Archive for January, 2010

Ann Arbor City Council Sunday caucus (Jan. 3, 2010): As construction gets started on the underground parking garage on the former surface parking lot next to the downtown library, the city of Ann Arbor is trying to answer the question: What goes on top?

Tangerine Tower is not an alternate proposal for the Library Lot development. But in providing an illustration to accompany an article, sometimes you go to press with the fruit you have, not the fruit you wish you had.

A committee appointed to review the proposals submitted for the city-owned parcel, known as the Library Lot, recently dropped two of those proposals from consideration. [Chronicle coverage: "Two Library Lot Proposals Eliminated"]

The two proposals – one from Ann Arbor residents Alan Haber and Alice Ralph, and the other from a local developer, Dahlmann Apartments Ltd. – both envision the top of the underground garage primarily as open space.

At Sunday’s city council caucus, seven supporters of an open-space use for the Library Lot outnumbered the four councilmembers who attended: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and mayor John Hieftje.

Conversation at caucus was devoted almost exclusively to the RFP (request for proposals) process and dissatisfaction with its preliminary outcome. On the council’s Monday night agenda is a resolution sponsored by Briere that seeks – “delicately,” in Briere’s words – to address some of that dissatisfaction.

Briere likened the winnowing down of the alternatives in advance of public participation to asking someone if they’d like an apple or a pear – you might get a different answer, she said, if you ask, “What kind of fruit would you like?” Maybe, she said, people want grapefruit. [Full Story]

A report on NPR’s All Things Considered looks at the overhaul of the teacher training program at UM’s School of Education, called the Teacher Education Initiative. The piece quotes the school’s dean, Deborah Ball: “Image the difference between learning about child development, which is unquestionably helpful, and learning how to have a sensible interaction with a child, which permits you to know exactly what’s going wrong right now with that child’s reading, or why is this error occurring over and over again in math. That’s actually being able to do something with that knowledge.” [Source]

The Meet at Yellow Door blog describes the Yellow Door’s Dec. 31 breakfast in Chelsea, with food prepared by volunteer chef Craig Common of The Common Grill: “Bugles blared intermittently from the Kids Room between bites of Jiffy muffins and delicious grapes. Laughter rang out throughout the morning. And while we filled the house and rotated guests in and out, we never had a wait for a seat.” The breakfast, held each Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., benefits the Chelsea Community Kitchen, a training center and incubator for food entrepreneurs. [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports on a new national poll from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, which shows that 27% of kids ages 9-12 and 75% of teens ages 13-17 have their own cell phones – and 87% of them are texting. The article, which highlights concerns over exchanging sexually explicit texts – known as sexting – quotes Matthew Davis, a UM Medical School associate professor and director of the Mott poll: “There is a mismatch between teens’ ability to use technology and their developmental stage, where they are best able to appreciate and understand the material they’re receiving and sending. You need to be worried about this the moment you give a phone to a child.” … [Full Story]

Editor’s note: “In the Archives” is a biweekly series on local area history.

“The nature of my invention,” wrote Ypsilanti tinsmith Mathias Stein in his 1876 patent application, “consists in the construction and arrangement of a machine for heating sad irons and roasting coffee, either simultaneously or at different times, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.”

Figure 1 from the patent application of Mathias Stein for a combination flatiron heater and coffee roaster. (Image links to higher resolution file with of all six figures from the application.)

Mathias’s intricate 6-part invention, about the size of a large desktop printer, was a tabletop stove. Over a well of coals, it simultaneously roasted coffee and heated solid metal flatirons for ironing clothes, called “sad irons” – one old meaning of “sad” is dense or solid.

Mathias probably had high hopes for his two-in-one cast iron gadget. Shortly after his patent was granted, at age 31, he married the 28-year-old Josephine and the couple settled on Ballard Street just south of Washtenaw Avenue. [Full Story]

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In a report on Huron Valley Ambulance fire dispatch, we incorrectly reported the number of fire stations in Ann Arbor.  The city currently has five fire stations, though the numbering goes #1 through #6 – skipping #2, which was closed in 2002. We note the error here and have corrected it in the original article.

Huron Valley Ambulance supervisor Terry Pappas, working on New Year's Eve. (Photos by the writer.)

The ball in Times Square has dropped a couple hours earlier.

Now, Terry Pappas, shift supervisor at Huron Valley Ambulance, is on the line with an elderly caller who’s lying on the floor, unable to get back into her chair.

“I know you’re miserable,” Pappas comforts the caller, as they wait together for the ambulance to arrive.

And then, still lying on her side on the floor of her apartment, still audibly in distress, the caller musters a surprising bit of cheer. She offers Pappas the salutation of the night: “Happy New Year!” Pappas responds in kind. The caller tells Pappas she didn’t watch the ball drop – you know what’s going to happen, she says … it drops every year.

A few minutes later, HVA staff can be heard in the background. They confirm for Pappas that they’re on the scene, and Pappas and her crew move on to fielding other calls.

It was not by accident that The Chronicle chose to spend part of New Year’s Eve with Huron Valley Ambulance. [Full Story]

On The Bleacher Report, “Big House Bob” writes about why Saturday’s bowl games are important to the 2010 Michigan football team: “Papa Johns.com Bowl – South Carolina vs. UConn: Michigan’s first opponent in 2010 in the New Big House will be the University of Connecticut. This is will be the last time we will see UConn before they enter the Big House on Sept. 4. Michigan fans and coaches will get a chance to scout the Huskies returning players.” [Source]

Notebooks used by The Chronicle, made locally by Kate Kehoe out of recycled paper. The front and back covers are made from movie videotape boxes.

Editor’s Note: The monthly milestone column is published on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s Sept. 2, 2008 launch. It’s a chance for either the publisher or the editor of The Chronicle to touch base with readers on topics related to this publication.

There’s something hopeful about an empty notebook.

It’s all about possibilities – events that haven’t yet happened, wonky statements that haven’t yet been recorded. Blank pages don’t yet contain anything that’s indecipherable or uninspiring. All of that is still to come – for now, it’s pristine pages, and no shortage of them.

I just stocked up on a pile of new notebooks for The Chronicle. They’re made by local artisan Kate Kehoe, who fashions them from recycled paper and old movie video boxes. I take a perverse pleasure in doing a serious interview while writing in a Hellraiser III notebook.

Notebooks – empty and full – are a good way to think about starting the new year. [Full Story]

Joel Goldberg

As a benighted former president was wont to say, “Let me make one thing perfectly clear.”

My track record for New Year’s resolutions plumbs the depths of RichRod’s Michigan win percentage. Were things otherwise, the first days of 2010 would find me significantly lighter, fitter and wealthier.

But – in another context – Dr. Johnson sagely observed the triumph of hope over experience. So herewith follow 10 resolutions for current and wannabe wine lovers to consider in the New Year. One size doesn’t fit all, so pick and choose accordingly. [Full Story]

On the Garden Faerie’s Musings blog, Monica Milla solicits participants for her annual round-robin, snail-mail seed exchange: “I start the swap by placing about 30 little seed packets into a large padded envelope. I enclose the addresses of participants printed onto labels, in the order of the swap….I send the envelope to the first person on the list. When the envelope arrives, that person runs gleefully from the mailbox into the house and takes out any seed packets they want, replacing them with the same number of seed packets for the next person. They then send the packet on to the next person on the list, ideally within a few days, and so on until the last person sends it … [Full Story]

The Associated Press reports on Procter & Gamble’s approach to partnering with other companies and inventors for product development. The article quotes UM business professor Jeff DeGraff: “P&G was the poster child for this movement, showing large companies with growth challenges that this is not just for Silicon Valley or Ann Arbor.” [Source]

An NBC affiliate in New York City interviewed travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport, getting their reaction to full-body scan technology. The report quotes Divya Ammanath, who was traveling back to Ann Arbor: “For the security of hundreds of people I think it should be acceptable to be able to view a body like that just to make sure we’re all safe.” [Source]

A new TV network in Ann Arbor, Fast Michigan News (FMN), makes its debut broadcast with a summary of the previous night’s local events.
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