Archive for May, 2009

Doodle by city council meeting audience member showing comparison of Project Grow versus police discussion. "Time spent on Project Grow – $7,000; On cops – $6.8 million."

Ann Arbor City Council Meeting (May 18, 2009): Ann Arbor’s city council approved the budget for fiscal year 2010 at its Monday meeting, spending little time discussing a separate resolution key to that budget, which approved an early-retirement inducement for police officers involving a one-time payment of around $6 million – depending on how many officers take advantage of the incentive.

The fact of the lengthy discussion over much smaller items was acknowledged around the council table, with councilmember Sandi Smith (Ward 1) making a note of it when she made an unsuccessful bid to eliminate or delay the introduction of parking meters into near-downtown residential neighborhoods. Smith was comparing the relatively short discussion of parking meters (involving potential additional revenues of $380,000) to the previous deliberations on Project Grow’s funding. And in the course of the more than 45-minute deliberations on Project Grow’s $7,000 grant, Sabra Briere (Ward 1) noted: “The least expensive ones are the ones we fight the hardest over.” Briere lost her fight for the community gardening nonprofit.

The approved budget did include amendments to allocate funds for the Leslie Science and Nature Center. Also related to the budget, the two resolutions to approve fee adjustments for the community services and public services areas were approved with no deliberations by council, leaving the issues raised at the previous night’s caucus by the chair of the market commission undiscussed publicly.

In other budget business, city council passed a resolution to create a taskforce to study options for the Ann Arbor Senior Center, which is slated for closure under the FY 2011 budget plan (i.e., not the budget approved by council at this meeting).

Council also approved an extension to the purchase-option agreement with Village Green for the First and Washington parcel, gave final approval to a completely new liquor ordinance, approved increased water/sewer rates, approved grant applications for multiple properties under the greenbelt program, and asked planning commission to review the C3 zoning regulations regarding the kind of temporary outdoor sales conducted in previous years at the Westgate farmers market.

The funding of the north-south connector study was again postponed, pending coordination with the Downtown Development Authority. [Full Story]

Writing on the Fiction Writers Review, Jeremiah Chamberlin describes his experience at last weekend’s Ann Arbor Book Festival: “There’s an old adage in these parts: If you don’t like the weather in Michigan, wait five minutes. This was certainly true to form the last several days here at the Ann Arbor Book Festival. Friday dawned beautiful, cloudless and warm. Yet by the cocktail hour the sky was spitting and sputtering. Saturday, too, threatened rain. But other than a few windy gusts that lifted the tents on the Ingalls Mall, the weather held.” [Source]

Workers installing part of the "Rotations" sculpture on Friday outside the entrance to the UM Hospital. From left: Troco employees Brad Boulch, Tim Trotter, Tony Pacheco, sculptor Doug Hollis, and Troco employee Glen Steiner.

The sculpture by Doug Hollis outside the University of Michigan Hospital is a moving work of art. Literally.

Hollis – an Ann Arbor native and University of Michigan alumnus – described the piece as a “kinetic screen.” Located outside of the hospital’s main entrance, the sculpture is made entirely of stainless steel and contains rotating components that spin in the wind. Hollis explained that wind, water and motion are the main elements of his artistic vocabulary.

The university commissioned the sculpture, called “Rotations,” to honor the memory of the University of Michigan Medical Center transplant team who died when their plane crashed into Lake Michigan in June 2007. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor District Library board meeting (May 18, 2009): A new budget, a new agreement with the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library, an upcoming documentary on the building of the Traverwood branch and a broken freight elevator were all items of discussion at Monday’s AADL board meeting. As discussed at their April meeting, the board voted to lower the tax rate that the library levies, citing the struggling economy and a desire to keep taxes as low as possible. Economic conditions were also the reason for keeping AADL director Josie Parker’s salary unchanged, though the board commended her performance as part of her annual review. [Full Story]

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Comcast is improving in customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The article quotes Claus Fornell, director of the study and a UM business professor: ”It’s a huge jump. We rarely see big moves like that. But of course it’s coming from a low base.” [Source]

Newsweek publishes a Q&A with Timir Baman, a cardiac fellow at the UM Hospital and part of Project My Heart-Your Heart, which is partnering with local funeral homes to extract pacemakers to be sterilized and reused in the Philippines, Ghana, Nicaragua and Vietnam. Says Baman: “Our ultimate goal is to create a reproducible model that can be utilized at other academic institutions. We hope to lay the groundwork and show other institutions that a pacemaker reutilization program can be established. We hope to meet with the FDA this summer and create a clinical trial so that we can study the efficacy of device donation to Third World countries on a large-scale basis.” [Source]

Ann Arbor City Council Sunday caucus (May 17, 2009): At its Sunday night caucus, city council heard from several residents, many of them opposed to the closing of the senior center in FY 2011. They also heard from the chair of the city’s market advisory commission, expressing that body’s opposition to proposed fee increases for farmers market stall rental. Opposition to the plan to introduce parking meters in residential areas close to the downtown was also well represented.

Also related to parking, the author of a recent letter from the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, which raised the possibility of an environmental lawsuit based on the planned underground parking structure, came to caucus to respond to any questions councilmembers might have. And the developer for City Apartments, a residential and parking project approved for the First and Washington site, attended caucus to ask for an extension to the option agreement.

In the course of the evening’s conversation, council heard again the criticism from a resident that the focus on smaller budget items costing as little as $7,000 distracted from the focus on the bigger picture.

Councilmembers had no issues among themselves they wanted to discuss publicly at caucus. [Full Story]

The Vandenberg Room at the Michigan League was packed for a state legislative hearing on funding for higher education.

The three presidents of institutions in Michigan’s University Research Corridor – backed by students and economic development leaders from each region – testified at a state Senate Higher Education Subcommittee hearing on Friday held in Ann Arbor, making a plea for additional state funding. But while legislators at the hearing acknowledged the importance of higher education, they also gave a bleak outlook for Michigan’s financial health, with one senator describing state revenues as “almost in a freefall.”

State Sen. Jim Barcia, a Democrat from Bay City, told the 50 or so people gathered at the Michigan League that a revenue estimate released earlier in the day was “worse news than anticipated.” The Senate Fiscal Agency estimated that revenues could be $2.1 billion lower than projected for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Even in the current fiscal year, the state faces a $1.3 billion deficit that has prompted another round of cuts. Despite that, Barcia said the students who testified on Friday – including a recent University of Michigan graduate who has launched a new company – gave him reason for optimism. [Full Story]

The New York Times reports that newspaper professionals no longer dominate the nation’s top journalism fellowship programs. The article quotes Charles Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Fellows at UM: “People are afraid that if they leave, at a time when newspapers are laying people off, their jobs won’t be waiting when they come back – and they’re right to think that. The fall-off in newspaper applicants is disproportionately from the big corporations, the big and medium-sized papers, where most of the layoffs have been. The smaller ones are still enthusiastic contributors to fellowship programs.” [Source]

Ann Arbor Public Art Commission (May 12, 2009): Members of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent much of their recent monthly meeting talking about their plan for the next year and projects they should tackle. They also discussed upcoming events, including AAPAC’s open house on May 21, a joint meeting with the DDA board on May 26, and the Golden Paintbrush awards on June 1. [Full Story]

Ed Brayton posts a review of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, who performed at The Ark on May 16: “The Ark, by the way, is a private club that only sells beer and wine for alcohol. And I doubt the club had any idea what they were in for by bringing in RCPM. About 20 minutes into the set when Roger asked who had brought the tequila, about a dozen people started passing flasks and pints toward the stage. Which all set the stage for their famous hymn to the Mexican liquor gods, Jack v Jose.” [Source]

Marianne Rzepka

We have had a whole bunch of the stuff that brings May flowers in the past few weeks, so a lot of gardeners have spent time indoors, hoping that the necessary showers won’t wash out the tender tulips, daffodils, crocuses and other spring-blooming bulbs that have already started to bloom.

Some would-be gardeners wish they had some showy spring bulbs to worry about. But though they missed the first wave of fall-planted bulbs, they shouldn’t worry, because they can plant some summer-blooming
flora now.

These bulbs, tubers and corms give a great show when they bloom. The downside is they can’t survive our tough winters. That’s why we have to put them in the ground in the spring. Some bulbs need some cold weather before they’ll bloom, and that’s why Miami doesn’t have a tulip festival. But summer-bloomers like gladiolas, dahlia, calla and canna just can’t take that kind of refrigeration. Leave them in the ground through the winter and you’ll most likely get squat the next summer. [Full Story]

Reuters publishes a Q&A with David Brophy, a UM business professor and founder of the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, talking about the state’s startup culture. Says Brophy: “Along with a steady stream of research, we’ve got a rich pool of talent in tacit engineering skills here, ingrained practical manufacturing skills, based upon experience and engineering education. With an excellent quality of life, we are able to attract management talent from other parts of the country and retain our graduates at an increasing rate.” [Source]

The Freep notes that state Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-Chelsea, supports a plan to raise the gas tax and the cost of car registration fees. Byrnes is chair of the House Transportation Committee, which began hearings on Thursday for the plan that aims to add $1.8 billion more in revenue for road repairs by 2014. [Source]

In a letter to Ann Arbor’s mayor and city council, Noah Hall, executive director of the The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit, has raised the specter of an environmental lawsuit filed against the city of Ann Arbor. At issue is whether the city’s planned underground parking garage on Fifth Avenue violates the Michigan Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). The bond issuance for the project, for an amount not to exceed $55 million, was approved by city council at its Feb. 17, 2009 meeting. As of Friday, May 15, 2009, bonds have still not yet been issued, according to Tom Crawford, the city’s chief financial officer. [text of Hall's letter]

Joining Hall as signatories to the letter are Henry L. Henderson (Natural Resources Defense Council), Stuart Batterman (environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan), David Yves Albouy (economics at the University of Michigan), Doug Cowherd (Sierra Club-Huron Valley Group), Tom Whitaker (Germantown Neighborhood Association), as well as two other Ann Arbor residents.

In an emailed response to The Chronicle reacting to a previous draft of Hall’s letter circulated two months ago (which covered substantially the same issues), Leigh Greden (Ward 3) stated: “A lawsuit alleging that the parking garage violates MEPA would be frivolous,” contending that the standard suggested by Hall would make any construction project non-compliant with the MEPA.

Still, based on background sources for The Chronicle,  the project has been slowed somewhat by the extra unknown of a lawsuit. We’ll track this dispute as it evolves, and will hopefully be able to gain some insight into any planned next steps from councilmembers at their Sunday night caucus.

Meanwhile, what exactly is the MEPA standard to which Hall appeals in his letter to the Ann Arbor city council? Two key aspects to consider in evaluating a MEPA claim are (i) standing, and (ii) cause. The first relates to those who are allowed to bring a suit in a MEPA case. [Full Story]

Motown-Ann Arbor Hash House Harriers on a recent run, navigating a shiggy trail in Ypsilanti Township.

At the sound of a toy plastic horn, a pack of runners jogs down a road to nowhere and onto a faint trail in an undeveloped subdivision in Ypsilanti Township. The front runners point out white dots of flour on the ground and holler “On-On!” to let the others know they’re on trail.

When they reach a floury white “X,” one runs ahead in each likely direction to look for the three white dots that mark the real trail. In moments, “On-on” echoes through the woods from one direction and the whole pack turns and plunges down a steep bank, crossing a flooded ditch on what looks like an old section of privacy fence.

As they disappear into the woods, “On-on”s blend with birdsongs and the squawking of a duck. When they emerge, scratched and dirty somewhere on the other side, there will be beer.

The Motown-Ann Arbor Hash House Harriers describe themselves (as do hashers around the world) as a drinking club with a running problem. Some of the club’s 80 members started hashing for the exercise, but they keep hashing for the camaraderie. Any exercise incurred along the way is somewhat incidental – a side effect of getting from one “beer check” to the next. [Full Story]

Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners administrative briefing (May 13, 2009): Commissioners attending Wednesday’s meeting were briefed on several items coming up on their May 20 agenda, including some related to Head Start funding, community development and approval of the county’s operating millage, which will remain unchanged from the current year. But for much of the hour-long briefing, they discussed a resolution proposing cuts to the $600,000 allotted annually for commissioners  – a resolution that stands a good chance of being amended, tabled or withdrawn from the agenda completely. [Full Story]

A Hamburger Today posts a review of Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger on South Division: “Part theatre, the cooks behind the counter engage in a sort of Soup Nazi berating of customers that do not follow the cafeteria-style rules of ordering. ‘Just answer the questions I’m asking you,’ grill cook Brian told a group of newcomers the first time I visited. In reality, the rules are there to help you, not scare you. They are there to allow the cooks to get your food to you fast, which is a good thing because you’ll need this burger in your mouth as soon as possible.” [Source]

A Freep article about Detroit’s two public pension plans possibly breaking the law by destroying travel records soon after they close their books for the year quotes Ann Arbor attorney Bob Stevenson: ”Let’s face it, there may be a big component of junketeering that goes on with these seminars. To destroy these particular records as soon as the audit occurs means they’re being destroyed as soon as possible, and to me that just seems inconsistent with a willingness to allow meaningful inquiry into whether these are reasonable and necessary expenses. Auditors do not do that kind of thing.” [Source]