Archive for February, 2009

The city of Ann Arbor has begun rolling out mapping services for various planning and zoning activities.  Take for example, this map of petitions currently under review. [Source]

WEMU posts an audio clip of Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber’s State of the City speech. [Source]

The Christian Science Monitor’s Patchwork Nation series checks in with Paul Dimond, an Ann Arbor attorney who worked in the Clinton administration. Commenting on the economy: “[I'm so mad] at the Republicans for putting partisan opposition ahead of national interest in solving the financial mess that W. and the Republicans oversaw for eight years in the making.” In rating the economic condition of the metro Detroit area, Dimond gives it a 2 out of 10. [Source]

The UM Students of Objectivism club – self-described as “the university’s rational egoists” and affiliated with the Ayn Rand Institute – announces its first meeting of the year today at 7 p.m. [Source]

Organizers of the Local Food Summit have posted a report on the Jan. 29 event, including some outcomes like the creation of the Washtenaw Local Food website and a calendar of local food-related events. “Although we learned some things that we could have done better in organizing the Summit (bigger space, more time for working groups, etc.), even on our shoestring budget, we felt that the enthusiasm, energy, and involvement in the room made the day a huge success. This movement, this idea that we can have food that is good for people, good for producers, and good for the planet, is only possible through our relationships with each other as a community. As Chris Bedford said in his … [Full Story]

Dream On Futon, at the southeast corner of Liberty and Ashley.

“It’s just so sad,” Doreen Collins told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning, standing in the front room of Dream On Futon. “I love this building. I love being on this corner. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like not to have this to come to every day.”

Doreen and John Collins opened Dream On Futon 15 years ago at the southeast corner of Liberty and Ashley. Last Friday, Doreen put up large “Store Closing” signs, and plans to shut down the business at the end of March. She said they just couldn’t pay their bills anymore – the monthly heating bill is around $400 – and they haven’t been paying themselves salaries for a while. [Full Story]

Agendas for Ann Arbor city council meetings have taken a step forward in accessibility.  Previously, they were presented as PDF documents with live links to the Legistar system.  It’s now possible to view an agenda as a data set of items, which are sortable not just chronologically, but by type and other categories.  They can then be exported to a variety of file formats, including PDF files. [The Chronicle has not tested out the full range of apparent functionality.] [Source]

Rumors about the transfer to another school of 2008 starting University of Michigan quarterback, Steven Threet, have now been widely confirmed. And a comment thread on MGOBLOG shows clearly that while no one can be sure of the reasons behind Threet’s sudden decision, fans aren’t reluctant to speculate. From theories of intimidation by Tate Forcier (an incoming, freshman quarterback) to a dislike for the Michigan football program, the rumors are not lacking. The question now is who will replace him. [Source]

Michigan Policy Network discusses Governor Granholm’s proposed tuition freezes in the context of the new economic stimulus plan to be signed by President Barack Obama.  Schools like the University of Michigan are facing an extra $10 million reduction if a 3% cut proposed by Governor Granholm goes through in addition to the tuition freezes that the plan calls for. MPN concludes that the question for universities like UM  is, “whether or not to freeze tuition amid the recent proposed funding cuts in hopes to gain some of the stimulus money in return.”
[Source]

The southern-most roundabout on North Maple Road was the site of teeter totter ride No. 170.

[Editor's Note: HD, a.k.a. Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle, is also publisher of an online series of interviews on a teeter totter. Introductions to new Teeter Talks appear on The Chronicle.]

I first met Zak Branigan outside the UPS store at Westgate shopping center, when I was dropping off a load in the course of my bicycle delivery duties. He’d recognized me by the sign on my bicycle trailer for ArborTeas, which is run by a friend of his, and alum of the totter, Jeremy Lopatin. [Full Story]

UM economist Matthew Shapiro is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about the impact of the federal stimulus package. Referring to a reduced tax withholding that will slightly increase the amount of take-home pay for taxpayers, Shapiro says: “Spending something that’s going to be a monthly or weekly flow would be the rational thing to do.” [Source]

Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop.

This fall and winter Shaman Drum Bookshop went into a steep financial decline. Textbook sales declined $510K from last year. We managed to cut our payroll and other operating expenses by $80K, but that didn’t begin to cover our losses.

There was some good news. Our trade (general interest) book sales on the first floor were actually up in December from last year by 10%, which is extraordinary given what many other retailers were reporting. And trades sales in January were up 15%. Still, this hardly compensates for our losses in textbook sales.

The evaporation of our position has been astonishingly swift. We had been holding relatively even financially until September. Suddenly we’ve moved into the red.

I sort of saw this coming. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor District Library Board (Feb. 16, 2009): With three trustees absent and little discussion on items in a thin agenda, Monday evening’s Ann Arbor District Library board meeting was an exercise in brevity. As is its custom, the board met in executive session an hour prior to the public portion of the meeting. The public meeting lasted 15 minutes, with financial issues touched on in several ways. [Full Story]

The Secretary of the Interior is a federal office, not a state of Michigan department as we indicated in an article about possible demolition in a historic Ditrict.  The SOI created the standards and guidelines for rehabilitation that the state of Michigan then adopted. The city of Ann Arbor uses them via state enabling legislation.  We note the mistake here and have corrected it in the original article.

The Freep features Ann Arbor’s Bollyfit, a fitness class developed by Anuja Rajendra, as an appealing alternative to boring and repetitive hours in the gym. Frustrated with her own weight gain during pregnancy, Rajendra returned to a previous vocation, dancing to the choreography and upbeat movements of the dances that Bollywood movies made famous. Rajendra is quoted in the piece saying, “I started dancing, and not only was the weight coming off, but the joy was coming back. [Source]

The Project Grow blog announces a March 14 seminar on beekeeping: “A handful of cities are allowing their citizens to keep bees to ensure that the little pollinators are around to help with the fruits and vegetables we love to eat. An exciting prospect for those who might not be interested in chickens – sweet versus savory perhaps – or for those who have chickens and want to add to their urban ranch or homestead.” [Source]

Writing on The Forest blog, yet another fan of Red Hot Lovers bemoans its closing: “When I was accepted to U of M my cousin informed me the Red Hot Lovers was one the first places that I had to go, and about every time I talk to someone about Ann Arbor, Red Hot Lovers comes up in the conversation. And so, upon my arrival in Ann Arbor in that hot and muggy midwestern June of 2006, Red Hot Lovers was one of the first places I went to go eat. Where am I supposed to take girls for the cheese fries that we have deemed ‘The most sensual meal in Ann Arbor’ now?” [Source]

City council’s regular Sunday caucus was canceled yesterday. Sunday caucus is a gathering of councilmembers every Sunday before council’s regular Monday meeting, and provides a chance for the public to hear councilmembers’ thoughts on the upcoming agenda items. It also provides an additional opportunity for the public to share their thoughts with councilmembers in a setting less formal than a public hearing or public commentary slots at council meetings. The Chronicle typically attends caucus and reports them in the Meeting Watch section.

The cancellation of caucus might have been connected to the President’s Day holiday – when there’s a Monday holiday, council’s Monday meeting slides to Tuesday. However, no specific reason was cited for the cancellation this week. [Full Story]

At its Thursday meeting, Ann Arbor’s historic district commission gave approval for the demolition of a service station at Second & West Liberty streets.

The intersection of West Liberty and Second streets, looking north to south. (Image links to Microsoft's Bird's Eye View for additional detail.) The structures proposed for possible demolition are the corner service station and the two houses next door. The greenhouse space being marketed as destination retail is at the left of the frame, across the existing parking lot from the three structures proposed for demolition.

At its next meeting in March, the HDC will consider whether to give permission to proceed in demolishing two houses next door to the service station.

The permission for demolition was sought by Morningside Ann Arbor LLC, which developed the Liberty Lofts residential project in the former Eaton factory on the same block. Morningside’s reasons for seeking permission to demolish the three structures are related to another historic structure on the block: the former greenhouse space adjoining Liberty Lofts, which runs along First Street and the railroad tracks.

In order to market the former greenhouse space to retail tenants as having potential for more parking than the current 54 spaces, Morningside wants the option of expanding parking in the area where the three structures currently stand. [Full Story]

The Green Daily blog includes UM in its roundup of how some communities are recycling food scraps:  ”The University of Michigan has been trying composting programs to varying degrees since 1998. Vermicomposting –using red worms to digest and process food – was one project. Gardens were even started to use the compost on produce the university and students maintained. The local produce was then incorporated into dishes at the U’s cafeterias. In ten years close to 400 tons of food has been composted.” [Source]

Replays of the Feb. 14 Lucy Ann Lance show on WLBY 1290-AM are now online. Part of the program focused on the federal economic stimulus package, and guests included state Rep. Pam Byrnes, Saline school superintendent Scot Graden and Tamara Real of the Arts Alliance. The show’s Hero of the Week was Fiona Rose Greenland, who started the Toy Lending Library at Bryant Community Center. [Source]

On her PopcornHomestead blog, Joan Bailey writes about plants to use in “alternative lawns,” including Buffalo grass and sedges. She provides resources for learning more about this approach. “Sedges look like grass, but are not. In the woods they often look like a wispy version of lawn grass, but upon closer inspection they have an edge. Literally. If you’ve ever pulled a piece of grass, you’ll notice that the base stem is round with a hole. A sedge is not round, but has an edge. A good friend reminded me of this little ditty: Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses, like a–es, have holes.” [Source]

The New York Times profiles Akio Toyoda, the executive who’s in line to be the next president of Toyota Motor Corp.: “Last summer, during a trip so secret that Toyota’s public relations staff didn’t know he was here, Mr. Toyoda visited a dealership in Ann Arbor, Mich., and decided to satisfy his curiosity about a pickup truck recall. Still wearing his business suit, he got down on his hands and knees on the warm blacktop to examine the undercarriage of one of the trucks, shocking his American hosts, who didn’t expect a corporate V.I.P. to be so hands-on.” [Source]

The front lawn of Stanislav Voskov's Pittsfield Township home with dandelions gone to seed. Is it natural landscaping, or just unkempt? This photo was taken in May of 2007 by a Pittsfield Township official. No citation was issued at that time., but one was issued to Voskov in June 2008 for violating a township property maintenance ordinance.

If I had to pick sides, I guess I’m anti-lawn. Come summer the small patch of land in front of our Ann Arbor home turns into a micro-garden of pole beans, potatoes and tomatoes, with orange cosmos towering in the narrow strip between the sidewalk and street. Much of our back yard is filled with an herb garden, flowers and, of course, a teeter totter.

So when Doug Cowherd of the local Sierra Club chapter contacted The Chronicle about a dispute between Pittsfield Township and a homeowner who’d been issued a citation over the condition of his yard, I was prepared to sympathize with anyone who challenges the suburbian status quo.

And then, on Feb. 5, I sat on a hard bench through 7.5 hours of testimony in Judge Cedric Simpson’s court. I heard an awful lot about cultivation, weeds, native gardens, organic gardeners, neighbors, township ordinances and the definition of hearsay. I watched a drama unfold that revealed how, in the search for a righteous cause, truth can be inconveniently difficult to discern. [Full Story]