Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Solar car blog from down under

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 27. September 2005

I stumbled across the blog for the U-M Solar Car Team who are competing at the World Solar Challenge in Australia—they’re currently in 3rd, after placing 1st in North America.

The sun has just peeked out from behind the last of the clouds giving us some decent charge before sundown. Tomorrow’s run toward Adelaide will test the limits of both the teams’ cars and strategy. Many teams are within minutes of each other and any mistake could cost them their standings. The team remains upbeat and confident about tomorrow’s run and we look forward to seeing the welcome signs of Adelaide.

GO BLUE!!

Best of luck.

Comment [1]

MSA hosts 2nd Ward debate at Markley, Tuesday

Posted by Murph on 26. September 2005

Dale tracked down the following event:

This Tuesday night, September 27th at 7:30pm at the South Lounge of Markley Hall will be the MSA Sponsored Ward 2 City Council Debate. Both Tom Bourque® and Stephen Rapundalo (D) will be in attendance, along with the Michigan Student Assembly.

The debate will be limited to one half hour, allowing for each candidate to make an opening statement, answer questions from the chair, and to conclude with a closing statement. MSA President Jesse Levine will be accepting suggested questions by email at jlev@umich.edu, as well as hand-written notes before the meeting begins.

Free pizza, refreshments, and desserts will be made available thanks to the MSA External Relations Committee.

Rapundalo defeated UM student Eugene Kang in August’s primary, disappointing a number of students and bloggers who had supported Kang. Rapundalo seems friendly to student concerns, and has suggested a City-level committee made up of Councilmembers and students for the purposes of informing the student body on city issues and providing a forum for student concerns. No official proposal exists yet, but with this event and MSA’s decision to create a City Council liaison, relations seem to have moved past the earplugs-and-pinnocchio-doll stage.

If any readers make it to the event, please post your thoughts.

Comment [21]

Fleetwood NOT in immediate danger

Posted by Murph on 23. September 2005

The rumors are flying, but investigation shows no evidence that the Fleetwood is about to close/be redeveloped.

The livejournal version of the rumor reads,

Little Birdy says the city has finally approved the developments that would turn the 300 block of South Ashley into 100 condominiums, removing the current Fleetwood Diner.
. . .
For at least the past year, the block has been for sale. For nearly that long, there has been an interested buyer, a developer from Chicago who wants to clear the block to make way for new… when he came by a few weeks ago to measure the place, I asked him if the deal was through yet, he said “not quite, but nearly”...

Today, it was confirmed that the city has supposedly agreed to his terms and the sale is going through.

I don’t care if you believe it. What I’m wondering is, what does it mean to the community, will the community be willing to take action to wrench these plans, and HOW?

After asking several members of City Planning staff and Planning Commission, here’s what I find credible information:

  • A developer (probably Freed) has been looking at the “Nalli” properties – Fleetwood, Pizza Arbor, Lucky Monkey, and may have already bought them.
  • No plans have been submitted to the city for any part of that block.
  • No plans have been approved by Planning Commission, let alone City Council.
  • The Fleetwood is within a Historic District, and we’ve seen what happens when Freed comes up against the Historic District Commission…

Conclusion: Don’t panic. Further updates as events warrant.

Comment [16]

2nd Calthorpe (Scanga) public workshop talk thread

Posted by Murph on 23. September 2005

Tonight was the second workshop in the Downtown Development Strategies Workshop, at which I saw all sorts of you and, additionally, passed out our url to 120 people, so no doubt there are some people who want to talk Calthorpe. Rather than posting my own thoughts at length first this time, I’ll just provide a starting point.

And, go.

(The thread on the first Calthorpe workshop may also be useful reading for newcomers.)

Edit: Activity Description

For those who weren’t there, the workshop began with a welcome from Mayor Hieftje, including mention of the previous day’s Ann Arbor-Detroit transit meetings and the fact that 56,000(?) people commute into Ann Arbor every day. Planner Joey Scanga talking about some of the things that came out of the first workshop, and introduced local landscape architect Peter Pollack to mention the new Greenway Task Force and the Berkeley consultant chosen to do a market analysis of Ann Arbor as a “reality check” on this process’ assumptions.

Most of the workshop (almost 2 hours) was a table exercise, with each table given one of six regions of downtown that the planners had identified to work on. These regions were the Liberty corridor/”core downtown”, Huron corridor, North Main/Kerrytown, South Main/William, South University, and western edge/railway/greenway. Tables focused on more detailed examination of their assigned areas, with presentations to the group at the end (stretching on for 45 minutes past the scheduled end of the workshop).

Comment [138]

Help Us Cover Costs

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 22. September 2005

For those of you that aren’t aware, I (Scott) have been covering the hosting costs for ArborUpdate and other, semi- and unrelated projects. I’ve removed the Google AdSense advertisements, which have been a disappointing attempt to recoup some hosting costs.

Recently, an Internet Service Provider with a very solid reputation (TextDrive) began offering lifetime hosting packages for $399 (where lifetime is my lifetime or their lifetime as a business); I trust they’ll be around awhile. This deal would host this site and related projects for the foreseeable future. I am planning to cover this one-time cost myself (since I will also be hosting personal projects w/ this package), but figured I’d give you all the chance to contribute something.

If you’ve ever found this site useful/helpful and worth a few bucks, please contribute. We’re also willing to consider sponsored matching donations from local business (e.g., match up to $50 or $100 of individual donations) in exchange for some form of not-too-obtrusive advertisement (Leopold Bros., the official beer & spirits of ArborUpdate? ;) ) on the site. Any money raised beyond the hosting fees will go into a fund to be spent at the discretion of the active ArborUpdate contributors.

(Also, the nascent New West Side Association and Ann Arbor Alliance will also be hosted on this account when their site gets an overhaul.)

PayPal is the easiest way to donate—click the “PayPal Donate” button on the right. If you don’t want to use PayPal, email ArborUpdate AT gmail DOT com for alternate payment arrangement.

Comment [19]

Song for Mary Beth Doyle

Posted by MarkDilley on 22. September 2005

At My Space, local Ypsilanti musician Matt Jones has written and performed a beautiful, sorrowful song for his friend MB.

Past ArborUpdate posts:
>Trial
>Obituary

Comment [1]

Students face racial violence

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 21. September 2005

The Michigan Daily reports today on this shocking instance of racial intimidation:

The incident began when one of the suspects, a 21-year-old, allegedly urinated from a second-floor balcony on two Asian students walking down the 600 block of South Forest Avenue Thursday night.

After the couple asked why they were being urinated on, the suspect and another student reportedly began to use racial slurs disparaging the couple’s Asian heritage.

The situation escalated, according to a police report, when at least one student began throwing items, which the couple suspected were eggs, at the couple.

One of the students was immediately taken into custody. The other student who urinated on the couple, barricaded himself in the apartment, which the police could not enter without a warrant.

Comment [10]

GMC waves goodbye to reality

Posted by Murph on 21. September 2005

Two headlines from the Detroit News today:

Ford plans big hybrid push: Automaker will offer gas-electric engines in half of Mercury, Lincoln and Ford models by end of decade.

Can new lineup of big SUVs revive GM? Ailing automaker hopes 12 full-size models will invigorate a segment that has been shrinking.

Excerpts:

The first Detroit carmaker to produce a gas-electric vehicle, Ford plans to ramp up production of hybrids from several thousand in ‘05 to 250,000 by 2010, the sources said.
Ford also plans to step up development of vehicles running on alternative sources of energy, such as ethanol, and hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars in a bid to recapture the high ground from leading Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Bill Ford is a longtime champion of environmental causes, but the Dearborn automaker’s main source of profit in recent years has been gas-guzzling trucks and sport utility vehicles. Light trucks, however, are starting to lose their appeal because of high gas prices.

And,

by betting big on a redesigned fleet of 12 full-size SUVs, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade, GM is trying to buck a consumer shift toward smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and crossover vehicles.
Rising gas prices have hit the large SUV segment hard this year, with U.S. sales down 11 percent through August.
Yet GM, the biggest player in the full-size SUV market, expressed confidence that its new lineup will invigorate a segment that has been steadily shrinking.

Regional mass transit for the Motor City and surrounds?

Posted by MarkDilley on 18. September 2005

thanks for the email from Kate

> ealier ArborUpdate post

“Impossible!” you say.

But not so fast… This month the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) General Assembly is holding a series of public meetings on the possibility of an Ann Arbor-Detroit rapid transit system. The project is still in the planning stages, and support from the public is esssential.

The route is yet to be decided, but one thing that’s nearly certain is that it would have a stop at Metro airport (yay!) before going to Detroit. Just imagine—this could mean the end of the need for airport karma! It could also mean the possibility of going to a Tigers’ game or the Fox Theater without fighting traffic and circling for parking. It could save millions of gallons of gasoline consumed each year by commuters who have no other way of getting to work.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the line would provide a key opportunity for low-income Detroiters who have no way of getting out to potential jobs, which are mostly in the burbs. So, please consider attending one of the meetings planned for this month (see below) to show your support, ask questions, make suggestions, etc.

Check out AnnArborDetroitRapidTransitStudy.com for more info.

Meeting schedule:

•Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
4 p.m.–8 p.m. (presentations at 4:30 and 6:30)
Washtenaw Community College
Morris Lawrence Building, Room 103/123
4800 E. Huron River Drive

•Detroit
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
5 p.m.–8:30 p.m. (presentations at 5:30 and 6:30)
SEMCOG Offices, Buhl Building
Suite 300
535 Griswold Street

•Dearborn
Thursday, September 22, 2005
4 p.m.–8 p.m. (presentations at 4:30 and 6:30)
Ford Community Center
Studio A
15801 Michigan Avenue

Comment [22]

ABU GHRAIB: SEARCHING FOR JUSTICE

Posted by MarkDilley on 18. September 2005

Amnesty International USA (Detroit Group) and Pointes for Peace sponsor an evening with Shereef Akeel, Esq. (UM Alumn)

The lead attorney in a class action alleging widespread abuses against Iraqi detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison and other sites.
Mr. Akeel’s discussion of the suit against the private companies and government officials in charge of prisoner interrogation as well as his personal experiences in Iraq and Abu Ghraib will provide a rare, informed and thoughtful glimpse into the realities behind the headlines.

Wednesday, September 21, 7:30 P.M.
(Come at 7:00 for light refreshments and conversation)
Christ Church, 61 Grosse Pointe Blvd.,
(at Fisher Rd., behind Grosse Pointe South High School)

In an 9/10/04 article about Mr. Akeel’s work, the Detroit Free Press wrote:

The allegations raise the issue about whether abusive interrogation tactics, humiliation, and sexual abuse and harsh detention practices are commonly used by the U.S. military and the two companies with multimillion dollar contracts. . . . Akeel says he told detainees that the U.S. Constitution provides a process to correct problems and punish those who break laws. “I tell them, as bad as the abuses are, I will promise to get them aired and redressed. That’s our message. This is democracy at work.”

For more information call Amnesty International – Detroit: (313) 531-7647

Keep reading: next previous