Brown Recommended for N. Main Group
At its May 23, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor public art commission (AAPAC) unanimously recommended that Connie Rizzolo Brown be nominated for a position on a task force to study the corridor along North Main Street and the Huron River. That recommendation will be forwarded to mayor John Hieftje.
The task force was established by the city council at its May 7, 2012 meeting, with membership to include the following: one member of the park advisory commission, one member of the planning commission, one resident representing the Water Hill neighborhood, one resident representing the North Central neighborhood, one resident from the Old Fourth Ward, one resident representing the Broadway/Pontiac neighborhood, two business and property owners from the affected area, and one member of the Huron River Watershed Council.
At its May 21 meeting, the two sponsors of the resolution that created the task force – Ward 1 councilmembers Sabra Briere and Sandi Smith – proposed adding three additional representatives: a member of the city council, someone from the boating/fishing community of river users, a representative from the Huron River Citizens Association. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), who also serves on AAPAC, then proposed an amendment to add an AAPAC member to the task force. The AAPAC addition was passed by council on a 6-5 vote. [See Chronicle coverage: "Positions Added to North Main Task Force"] Appointments are expected to be made at the council’s June 4 meeting.
At AAPAC’s May 23 meeting, Derezinski told commissioners that “basically, we need someone at the table.”
The task force is charged with delivering a report to the city council more than a year from now – by July 31, 2013 – that describes “a vision to create/complete/enhance pedestrian and bike connection from downtown to Bandemer and Huron River Drive, increase public access to the river-side amenities of existing parks in the North Main-Huron River corridor, ease traffic congestion at Main and Depot at certain times of a day and recommend use of MichCon property at Broadway; …”
Earlier than that – by the end of 2012 – the task force is to make recommendations on the use of the city-owned 721 N. Main parcel.
Brown has served on AAPAC since early 2009, and has chaired the commission’s projects committee. She is a principal of Rizzolo Brown Studio, an Ann Arbor architecture firm.
This brief was filed from the basement conference room of city hall at 301 E. Huron, where AAPAC held its meeting. A more detailed report will follow.
AT&T Wireless has been down all day in Ann Arbor and throughout parts of the Midwest.
ChrisW,
Are you speculating there’s a connection between the backup of cars and AT&T wireless being down? (Or should I set that up as a separate Stopped. Watched. item? Actually kind of rooting for an odd connection between AT&T and cars …)
Well – the connection for me is I saw all the traffic, it seemed odd, decided to call my brother to ask if he has heard what was up and then couldn’t get through. “All circuits are busy”. Since that had never happened before, I had a moment of concern that they might be linked. And called someone with a land line for assurance. My brother is on AT&T wireless.
So there is my odd connection. You just never know when there might be a strange crisis, and two events converging had me speculating. I was also out in the woods when the towers came down on 9-11.
Here’s a roundup of power (and iPhone) troubles:
http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2008/12/dte-power-outage-on-28-december-2008-takes-down-att-iphone-wireless-service.html
Bits and pieces of town are without power still, and the official as I can tell DTE word is that it might take a couple of days to get power restored. Contemplating calling DTE PR as a “correspondent” of some local journalistic enterprise to get more details.
Main Street was clogged from at least 11 to 2 Sunday because M-14 was shut down in both directions between Main Street and Miller. Don’t know why, just saw WCRC blocking eastbound traffic at Miller as I was getting on westbound.
M-14 between US-23 and I-94 was closed for a while on Sunday due to downed power lines.