Arbor Update

Local

New Life Church Considers Lawsuit

Posted by Brandon on 21. November 2004

The Ann Arbor News reports that New Life Church, whose proposed expansion was blocked by the Planning Commission last week, is considering litigation against the City of Ann Arbor:

New Life Church, the student ministry housed in a former sorority on Washtenaw Avenue, is considering its options, including a lawsuit, after the Ann Arbor Planning Commission denied a large addition to the property.

“Our board has authorized us to seek legal remedy,” said New Life Lead Pastor Steven Hayes.

The church may consider arguing its case partially on grounds of religious discrimination, it seems:

The objections to the New Life project “has had a clear undercurrent of religious animus,” Hayes says in a Nov. 4 letter to the Planning Commission. The church has argued that because it serves a largely student population, it needs to be near the university, and that there are other institutional buildings of similar size on New Life’s block.

Comment [6]

Local

A2 Council to hear two affordable housing cash-outs

Posted by Murph on 21. November 2004

Earlier this Fall, the City Council approved a measure to reduce the requirement that developments in PUD zones (Planned Unit Development) make 20% of housing units “affordable”. The new requirement allows developers to pay into the city’s affordable housing trust fund instead of providing the units, with the city to use the money to subsidize affordable housing construction.

On Monday, 22 November, the City Council will hear two petitions from PUD developments hoping to modify their already-approved projects, and will hold public hearings on those petitions. The developers would like to add the new cash-out option to their existing approvals. The change would eliminate up to seven affordable units, 2 in the 1310 S. Main condo development and up to 5 in the Kingsley Lane development, and add up to $270,000 to the city’s housing fund.

Mayor Hieftje told urban planning students, before the election, that he supported the buy-out option as a way to provide the most affordable housing at the lowest cost, noting that the trust fund was more flexible, and could be applied towards the most cost-effective housing possible, rather than requiring developers to include the affordable housing—and possibly scaring off the developers with the cost of those units. Both of the petitioners to be heard on Monday have cited unexpected financial difficulties as the reason they are seeking the buy-out option.

More info on the proposals is available in the minutes from the Planning Commission meetings at which the proposals were first heard. The minutes can be read in the Council packet for Monday’s meeting (warning: a 234-page pdf). The proposals are items D-4 and D-5 on the agenda.

Comment [4]

Campus

Vagina Monologues Auditions

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 20. November 2004

For women in the Ann Arbor area who want to participate in theater of the socially just:

THE 2005

VAGINA MONOLOGUES AUDITIONS THIS WEEKEND!

Saturday Nov. 20th and Sunday the 21st in EQ Room 126
Monday Nov. 22nd in the Parker Room of the Union

SIGN UP IS OUTSIDE THE MSA OFFICE ON THE 3rd FLOOR OF THE UNION

AUDITION PIECES AVAILABLE AT UMICH.EDU/~VDAY questions? email BigV(at)umich.edu

Campus

LSA-SG Results

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 19. November 2004

More:

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 11:22:29 -0500
From: Jesse Knight
To: SGCandidates04 at umich.edu

Good Morning Candidates,

Thank you all for a very well run campaign. I heard only a few complaints here and there, but nothing major or particularly offensive. I received several complaints about spamming, but nothing was done in an way that might warrent removal from the election. I will send a follow up email shortly with some of the complaints and ways that we might rectify this in the future.

The voting concluded on time at 11:59 Thursday, and while the website is still accessible, no more votes will be counted. Listed below are the official vote tallies. Some notible write-ins included John Kerry, George Bush, Braylon Edwards, and myself :)

In any case, here are the votes. If you have any questions or concern please feel free to let me know. There were 13 andidates, 10 of you have won a seat on LSA-SG, and I encourage the rest of you to become involved in some other fashion…there are many ways to be envolved. The persons with the highest weighted votes won, regardless of the raw number of votes that
the candidate may have recieved.

Thanks again, and do let me know if you have any questions.
I will have one more follow up email later tonight.

Best,
Jesse

Ballot Question:—- LSA-SG Valid Ballot Questions Report—-

International relations (IR) is an academic and public policy field,
dealing with the foreign policy of states within the international system, including the roles of international organizations, non-governmental organizations(NGOs), and multinational corporations(MNCs).

If an interdisciplinary International Relations concentration or minor were offered, which would you select:

answer_text num_votes

Concentration 440
Minor 417
Neither 389
—- LSA Valid Votes Report (does not include Exception Votes)—-

school_name race_title cand_name num_votes weighted_votes
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Meredith Brooks 837 5854
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Katie Grossman 826 5764
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Joanna Slott 767 4938
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Michael Rudy 738 4912
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Will Foss 737 4564
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Franchesca Gayadan 696 4016
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Katherine Musbach 693 3943
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Vik Sood 664 3932
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Jessica Whang 644 3713
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Hend Khatib 649 3631
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Jessica Sapick 461 3324
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Irene Pak 458 3287
LSA-SG LSA-SG Representative Matthew Smith 290 1913

Comment [1]

Campus

MSA Election Results

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 19. November 2004

You put up with the emails, and (hopefully) voted. Now it’s time to find out who won!

Date: Friday, November 19, 2004 8:14 AM -0500
From: Brian Clark Doughty
To: msacand04 at umich.edu
Subject: UNOFFICIAL-MSA Election Results

Candidates,

Below is an unofficial summary of the results of the election, as required by MSA code. I will email you again when the results are offical, and will let you know if any changes have been made to the results. Winners are denoted by an asterisk (*) before their entry. The first column of numbers is the number of VOTES you received, the second column is the number of POINTS you received. THe number of points is what determines the winners.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Elections are a lot of hard work, and you all my my sincerest
congratulations. It was a pleasure working with all of you, good luck with everything.

Brian Doughty
MSA Election Director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Business Representative Devesh Senapati 86 150

*Business Representative James Waldeck 58 98
Business Representative Ashley Pyatenko 31 48
Business Representative Michael Bishop 30 46

*Dentistry Representative nick sheridan 4 4
Dentistry Representative Eileen Buckle 1 1

*Engineering Representative Happy Wong 393 920

*Engineering Representative Bryan Jacobs 409 880

*Engineering Representative Bretlan Fletcher 404 815
Engineering Representative Khoi Nguyen 366 751
Engineering Representative Michael Sylvester 132 237
Engineering Representative Russell Dekema 103 199
Engineering Representative Serge Yee 84 139

*LSA Representative Stu Wagner 1032 6730

*LSA Representative Arielle Linsky 829 4883

*LSA Representative Robbie O’‘Brien 673 3979

*LSA Representative Rese Fox 699 3903

*LSA Representative Alicia Benavides 687 3762

*LSA Representative Tim Wiggins 668 3618

*LSA Representative Russ Garber 543 3064

*LSA Representative Andrew Scheidel 532 2709

*LSA Representative Mike “Mcfo” Forster 407 2586
LSA Representative Bart Kumor 418 2581
LSA Representative Tiffani Commander 498 2476
LSA Representative Bron “Lucius” Daniels 349 2173
LSA Representative Monica Smith 346 2062
LSA Representative Lee Powell, Jr. 333 2048
LSA Representative Melton “Eddie” Lee 327 1994
LSA Representative Angela Davis 328 1889
LSA Representative Denny Chan 318 1742
LSA Representative Keyanna Silverman-Maddox 295 1697
LSA Representative Adam Winski 243 1558
LSA Representative Tommy Vitale 223 1413
LSA Representative Daniel Taylor-Cohart 247 1359
LSA Representative Adam Supernant 208 1225
LSA Representative Maciej Danielewicz 230 1206
LSA Representative Mohammad Dar 189 1028
LSA Representative Kate Dillon 201 991
LSA Representative Eric Weiler 163 931
LSA Representative Josh Soper 170 914
LSA Representative David Holubowicz 159 711
LSA Representative David Golbahar 102 529
LSA Representative Kim Gawel 95 483

*Medicine Representative Elon Granader 35 35

*Music Representative Laurel Harris 174 174
Music Representative Addison Amer 57 57

*Nursing Representative Kristen Wells 51 51

*Public Policy Representative Gabriela Reyes 12 12
Public Policy Representative Michael Delaney 6 6
Public Policy Representative Ruifeng Fang 5 5
Public Policy Representative Kyle Browning 2 2
Public Policy Representative Elizabeth Eagen 2 2

*Public Health Representative Nathan Gonik 20 20

*Rackham Representative Kate Stenvig 346 1129

*Rackham Representative Ben Royal 340 977

*Rackham Representative Darren Easton 272 818

*Rackham Representative Rabea Benhalim 279 785
Rackham Representative Kenneth Kellogg 225 516

*Social Work Representative Desmond Patton 42 42

Regional

AP: "Library offenders could go to jail"

Posted by Ari Paul on 19. November 2004

Librarians in Bay City are suggesting an unorthodox measure to crack down on overdue books. The Associated Press reports:

Frustrated librarians want the worst offenders to face criminal charges and up to 90 days behind bars.

“We want to go after some of the people who owe us a lot of money,” said Frederick J. Paffhausen, the library’s system director. “We want to set an example.”

Paffhausen, who took over as director in October, is asking the Bay County Library Board for permission to seek arrest warrants for offenders who ignore repeated notices.

The board plans to consider the crackdown next month.

Local

Revolution's scanner traffic on archive.org

Posted by Murph on 18. November 2004

Steven Cherry, author of Ypsilanti blog Seat of the Revolution, has found a distributor for his police scanner files at archive.org.

In an effort to franchise the idea, I’m in the process of publishing my code and methodology to the sourceforge project kypd. Currently kypd is mostly open-source tools with a couple of scripts holding it all together. As the ground freezes I hope to make it easier to install and publish a stable release.

Finally, with burden of archiving lifted, I should be able to offer scanner audio in mp3 format instead of the arcane but economical spx format. Not only will this allow more accessabilty to scanner audio but the possiblity of podcasting presents itself.

As many of you know, the Revolution is soon moving to Hamtramck. While I’ll be caputring Metro Detroit after the move, I hope someone in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area will get a scanner rig going.

For more information on the Revolution’s scanner adventures, look to Steven’s “radio” posts, including directions on playing his older spx format files on Windows and OS X and an explanation of what you’re hearing.

Enjoy, but mind his legal notes,

It may be illegal to listen to these audio files in a motor vehicle in the State of Michigan. It’s a felony to use a police scanner or recordings thereof in the commission of a crime.

Edit, 11/19: The scanner recordings hosted on archive.org are public domain. Enjoy.

Comment [2]

Local

$300m County Jail millage vote: Feb 22

Posted by Murph on 18. November 2004

On February 22, Washtenaw County voters will get to vote on a 0.75-mill, 20-year tax proposal, which would provide $300 million for physical renovation and expansion of the Washtenaw County Jail, along with some expansion of services. From the Ann Arbor News, Date set for jail millage decision:

The project would increase the jail’s size from 332 beds to 532 by 2014 and pay for an improved 14-A District Court site at the Hogback Road and Washtenaw Avenue jail site, a probation residential facility, and alternative treatment for inmates with mental illness.

The County Commissioners have already begun the task of convincing the public to vote for the proposal,

“I’m supporting the millage. ... It is a lot of money,” said Commissioner Rolland Sizemore, D-Ypsilanti. He added, though, people need to realize that if criminals aren’t in jail, “they could be in your neighborhood.”

“We’ve got to do something,” Sizemore said. Commissioner Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, who expressed concern in October that a .75-mill levy would be a hard sell, said Wednesday he decided to support the proposal because of its emphasis on services and programs aimed at ending recidivism.

$48.1 million of the millage revenue would be used for physically upgrading and expanding the current jail and the 14-A District Court, while the rest would be used for operating costs and alternative treatment plans.

Comment [5]

Campus

MSA candidate Rese Fox on Ann Arbor

Posted by Murph on 18. November 2004

Students 4 Michigan lists “representation in Ann Arbor City Council” in their platform, but with no elaboration of what that representation would involve. Of their candidates, only LSA Junior Rese Fox specifically mentions it in her bio. She discusses somewhat on her campaign blog(!). Since this is topic of some interest on ArborUpdate, I asked her for more details on how she envisions students, on MSA or otherwise, getting involved in the City government.

Her response is below, and seems like a good plan for MSA to pick up regardless of whether she herself is elected,

MSA should facilitate a connection between students and the general Ann Arbor community. Right now we would like to pursue and build upon active dialog with members of the City Council by sending members from MSA’s External Relations Committee to meetings. City Council makes important decisions that directly impact students like the couch ban and expansion of the historical district, etc. It is important that students’ concerns are heard and that they are informed about legislation that will disproportionately impact students. While MSA would surely look into supporting a student running for the City Council, I hesitate to assert that an MSA representative should work to gain membership on the Council because balancing class, student government and City Council meetings would be quite difficult. However, MSA should also work to inform students on how to participate in City Council meetings and lobby.

Quality of life in the City of Ann Arbor is also important to students so MSA participation in the City Council should not be limited to strictly student issues. Students showed their desire to increase greenspace in Ann Arbor last year by entering the polls in record numbers to approve Proposal B and the greenbelt. Turnout was 3 times as high as normal in some of the student precincts from what I understand! Also, young people were for B by 6-1. The margin of victory for B in the rest of the city was much closer. Students for PIRGIM (Public Interest Research Group in Michigan) also ran a campaign last year to promote the idea of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to combat the problem of high-priced housing in the city that will only be exacerbated with the greenbelt. This shows that students are willing to address multiple facets of interrelated issues within Ann Arbor. Further, many students volunteer in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, crisis agencies like Ozone House, etc. To say that students’ involvement with city government should be limited to issues that only strictly concern students would seriously neglect MSA’s constituency who regularly participates in economic and quality of life issues in the community.

It’s very frustrating to hear cases of animosity towards students. Judy McGovern chose to take a adversarial stance towards students when writing “New dorms invite look at city housing” and suggesting that year-round residents “reclaim” neighborhoods. This seems to suggest that students are not a legitimate part of the Ann Arbor community. Yet, while students as individuals are not permanent residents of the city, as a collective group they are a enduring community with stakes invested in the area. Further, University of Michigan students are not apathetic: the University has a rich history of political and social action. Imagine what could be accomplished if concerned individuals in the community like McGovern invited the possibility of collaborating with students to help middle- and working-class families gain housing while concurrently working to make housing more affordable for students and full-time residents alike! Although building such a relationship between full-time residents and students will inevitably take time and nurturing, having students attend City Council meetings will help to facilitate this process.

Campus

IFS upgrade scheduled Saturday morning

Posted by Murph on 17. November 2004

UMich IFS servers will be down starting at 1am Saturday, 20 November, for maintenance and are scheduled to come back up at 6am. Servers will be down again Sunday morning from 1am to 6am. From ITD’s outages page:

The IFS team will be taking the IFS fileservers out of service during the usual maintenance window this
weekend to upgrade software and correct some
consistency issues.

The IFS team expects that this will eliminate the
intermittant fileserver crashes of the past several months.