Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Court orders MCRI onto ballot, contempt charges possible

Posted by Ari Paul on 21. December 2005

The Associated Press reports that a state court has forced the MCRI ballot question—one that would outlaw race-based affirmative action in state universities and public offices—onto the 2006 ballot for November.

The appeals court issued Tuesday’s order because it said the Board of State Canvassers failed to follow a previous court mandate. The four-member elections panel last week deadlocked on a motion to comply with the earlier court order.

Also:

In a strongly worded order, the appeals court said it may address possible contempt charges against the two canvassers who failed to comply with its earlier order.

Opponents of the MCRI claim that canvassers committed fraud in getting people to sign a petition to get its question on the ballot. BAMN will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

(original image )

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Arbor Update Podcast?

Posted by MarkDilley on 20. December 2005

Edward Vielmetti thought out loud:

Now what we need is an Arbor Update podcast.

I am interested in learning how to do it, is anyone interested? (someone that knew how to do it would be good too!)

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Lassiter's Book on Silent Majority Released

Posted by Ari Paul on 19. December 2005

Golden Apple-winning U-M history professor Matthew Lassiter’s new book, The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South, is now available.

Lassiter studies the relationship between the suburbanization of America and national politics and culture.

Here’s a look:

Suburban sprawl transformed the political culture of the American South as much as the civil rights movement did during the second half of the twentieth century. The Silent Majority provides the first regionwide account of the suburbanization of the South from the perspective of corporate leaders, political activists, and especially of the ordinary families who lived in booming Sunbelt metropolises such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Richmond.

Matthew Lassiter examines crucial battles over racial integration, court-ordered busing, and housing segregation to explain how the South moved from the era of Jim Crow fully into the mainstream of national currents. During the 1960s and 1970s, the grassroots mobilization of the suburban homeowners and school parents who embraced Richard Nixon’s label of the Silent Majority reshaped southern and national politics and helped to set in motion the center-right shift that has dominated the United States ever since.

The Silent Majority traces the emergence of a “color-blind” ideology in the white middle-class suburbs that defended residential segregation and neighborhood schools as the natural outcomes of market forces and individual meritocracy rather than the unconstitutional products of discriminatory public policies. Connecting local and national stories, and reintegrating southern and American history, The Silent Majority is critical reading for those interested in urban and suburban studies, political and social history, the civil rights movement, public policy, and the intersection of race and class in modern America.

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Remove Argo Dam?

Posted by Murph on 18. December 2005

The News today has an extensive article on the idea of removing Argo Dam, allowing the Huron to run freely between Barton and Geddes Ponds, uncovering 40 to 50 acres of (city-owned) land, which would likely be used for parkland, and saving $20,000 a year in maintenance costs. Opposed is the local rowing community, which relies on Argo Pond.

The city’s environmental commission is expected to start drafting a management plan for the Ann Arbor section of the Huron and its impoundments. And that will mean addressing river management questions – such as whether to remove Argo Dam, an idea the state Department of Natural Resources has advocated for a decade because of the detrimental environmental impacts.

Removing the dam would eliminate the pond and allow the city to reclaim land along the river. An estimated 40 to 50 acres of city-owned land now lies under water. It’s valued at roughly $4 million to $5 million – a gold mine of potential parkland in a city where large tracts of vacant land for any use are essentially gone.

In addition to expanding recreational opportunities on the newly reclaimed land, the move also might create new water recreation options because the river may have enough of a gradient change to produce some whitewater.

While park supporters and those focused on the river’s environmental health think the idea of removing the dam is worth debating, opposition is growing in the Ann Arbor rowing community.

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Drain Commissioner arrested, charged with drunk driving

Posted by Murph on 17. December 2005

Drain Commisisoner Janis Bobrin was arrested on 10 Nov. and has been charged with operating while intoxicated. The original story in the News was on Thanksgiving Day; this one is from this past Thursday:

Bobrin, 54, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after her car rear-ended another vehicle in the 900 block of East Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor on Nov. 10. No one was injured, but officers determined Bobrin’s blood alcohol level was 0.20, more than twice the legal limit to be considered drunk, reports said. Police found an empty box of wine in the car and other alcohol in the trunk.

The Ann Arbor City Attorney’s Office this week charged her with one count of operating while intoxicated, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine. She remains free on a personal recognizance bond and is scheduled for arraignment in an Ann Arbor district court Jan. 11.

The incident followed a crash in May in which Bobrin totaled her county-owned vehicle in Livingston County. The police report from that incident indicates Bobrin was cited for not paying attention and that she registered a 0.051 blood alcohol level, below the legal limit of 0.08.

Bobrin has no plans to resign, and the County Commissioners have no ability to force her, as an elected official, to do so.

Bobrin, who earns $90,611, was re-elected to her fifth four-year term with 99 percent of vote against a write-in candidate in 2004. Her office is responsible for storm water management, flood control, development review and environmental protection programs.

Larry Kestenbaum has a post about this on his blog Polygon.

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"How to" Contribute to Arbor Update

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 17. December 2005

  • Send ideas for articles to arborupdate@umich.edu. We’ll be more likely to use your post if you provide text we can use for the article (just a sentence or two is often fine), include any relevant links, and tell us how you’d like to be credited (may we use your name? and would you like a link to your website?)
  • tag things in del.icio.us ““arborupdate”:http://del.icio.us/tag/arborupdate “
  • Apply to become a core contributor (people who can create main-level posts)
  • Don’t want to write but want to help out? Got tech skills? Design skills? We could use you. For example, we could really use a sort of “illustrator” who can find appropriate images on the web (or better yet, design new ones), prep them and include them with posts.

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ArborSpeech Launches

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 16. December 2005

ArborSpeech.orgEver wish you had a site like ArborUpdate for your own own organization? ArborSpeech is offering free hosting of sites like this one for Ann Arbor community organizations:

ArborSpeech is a service that you can use to discuss anything local: you can start a website for your neighborhood association, champion your favorite political cause, or promote your local nonprofit. At your disposal: customized websites, discussion lists, wikis, blogs, and community software. ArborSpeech is here to give you space and support.

Kudos to the Community High School team that put this together.

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Travel to the airport

Posted by MarkDilley on 16. December 2005

Once more, from the Michigan Student Assembly:

Need a ride to the airport for Winter Break, or one back from the airport afterward? Don’t want to pay over $30 for a cab to take you there?

Luckily, airBus offers affordable and reliable transportation to and from Detroit Metro Airport during the Winter Break season.

• Read More »

Julie Harrison

Posted by MarkDilley on 14. December 2005

I knew her only briefly and have several friends who knew her much better and are dealing with her suicide. Because of many email problems, I only just received this email:

Dear Friends,

I am writing a very personal note about a recent tragic event. I am a doctoral student in civil engineering and over the past year was able to sponsor a neat project to build an All-Terrain Wheelchair for Julie Harrison, a local young woman with a spinal cord injury.

Julie has had a life-long history of depression (which is what led to her spinal cord injury), but had the problem under control through the use of medication. The project, an official ME450 senior design project with some of my former students, was to build a working model of a wheelchair designed for rugged outdoor activities, specifically in Julie’s case, camping in the National Forests near the Rocky Mountains.

Yesterday, after several months of being off her medication, Julie killed herself. You can read about this on the front of today’s Ann Arbor News.

I am writing to encourage my friends and associates here in engineering to support, encourage, and understand those with depression. While I was a student at the University of Cincinnati I knew of two engineering students who killed themselves due to the pressures of earning their degrees. Further, medical depression such as Julie’s can exist despite the apparent absence of any local or personal stress. Finally, just as you don’t stop taking insulin because your diabetes is under control, you shouldn’t stop taking anti-depression medication because you are no longer depressed. If you know someone who has stopped taking their anti-depression medication, they could have a literal, life-threatening, REAL risk. Julie was, and now she is dead.

Life is wonderful. Please stick around to enjoy it and encourage others to do the same.

Website about our wheelchair project. AllTerrainWheelchair.org

Website to article in Ann Arbor News

Respectfully submitted, John Norton

Thoughtful words for this highly stressful time of year. Good wishes everyone…

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Michigamua Exposed

Posted by Ari Paul on 14. December 2005

Student organizers have put together an art show to expose the racist and elitist legacy of Michigamua.

Michigamua EXPOSED!!!!!
An educational art exhibit sponsored by students from Art & Design 310 Thursday, December 15th
9 pm Michigan League Underground

What is Michigamua? Why are they called a “secret society”? Why is
it called racist? Why did students occupy the tower of the Union for
37 days? Who is in Michigamua today??

Find out the answers to these questions and much, much more! See you at Michigamua Exposed on 12/15

Questions? Email MichigamuaExposed@umich.edu
Also check out GoodspeedUpdate.com for an incomplete list of current members and extensive research reports.

*Please forward to interested individuals/organizations

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