Archive for November, 2009

The Washtenaw County Public Health Department has announced another mass H1N1 vaccination clinic and has expanded the categories of people elibible for the vaccine. The clinic will be held on Saturday, Nov. 14 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. “The priorities now include all individuals from 6 months through 24 years of age and individuals 25 to 64 years old who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.” [Source – .PDF file]

The Detroit News reports on proposed state legislation that would require driver’s ed programs to teach environmental lessons, such as the importance of using public transportation and recycling vehicle fluids. The article quotes Pam Morse, owner of Champion Driving School in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Saline: “The important thing is to learn how to drive safely, so what does ‘being green’ have to do with anything? Plus, driving schools would have to absorb the cost of this bill. This smacks of political correctness.” [Source]

Luis Vazquez spoke during public commentary at the Nov. 3 meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Market Advisory Commission, raising issues about whether certain vendors are abiding by market rules.

Ann Arbor Public Market Advisory Commission (Nov. 3, 2009): Last Tuesday’s meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Market Advisory Commission focused on vendors. Market manager Molly Notarianni wanted feedback before making decisions on new vendor applications. And Notarianni presented a financial report that showed most market revenues come from vendor rental fees.

During public commentary, former market commissioner Luis Vazquez questioned whether one vendor actually makes from scratch the products sold at their booth – it’s an issue Vazquez says might be litigated, if the city doesn’t enforce its own rules. During the meeting, Peter Pollack, the commission’s current chair, gave an update on efforts to more clearly define what being “made” actually means.

It was also announced that plans are being made to hold a special market event on Dec. 4 to complement downtown’s annual Midnight Madness. [Full Story]

Fatou Ndaw, left, and Chinyere Onimo are two of the 81 students from Ann Arbor public high schools who were honored at Saturday's NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. Ndaw and Onimo attend Huron High School. (Photo by the writer.)

William Hampton came up to the podium and smiled, looking out at the crowd of several hundred people gathered at the Four Points Sheraton ballroom. “Isn’t this great?” he said.

Hampton, president of the Ann Arbor branch of the NAACP, had just finished handing out certificates of achievement to several dozen high school students at Saturday night’s Freedom Fund dinner. They were honored for maintaining at least a 3.20 grade point average in the spring term of 2009.

In his keynote speech, Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton told students they had a responsibility to be leaders in their schools and community, and to push their peers to excel. “There should be double the number of students in this room next year,” he said. [Full Story]

A post on Psychology Today’s Scientocracy blog has the provocative headline “Obama is to a Colostomy like Hope is to a …?” In the post, UM physician and behavioral scientist Peter Ubel writes: “Many people voted for Barack Obama in hopes that he’d extricate the country from a whole array of bad situations. Now they wait, with hope, for things to improve. In the meantime, however, they are having a hard time coping with the economy, the situation in Afghanistan, and even with the drawn out process of reforming our health care system. And so they criticize Obama for not making things better, faster. Barack Obama is being bedeviled by the dark side of hope.” [Source]

A recent item on Matt Grocoff’s GreenovationTV features a video of how Chronicle editor Dave Askins gets the Chronicle’s clothes clean – with a hand-cranked washer and a pedal-powered spinner. [Source] GreenovationTV’s piece has been picked up by TreeHugger [Source] and UK-based road.cc [Source].  On camera, Askins holds forth on  activities he thinks  human beings should spend time on.

The Lansing State Journal reports on dramatic cuts to state government projected for fiscal 2010. The article quotes John Bebow, executive director of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan, a “think-and-do tank” working to reform state government: “We’re at a very defining moment in this state. Fundamentally, there is going to be an earthquake. The choice is clear. We’re going to have to do something different … The question is what is the role of government in the 21st century?” [Source]

Rob Cleveland

When I talk to out-of-state relatives, they begin the conversation with the same pity-laden inquiry: “So how’s it going out there?” By “out there” they mean the state with the worst unemployment figures, rampant foreclosures, corrupt former mayors, headline-grabbing corporate meltdowns and enough clinical depression to put a squeeze on the country’s Zoloft supply.

Michigan’s slide into unwanted notoriety has been led by the collapse of the domestic automobile industry – once an engine for the economy, and now a drag both here at home and across the nation.

But unlike last winter (and spring, and summer), the news is looking a little brighter lately. Mind you, I’m not declaring “Mission Accomplished,” but the collective headlines that came out just this week could mean the auto industry, and by association the state of Michigan, could be on the mend. [Full Story]

A sometimes Stopped.Watched. contributor Voxphoto documents the water level in the Argo headrace compared to the spillway lip near the canoe portage. The city stopped the flow into the headrace last week on order from the MDEQ.   In a Tweet he writes: “Curiously, Argo millrace still dropping, below spillway level. I estimate >80,000 gals in last 24 hrs. Is the berm that leaky?” [Source Photos] Related Chronicle coverage: “City, MDEQ Agree: Argo Headrace Shut”

Updated layout by Voxphoto: [Argo Spillway]

Left to right: Brian Nord and Caleb Poirier (back to camera), who are both advocates for Camp Take Notice, a self-governed encampment of homeless people. Also Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Mayor John Hieftje. (Photo by the writer.)

Ann Arbor City Council meeting (Nov. 5, 2009): Meeting on Thursday due to the elections, instead of in its usual Monday slot, Ann Arbor’s city council moved ahead on two major initiatives that will eventually have a significant impact on Ann Arbor residents.

The council approved a memorandum of understanding with the University of Michigan to move forward on joint development of the Fuller Road Station, which offers the university an alternative to construction of a parking deck on Wall Street. The first phase of the project is anticipated to be completed in mid-June 2012.

Also given a green light was a conversion to single-stream recycling – a single cart will be distributed to residents to replace the twin totes currently used for curbside pickup. The new carts will be rolled out in June 2010.

A more immediate impact will be made by a council decision to allocate a combined $159,500 to the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County and the Interfaith Hospitality Network – the funds will increase the sheltering capacity by 50 spots for individuals through the winter, starting Dec. 1, and provide housing vouchers for eight families for a year. [Full Story]

The Detroit News reports on a WJR radio interview with Domino’s CEO David Brandon, a former UM football player who has been mentioned as a possible replacement for retiring athletic director Bill Martin. Asked by host Paul W. Smith if Brandon would listen to an offer, Brandon says: “We’ve had this conversation about U.S. Senate, we’ve had this conversation about governor, now were having this conversation. I have a terrific job, and I’m very focused on my little pizza company in Ann Arbor.” [Source]

Joel Goldberg

Eat your heart out, John U. Bacon. While the football Wolverines plummet weakly toward the depths of the Big Ten, a very different Michigan eleven just beat up big time on its arch-rivals from Ohio.

This squad doesn’t strut its talents in the Big House or cavernous Crisler. Its slightly smaller – but decidedly more refined – field of combat lies a couple of miles north on Main Street, around a crystal-bedecked tasting table at Vinology Wine Bar.

Earlier this week, the second annual Ohio vs. Michigan Wine Clash turned into a rout, as eleven of Michigan’s finest wines drubbed a like number of Buckeyes during back-to-back judgings in both Ann Arbor and Columbus. [Full Story]

Bloomberg News conducts an eight-minute video interview with UM president Mary Sue Coleman about the financial outlook for the university. She also discusses the university’s partnership with Google to digitize UM’s libraries, as well as how the university is dealing with the H1N1 flu outbreak. [Source]

The FOUND Gallery posts a video that shows how artist Margaret Shaw makes her handmade socks. Writes owner Mary Cambruzzi: “I never cease to be amazed by the creativity of artists who use repurposed materials. Michigan’s own Margaret Shaw is handpainting, then unraveling thrift shop sweaters to make original wool Art Socks for FOUND.” [Source]

The New York Times reports on Ford Motor Co.’s plans to offer inflatable rear seat belts in its vehicles, starting next year. The article quotes Stewart C. Wang, a trauma surgeon and director of UM’s Program for Injury Research and Education: “Vehicle safety has come a long away, but the focus has been on the front seat. We’re very happy that attention is now being paid to improving occupant protection in the rear.” [Source]

John U. Bacon

Fifty years ago, Michigan football looked a lot different from what you see today. Most Saturdays, the stadium was half-empty. Freshmen were not allowed to play, and sophomores rarely did. The starting players on offense also served as the back-ups on defense, and vice versa. So, most of the better players got tuckered out pretty fast.

Michigan started the ‘59 season right where it left off the last one, by losing two games to extend their losing streak to six. The last of those was an embarrassing loss to Michigan State, 34 to 8.

Desperate, head coach Bump Elliott took a chance: he created a “third unit” of young back-up players to give the older guys an occasional rest. Elliott had no idea what he had created. [Full Story]

The East Stadium bridges, looking west along Stadium Boulevard. (Photo by the writer.)

The city of Ann Arbor’s attempt to start accumulating cash to replace the East Stadium Boulevard bridges failed on Thursday when a statewide board appropriating money for large bridges declined to give the city a share of the available dollars.

City officials had hoped to secure a portion of the $5.7 million in federal and state dollars awarded by the Local Bridges Advisory Board on Thursday at a meeting in Lansing.

But with a limited pot of money, and applications for projects totaling tens of millions of dollars, the eight-member board opted to put the resources behind smaller-ticket bridges.

“Throwing a little bit at that big a problem isn’t going to get people anywhere,” said board chairman Robert Clegg, the city engineer in Port Huron. [Full Story]

The Michigan Daily profiles Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookstore, which has been in business 17 years in downtown Ann Arbor and is owned by Jamie and Robin Agnew. Says Jamie Agnew: “We’re unique. We’re the only mystery store in Michigan and people from out of town always come in here and their eyes bug out. If their kid is going to the ‘U,’ every time they come to visit they come here and they love it. But people from town kind of take us for granted.” [Source]

Ypsilanti attorney Erika Julien is quoted in a Detroit Free Press article about a state appeals court ruling, which removed the name of an 18-year-old man from Michigan’s sex offender registry. He had been on the registry for having consensual sexual relations with his 14-year-old girlfriend, whom he later married. Says Julien: “There are lots and lots of these cases out there. (The court ruling) is a huge step forward … opening the door to a re-examination of these kinds of cases across the board.” [Source]

DDA board chair John Splitt (left) and Michael Ortlieb (right) of Carl Walker – the design firm that's handling the new Fifth Avenue underground parking structure. (Photo by the writer.)

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (Nov. 4, 2009): Measured in raw dollars, the major news coming out of the DDA‘s regular Wednesday meeting was the selection of The Christman Company as the construction manager for the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage.

Because the firm had already been awarded the pre-construction services contract, with the construction management contract to be contingent on performance during pre-construction, Christman’s probable selection was well known. The  dollar amount of Christman’s guaranteed maximum price is now also known to an exact figure: $44,381,573.

In other significant business, the board passed a resolution authorizing support of an initiative to increase the number of shelter spots for the homeless in the face of the coming winter – $20,000 for additional beds, to be paid for out of the DDA’s housing fund.

The board also passed a resolution that might resuscitate the LINK – the downtown circulator bus that did not resume service this fall after its usual summer hiatus. The resolution calls for a partnership with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to sort out what that service should look like. Michael Ford, AATA’s CEO, had alluded to these efforts in a side-remark during his presentation to the AATA board last week.  This resolution reflected those efforts. [Full Story]

Jo Mathis

I don’t willingly leave my comfort zone. And don’t tell Oprah, but I’m comfortable with that.

I don’t skydive. I don’t sign up to melt in a Sedona sweat lodge. And I do not speak to big groups of people if I can possibly help it.

It’s not that I mind being the occasional center of attention. This picture of me, for instance, was taken on my last day at The Ann Arbor News minutes after my boss had left the building.

I am lying on my belly on his desk.

But I was among friends. It just sort of happened. And I didn’t actually say anything. (Unless you count: “If this had been my desk all along, this paper would not be closing!”)

All this is to explain why nothing within me wants to be among those speakers at Friday night’s Ignite Ann Arbor.

And why I already admire the 15 people who will. [Full Story]