Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Tree City Sparkles Tree Lighting Ceremony

Posted by Juliew on 17. November 2005

Yet another attempt to lure people to Liberty Park Plaza. The information below (including errors in spelling and punctuation) comes directly from the Main Street Area Association web site:

Join your downtown neighbors and Mayor John Heiftje has he pulls the switch to light up the downtown during the first dazzling tree lighting ceremony. Thousands of brilliant twinkling tree lights will be turned on in the Liberty Park Plaza and throughout the 4 downtown areas including Main Street, State Street, South University and Kerrytown. Areas from 5:30-6:30 pm on Friday, November 18.

Be at Liberty Park Plaza to enjoy hot chocolate and cookies and sing carols with the fantastic “Boy Choir of Ann Arbor”.

If you have questions or need more information contact Ellie Serras, Main Street Area Association at 734-668-7112.

The tree lights downtown are sponsored by the Downtown Development Authority of Ann Arbor and the four downtown associations: Main Street Area Association, State Street Area Association, South University Area Association and the Kerrytown District Association.

The flyer posted in businesses around town says that this “Tree City Sparkles Tree Lighting Ceremony” is actually the second “dazzling tree lighting ceremony” and refers people to www.downtownannarbor.org for more information. Unfortunately, on downtownannarbor.org, the event isn’t listed unless you specifically search for it under November 18 in the “Any” category (the site does, however, have the .pdf of the now-defunct Three Site Plan). The “more information” button links to the same error-filled description listed on the Main Street Association web site. Both sites spell the Mayor’s name incorrectly. Doesn’t anyone check these things?

Comment [2]

Labor settlement dips into Ann Arbor's reserves

Posted by Murph on 15. November 2005

Ann Arbor City Councilmember Greden’s vague warning last week of a costly labor settlement has been explained:

The city of Ann Arbor is facing up to a $4 million tab to settle a grievance filed four years ago by its largest employee union.

The City Council was told of the arbitrator’s decision last week in a closed-door session.

“The math is pretty simple,’’ City Administrator Roger Fraser said this morning. “If you are calculating pain, this hurts a bunch. The question is, ‘How do you handle it?’‘’

Fraser said the arbitrator wasn’t clear on a number of issues, which is why he wasn’t sure how much the final bill would be. He estimated the decision will cost the city between $2 million and $4 million.
. . .
Easthope said the city may have to take it from the city’s general fund reserves, sitting at about $11 million.

The city is already facing up to a $4 million bill to pay for removing dead and dying ash trees on public property. Residents last week rejected a proposed half-mill property tax increase for two years that would have paid for that.

Ouch.

Comment [20]

Where are the Fall '05 MSA election results?

Posted by David Boyle on 15. November 2005

     (This is my first Arbor Update contributor post, by the way. Thanks to AU’s affirmatively argumentative Ann Arbor archons of analysis and action, for running this fine and edgy weblog.)
     I just wrote MSA a nice letter yesterday, actually, praising them for their efforts in general, but it is no criticism of them now to ask, where are the Fall ‘05 MSA election results? at least in a detailed version? (And wasn’t this an issue back in the spring, too?)
     The election was utterly aboveboard, I’m sure, but one likes to see vote totals, etc., online. At UM law school, I got the elections to be transparent (they used to be without vote totals, etc.), and it would be bad to see any other campus government slip to a state of non-transparency. Showing detailed election results and numbers, in a timely and widely accessible fashion, is a core governmental function…
     Hey, Goodspeed used to post MSA election results constantly! Godspeed you, Goodspeed.
     (Rob Goodspeed, the “blogfather” of Arbor Update, for those who didn’t know.)
     Don’t forget Florida 2000! (heh) Bring on the fall MSA results! online!! Thank you.

Comment [3]

Old Y Closed, Residents Temporarily Moved to Canton

Posted by Juliew on 15. November 2005

From last Friday’s Ann Arbor News

The City Council on Thursday discussed finding alternative housing for about 90 residents (from the old Y), a move that one council member estimated could cost the city about $1.6 million over the next two years. The council approved spending nearly $160,000 to keep the residents in two local motels through the end of the year.

The residents have been living in the motels since Oct. 20, when the old Y building was thought to be just temporarily closed after pipes broke and flooded a floor and knocked out the heat for the building. Officials had hoped the building could be fixed and the residents could be moved back in quickly into their single-room-occupancy efficiency units.

...because of the two upcoming University of Michigan football home games, the 90 residents are being moved today to hotels in Canton. The rooms the residents were in had been previously booked in advance by football fans.

Daniel Seller, a YMCA resident, said Thursday many of the residents weren’t happy about moving to Canton because it kept them far away from friends, family and vital medical services located in downtown Ann Arbor.

Comment [16]

White White White Livonia

Posted by Jason Voss on 15. November 2005

Remarks made by some Livonia residents during a city planning commission meeting are propelling one white pastor to action. Their assertions that building a Wal-Mart store in their city would attract Black Detroiters and eventually turn their neighborhood into a ghetto has made headlines.

The Rev. Skip Wachsmann is pastor of the predominantly Black, Genesis Evangelical Lutheran Church on Detroit’s eastside. He said the remarks were racist and challenged all honest thinking people, especially the clergy in Livonia, to condemn them.

Waschsmann wants churches in Livonia—tagged America’s whitest city—to begin deeper discussion on racial issues.

from BlackBox Radio 11-15-2005

Comment [9]

Greasy Spoon Anthology Accepting Submissions

Posted by Brandon on 15. November 2005

Been to the Fleetwood Diner? Have a story?

UM Regents presentation on Campus Master Plan - Thursday

Posted by Murph on 13. November 2005

From the Ann Arbor News’ Outfront:

The University of Michigan Board of Regents will receive a presentation on the Central Campus master plan at the regular monthly meeting Thursday.

The meeting, which will be held in the regents room of the Fleming Administration Building, starts at 2:30 p.m. Public comments begin at 4 p.m.

Regents also will receive an update of the parking and transportation strategic plan.

Anonymous donors offer scholarships to Kalamazoo

Posted by Murph on 13. November 2005

Anonymous donors have offered four year scholarships to in-state public universities to any student who enters Kalamazoo Public Schools in the ninth grade or earlier, effective for at least the next 13 years. From the Detroit News:

The scope of the Kalamazoo program, however, is remarkable: The district has 10,300 students, a number that could grow with Thursday’s announcement of the scholarships.
. . .
The scholarships will be good at any of Michigan’s public universities or community colleges. Starting with the class of 2006, the four-year scholarships will be available to all students who entered the school system in the ninth grade or earlier.
The scholarships will cover between 65 percent and 100 percent of tuition and fees; those who enrolled in kindergarten would get a free ride.

Some in Kalamazoo talk about the fund as helpful for businesses seeking to attract families to Kalamazoo; native Kalamazooer Dale confirms that this could also help pull families back into the city and into the public schools – often seen as key to helping America’s urban cores.

Comment [14]

Sunday: WCBN/UMMA Concert Series Continues

Posted by Brandon on 10. November 2005

The Third installment of the highly-successful WCBN concert series in the University of Michigan Museum of Art atrium happens this Sunday:

Hey wcbn fans,
I’m sure you all remember last fall’s His Name is Alive show and last winter’s concert with Rachel’s; now the WCBN Concert Series at the University of Michigan Museum of Art is back!
Next Sunday, November 13th, Ann Arbor avant-toy virtuoso Frank Pahl’s new band Little Bang Theory will be playing a free concert in the art museum’s atrium!

Frank Pahl is the creator of a funhouse filled with musical wonders. Automatic instruments-music boxes, noisemaking toys, old bits of amplification equipment, sewing-machine parts, and other marvelous motorized cast-offs of various kinds-creak along and come together in uniquely charming conjunctions. On this surface, Pahl and his group Little Bang Theory (with choreographer Terri Sarris and Doug Shimmin of the Immigrant Sons) trace outlines of half-forgotten songs, weave minimalist textures, and dredge up unpredictable bits and pieces of half a dozen other kinds of music, using a melodica, xylophones, ukuleles, zithers, a cowbell, and unclassifiable homemade sounds. The superior acoustic environment of the University of Michigan Museum of Art offers an ideal place to experience Frank Pahl’s quiet, magical musical universe.
Local fingerstyle guitar master Nick Schillace will open the night’s performance

In Summary: Sunday November 13th, 8pm at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (525 S. State St)
WCBN and UMMA present Frank Pahl’s Little Bang Theory

Be there!
-WCBN Mothership

Comment [2]

Auschwitz. Dachau. Treblinka. Nanking.

Posted by MarkDilley on 10. November 2005

I saw an interview with Iris Chang… she was amazing… please attend if you can tonight.

Auschwitz. Dachau. Treblinka.

No doubt you’ve heard of these. What about Nanking?

In 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army slaughtered 300,000 Chinese in the ancient Chinese city of Nanking. For weeks, the Yangtze River ran red from the blood of bodies. Overall, 20 MILLION people died from the Asian Holocaust that spanned from 1931-1945.

Yet the victims of this terrible genocide are forgotten to history.

Please don’t let this event become part of our collective ignorance!

Come to the CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR IRIS CHANG AND THE VICTIMS OF THE ASIAN HOLOCAUST!

Where: The Diag.
When: November 9th, 2005. 9:00 PM.

There will also be a PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT relating to the event:

Where: Second Floor ballroom of Haven Hall, right upstairs from the Angell Hall Posting Wall
When: November 9th, 2005, 7:00PM – 9:00PM.

Iris Chang was one of the foremost activists in the Chinese-American community. She is the author of the books “The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II” and “The Chinese in America”. It is through her book “The Rape of Nanking” that the American public is aware of the events of the gruesome Asian Holocaust from 60 years ago. During her life, she continually championed for Japan to pay reparations to the victims of the Asian Holocaust, and strove to find justice for those victims.

IGNATIUS DING, spokesperson for the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

Please come to honor the life of Iris Chang and the Asian Holocaust victims.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”—George Santayana

Keep reading: next previous