Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Urgent Action Needed

Posted by MarkDilley on 30. November 2004

“A state representative said Monday he’s working on a measure to oppose health benefits for gay partners of state employees in new contracts for state workers that have been agreed to by the state and five labor unions.”

...

“You need to remind him that proponents of Proposal 2 throughout the campaign said that Proposal 2 was “only about marriage….this is not about rights or benefits or how people choose to live their life.” (I’m quoting the brochure distributed by Citizens for Protection of Marriage). Spokespersons Marlene Elwell and Kristina Hemphill continuously said throughout the campaign that this Proposal would have no effect on benefits. Even Gary Glenn of the American Family Association was quoted in the press with similar statements.”

Full post at my site

Federal Funds for Ann Arbor

Posted by Brandon on 30. November 2004

Pork for Thanksgiving?:

Several entities in Washtenaw and Livingston counties were big winners in the federal appropriations bill that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

A review of local projects, including transportation and capital improvement initiatives, written into the $388 billion spending package for the next fiscal year shows local representatives brought home the bacon, despite a mounting federal deficit.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, whose district includes eastern Washtenaw, western Wayne and all of Monroe counties, secured more than $12 million in funding, more than a quarter of which will directly benefit Washtenaw County.


Notable windfalls were awarded to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority ($1 million), a SEMCOG light-rail study ($1.5 million), and the UM Health System ($600,000).

Comment [2]

Granholm removes liquor price cap

Posted by Murph on 30. November 2004

Governor Jennifer Granholm has signed a bill that would allow retailers to sell liquor above the state-set price. From the Detroit News,

“We do not believe this will lead to price gouging,” Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. “There is no guarantee that we’re even going to see prices increase.”

Groups that represent retailers who sell liquor have said they don’t expect noticeable increases because competition will make retailers keep their prices near the state-set minimum.

The first reader to pay more than the state-mandated minimum for booze will get a gold star.

Iraq to Import Water from Great Lakes?

Posted by Ari Paul on 29. November 2004

Michigan Indymedia Center reports on possible plans to export Great Lakes water to Iraq.

MSA, AAFD to hold couch ban forum

Posted by Murph on 29. November 2004

The Michigan Student Assembly will be holding a student forum on the City’s proposed outdoor couch ban (as Councilmember Leigh Greden noted, “It’s not dead! It’s not dead!”). The forum will be Tuesday, 7 December, at 6:30pm in the MSA Chambers (3rd Floor of the Michigan Union).

MSA has also contacted the Ann Arbor Fire Department asking for background information such as frequency of house fires involving couches vs. originating in couches (both indoor and outdoor), quality of housing stock relative to cities which have enacted outdoor couch bans (East Lansing, Madison), arson rates, and housing stock compliance with electrical code. Hopefully we’ll have that information to post here before Tuesday’s forum.

Contact MSA Treasurer Anita Leung (awleung at umich.edu) for more information.

'Baghdad Bulletin' now Available on U-M Press

Posted by Ari Paul on 27. November 2004

You can now order a copy David Enders’ new book, ‘Baghdad Bulletin’, from the University of Michigan Press’ website.

One can also secure a copy through Amazon.com .

David Enders was a writer and editor for the Michigan Daily, and founded the first English language news magazine in Iraq. He has written for various newspapers and magazines since then, and is currently residing in New York. This is his first book.

From the publisher:

Baghdad Bulletin tells David Enders’ story of his decision to go to Baghdad, where he opened the only English-language newspaper completely written, printed, and distributed in Iraq during the war.

Young, courageous and anti-authoritarian, Enders is the first reporter to provide a frank account of the war as experienced by ordinary Iraqis. Deprived of the press credentials that gave his embedded colleagues access to press conferences and officially-sanitized information, Enders tells the story of a different war, outside the Green Zone. It is a story in which the struggle of everyday life is interspersed with moments of sheer terror and bizarre absurdity: an American tank trains its 25-mm gun on his head from 50 feet away; a troupe of European clowns wreak merry havoc in an Iraqi police station.

Baghdad Bulletin depicts a new kind of warfare: not the video-game image of armies shooting it out in empty streets, but a war that coexists with—and sometimes dangerously veers into—the everyday rhythms of life; a war in which the battle for the streets is matched step for step by a battle for information.

Northern Neighbor to outdo Michigan in Auto Production

Posted by Ari Paul on 27. November 2004

The New York Times says:

Michigan has been the heart of the auto industry since Henry Ford started mass-producing the Model T a century ago, but the Midwestern state is poised to be surpassed by Ontario.

The Canadian province is on course to pass Michigan this year and become the biggest auto-producing state or province in North America, according to Ward’s Automotive, which tracks auto production data.

Comment [1]

Detroit Council's Kay Everett dies of kidney disease

Posted by Murph on 27. November 2004

Kay Everett, Detroit’s City Councilwoman described by the Freep as “the feisty, always colorful Detroit politician known for her love of hats and famous spats at the council table,” died Thursday evening of complications from kidney disease.

From the Freep’s Council to honor a silenced presence:

“No one will ever forget her,” said Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. “She left her trademark on the City Council. She stood in the gap on a lot of tough issues when no one else would stand in.”
. . .
Veronica Paiz, a Latino community activist, met the councilwoman when the two fought against a proposal to set aside millions of dollars exclusively for black entrepreneurs to create a business district called African Town.

“I think she deserved a lot more respect than she got lately,” Paiz said. “It took a lot of guts to just say what she thought.”

Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie said Everett was a friend for 30 years who served as an advocate for the clerk’s office on the council.

“She said a lot of things, but she meant well,” Currie said. “People didn’t understand her. She was abrasive. But people don’t always like to hear the truth.”

Everett was one of Mayor Kilpatrick’s most vocal allies, and her death will likely leave the Council deadlocked until next November’s election.

A public viewing will be 3-9 p.m. Tuesday at Swanson Funeral Home, 14751 W. McNichols Road. On Wednesday, Everett’s body will lie in state noon-9 p.m. at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, 19190 Schaefer Hwy. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the church.

Neighbors don't like UMich employees' cars, either

Posted by Murph on 25. November 2004

It’s not just students whose cars annoy neighborhood groups. University employees, too, are drawing the ire of neighbors for parking in outlying neighborhoods and walking to campus, rather than paying for a parking permit.

From the Ann Arbor News, Commuter parking irks campus-area residents:

But residents of the Ann Arbor neighborhoods where the commuters park are increasingly crying foul. They’re fed up with commuters grabbing all the precious on-street parking.

Three neighborhood associations are now talking about petitioning the city of Ann Arbor to restrict parking on their streets – perhaps by issuing resident parking permits – to keep nonresidents from leaving their cars there all day.

The Old Fourth Ward, Oxbridge, and North Burns Park neighborhoods are each considering a petition for resident-only parking, which would need 60% of the homeowners in the neighborhood to sign in order to bring the issue before the City Council. If the Council approved the request, permits would be issued to residents who could show they live in the neighborhood and whose cars are registered in the City of Ann Arbor. The North Burns Park association is considering waiving the registration requirement, recognizing that students often don’t have their cars registered here, but would want a limit on the number of permits per household.

AATA’s 2010 strategic plan envisions express transit service for commuters coming from locations like Chelsea, Milan, Brighton, Jackson, and Plymouth; the first few of these lines, linking probably Chelsea or Milan to Ann Arbor, has been discussed for happening as early as this past August—this would hopefully alleviate some of the parking demand in Ann Arbor by decreasing the number of cars entering the city, but hasn’t happened yet.

Additionally, I can’t find any more information on it beyond my own report of something that AATA’s Chris White said at a hearing last winter, so I don’t know why it hasn’t happened.

Comment [3]

Resources for holiday travellers

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 24. November 2004

A marked onset of winter storm conditions has caused some problems for those trying to get home for the holiday break. Locally, fender-benders have been common sights, and many will have some problems getting around town tomorrow and the day after. Here are a few resources for those trying to negotiate the situation:

> M-DOT: Detroit area traffic conditions (Realtime Map)
> National Weather Service: Detroit/Pontiac weather advisories
> FAA: North-central states airport map (click an airport to see detailed flight delay info)

And also, for local transportation during the holiday, see:
> ArborUpdate: ‘No umich buses over Thanksgiving’
> AATA: Thanksgiving schedule

  • leave a comment (below) if you have a link to add

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