Arbor Update

National

Michigan House considers "Shoot First" bill

Posted by Murph on 23. October 2005

The Michigan House is considering HB 5143, which would copy Florida’s recent “make my day” law enabling citizens to use deadly force when they believe themselves threatened, removing any duty to retreat from harm, and preventing civil or criminal charges against such “defendants”.

The Freep reasonably calls this “nonsense”:

Republican Reps. Tom Casperson of Escanaba and Rick Jones of Grand Ledge, who introduced the bills, said the legislation would prevent residents from having to worry about whether they are justified in using force to defend their families and property.

That’s nonsense. Shooting or killing someone should concern any reasonable person. A home or vehicle break-in does not necessarily endanger the life of the occupant. Nor does it absolve the owner, legally or morally, from making any decision other than shooting to kill.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has counterattacked in Florida, taking aim at the state’s tourism industry. Their Shoot First Law campaign is running ads in national newspapers and distributing information at airports warning tourists of the potential of being shot by nervous locals. Jeb Bush: not amused.

(How did I miss this a month ago?)

Comment [13]

Business

Collegian's new owner may add 3 floors

Posted by Murph on 21. October 2005

Michigan Business Review reports that the Collegian’s new owner is hoping to add back the three stories of residential use that were removed from the original plan:

The building, located next to Nickels Arcade, was sold for $6.45 million to Lorne J. Darnell & Associates, according to city records.

The company has third-floor offices space in the buidling, and a tenant may soon move into the fourth floor.

Darnell hired Luckenbach Ziegelman Architects the Ann Arbor company that did the original building to design the vertical addition that also would convert the fifth floor to residential use, adding 27 rental units to the area just west of State Street and the University of Michigan’s Diag.

The housing, according to plans filed with the city, is “targeted at the local population of university students and faculty, filling a critical housing need in this centralized location.” The apartments would include 24 studio units of 450 square feet and three 1,100-square-foot penthouse-style apartments on the top floor.
...
The Collegian originally was planned to have seven stories and a green roof when Spoon sought city approvals in 2001.

Those early plans called for three floors of offices and four levels of luxury condominiums, ranging from 1,800 to 2,800 square feet and hitting a top price of $1.2 million.

However, Spoon told city officials in 2002 that he could not get financing for the mixed-use building, and instead scaled back to the five-story office building.

Comment [2]

Local

Parking rates restructured, meter fines raised

Posted by Murph on 21. October 2005

I’ve been asked to describe the changes to the downtown parking system rate structure. Effective October 1, the DDA rearranged the rates to encourage long-term parkers to use the structures, leaving more convenient surface and meter parking for shorter-term, higher-turnover parking.

• Hourly parking structure rates have been reduced to $0.80/hour.
• Hourly surface lot rates have been reduced to $1/hour for the first three hours, $1.10/hour past three.
• Meters have been raised to $1/hour.

The change was enacted at the DDA’s July meeting, and was designed to be revenue-neutral. (Some DDA Board members questioned this criterion, as the rent the DDA pays to the City for the parking facilities was at the same time increasing from around $100,000/year to $1 million / year, and rates had not been increased in approximately 7 years previously.) Extending meter hours into the evening was also discussed, with a similar motivation to move long-term users (such as downtown employees) into the structures and leave the on-street parking for high-turnover use; that decision was postponed until a better examination could be made of what time meter hours should be extended to.

Same-day expired meter fines were increased by the city earlier this summer; the fine is now $10 if paid within 24 hours. This change was also made to maintain on-street parking for high-turnover use – previously, the cheapest form of all-day downtown parking was to park at a meter, put no money in, and pay the $5 same-day fine.

Comment [28]

Campus

Police arrest two suspects in Ann Arbor street robberies

Posted by Murph on 21. October 2005

After a string of nearly three dozen late night assault/robberies, most involving lone male pedestrians being jumped by a group of assailants, police arrested two suspects last night, reports the Ann Arbor News:

A short time later, officers spotted a van downtown that matched the description of a getaway vehicle seen after a similar street robbery on Monday in the 800 block of Sybil Street, Lt. Angella Abrams said. Two passengers jumped out of the van and ran off, but officers were able to detain the driver, Abrams said.

Police found property in the van belonging to the latest robbery victim, and the driver was arrested, Abrams said. Officers later tracked down one of the passengers from the van who was hiding in the area, Abrams said.

The second passenger was not found by early this morning, and detectives were interviewing the two men who were arrested. They are an 18-year-old Belleville man and 18-year-old Ypsilanti Township man.

Reports have indicated up to six assailants in past robberies – presumably it’s not totally safe to be wandering my neighborhood alone at night quite yet…

Campus

'P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F.' Tomorrow

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 20. October 2005

PEOPLE in SUPPORT & SOLIDARITY EDUCATING & DISCUSSING ORGANIZING for FAIRNESS!

P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. is a campuswide dialogue and discussion on campus climate as it relates to local as well as global issues. We invite the campus community—undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff—to join us in the day’s events, which will include faculty speakers and breakout sessions on topics such as A/PIAs and hate crimes, LGBT issues, African Americans and stereotypes, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, Affirmative Action and more. P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. will end in a speak-out, which we hope will foster not only dialogue but action.

When: Friday, October 21st 12 – 4pm

Where: Michigan League, Henderson Room

Who: YOU!

Tentative schedule:

12:00pm-1:00pm PISSED OFF Panel
Featuring:

• Stephen Ward
• Maria Cotera
• Gilbert Gee
• Cedric De leon

1:00pm-3:00pm workshop sessions 1 & 2

• Anti-Asian and Pacific Islander Racism in the Year 2005
• Deconstructing Whiteness
• Indigenous Movements: Settler Colonialism and its Implications for Racial Minorities
• Israel-Palestine issues
• Analyzing the Binary: The Invisibility of Latina/os
• Homophobia: What’s it all About?
• Affirmative Action
• African-American portrayal in campus media
• The Invisible Minority: Campus Climate and its effects on Arab Americans

3:00pm-4:00pm PISSED OFF? speak out!

P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. is sponsored by A/PIA Change, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), National Association of Black Journalists, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Students Organized for Labor and Equality, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, Students Supporting Affirmative Action, United Asian American Organizations, Taiwanese American Students Association, Stonewall Democrats, South Asian Progressive Alliance, Muslim Grad Students Association, F.O.K.U.S. and the Students of Color of Rackham (SCOR)

and the list is still growing…

Contact Hugo Shi—hugoshi@umich.edu—for more information!

Comment [17]

Regional

Fight Fascist Trolls: fundraising for Toledo

Posted by Murph on 19. October 2005

After ArborUpdate posted on last weekend’s neo-nazi march through north Toledo, we started to receive racist comments, as websites like Vanguard Network News (no, you don’t get a link.) linked to us.

Rather than deleting the unfortunate comments, we’ve decided to turn them into a fundraiser for the neighborhood that the neo-nazi march trashed.

Here’s the deal: For every racist comment left by neo-nazi trolls on ArborUpdate, I will donate $1 to the Lagrange Development Corporation, and invite you to join me, with either a per-comment pledge (currently stands at $14) or a flat donation.

Lagrange is a non-profit Community Development Corporation that serves the affected neighborhood; their programs include developing affordable housing, providing homeownership opportunities, rehabbing older homes, providing loans to small businesses, and running crime prevention programs; they were recommended to me by the City of Toledo’s Economic and Community Development department.

Send checks to:

Lagrange Development Corporation
3106 Lagrange St.
Toledo, OH 43608

Edit: You don’t have to read the comments in order to pledge – we’ll keep score, and, as long as you leave a valid e-mail address when you post your pledge, we’ll pull it out of the database and e-mail you when the vitriol winds down. Alternately, e-mail Bates (dasbates at umich dot edu) to tell him you’ve sent a check; he’s volunteered to track the total dollars raised.

Comment [16]

Campus

Can of worms

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 18. October 2005

I received notice about this in my e-mail recently:

An ad hoc group of faculty members have drafted a Letter of Support, calling on the University administration, NOT to divest from Israel/Palestine, but simply to establish an advisory committee – as per U policy – and investigate if divestment is warranted.

This is similar to the action urged by some members of MSA last year, including myself. However, our resolution was defeated, amidst a fiesty 500-strong crowd in the Union Ballroom.

That was a crazy night.

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Politics

Nazis Spark "Rioting" in Nearby Toledo

Posted by Ari Paul on 15. October 2005

“A neo-Nazi group’s scheduled march against “black crime” in Toledo, Ohio, sparked rioting Saturday afternoon,” The Cable News Network reports tonight.

It goes on:

Toledo Mayor Jack Ford declared a state of emergency and asked for 50 highway patrol officers to reinforce Toledo police. An 8 p.m. curfew will be in effect for people “roaming around the streets,” he said.(Watch neo-Nazi protests turn violent)

He also blamed gang members for the violence, saying it turned into “exactly what they wanted,” referring to the Nazi group. Ford said he had appealed to the community Friday night to ignore the Nazi march.

It’s not clear why the National Socialist Movement chose north Toledo for its march, said Ford, himself African-American. “It is not a neighborhood where you have a lot of friction in the first place,” he said.

The NSM promotes itself as America’s Nazi Party and said that it was protesting black gangs, which it claimed were harassing white residents. The group said it had received support from Toledo’s white citizens and community activists.

A spokesman for the group, Bill White, blamed the riot on Toledo police, saying the police intentionally changed the group’s march route to make it collide with a counter-demonstration.

Comment [119]

Regional

Northfield Township fighting to revive US-23 expansion

Posted by Murph on 15. October 2005

Northfield Township Supervisor Mike Cicchella is apparently trying to gather support to put a US-23 expansion back in play, after the project was set aside when Granholm prioritized maintaining existing infrastructure:

“It has just become apparent that we need to work together to solve the US-23 corridor issue,’’ Cicchella told the gathering of about 15 people who included representatives from the Michigan Department of Transportation, the city of Ann Arbor, Pittsfield Township, two state representatives, the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study, the Washtenaw County Road Commission and others.
. . .
Cicchella handed out a draft letter that explains the problems with the highway, its economic importance and the need to improve it. He expects to revise the letter to get local governments and other concerned agencies along the US-23 corridor to endorse it in an effort to persuade the State Transportation Commission and Granholm to take the US-23 project off the deferred list.

“Part of this is a political issue,’’ Cicchella said after the meeting. “What we need to do is impact that.’’
. . .
Even if they manage to get the project off the deferred list, the group still will face formidable obstacles. For instance, Andrewes said, the federal government will not sign off on an environmental study until the sources of money for all phases of the project have been identified. Widening the road to three lanes is expected to cost half a billion dollars, she said.

Before procedural constraints cut the scope to the Ann Arbor – Detroit corridor, the current regional commuter rail study extended up to Lansing; Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje said Thursday that providing a commuter transit option north from Ann Arbor was still a priority, especially because of the level of traffic on US-23. Such transit would probably use the Ann Arbor Railroad’s right-of-way within Ann Arbor, and either follow that line north or involve new track within the US-23 right-of-way.

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Campus

Ludacris at UM

Posted by MarkDilley on 13. October 2005

Ludacris at Hill Auditorium November 3 at 8:00pm

Student Tickets on Sale Tomorrow- Friday Oct. 14th at noon at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (basement of the Union)

Tickets available only to students with a valid M-Card until Oct. 25th when sale becomes public. Maximum 4 tickets per person.

General Admission seats, with tickets costing $25-$30

MSA, Hillel, UAC & BTP are finally proud to present the event.

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