Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Glen Ann Place stalled by Historic District Commission

Posted by Murph on 16. September 2005

The Glen Ann Place project already approved by Planning Commission and City Council has been stalled by a Historic District Commission vote against the plan.

Supporters of the project like the $1million affordable housing fund contribution, the property taxes the project will generate for the city – $300k/year, says the News, and importantly outside of the DDA’s TIF district – the addition of residents and businesses within walking distance of many other uses, and the improvement of a currently hostile pedestrian streetscape. Members of the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, on the other hand, fear such a project on the edge of their neighborhood will encourage similar, large projects to push further into the neighborhood.

The News article linked above outlines the history of the project with HDC, CPC and the Council, and presents a picture of high tension between those groups over the project.

Comment [83]

ArborUpdate's 1000th post!

Posted by Murph on 15. September 2005

Check the url on this post – http://www.arborupdate.com/article/1000/

Thanks to all of you who have been reading the site, carrying the discussions, e-mailing tips, and giving us the encouragement we need to keep going.

A few favors to ask at this time:

First, we like feedback – both honest praise and honest criticism. Let us know what about the site you like and what you don’t like. (As a sub-question: If you read the site, but don’t comment, why not? What can we do to involve you?)

Second, if you’re interested in getting more involved, and becoming one of the crew who can make top-level posts, let us know. We’re always looking for fresh volunteers to help distribute the work.

Third, Scott has so far been hosting the site (not to mention doing all the techie work) out of pocket, and the Google ads recoup only a portion of that cost – he doesn’t complain about the cost, but he ought to. He’s looking at a lifetime hosting package to replace our current deal, and we’d like to ask for donations to help him cover the cost of that. I’ll let him explain the details, but, if you’ve ever had the urge to throw money at the site, here’s a chance to do it.

Thanks again.

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impact2005 live-blogging

Posted by Murph on 14. September 2005

I’m writing from the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce’s impact2005 event – it took me until the end of the first panel discussion to find a way to get a connection, so I’ll cover that very quickly while trying to pay attention to the second panel.

Jim Epolito of the Michigan Economic Development Corportation spoke first, with a focus on Michigan’s perception – especially self-perception. When he visits his hometown of Pittsburgh, he says, people ask when he’s coming back, and they don’t think about leaving. In Michigan, on the other hand, we have the second lowest retention of college grads – they don’t have any perception of what’s here for them, either in the job or lifestyle domains, “and we’re not doing a good job of telling them.” Image and marketing continued to be a major theme.

National Panel

The first panel featured three regional development professionals from across the country, including Greg Horowitt of San Diego’s Global CONNECT, Paul Pescatello of Connecticut’s CURE, and Leslie Rubin of Meridian Incentive Advisors, Inc, based in Indianapolis. They spoke in general terms about lessons learned from their successes.

Horowitt spoke in very Richard Florida terms, of not chasing after big companies, but cultivating talent and letting the companies come to the talent. He made the claim that “technology transfer is people”, and described knowledge and innovation as using people as “viral carriers” to spread through the economy. Pescatello seemed to focus on experience with pharmaceutical companies; he and Rubin both looked more at the relationship of governments to companies. Rubin especially spoke of avoiding local competition within a region, and encouraged regions to look at themselves as allies against common competitors – China being the easy example for manufacturing.

During the question session, Horowitt continued to focus on talent development – referring to outsourcing as a product of a skill deficit, forcing either importation of talent or outsourcing of work. When asked about how a state with bans on stem cell research and same-sex health benefits can recruit young, talented workers (a question that drew some snickers from the audience), Horowitt cited Florida’s “tech, talent, and tolerance” as the keys to innovation, while the other two shrugged off the question. When asked what advantage Southeast Michigan has over other regions, Pescatello gave the (interesting to this site) answer that a major benefit is the absence of a single, strong, central city. Lots of firms want to put operations in one-story buildings with plenty of parking at the periphery of a city, and Southeast Michigan has lots of space that fits that description. (Horowitt disagreed somewhat, looking at the economic clusters around strong central cities like San Francisco and Boston.)

Local/Regional Panel

The second panel features (present tense; I’ve caught up) three people who work with businesses locally and brought observations from their interactions: Robert Ficano, Wayne County Executive; Ken Rogers, Executive Director of Automation Alley; and Rick Snyder of Ann Arbor SPARK. The format is purely question-and-answer, so it’s harder for me to make generalizations on the fly.

All three stressed the importance of regional cooperation in economic development – no part of the region stands on its own, and bringing Toyota to Washtenaw, for example, will benefit the rest of the area through strengthening supplier chains. In order to be regionally competitive, we need to eliminate intra-regional duplication. Don’t compete within the region for business. Work to combine and streamline governmental functions – Ficano mentions the possibility of a multi-county jail to ease the regional crowding problems, rather than each county expanding jails independantly.

Attitude seems to be another theme – Snyder asked, “How many fanatics did you see at the Stadium on Saturday? How can we be more fired up over college football than in our children’s futures?” Ficano phrased it, “We’re not as good as we would like to be, but we’re not as bad as the media thinks we are.”

Transportation and communications infrastructure are seen as important, in various ways. Air transportation is a first priority for global trade, especially freight. With competitiveness “measured in hours”, there’s interest in expanding Willow Run’s runways to handle direct-to-China flights. Mass transit is getting mixed opinions. Ficano supports the Ann Arbor-Detroit rapid transit project as supporting economic development along the I-94 corridor (one of them described I-94 as a “gold coast”, between the universities, airlines, and corporate headquarters it connects); Snyder thinks it is important in long-term success, but, in the short-term, communications is more important. Rogers seems unhopeful about mass transit in Southeast Michigan’s built form – having served on SMART’s Board for a few years, he’s seen huge problems with getting people from home to transit lines, and from transit lines to work. Reinvesting in existing road infrastructure seems to be high priority. All seemed very positive about Wireless Washtenaw and similar efforts in Oakland and one other County.

Snyder thinks a problem with attracting skilled people to Michigan (or keeping them here) is the possibility of failure with no safety net. “In California, if you lose your job, you can walk down the street and get another one.” He suggests the idea of an insurance policy – allowing people who relocate to Michigan (focused on start-ups?) the opportunity to pay into a program that will help them to move anywhere they want in the country if that job disappears and they want to leave – with the hope that some of them will decide to stay. Ficano says something similar – “I’ll tell you what makes a ‘cool city’: economic opportunity.” (Is this a chicken-and-egg issue, in the Floridian view? – Ficano agreed with that question afterwards, when I asked.)

Wrap-Up

Alan Barr of Creative Change Associates, and one of the organizers, presented some summary questions to the audience:

  • Attendees felt, by a 2/3 majority, that “growing our own” businesses was a better strategy than “attracting businesses from elsewhere”.
  • The audience was evenly split between a broad, collaborative effort and a smaller, focused approach.
  • Quality of life was seen as most important (over “jobs” and “family”) to keeping people in the area.
  • “Breaking down barriers” between education, business, and government was the leading long-term priority, followed by “fixing the City of Detroit”
  • For immediate strategies, a regional asset map and 5-year plan led, followed by identifying a broader group of stakeholders and “thought leaders”, and creating assistance (and capital) for start-ups.

Roger Newton, inventor of Lipitor, claims that we need to make a strategic choice to look beyond focus and efficiency and harvest success from a wide variety of sources, referencing a metaphor of “plantation vs. rainforest” made ealier by Pescatello(?). Even while Pfizer was agglomerating and growing, the State made the choice to fund 10 biotech start-ups around Kalamazoo – broadening our opportunity for success.

Comment [29]

Michigan Daily launches blogs

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 14. September 2005

The Michigan Daily is trying to give itself a facelift these days. Today, they have launched what they’re calling ‘The Michigan Daily Weblog Network’ consisting of four blogs:
> The Game: The Official Michigan Daily Sportsblog
> The Wire: The Michigan Daily News Blog
> The Podium: The Daily Opinion Blog
> The Editor’s Page: The Weblog of Jason Z. Pesick

From the article on the blogs’ launch:

As part of our goal of providing our readers with innovative content, today The Michigan Daily launches a weblog network consisting of four blogs: a sports blog, an opinion blog, a news blog and a blog belonging to the editor in chief. You will be able to participate in discussions and debates with other readers and Michigan Daily editors. Read and then respond to what our football writers think about Saturday’s game, argue with the editorial page editor about the latest tuition increase, communicate with news editors and complain to the editor in chief about something you saw in the Daily. To join the conversation, which we’re not moderating, follow the links below. We hope to enhance campus debate and make the Daily more transparent and accountable.

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Stop sign-running cyclist charged with manslaughter

Posted by Murph on 13. September 2005

It’s not about Ann Arbor, it’s more about me getting on my soapbox and telling off all the cyclists around town who can’t bike responsibly and cause drivers to be petrified when I approach a 4-way stop sign on my bike and they don’t know what to do.

From the Associated Press:

CORVALLIS, Ore. — A bicyclist was charged with manslaughter after he ran through a stop sign and struck and killed a 71-year-old woman, police said Monday.

Jean Calder died at Good Samaritan Hospital after she was struck Friday night as she crossed a street at an unmarked crosswalk, Corvallis police Capt. Ron Noble said.

Christopher A. Lightning, 51, was charged with manslaughter and reckless driving.

“A car and a bicycle are both vehicles and if they are operated in a way that could be criminal, then charges are filed equally in both situations,” Noble said. “He was going right through a stop sign.”

Remember, cyclists – we are vehicles, not pedestrians. Ride on the road and obey all traffic laws.

And now, in an attempt to bring this back to direct local relevance, a reminder that the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study is holding a workshop this evening, 5-8:30pm, at the downtown Ann Arbor District Libary to get input for the Washtenaw County Non-Motorized Transportation Plan. This is still the early stages of the plan, so I believe that the goal at this point is to gather information on deficiencies rather than to present a plan for feedback.

Comment [54]

Airliner forced to make emergency landing

Posted by MarkDilley on 12. September 2005

Keeping an eye on all things Northwest:

A Northwest Airlines plane made an emergency landing over the weekend because of mechanical trouble with an engine and the landing gear.

The DC-9 was traveling from Memphis, Tenn., to Minneapolis when it was diverted to St. Louis at about 10:25 a.m. Saturday because of a report that an engine was out.

The pilot also reported trouble with the plane’s nose gear, said Eric Patton, operations specialist for Lambert Airport. The crew had to lower the nose gear manually, and passengers were instructed to bend down into a crouch position for landing.

The plane, which had 62 people on board, landed safely at about 11:15 a.m.

Some passengers said they wondered whether the problems were due to replacement workers who have been maintaining Northwest’s planes since the airline’s mechanics went on strike three weeks ago.

But Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of the striking Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, said it would be impossible at this point to say if a replacement mechanic was to blame.

> Northwest Airlines Mechanics strike

> the outdated – Northwest Airlines Strike Blog

Bomb <strike>Threat</strike> scare this morning at A2 Federal Building

Posted by Murph on 12. September 2005

KGS reports:

The Federal Building & post office on Liberty Street was evacuated this morning, closing Fourth, Fifth, and Liberty and snarling traffic during the morning commute.

From the Channel 7 site: ” According to officials, a special bomb-sniffing dog that was brought in discovered a suspicious package. The box references the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Both the bomb squad and the FBI were called to the scene.”

A citizen who works across the street from the Federal Building took these photos: http://public.fotki.com/deconstruction/bomb_squad/. The surrounding buildings were not evacuated nor even told that there was a bomb, though it was fairly obvious from the presence of the Northville Bomb Squad truck. It appears to have been defused if it was a bomb, or at least investigated and determined that it wasn’t one. The streets are now open again.

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Kerrytown Bookfest this Sunday

Posted by Juliew on 9. September 2005

The 3rd annual Kerrytown Bookfest is this Sunday, September 11 from 11:00am – 5:00pm.

Their web site has the schedule and full information.

Comment [1]

Public Policy School panel on Katrina response

Posted by Murph on 9. September 2005

Short notice, but the Policy School is hosting a panel at 3pm today, First Response to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster,

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the School of Public Health and the School of Engineering are co-sponsoring a panel discussion “First Response to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster” on Friday, September 9 th at 3:00 p.m. in the Pendleton Room of the Michigan Union on the campus of U-M. A panel of discussants will review what happened in the Gulf and why it has resulted in the largest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Coming to Ann Arbor to participate in this event is Professor Louise Comfort, a member of the faculty of public and urban affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She is widely recognized for her work in organizational theory, studying disaster response management. She has consulted for a variety of organizations; include the Public Administration and Development Management Division of the United Nations.

Nik Katopodes, Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UM’s School of Engineering will talk about his work in flood prediction and hydraulic engineering. He has written extensively on active flood hazard mitigation and the prevention of levee failure.

Matthew Boulton is in the Department of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for Practice in the School of Public Health. He is working to develop a comprehensive strategy for the School of Public Health to improve the public health workforce, establish the academic health department model, and enhance applied research. He is the Director of both the public health/preventive medicine residency in the School of Public Health and the university-wide bioterrorism preparedness initiative.

The panel will be moderated by Matthew Naud, the Environmental Coordinator and Assistant Emergency Manager for the City of Ann Arbor and a 1990 graduate of the Masters of Public Policy Program at the Ford School.

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CBC locked out

Posted by MarkDilley on 9. September 2005

One of the best things about growing up in the S.E. Michigan region is that we are a “Border Town,” meaning we get all the good radio and tv from Canadian sources.

One of my favorites to listen to is a show on 89.9 after midnight, Brave New Waves

After trying to do so this evening I realized, after my panic apon hearing classical music, that the CBC workers are locked out of their jobs. Meaning, during negotiations, management just said, we are done. Don’t come to work.

So the programming is filled with reruns, fluff and syndicated shows they can get from the BBC. The workers, who put the news and cultural programs are putting up their own amazing media:

Here are their web sites:

> CBC on the line

> CBC unplugged

Comment [2]

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