Editor’s note: This column appears regularly in The Chronicle, roughly around the third Wednesday of the month. 

David Erik Nelson

This installment of the column will be published in two parts. Mostly that’s because Nelson wrote too many words this month.

Listen: I’m fully aware that a healthy, employed man in a functioning industrialized democracy kvetching about his phone service is basically the canonical First World Problem.

In my defense, this is illustrative kvetching; c’mon, it’ll be fun!

I have AT&T for my home phone and high-speed Internet service. In September last year this service took a nose dive; suddenly my Internet connection would suffer hours-long periods of dropping, negotiating, reconnecting, then dropping again – a process that I could readily monitor, since my phone line was now so lousy with modem whistles that I could hear little else (although callers could hear me with crystal clarity, which made me sound somewhat prematurely demented as I hollered for them to speak up over all the damn noise). [Full Story]

How do Ann Arbor’s land use policies affect where people live and work, and the way they get from one place to another? What is the city doing to support sustainable approaches?

Joe Grengs, a University of Michigan associate professor of urban and regional planning, and Ginny Trocchio, who manages the city's greenbelt program, were among the speakers at a Feb. 9 sustainability forum.

Issues of land use and accessibility were the topic of a sustainability forum on Feb. 9, the second in a series that’s part of a broader city sustainability initiative. During the forum, city staff also unveiled a set of draft goals for Ann Arbor related to four general sustainability themes: Resource management; land use and access; climate and energy; and community.

Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff, told the audience that the 15 draft goals were extracted from more than 200 that had been identified in existing city planning documents. The hope is to reach consensus on these sustainability goals, then present them to the city council as possible amendments to the city’s master plan.

Speakers at the Feb. 9 forum included Joe Grengs, a University of Michigan associate professor of urban and regional planning; Susan Pollay, executive director of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority; Eli Cooper, the city’s transportation program manager and member of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board; Jeff Kahan of the city’s planning staff; Ginny Trocchio, who manages the city’s greenbelt program; and Evan Pratt of the city’s planning commission.

A Q&A followed presentations by the speakers and covered a wide range of topics, including thoughts on the proposed Fuller Road Station. The following day, Feb. 10, the city and University of Michigan announced plans to halt the initial phase of that controversial project – a large parking structure near the UM medical campus.

The topics of the series of forums reflect four general sustainability themes: Resource management; land use and access; climate and energy; and community. The first forum, held in January, focused on resource management, including water, solid waste, the urban forest and natural areas.

All forums are held at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library and are being videotaped by AADL staff. The videos will be posted on the library’s website. Additional background on the Ann Arbor sustainability initiative is on the city’s website. See also Chronicle coverage: “Building a Sustainable Ann Arbor,” and an update on the project given at the November 2011 park advisory commission meeting. [Full Story]

Almost exactly one year ago, on the rainy evening of Feb. 17, 2011, Chronicle reader Matt Hampel filed a 13-word Stopped.Watched. item about pavement problems on Huron Street: “Looks like southern lane of Huron west of Seventh has buckled. Police, flares.”

Is Ann Arbor the kind of city where even the potholes are heart-shaped? (Photo illustration by The Chronicle.)

A visit to the scene by The Chronicle found city crews wrapping up their work, filling in some potholes in both the eastbound and westbound lanes.

Unknown to The Chronicle at the time, another reader, Eric Wucherer, had encountered the potholed pavement on Huron Street that same evening, sustaining two flat tires.

And Wucherer was not the only driver to sustain vehicle damage due to the same set of potholes. As he described it in the web-based service request that he logged near midnight: “Pulled over behind someone with a flat tire from the same pothole, who was able to deploy their spare tire. With 2 flats, I got towed …”

Over the next few months, Wucherer filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records of complaints made about potholes at that location. He filed a claim with the city’s board of insurance administration – it was denied. He filed an appeal of the denial – it was rejected.

Then Wucherer did something at that point in the process that no one else has tried in assistant city attorney Bob West’s recollection over the last 16 years: Wucherer filed against the city of Ann Arbor in the small claims division of the 15th District Court.

Under Act 236 of 1961, attorneys aren’t allowed to argue on behalf of clients in small claims court. But defendants in small claims court – in this case, the city of Ann Arbor – are allowed to demand that the case be removed from small claims to the general civil docket. And the city of Ann Arbor exercised its right to do that. That permitted West to handle the case.

The case was set up for West to argue, among other things, a standard governmental immunity defense on behalf of the city. But before Wucherer and West squared off – in a case that had been assigned to be heard by then-judge Julie Creal – the city offered to settle the claim.

And on Sept. 22, 2011 the city’s board of insurance administration authorized a settlement with Wucherer for $568.16. In his claim he’d asked for $750 to cover damage to tires, wheels and an axle.

In reporting this article, The Chronicle reviewed nearly a year’s worth of vehicle damage claims brought before the board of insurance administration. They included a range of vehicle damage – allegedly caused by potholes, garbage trucks, a police car, or falling tree branches.

After the jump we take a brief look at the defense the city would have made in court in the Wucherer pothole case, and the way the city approaches pothole repair, as well as some of the other types of vehicle damage claims. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting (Feb. 8, 2012): At a meeting of the AAPS board of education with a relatively light agenda, trustees discussed the anticipated state education funding incentives revealed by Gov. Rick Snyder last week.

AAPS board member Christine Stead. Across the table from Stead (and Deb Mexicotte, who's seated to Stead's right out of the frame) are board members Glenn Nelson and Susan Baskett. (Photos by the writer.)

Contending that any increases would do little to rectify the compounding losses of funding since the passage of Proposal A, trustee Andy Thomas summarized the state’s budget plan as: “One hand giveth and the other hand taketh away.”

Trustees also agreed to move to a paperless system of board documents. In other business, the board agreed to change the district’s liability insurance carrier, and joined an emerging advocacy group – the Washtenaw Alliance for Education.

Also at the meeting, the board heard from two sets of students, after making a conscious effort recently to increase student engagement at the board level.

The board also engaged in an uncommon back-and-forth with members of the audience, which stemmed from public commentary about a Thurston Elementary School teacher who’s been placed on administrative leave.  [Full Story]