Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Boycott of Hiller's to End

Posted by Ari Paul on 12. January 2005

The latest dispatch from the Jewish Witness for Peace confirms:

It is planned that January 30 will be the last Sunday spent at Arborland’s entrance protesting Hiller’s advertised policy of sending the profits from Israeli-made (Settlement-made?) goods back to Israel.

Manager John Beckius has confirmed that Jim Hiller plans no further advertising in the Detroit Jewish News and the Washtenaw Jewish News. Though no quid pro quo was established between the boycott and the advertising, Jewish Witnesses feels that our actions have netted a raised awareness of Israel’s occupation to the shopping public, and will move on to other Sunday actions.

Church venues are currently being discussed, including – but not limited to – the signatories to the clergy letter published in the Ann Arbor News December 15th.

Comment [46]

City Considers Incentive-Based Zoning Downtown

Posted by Brandon on 11. January 2005

At yesterday’s meeting, Ann Arbor leaders debated several possible downtown rezoning schemes, aimed especially at increasing the number of residential units in the center of the city. Many Council members favor an incentive-based approach.

The Ann Arbor City Council may consider an incentive-based zoning for its downtown to get developers to build the type of buildings and businesses it wants.

That was one of about a half-dozen zoning proposals the council heard on Monday night at a work session as it tries to streamline its approval process for developers.

Incentive-based zoning means the city offers bonuses, such as extra height on buildings or parking, to get developers to build a certain type of structure in an area deemed appropriate.

In theory, this will make the inclusion of affordable housing downtown more feasible.

The reshaping of downtown has become a central issue with the council. The city is preparing to accommodate population growth as it protects open space in the surrounding townships. It is also trying to provide affordable housing for working families in the city’s hot real estate market.

The key is finding ways to make housing more affordable in the most expensive part of the city to build.

Officials want to change zoning to give the city more flexibility and to address developers’ complaints about lengthy delays in the approval process that add time and expense to projects.

Council Member Joan Lowenstein, D-2nd Ward, said incentive-based zoning is appealing to her.

“We know what we want,” Lowenstein said. “We want to be able to have residential development downtown and be able to give developers some incentives so they can make development affordable.

“In an area with only two-story buildings, we’ll say, ‘We’ll give you three more stories if you can lower the cost and give us an interesting design. We need to have higher buildings, better architecture and mixed-used development.”

Mayor John Hieftje said he was leaning toward the incentive-based zoning, too.

Lloyd said the city has conventional “use-based” zoning, under which parcels are designated in categories such as residential or commercial. It also uses a Planned Unit Development designation, which many city officials believe is the cause for lengthy delays. In PUDs, the city and developers individually negotiate deals for zoning changes that have to go before the city staff, the Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council for final approval.

The Planning Commission will present a report with recommendations to the city in April.

Debate challenges need for new jail

Posted by Murph on 11. January 2005

Monday night, Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Donald Shelton and Rosemary Sarri, professor emerita of social work at the University of Michiga, debated the need for the $300m, 20-year jail millage that Washtenaw voters will be asked to approve in February.

Shelton claimed the jail’s overcrowding prevents proper treatment of inmates:

The current jail also lacks resources to help inmates with substance abuse and mental health issues, Shelton said.

The county estimates more than 25 percent of inmates have a mental heath issue and that at any time, 10-12 have severe and persistent mental illness, requiring special care.

The millage would provide 18 crisis beds for inmates with serious mental illness and drug addictions.

Shelton said about 70 percent of the cases before him are drug-related and that incarceration is often the only way he can make offenders get help.

“People who know me know I’m not a ‘lock’em up’ judge,” he said during his 20-minute presentation. “But sometimes jail is the only way.”

Sarri responded that expanding the jail will preclude real improvement:

She argued that jail capacity is policy-driven rather than crime-driven and that building a larger jail without trying every alternative is in step with a nationwide “incarceration binge” that has a self-fulfilling result.

“If you have them and if you build them, you will fill them. And then you’ll need more,” Sarri said.

Ann Arbor resident Anna Kirkland, a U-M assistant professor of women’s studies and political science, said that reality and the lack of data may keep her from supporting the millage.

“How do we know we’re not enabling government dysfunction instead of giving incentives to clean the system up?” she asked. “I think a lot of people would support it if not for that possibility.”

Sarri argued that the jail population and length of stay steadily increased from 1997 through 2003, while the number of offenses fell by 19 percent and arrests countywide dropped by 26 percent in that time frame.

Previous ArborUpdate coverage,
> 18 November: $300m County Jail millage vote: Feb 22

Cool Cities soliciting grant proposals

Posted by Murph on 11. January 2005

The Ann Arbor Cool Cities Task Force hopes to participate in the next round of State grants, and is soliciting suggestions for grant proposals. There will be a meeting 25 January at the Ann Arbor District Library to discuss the grant requirements.

The 2005 Cool Cities initiative is now underway. There will be four separate programs giving grants of up to $300,000 to as many as 30 communities:

  • Twelve “Neighborhoods In Progress” communities will get $100,000 to create a mixed-use neighborhood that will successfully retain population;
  • Four “Michigan Main Street” communities will get $150,000 in technical assistance for grassroots action to revitalize their downtowns;
  • Ten “Blueprints” communities will get matching grants to work with HyettPalma on a public participation plan for downtown revitalization; and
  • Four “Neighborhoods of Choice” communities will get up to $300,000 in Community Development Block Grant support to craft a vision and strategy for revitalizing a core neighborhood.

Each program has different eligibility requirement, and it seems that Ann Arbor most likely will qualify for the first program, which was modeled after the original Cool Cities grants.  All of the programs are focused on downtowns or downtown neighborhoods.

The Cool Cities task force will be soliciting brief proposals from community members to help generate the best grant application our community can put together.  At this meeting on the 25th we will outline the parameters for those synopses; full descriptions of the state programs themselves will be available later this week and we will have copies of them at the meeting.  Synopses will be due to the task force in February, after which we will conduct a public review process with those people who have expressed interest in the Cool Cities program (like you) to choose the project that will be advanced. 

I encourage you to continue to work through this process with us.  Join us for the next steps!

When:  Tuesday, January 25 from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Where:  Ann Arbor District Library (343 S. Fifth – Ann Arbor)
aadlfreespace (3rd Floor)   
http://www.aadl.org/

It would be very helpful if you would RSVP if you plan on coming (conansmith@comcast.net) . . .

Thanks, I hope you’ll be there on Tuesday . . .

Conan Smith
Ann Arbor Cool Cities Task Force Chair

I encourage everyone to consider submitting their ideas. Regardless of whether you agree with the Cool Cities Initiative, the State is handing out money, and the City of Ann Arbor will probably be applying for it (or co-sponsoring an application by another city in Washtenaw, as A2 did for Ypsilanti in the first round). Given that proposals will be submitted and money handed out, you might as well submit your ideas to make sure the money is used as well as is possible.

Comment [3]

Theatre of the just

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 10. January 2005

Please e-mail lukev(at)umich.edu with any questions.

AUDITIONS FOR ‘The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail’
by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

When: Jan 14-15, 8-10pm

Where: Room A03, East Quad

Who: Directed by Luke Randall and Assistant Directed by William (Tony War) Rak

Why: Becuase Thoreau was one of the greatest and most influential thinkers of our country with messages that are extremely relevant even today. It’s just justice and it’ll be freakin funny fun! (Though it’s not explicitly a comedy.)

We have 16 parts to fill so we encourage anyone and everyone to audition. If there is a shred of doubt in yourself get the [expletive deleted] rid of it and audition for this play. You won’t regret it or I owe you a teddy bear or a hug… or a bear hug.

Comment [1]

Forum on hockey cheers

Posted by Murph on 10. January 2005

From MSA:

Dr. Mike Stevenson, Executive Associate Director of Athletics, will be holding a forum at 6pm this Tuesday to discuss NCAA and University concerns with Michigan’s hockey cheers. The Michigan Student Assembly is hosting this session in the hopes that Students and the University can agree on a solution that will be favorable to each party. FREE FOOD WILL BE SERVED.

Meeting Michigan Cheer Concerns & Potential Solutions
Tuesday, January 11th
6:00pm – 3rd Floor, Michigan Union

I suggest the following solution: don’t want your kids hearing the word “douchebag”? Don’t take them to hockey games. The vulgarity is part of the atmosphere, and every Daily interview of a hockey player ever run mentions the volume of the crowd as a key factor in the home ice advantage.

The student portion of the hockey crowd won’t tolerate any solution that involves eliminating the cheers, and I have to imagine there are enough people interested in purchasing season tickets who don’t mind the cheers (or like the atmosphere they help create) that Yost will still be full. Therefore, “Don’t like it? Don’t go.” can very well be considered a solution favorable to all.

Comment [21]

For Sale: 400 Block of Liberty St.

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 10. January 2005

Due to a family dispute, the properties on the south side of Liberty St. between Thompson and Division are up for auction. If you have $50,000 for a deposit and $1 million for the minimum bid, show up Thursday, January 13th at 11 a.m. on the court house steps. If one of two disputing family member wins the auction, the properties are likely to stay as-is. If they are out-bid, a new development is possible.

> Bell Properties web site
> Ann Arbor News

Comment [14]

City to Examine Downtown Zoning Monday

Posted by Brandon on 9. January 2005

The public cannot offer input, but observation may be interesting. From the Ann Arbor News:

The Ann Arbor City Council will discuss downtown zoning in a workshop with the Planning Commission and the Downtown Development Authority’s board members.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday at the DTE Center conference room, 425 S. Main St.

The city is considering changes to downtown zoning to encourage residential development.

Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, said one option is to leave the current zoning in place and create an overlay of zoning that would have additional criteria. Or Pollay said the city could completely rezone.

The Residential Downtown Task Force released a report earlier this year that suggested the city review its zoning to make it easier for residential development.

There will be no public commentary.

Michigan's Iraqis worried about election

Posted by Murph on 9. January 2005

The Detroit News reports that Michigan’s Chaldean population – a Christian group of Iraqis – is worried about their opportunity to participate in the stateside portion of the Iraqi election, claiming that election sites are skewed towards Muslim Iraqi populations.

Chaldeans, who are Christians, say they number about 120,000 in Metro Detroit—mostly in northern suburbs, including Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield. They say the closest polling places will be in Southfield and Sterling Heights.

Other Iraqis and Iraqi-Americans in the area number only about 15,000, and they live mostly in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. Despite the significantly smaller numbers, those Iraqis—mostly Shi’a Muslims—will be near two polling places, both in Dearborn, Chaldean leaders say.

“Somebody really messed this up,” said Martin Manna, executive director of the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce. “They also are not doing enough outreach on the local level so that people will know how to participate, or even whether they are eligible.”

Chaldeans make up 5% of Iraq’s population, but 80% of the Iraqi population in the United States, and community leaders believe the vote of Chaldeans here is especially important since Chaldeans in Iraq will likely be intimidated away from polling sites.

Marines will stay close to home for urban training - Unit to use downtown Toledo

Posted by MarkDilley on 7. January 2005

via The Toledo Blade

“The Marines will take over parts of downtown Toledo as sounds of gunfire will echo off buildings when training exercises are conducted next weekend.

A Marine Corps unit based in Perrysburg will stage the exercises from 9 p.m. Jan. 7 to about noon Jan. 9, Maj. Gregory Cramer said.”

Comment [1]

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