Arbor Update

Politics

Young Republican Attacked (updated)

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 1. October 2006

Wonkette reports:

[Justin Zatkoff] was assaulted yesterday as he left a meeting of the Michigan College Republicans. [He] is the apparent victim of a hate crime, perpetrated almost without doubt by— well, we’ll let “a source close to Justin” explain:

Justin may have been 1. randomly attacked (but not robbed??), 2. attacked by BAMN (well known for violence andstrong in Ann Arbor), or 3. attacked by a homosexual rights group (Justin received an ‘odd/threatening’ email from a gay rights group about a day before the attack.)

Update, from the Ann Arbor News:

While at a party that began last Saturday night, police said Zatkoff picked a fight with some of his friends, and got punched in the eye. Police interviewed Zatkoff at a hospital the next day and he didn’t recall what happened.

People who were at the party told police Zatkoff had too much to drink, said Ann Arbor police Lt. Mike Logghe.

“We interviewed the guy who punched him,’’ said Logghe. “He admitted to punching him. He said he was a friend of his from high school.’‘

Thanks to t e whalen, Dale, and others for the pointer to the correction.

Comment [95]

Local

College Place Collaboration in Ypsilanti

Posted by Dale Winling on 27. September 2006

The Ann Arbor News is reporting a leased land swap between the City of Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University.

The city will lease College Place to EMU at $1 for 99 years to convert the small street into a pedestrian area. And the university will lease the North Washington Street parking lot to the city at $1 a year for 99 years to provide 60 additional parking spaces in downtown. The plan also includes converting a small portion of Perrin Street into two-way street.

Comment [1]

City Council

Civic Facility on Library Lot?

Posted by Juliew on 26. September 2006

At the September 11 City Council working session, the Community Services and Public Safety Task Force submitted a document recommending that the “City should develop a long-term plan to house City Hall, Police, Courts, parking, and an exterior public amenity on the Library Lot.” The document was summarized in an article in the Ann Arbor News on September 12.

This comes a year after the contentious resolution to build a new building on the current City Hall site. After that plan was scuttled due to strong negative reaction, Council created the Community Services and Public Safety Task Force to look into the issue more extensively.

Judy McGovern’s column from yesterday touched on some of the many issues involved, but surprisingly, this latest chapter has yet to generate much conversation around town.

Thanks to David Cahill for sending us the Task Force document.

Comment [152]

Local

Friendships Strained at AADL

Posted by Scott TenBrink, Guest Contributor on 22. September 2006

The Ann Arbor District Library has made moves to distance itself from the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library as a result of a $10,000 donation gone awry and the discovery that the Friends had lost their non-profit status in 2003.

In the minutes of the special board meeting on Sept 6 the board shifts the relationship from friendly to parental stating, “There needs to be a high degree of cooperation between the two organizations as this situation is resolved. As a public institution, AADL must require the Friends of AADL to conduct business in a manner that is responsible and accountable.”

The bookshop that is run by the Friends in the basement of the AADL has been shut down indefinitely and the AADL is asking the Friends to go through an audit, which the Friends interpret as unfriendly, according to quotes in the AANews.

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International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Posted by MarkDilley on 19. September 2006

For those of you who don’t know. Wikipedia has the scoop

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City Council

City Council: Administrative Edition

Posted by Juliew on 18. September 2006

Meeting tonight (Monday), September 18 at 7:00 pm.

Lots of administrative items on tonight’s agenda:
Vacating of two streets; bridge maintenance requests; waste facility reimbursements and upgrades; wastewater treatment plant materials and upgrades; utility easements; approval of a wireless antenna; transference of alcohol licenses; transference of delinquent board-up, clean-up, vacant property inspection and housing inspection fees to the December 2006 city tax roll, and so on.

Highlights:

• Approval of rezoning of South University Avenue.
• Resolution to adopt the Northeast Area Transportation Plan.
• Approval of a budget appropriation for a professional services contract for a facility economics report update for Broadway Village.
• Appropriation of funds from the Open Space and Parkland Preservation bond proceeds to reimburse the Open Space and Parkland Preservation millage fund.
• The CVS Pharmacy planned project site plan on Stadium.

Planning Commission
Supposedly there is a meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, September 19 at 7:00 pm. The agenda is not available as of 3:00pm today. If it is posted, it should be here.

Comment [3]

Local

Bickering Continues to Distract AATA

Posted by Scott TenBrink, Guest Contributor on 18. September 2006

Board of Directors continue to bicker with CEO, Gregg Cook, at AATA. The Ann Arbor News reports that the turmoil revolves around on-time service and cutting costs. With two Board members stepping down, Ted Annis leads the charge against inefficiency and, perhaps, against Cook as CEO. Annis attacks Cook’s performance on a number of issues, focusing on on-time service and excessive spending on travel and staff salaries. Cook refutes the accusations with recent study results.

This is happening in the context of consideration of county-wide service and rising fuel costs. As Eli Cooper points out, ““If we are inefficient at a city level, imagine what would happen at the county level. I want to be rock solid that we are as efficient as we can be.’‘ Yet budget cuts have dominated the discussion at the expense of implementing a strategic plan to improve both service and ridership. Is the board doing the public (87% of AATA riders are satisfied with service) a favor by trimming the fat on a sacred cow? Or are they sacrificing vision for penny-pinching?

Perhaps the Mayor’s two new appointees, Nancy Shore and Charles Griffith, can shift the Board’s focus back to envisioning the future of AATA.

Comment [46]

Out of the Labrinth: International Day of Peace Vigil

Posted by Chuck Warpehoski on 16. September 2006

I was over at the Wesley Foundation at the corner of State and Huron and they have their labrynth all set up and ready for the International Day of Peace .

This isn’t your run-of-the-mill 24-hour, midnight-to-midnight peace vigil on September 21 to mark the International Day of Peace. This one will have include 24 hours of people walking the labrinth (in shifts, of course).

Want to learn more, you can download the vigil flyer .

Now, what I’m trying to figure out is if I can work this in as part of my marathon training for my run for peace .

Comment [5]

Campus

Umich Email Storm

Posted by MarkDilley on 16. September 2006

A friend alerted me of the email storm happening on the umich email servers. What that means is that a person sent out an email to a bunch of unmoderated email groups.

Then, one by one, people reply to all, sometimes unknowingly, asking to be taken off the list. Then email do-gooders reply to all about how to respond to these types of emails. Then people respond frustrated, then… then… then you have people bet on how long it will last.

Anyway, this one started on September 11 and now has a Wikipedia entry.

Don’t be the last one on the block to buy the t-shirt!

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M-Care Blues

Posted by Chuck Warpehoski on 13. September 2006

The MLive Business News reports that Blue Cross is to buy M-Care

According to the story, Dr. Robert Kelch, U-M’s executive vice president for medical affairs, said M-CARE would require major investments to stay competitive in today’s market and the insurance company diverts attention from the university’s core activities.

Now those without health insurance have fewer options of companies providing coverage they can’t afford.

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