Archive for October, 2009

The Erie Hiker blog notes that Washtenaw County “continues its buying binge along the River Raisin corridor. The most recent newsletter from Washtenaw County Parks includes news of a 22-acre expansion of the Leonard Preserve in and near the Village of Manchester in SW Washtenaw County. The Leonard Preserve includes more than 250 acres of beautiful hilly terrain, roughly five miles of trail, a beautiful hilltop scenic view and roughly 1700 feet of frontage on the River Raisin.” [Source]

The Eastern Echo, Eastern Michigan University’s student newspaper, reports that EMU’s graduation rate is 38.8% – the sixth lowest among Michigan’s public universities, according to a study by College Results Online. The University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus has the highest rate, at 88.3%. [Source]

Joan Doughty kicked off a recent forum of the Washtenaw Alliance for Children and Youth. Doughty is executive director of the Community Action Network and a WACY steering committee member. (Photo by the writer.)

In January 2008, the Washtenaw United Way announced plans to focus its funding on five areas: early childhood education and care, aging in place, food, shelter and access to health care. While they didn’t quibble with the importance of those goals, local nonprofits that work with older children were stunned that funding for K-12 kids, especially those who lived in poverty, hadn’t made the cut.

In an op/ed piece published in the April 2, 2008 Ann Arbor News, Joan Doughty, executive director of the Community Action Network, put it this way: “Nonprofit directors like myself who coordinate programs providing academic and life skills and social support to low-income and youth at risk ages 6 and up were astonished and devastated to find that this area was not represented as an established priority.”

The decision by Washtenaw United Way mobilized leaders of about 20 groups that work with school-aged children – the result is the Washtenaw Alliance for Children and Youth (WACY), a coalition that had its coming-out party at a community forum two weeks ago. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press outdoors columnist Eric Sharp writes about Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s executive order to merge the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality. The column quotes Marc Smith of the National Wildlife Federation’s Ann Arbor office: “I think it’s a good idea to merge the two departments. It will help to have noncompeting budgets, and you’ll save money because you won’t need two directors and their staffs, two legislative liaison offices, two personnel offices. It’s a chance for the DNR to redefine managing wildlife, land and waters in Michigan and bring it into the 21st Century.” Granholm’s order also makes the director of the merged department a gubernatorial appointee. Smith says: “I have huge problems with that.” [... [Full Story]

The Lansing State Journal reports that Justin Schott of Ann Arbor was one of about 1,ooo people who spent Saturday at the Michigan Powershift Summit in Lansing, an effort to do community service and raise awareness about sustainability. Schott, who’s program director of the Detroit Youth Energy Squad, was making a raised bed for an urban garden: “I’ve built some raised beds in my own garden at my home in Ann Arbor. I think this is great that we’re doing work on the ground in the community.” [Source]

Lea Detlefs (far right) and Nicole Stagg (center right), facilitators from CommonGround – part of the University of Michigan’s social justice education program Intergroup Relations – lead high school and university students from southeast Michigan in a discussion about the social barriers posed by race, religion, income level and other divisive factors in their communities as part of the University Musical Society's Freedom Without Walls Oct. 4 kickoff. (Photo by the writer.)

One summer, Lea Detlefs spent her time going to a mixed martial arts gym where the rest of the clients were male. She recalls an atmosphere of homophobia. They blasted music with lyrics she found sexist. But she never complained.

“I was afraid to speak up,” Detlefs said. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

Detlefs – a facilitator from CommonGround, part of the University of Michigan’s social justice education program Intergroup Relations – shared that anecdote with a group of students as an example of how sex, among other things, can put up invisible walls between people. The students had gathered at the UM Alumni Center to identify, discuss and break down those barriers artistically as part of the University Musical Society’s Freedom Without Walls project.

The idea for Freedom Without Walls started with one partition in particular: the Berlin Wall. In November 1989, Germans took sledgehammers to the wall dividing their capital. Now, in celebration of the 20-year anniversary of the Wall’s fall, as well as of the UMS presentation of the Berlin Philharmonic on Nov. 17, students will design public art installations meant to tear down the less visible walls that still exist in their southeastern Michigan communities. [Full Story]

On the Cousins Vinyl blog, Cousin Geoff writes about some new acquisitions: ” … Ann Arbor Sun newspapers from 1972-1974, about 30 in a row … a Bob Dylan interview, tons of coverage on the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, early Blind Pig reviews that illustrates important history, a list of who was playing at music venues in Ann Arbor and Detroit, ads for concerts, ads for local stores (the Blind Pig ad reads ‘The No Bullshit Cafe’) … ” [Source]

An article in Scientific American picks up the study by UM researchers José Tapia Granados and Ana Diez-Roux, who looked at Census Bureau data on mortality rates, life expectancy, unemployment and GDP for each year from 1920 to 1940. They found that the heart of the Great Depression saw the greatest gains in life expectancy and drops in mortality rates. And good economic times can be harder on health. Says Tapia Granados: “People tend to drink more, [and] tend to be overweight and obese during periods of economic expansion.” [Source]

On his blog “Elsewhere: One Writer’s Travels,” UM grad Matthew Thorburn writes about going to a lecture by retired UM professor Ralph Williams at a program called One Day University in New York: “In terms of pure and sweet nostalgia, I was happy to see Williams act out certain lines from King Lear, such as Gloucester’s plaintive ‘And that’s true too!’ which I remember from his lectures circa 1995. And to see the hands – even bigger than I remembered; he might have been a grand stride pianist! – in action.” [Source]

The New York Times publishes an op/ed piece by UM graduate student Ann Bell and two professors, Mark Pearlman and Raymond De Vries. They argue that the way the health care system deals with breast cancer is a detriment to quality care: “Given the haphazard growth in medical specialties and varied training programs for obstetrician-gynecologists, it is no surprise that there is a mismatch between patient needs and caregiver skills. Campaigns to raise awareness of breast cancer must do more than push for a cure. They must also seek to improve the way we organize care for those who suffer from this illness.” [Source]

Washtenaw County's preliminary 2010-2011 budget.

Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners meeting (Oct. 7, 2009): Several people arrived early for Wednesday night’s county board meeting, expecting to face the kinds of crowds who’ve packed the county boardroom at recent meetings to plead that funding not be cut for the programs they support as the county battles a projected $30 million deficit.

But seats were plentiful – a comparably light turnout that perhaps reflected two developments: 1) The county’s largest group of unionized workers ratified a deal on Tuesday, giving concessions in 2010 and 2011 that will save the county millions over that two-year period; and 2) an amendment to the proposed budget would restore some of the previously anticipated cuts to human services nonprofits.

The board also gave initial approval – with two commissioners dissenting and a third giving only partial support – to a tax for economic development efforts, which includes support for programs focused on local agriculture. They approved a tax to raise funds for indigent veterans services. And they got an update from Jennifer Watson, the county’s budget manager, who walked commissioners through the roughly three-pound preliminary budget book for 2010-2011. Details on all of this, plus environmental awards and a report from the Huron River Watershed Council, after the jump. [Full Story]

A Time magazine article on the future of electric vehicles quotes Dean Greb, a retired Chrysler marketing executive who lives in Saline: “People don’t fully understand the concept because they don’t see a lot of electric cars and they don’t know the trends. It will take funding and time to put in electric charge stations along the route and to promote the concept and to create events that draw people to spend their vacations driving from town to town.” [Source]

John U. Bacon

And so, it’s done. The Detroit Tigers’ once promising season ended Tuesday in a cataclysmic collapse.

In the American League’s Central Division, Sports Illustrated had picked the Tigers to finish next to last. But by September, they had built a seemingly insurmountable seven-game lead. The team was a tonic for a troubled town in a troubled time. Some pundits even claimed the Tigers season was a metaphor for a Motown renaissance. They started comparing this team to the 1968 Tigers, and the role they played in healing a city that had been torn apart the summer before.

On July 23, 1967, the long-simmering tensions between the police and the people finally boiled over into a full-blown race rebellion – or riot, depending on whom you ask – that lasted five days, the worst in American history.

Enter the 1968 Tigers. [Full Story]

Ready to launch from the lip of the Riley Skatepark in Farmington Hills, Michigan. (Photo by the writer)

Last Saturday, the Ann Arbor Skatepark Action Committee loaded up the french-fry-oil fueled BTB Party Bus with as many local decision-makers as it could find and steered a course for Farmington Hills.

They wanted to show city councilmembers, park advisory commissioners and staff planners first hand what a free concrete skatepark looked like.

The field trip itself was meant in part as fuel for the imagination as the committee rolls towards an Oct. 18 skatepark design workshop, which starts at 2 p.m. at Slauson Middle School, located at 1019 W. Washington. It’s free and open to the public.

The planned location for the park is the northeast corner of Veterans Memorial Park at the intersection of Maple Road and Dexter Avenue, on Ann Arbor’s west side.

Almost a year ago, at its Dec. 1, 2008 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council passed a memorandum of intent to develop a skatepark at the Veterans Park location. Now the question facing skatepark supporters is: Where’s the money for building and maintaining the skatepark going to come from? [Full Story]

Last week's groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fifth Avenue underground parking garage. Left to right: Susan Pollay, Leigh Greden, John Splitt, Newcombe Clark, Sandi Smith, Roger Hewitt. (Photo by the writer.)

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (Oct. 7, 2009): Last week’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new underground parking garage at the Library Lot included car-related songs from DJ Surfer Joe. And the theme of cars – and specifically the underground parking project, which the DDA is undertaking – echoed through the DDA board’s Wednesday meeting.

The board approved a $50,000 expenditure for an earth retention system design, as well as a commitment to support two additional Zipcars at $36,000 a year, for a total of six cars in the downtown area. The actual amount of the subsidy is expected to be zero, based on experience with the first four vehicles.

The board also heard a report from getDowntown director Nancy Shore about the results of a commuter survey. Board members also spent time discussing under what conditions they should call special meetings.

Mayor John Hieftje announced that Ann Arbor’s Main Street had earned a special designation from the American Planning Association. All that and who’s getting married, after the jump. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press reports on the 35,000 people who crowded metro Detroit’s Cobo Center on Wednesday, a chaotic scene as they vied for applications to get stimulus money for help with mortgage payments and other bills. The article quotes Kristin Seefeldt, a research scientist for the National Poverty Center at UM’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy: “They may be able to keep up with current payments, but there’s always this back debt that they owe. People are struggling. They’re really struggling. Although, I would say many of them would say, ‘At least I have a roof over my head.’ ” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports that Papi O Nightclub in Ypsilanti is the only place in Michigan that has bought a closed-circuit broadcast of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Honduras men’s teams. The game won’t be broadcast in any other format, according to the article. [Source]