Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Local student paper interviews Murph of Arbor Update

Posted by David Boyle on 22. January 2006

The Michigan Daily interviewed Murph of our own Arbor Update last week. Having finished a backlog of other commentary about the Daily, I now have time to mention their January 12 article “Blogging Community Grows With Collective Efforts: Richard Murphy, ArborUpdate.com Contributor”. Showing a photo of Murph in spiffy suit and tie, the article calls AU “a quickly expanding blog” and asks Murph some interesting questions, which evoke interesting answers:

”...TMD: What do you think about the role of blogs and citizen journalism?

RM: I think that blogging is a pretty useful tool for getting community information. ...if you say something stupid, somebody will correct you. ...

TMD: How do you feel about blogs as opposed to newspapers?

RM: Newspapers feel nicer. ...I think the advantage that a blog has over a newspaper is that it’s fast and response is quick. ...

TMD: What are some of your favorite blogs?

RM: Arbor Update and Ann Arbor is Overrated. I sometimes read, very rarely, the national blogs. I sometimes read The Daily Kos. I used to read James Lilek’s before we invaded Iraq and he turned all conservative. But….I think it’s at the local level that the blogs can be an original and new source and actually produce content well.

TMD: Do you consider yourself an Ann Arbor know-it-all?

RM: No, but lots of other people do. ...Just in a year and a half of Arbor Update, it’s developed a huge community and has created a wealth of information. ...So, I don’t think I’m and [sic] Ann Arbor know-it-all, but I’m part of a collective Ann Arbor know-it-all.”

The only part of Murph’s discourse I might query is “Arbor Update…it’s basically a group of volunteers that happened…to be geeky enough to read the newspaper every day and carry on discussion”. Geeky? Wha?? (heh) But geeky is in eye of beholder I guess, as with much else in the world.

All in all, another fine Daily article.

Go Murph!!!

Comment [1]

MSA landlord rating website. Exploit it before your landlord exploits you

Posted by David Boyle on 20. January 2006

MSA would like more people to know about their landlord and housing rating website at https://www.msa.umich.edu/housing/, so that by the next lease-signing period, more students will be accessing a useful resource to know what’s shaking at potential places of living. Hopefully, the existence of “Winter 2006 MSA Ann Arbor Housing Reviews” will also offer landlords an incentive to treat their tenants well, or at least treat them better…

Planning Commission Approves Three Downtown Residential Projects

Posted by Juliew on 20. January 2006

Last night, the Planning Commission approved three new mixed-use projects for downtown.

William Street Station: Block of William between Fourth and Fifth. 100 low-income units (rentals from $210-$500/month), 45 units of workforce-rate housing (rentals from $700-$900/month for one and two bedroom units), 45 units market-rate housing (~$1200-$1500/month for one and two bedroom units), 11,000 square feet of office space, 5,000 square feet of retail, one AATA bus station large enough to hold 12 busses at a time. One 12 and one 14-story tower with a four-story base.

Kingsley Lane: Corner of West Kingsley and North Ashley. Forty-eight residential market-rate condos with 6 additional “workforce-rate” condos for those making 80% of median. Building is a nine-story tower and a four-story tower with “corrugated metal inserts.”

Metro 202: Corner of Division and Washington. 44 market-rate rental units with retail on the first floor. Nine stories. Will be owned and operated by McKinley in conjunction with their McKinley Towne Centre across Division.

Comment [22]

Ann Arborite journalist/hostage Jill Carroll nears deadline for killing

Posted by David Boyle on 20. January 2006

See, e.g, today’s Detroit News,
”...The kidnappers – identified as the previously unknown “Revenge Brigade” – have set a deadline of Friday evening for all Iraqi female detainees to be freed or they will kill Carroll. ...Carroll grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., and received an undergraduate degree in journalism in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts. She worked as a reporting assistant for The Wall Street Journal before moving to Jordan and launching her freelance career in 2002, learning Arabic along the way. ...The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations flew to the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Thursday and scheduled a news conference Friday in Baghdad. The group said it hopes to reach Arab television audiences and persuade Carroll’s captors to free her. The Bloomfield Hills-based Islamic Shura Council of Michigan, which represents about 20 Muslim groups in the state, told the Detroit Free Press that Carroll’s kidnapping would not help the Iraqi cause. ...”
I hope prayer works, since a lot of us are no doubt doing that, including many a blogger/journalist.

Comment [13]

Schwarzenegger terminates 76-year-old blind, diabetic, near-deaf wheelchair-user

Posted by David Boyle on 18. January 2006

“Blind killer, 76, executed” in the Guardian reminds us of how Ah-nut Schwarzenegger is not prone to clemency, whether to Tookie Williams, who was lauded for his civic service, or septuagenarian Clarence Ray Allen who was executed (it took 2 potassum chloride injections to stop his heart) earlier today at San Quentin, about an hour after he turned 76.
The Supreme Court turned down his appeal based on his age, letting the Gropinator show his true degree of Christian kindness and mercy.
Fortunately, Michigan has no death penalty.

Comment [16]

Westbound Stadium Blvd. Closed Tuesday Morning

Posted by Juliew on 16. January 2006

From UM Facilities and Operations (and the City Code Red Emergency Notification System):

The funeral service for Amy Schnearle-Pennywitt, the Ann Arbor firefighter who died as a result of a line of duty accident, will be held tomorrow morning (Tuesday, Jan. 17) at Crisler Arena. Due to the very large number of fire trucks and other personnel who are anticipated to attend, the Ann Arbor Police plan to close westbound Stadium Boulevard between South Industrial and South Main Street tomorrow morning. They will keep the road open as long as possible, but drivers should anticipate an alternate route as early as 8 a.m. and until approximately 1:30 p.m. After the service is over around 12:30, a very long procession will occur from Stadium, turning north on Main Street and through the city.

U-M parking permit holders will have access to the parking lots around Crisler Arena, though access to/from the lots may be limited to Kipke Drive from the north. Funeral service patrons will be parking on Stadium Boulevard, in the golf course parking lot and the east end of SC7 by the railroad tracks.

Happy MLK Day!

Posted by David Boyle on 16. January 2006

Hope people have time to do something commemorating the life of Dr. King. (See my previous post about UM MLK Symposium events)

”...For in peace our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King

[chorus]
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
[repeat]...”

—Stevie Wonder, “Happy Birthday”, 1980

Comment [1]

UM MLK Day activities

Posted by David Boyle on 16. January 2006

Click on UM 2006 MLK Symposium to find out the schedule for tomorrow and following days. The theme of the whole symposium this year is “A Time to Break Silence”. As for the keynote speech, the 19th annual MLK Symposium Memorial Lecture is by Anna Deavere Smith, Hill Auditorium, 10:00 A.M.

Daily creates excretemeny; associates rapper Mike Jones with ape; etc.

Posted by David Boyle on 13. January 2006

During the Ann Arbor blogger gathering at Leopold Brothers on Tuesday (which went very nicely), where I saw folks from AU, Ann Arbor Is Overrated, Michigan Review, etc., somebody mentioned that Rob Goodspeed on Goodspeed Update routinely criticized…the Michigan Daily.
You go Rob.
On that note: 1. Today’s Daily article on MTV’s “Made” has “...ostomies, new holes created in surgery for excretemeny.” —-What is “excretemeny”?? I tried Googling it: nada zip pow. Is it near Schenectady? Please, Daily, get help.
2. They also spelled Luke Massie as “Massey” several days ago, front page, repeatedly. It’s harder to criticize Massie’s uttering “Court order, shmourt order” when you can’t even get the speaker’s name right…
3. The 12/9/05 Daily (mislabeled as 12/8 by them online, I believe! my paper copy says 12/9) “Cuckoo for Calexico” has a photo with caption, “You pussy, just watch the TV. Bambi’s mother will be fine.” Without quipping that Daily Arts calling someone a p-ssy is like Hitler calling someone a Nazi, one still has to wonder. (Pussy as cat may be fine, but anything else…)
4. And last but hardly least: in the 12/13/05 Daily “‘King’ of the jungle”, there is a photo still from the new “King Kong” film, showing Kong shouting, “WHO? MIKE JONES!” ...Isn’t it kind of questionable to have a large ape using the lyrics of a black rapper, a little while after the Daily had pledged to be more racially sensitive? Is anyone proofreading, or running, the Daily? Hello?
(Cf. the recent Huffington Post news item about Wal-Mart shutting down its movie recommendation system after it linked a “Planet of the Apes” DVD to films about famous African Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr.)
In the future, I shan’t have time to follow all the Daily’s follies. Still, we all deserve better, whatever our racial or other background. And that’s no “excretemeny.”

Comment [34]

William Street Station (Old Y Site) Meeting: January 11

Posted by Juliew on 10. January 2006

The developers of “William Street Station” (the development proposed for the old Y site) are having a public meeting this Wednesday evening. The proposal currently is a mixed-use project including a new AATA transit center, retail, office, and affordable and market-rate housing. Please join them to ask questions and offer input (only six people attended the last meeting!).

There are some “negatives” with this proposal: the proposed building is quite tall for something right across the street from a residential neighborhood (there will be a 14-story tower and a 12-story tower), there is not enough parking for the residents or office space, and the entity that will provide services to the very low-income residents is not local. However, the proposal really is very impressive. They are planning to provide a lot of affordable high-quality housing and services to a very low-income population, they have made a lot of changes to the design based on local input, and they are building a bus station into their building (hard to fault them on transportation!).

So please take this opportunity to ask questions and give your input now, rather than complain when the proposal is set in stone!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 6:30 p.m.
Ann Arbor District Library (343 South Fifth Avenue)
Third Floor Free Space

Comment [18]

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