Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Flood Mitigation Plan Public Engagement Session

Posted by Juliew on 29. June 2005

TODAY! Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00 p.m.

The City of Ann Arbor Systems Planning Unit invites you to come and share your opinions about potential mitigation activity in the City’s floodplains. “Mitigation is defined as any action taken before, during or after a disaster to permanently eliminate or reduce risks to human life and property from natural, technical or societal hazards.” (From the City of Ann Arbor Hazard Mitigation Plan, November 2004.)

Council Chambers
Ann Arbor City Hall
100 N. Fifth Ave.

Sorry for the very late post. Hopefully anyone interested will be able to attend.

UPDATE, 2 July, Murph:

Jerry Hancock, of the City Public Services department, says,

We had a fairly low turnout for the meeting Wednesday, so we will likely hold another meeting the later half of July.

In the meantime, if you would like to see what we are up to, you can view an early power point at about the project at the City web site:

http://www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/CityAdministration/EnvironmentalCoordination/index.html

Also the presentation from Wednesday night will be rebroadcast on CTN:
Sun., 7/3 at 4:00 p.m.
Fri., 7/8 at 10:00 a.m.

Comment [13]

Students & Expats: Vote in the primaries

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 29. June 2005

Registered to vote in Ann Arbor? Out of town for the summer? The College Democrats’ blog has the step-by-step for registering to vote absentee in the August 2nd primary :

1. Find out if and where you are registered by calling the Ann Arbor city clerk @ (734) 994-2725

2. Download and fill out this handy Absentee Voter Form

3. Mail to: City Clerk’s Office
100 N. Fifth Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

4. You will receive your ballot in the mail, fill it out and make sure they get it before 8 p.m. on Aug. 2nd

BAMN Activist Murdered

Posted by Ari Paul on 27. June 2005

Joe Wagner, an activist with BAMN, was stabbed to death on Saturday night in Detroit.

Comment [13]

Calthorpe study schedule announced

Posted by Murph on 26. June 2005

The public workshops included in the Calthorpe Associates’ Downtown Development Strategies study of Ann Arbor’s downtown zoning have been scheduled. MLive’s version being easier to copy/paste than the City’s PDF:

Interactive public design workshops

All workshops will be held in the ballroom on the second floor of the Courthouse Square Senior Apartments, 100 S. Fourth Ave.

  • 6-9 p.m. July 28
  • 6-9 p.m. Sept. 22
  • 6-9 p.m. Nov. 3

At the first workshop, participants will be grouped into design teams and asked to use streetscape maps and icons to collaboratively develop a preferred approach to future growth downtown.

The two subsequent workshops will refine the preferred downtown development strategy directions and identify zoning inconsistencies.

Public lectures on urban development

  • July 27: Regionalism and urbanism by Peter Calthorpe, author of “The Regional City’’ and principal in Calthorpe Associates; 7-8:30 p.m., Courthouse Square Senior Apartments ballroom, 200 S. Fourth Ave.
  • Sept. 8: Retail economics by Robert Gibbs, urban planner; 7-8:30 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Multipurpose Room, 343 S. Fifth Ave.
  • Sept. 15: Transportation, by Walter Kulash, traffic expert; 7-8:30 p.m., Architecture Auditorium, Bonisteel Boulevard, University of Michigan North Campus.
  • Oct. 20: Zoning policy and land use by Rick Hills, U-M professor of law; 7-8:30 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Multipurpose Room, 343 S. Fifth Ave.
  • Oct. 27: Architecture and design guidelines, moderated by Douglas Kelbaugh, dean of the U-M College of Architecture and Urban Planning, 7-8:30 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library, Multipurpose Room, 343 S. Fifth Ave.

For project updates, log on to www.a2gov.org/downtown.

(Note that the “project updates” link currently points to a page on tomorrow night’s “town hall meeting” on the three-site plan and greenways).

"Is the greenbelt truly regionalism?"

Posted by Murph on 25. June 2005

The Ann Arbor News editorializes in the “News” section that the greenbelt does indeed constitute regionalism, citing exactly one opinion on the question:

The city of Ann Arbor’s greenbelt program, approved by voters in 2003, is another example of regionalism, several planners and preservationists said. The program uses revenue from Ann Arbor taxpayers to preserve farmland and open space primarily outside the city limits.

Fundamentally, it is regionalism because it is thinking about the larger community outside of one’s own borders, said Barry Lonik, a Washtenaw County-based land preservation consultant.

“Crossing political boundaries = true regionalism.” Any person here could have written a more thorough and balanced article on the question of the greenbelt, so, go for it:

Comment [81]

Pizza Drivers Unite!

Posted by MarkDilley on 25. June 2005

Wow, this is happening “Up-North.” Domino’s Pizza, a Michigan based chain started in Ypsilanti is fighting the organizing of its drivers.

Citing unfair mileage compensation, lack of health and dental benefits, and a lack of safety training, and the employer not reimburseing the drivers for commercial liability insurance, as reasons for wanting union representation, an overwhelming number of the drivers have signed authorization cards asking the union to represent them for pruposes of collective bargaining.

via Labor News Network

>Domino’s union vote challenged 2-2 vote in Ohio should be 2-1, drivers’ union says

>Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers

Comment [3]

Kang Literature Posted

Posted by Rob Goodspeed on 24. June 2005

I just posted the text and a PDF of a flyer developed by Eugene Kang’s campaign for City Council on my blog. It includes a letter of introduction and a summary of his campaign platform, which includes “Increasing Fiscal Responsibility,” “Making Ann Arbor More Affordable,” “A Practical Approach to Downtown Density,” and this:

Listening to Every Voice
– The Arbor City Council is not representative of Ann Arbor’s population. University of Michigan students are Ann Arbor residents. Their views should be represented on the City Council. An accusation often leveled against my generation is that we are politically apathetic. My peers and I are working hard to change this perception.
– Young people do care about politics and I believe that the student body does care about the greater Ann Arbor community.

> Read the whole document

Comment [6]

US Supreme Court upholds eminent domain for private redevelopment

Posted by Murph on 23. June 2005

The United States Supreme Court today ruled in favor of the City of New London, CT’s power to use eminent domain to take (with just compensation) private property from one owner in order to clear the way for private redevelopment. The majority opinion was written by Justice Stevens, with “stinging” dissent by O’Conner, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas.

The key distinction in the case was whether a local government’s power of eminent domain could be used to acquire land for a public purpose that was not a public use – with “slum” clearance or “economic development” often used as “public purposes” that involve delivering land to private developers; taking property for a “public use”, such as a street, school, police station or other publicly held building, is not questioned.

This ruling is the opposite of one made last summer by the Michigan Supreme Court last summer in County of Wayne v. Hathcock, in which that court declared only public uses to be valid results of eminent domain actions, overturning and criticizing its own 1981 Poletown ruling.

Comment [17]

Sleep it off

Posted by Josh Steichmann on 22. June 2005

Ann Arbor’s country-fried white boy rockers (honestly, that’s what they called themselves in the email) Porchsleeper have a new album out.
Out on TEH INTARWEB!
You can download all of the songs at http://www.porchsleeper.com/preview/

Now you can listen to local music without worrying if the dipshits at Current are just slagging it because they’re mean drunks!

Comment [9]

Zack Denfeld: free soup on State Street

Posted by Murph on 22. June 2005

Zack Denfeld is serving coffee and soup daily in front of the WORK gallery on State Street as an exercise in conversation and part of an exhibit inside. Coffee is served at 7am 9:00 – 9:10am and soup at noon, with additional evening events.

Tonight at 6pm, City Councilmember Jean Carlberg will be stopping by for dinner, which Zack currently plans as spring rolls and peanut-yam soup (all vegetarian): “Come eat and share ideas about the future of Ann Arbor, and go with us on a walking tour of AA graf.”

Zack will be at WORK for the next two weeks, with the soup, passer-by, and events blogged at AASwarMArt.

Comment [4]

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