Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Found item: Angell Hall

Posted by Brian Kerr on 20. August 2004

Found on the ‘Posting Wall’ in Angell Hall, near televisions tuned to UMTV—please find a few good laughs between punctuation and usage errors:

In the USSR, during Stalin’s reign, a loudspeaker was placed in every public square in every village, town and city. It broadcast the regime’s political propaganda during most of the day. At the University of Michigan, a far more sophisticated device was purchased and installed at a cost that could have gone to assist needy students, in order to convey the administration’s line on a few social issues. It uses electricity, generates noise and is watched by no one—except one associate dean who was observed admiring himself on the screen. Is this a good use of taxpayer and tuition money?

Q: What’s more dangerous than something that “uses electricity, generates noise and is watched by no one”?
A: A porch couch.

Local newspapers bought out

Posted by Murph on 19. August 2004

The Trenton, NJ, based Journal Register Company has completed a buy-out of 21st Century Newspapers; one of their new acquisitions, the Chelsea Standard, reports on the deal,

The acquisition includes four daily newspapers: The Daily Oakland Press (67,750 daily circulation and 81,500 Sunday), The Macomb Daily (45,500 daily, 67,000 Sunday), The Daily Tribune in Royal Oak (13,000 daily, 15,000 Sunday) and The Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant (11,000 daily, 13,000 Sunday). The acquisition also includes 87 nondaily publications, with approximately 1.5 million nondaily distribution.

In addition to the Chelsea Standard, the acquisition includes the local weeklies Ypsilanti Courier, Dexter Leader, Saline Reporter, Milan News-Leader, Manchester Enterprise, and The View (Belleville)—nearly every weekly in or near Washtenaw County.

Comment [1]

721 S. State St. Demolished Today at Noon

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 19. August 2004

This just came across the law school email list:

In case anybody is interested in watching the development house come tumbling down, I just received word that between 12 and 1:00 the action will begin and by the end of the day the house won’t be there.

The development house is 721 S. State St.—I believe it’s the house in the middle of the parking lot between Hill and Monroe Streets.

Sorry for the short notice. I’ll try and take some cam phone before/after pics (I really need to start carrying my “good” camera around).

Early photos of the demolition here.

Comment [2]

Crisler Vote For Change Concert Moved to Detroit

Posted by Brandon on 18. August 2004

The Vote For Change concert scheduled for Crisler Arena on October 3 has been moved to Detroit due to technical problems with the venue, the Ann Arbor News reports:

[Bruce] Springsteen and his E Street Band, R.E.M. and Bright Eyes were to perform at Crisler Arena Oct. 3 but that concert has been moved to Detroit’s Cobo Hall. It is one of six simultaneous statewide concerts being held as part of a national tour to raise money for organizations trying to unseat President George W. Bush in the election.

Production issues with the venue and the performers’ stage equipment made Cobo Hall a better fit, said Dave Clark, a volunteer coordinator of the event handling publicity.

Another Ann Arbor show may be scheduled, however.

Comment [4]

Dioxane Cleanup Group: Protect Our Neighbors

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 17. August 2004

Local blogger Edward Vielmetti posts about Protect Our Neighborhoods, a west-side neighborhood advocacy:

Because of the potential high impact on neighborhoods and questions of efficacy, a group of residents have written a position statement urging more aggressive clean-up at the plume source and high concentration areas up to and including Maple Village rather than neighborhoods inside the city. The DEQ is accepting public comments through tomorrow, August 16.

It’s too late to comment, but the post has a lot of detailed information about the dioxane plume spreading through Ann Arbor’s water table. Read the whole thing here.

Ding dong, the couch ban is...something

Posted by Murph on 17. August 2004

The Ann Arbor News’ article on last night’s council meeting, Council shelves couch ban, provides some interesting material.

“I don’t anticipate it coming back,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Chris Easthope after it was tabled by the City Council on Monday night.

“It’s not dead! It’s not dead!” said an excited Council Member Leigh Greden, D-3rd Ward, when he was told some had questioned whether the proposed ban was dead.

The council was expected to vote on the first reading of the proposed ordinance Monday night, but Greden made a motion to table it when he found there weren’t enough votes to support the ban.

It looks as though the couch ban, which seemed to be a sure thing a month ago, is now fighting for its life—in the News’ telling, Greden’s move to table sounds like a desperate attempt to keep the issue alive.

3rd Ward Green Launches Site, Blog

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 17. August 2004

Green Party candidate Marc Reichardt for city council, 3rd ward, has launched a campaign web site with an accompanying blog. He says he intends to update the blog daily.

> votemarc.org
> Campaign Blog

His first entry discusses the heated, if minor, issue of the moment: the porch couch ban:

Appropriately enough, the web site went live tonight, the 16th, while city council was beginning the decision-making process on one of the most tempestuous civil issues of recent months: the couch ordinance. I’ve received a lot of conflicting information on this issue, from the mayor to those who happen to live in houses with a couch sitting on the front porch. If it IS a genuine public safety issue, then one wonders why there hasn’t been more coverage of it in the local media. If it’s not, why go through the hassle of persecuting a large chunk of the population for an issue of aesthetics?

Outdoor furniture ordinance re-postponed

Posted by Murph on 16. August 2004

The Council’s discussion of proposed Ordinance 22-04 (better known as the Porch Couch Ban) at this evening’s meeting lasted approximately 2 minutes. Councilmember Greden opened and closed the discussion by commenting that he himself was ready to support the ordinance this evening, but that he knew other councilmembers to have concerns, so he moved to postpone discussion. The motion carried unanimously.

The meeting was not a complete disappointment for fans of somewhat dank upholstery, however, as four of the nine Reserved public commentary slots were used for discussion of the ordinance.

5th Ward resident Catherine Glorie spoke of recently helping her daughter search for housing near campus, and mentioned torn screens, peeling paint, crumbling garages, sagging balconies and fire escapes, deteriorating sidewalks, and various other offenses to both safety and good taste. She then caustically thanked the Council for “coming to our rescue” with this proposed ordinance to spare the city of the horrors of outdoor couches, and sparing citizens of the sight of students having fun. She noted that couches “have not yet been known to spontaneously burst into flame,” inquired about the number of couches and mattresses (firetraps, all!) to be found within homes, and finished with a call to enforce existing safety codes before implementing new ones.

Bob Snyder, speaking for the South University Neighborhood Group, was relatively bland by comparison to Glorie—he commented that, when it came to house fires, “even one is one two many” and justification for the ordinance, called for the council to listen to the professional advice of Fire Chief Gorman, and repeated Councilmember Greden’s past claim that outdoor grade furniture can be purchased inexpensively. His most original contribution to the discourse was an assertion that aesthetic ordinances are well established in the city, pointing to an ordinance requiring residents to remove their recycling bins from the curb within 24 hours of pickup as an example of something far more aesthetic than this couch ban.

The Old Fourth Ward was not to be outdone by such upstarts as South University, of course, and sent Jeff Crockett, a “charter member” of the OFW and husband to association President Christine Crockett, reminisced of his time as a Boy Scout, explaining that, as a Scout you “leave a place in better condition than you found it”. He used this to explain his participation in the OFW, which he sees as a tool to leave Ann Arbor better than he found it, and specifically decried students for lacking this instinct. He scolded students for being more interested in their own individual interests than in the good of the community, and for failing to consider the impacts of their actions. (Estimated time to AAiO picking that up: about 20 seconds. [UPDATE: nope. Two hours – Scott]) He scoffed at the idea of outdoor couches building a sense of community, and called on students to introduce themselves to their neighbors, to shovel their sidewalks, to shovel their neighbors sidewalks, etc, as better means of community-building.

Finally, engineering senior and MSA member Anita Leung brought a concern that the second reading (and public hearing) was scheduled for the first day of UMich classes and at the same time as the first MSA meeting of the year, both of which could limit students’ ability to attend the hearing. She said that she was personally in favor of banning couches in yards, but enjoyed couches on porches, and claimed that both the statistics and public opinion were against the ordinance. Of recent Ann Arbor house fires, she said, only 0.17% were caused by outdoor couches, assuming all fires originating near outdoor couches could be assumed to be caused by outdoor couches. A poll of students by MSA showed 97% to be against the ordinance, and a poll by WAAM showed 82% of their listeners to be against the ordinance. [UPDATE 8/17/04: as per Leung’s comment below, I’d like to clarify that the 0.17% figure is “percent of fires involving couches on porches” and not merely “involving outdoor couches”—that number is 4.4%. -RM]

The postponement means that, barring further postponements, the first reading will occur on Tuesday, September 7th, and that the public hearing and second reading will occur at the Monday, September 20, council meeting. If you wish to speak at the September 7th meeting, you will need to have a Reserved comment slot—speak to the City Clerk during business hours on that day. At the public hearing, any attendee will be able to speak for three minutes without a reservation. [UPDATE 8/17/04: Councilmember Greden has pointed out that the proposal will not automatically be on the 7 Sept. agenda. The proposal will return to the Council’s agenda only when a majority of Councilmembers vote to return it. ArborUpdate will keep an eye out for this to happen. -RM]

If you think I could have possibly written this much and left anything out, tonight’s meeting will be re-broadcast on CTN (cable channel 16) on Friday, August 20, at 7:30 pm.

Comment [6]

Our Boy in Baghdad

Posted by Ari Paul on 16. August 2004

CHICAGO-Metro Times this week features a story about U-M alum David Enders, a former Michigan Daily reporter who is now covering for the war in Iraq for various publications including the South China Morning Post and High Times.

MT reports, “For Enders, the human stories haven’t been hard to find, because he lives among Iraqis. He makes friends among them and says he’ll miss the people when he’s gone. He’s even been to the home of a mujahadeen.”

Enders became infamous when he along with his British mates came to Iraq and started the countries first English language newspaper, The Baghdad Bulletin. His book on his adventures will be published on University of Michigan Press, and for further dispatches, click here.

For an example of the Bulletin’s hard-hitting journalism, click here.

Comment [1]

Porch couch ban first reading tonight

Posted by Brian Kerr on 16. August 2004

First reading of the porch couch ban is tonight at 7:00PM. Here are some relevant resources:

  1. You can read the language of the ordinance at this very site.
  2. Murph has posted some notes about tonight’s reading, as well as a drafty argument against the ban.
  3. AAiO provides some more general information about the proposed ban.
  4. Detroit “Free” Press: Couch ban could ignite student protest at U-M.

(Thanks to George for pointing out the Free Press article.)

Comment [3]

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