thompson Street and are talking to the other property owner, Dale Newman, about buying his Division Street property.

Newman, who also attended the auction, told Bell following the sale that he would seriously consider his offer on the land.

Such a building would be of similar size to the TCF bank building across the street. As discussed in the previous AU thread on this issue, redevelopment often means the disappearance of current tenants due to increased rents, but fits into recommendations for increased downtown residential space to maintain the viability of other businesses.

Comment [6]

Tsunami Remembrance

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 13. January 2005

Being circulated:

Community Wide Remembrance Event
Friday, January 14, 2005

6:30pm – Candlelight Gathering, Central Campus Diag
7:00pm – Honorary Speakers, Lydia Mendelssohn Theater
Afterwards – Education, Relief Efforts/Opportunities & Discussion Third Floor, Michigan League (Refreshments Will Be Served)

AATA upgrades campus oriented routes

Posted by Murph on 13. January 2005

AATA has announced route changes to take effect 23 January that will increase service to and from the campus area. A new route, 9U, will connect Central Campus to the Maple Village area, and several routes connecting Central Campus to the Medical and North Campuses, to park-and-ride lots, and to Ypsilanti will be given more direct routes, more frequent service, and, in some cases, earlier morning routes and later evening routes.

Read the details at AATA’s website and view the new maps and schedules online or on the new RideGuides available on-board the buses.

Comment [1]

Websites urge "buy Michigan"

Posted by Murph on 13. January 2005

The Detroit Free Press points to a pair of websites, started in the last few months, that want to help consumers find Michigan-made goods and services.

“The idea really hit me with the announcement of the Greenville Electrolux plant closing” in early 2004, Ryan Anderson said, admitting he didn’t know refrigerators were made in Michigan. “That, and being employed in the auto industry, you realize how easily people can lose their jobs these days.”

After Electrolux AB’s announcement, Anderson, 32, made a conscious decision to buy Michigan-made products whenever possible to help keep jobs here. Alas, he didn’t find much on the Web at the time, which spurred the idea for his company.

Anderson’s site is BuyMichiganProducts.com, listing companies and specific products from many of them. The other site, MichiganMall.com, appears to be a more general directory of businesses.

Comment [4]

The district sleeps together

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 13. January 2005

just in…


Please feel free to forward widely…

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f M i c h i g a n
U N I O N O F P R O G R E S S I V E A L U M N I
————————ANNOUNCEMENT—————————
PLANNING TO PROTEST THE INAUGURATION? NEED HOUSING IN DC? WE CAN HELP!

The D.C. chapter of the U-M Union of Progressive Alumni is offering protester housing with U-M alumni in the Washington D.C. area during the time surrounding the inauguration.

  • To make a housing request send an email with your Name, Email, Cell Phone Number (if you have it), dates you hope to find housing, and any special considerations to project coordinator Hannah Arkin: HannahArkin@yahoo.com **
  • FYI The Michigan Student Assembly is sponsoring transportation to D.C. leaving Ann Arbor on 6 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 19 returning 7 a.m. Friday, Jan. 21 for $25. For more information contact MSA.BUSTRIP@UMICH.EDU.
  • To read about some of the many events planned surrounding the inauguration, see www.counter-inaugural.org.

| The University of Michigan Union of Progressive Alumni is a global

| membership organization of alumni of the University of Michigan

| interested in progressive politics.

| To subscribe to our FREE Yahoo group send a message to:

| michiganprogressives-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Current and

| short-term students encouraged to join!

University of Michigan Union of Progressive Alumni
PO Box 7207
Ann Arbor, MI 48107
http://www.michiganprogressives.org
UPA.core@umich.edu

Comment [5]

U.S. Calling off Search for Iraqi WMD's

Posted by Ari Paul on 12. January 2005

The BBC reports:

Intelligence officials have confirmed the US has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

They say the chief US investigator, Charles Duelfer, is not planning to return to the country.

Mr Duelfer reported last year that Iraq had no stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the US-led invasion nearly two years ago.

The existence of WMD had been the stated reason in Washington and London for going to war with Iraq.

Comment [22]

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