“‘I spent five years of my life, a lot of money, and a lot of time, and put up with a lot of intimidation trying to do what I thought could help,’ Clark said.” I’m sure Clark’s altruism will be a true inspiration to the voters. With his puppy dog eyes, floppy hair and sweater vests, Clark may the vanguard of a new generation of emo property developers.

I’ve held the opinion for many decades that part of the appeal of any city that has some degree of popularity is that is not a homogenous or sterilized place. That an effort is made to allow some “grit” to remain so the streets and neighborhoods don’t look like Mainstreet USA at Disneyworld. But the zeal for urban development and design here in Ann Arbor seems to be an effort to homogenize, sterilize and refine the “character” of the city until it becomes unrecognizable.

Per your tweet, I would love to see this, “followed by a column on effective public commentary.”

I haven’t been friendly to the “Germantown” idea–I don’t think the neighborhood has a real historic identity, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to use a tool as powerful as historic districts to fight one development–but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a neighborhood. It may not have the cuteness factor of the Old West Side, but it may also not have the smugness factor, and the weird mix of uses (party store, lumber yard, marginal UM building, grungy ex-garage flex space, housing, parking lots) is actually pretty cool. Unlike the tweeer parts of Ann Arbor everyone fawns over, it’s almost… urban. Not all neighborhoods have to be the same, and although Fridgeman’s intensive research may have resulted in him deeming it an “eyesore”… well, really, who the fuck cares, really? Jog somewhere else.

I am dismayed that this land-use issue has been framed as a conflict between old and young. It smacks of the old divide and conquer tactic used for the benefit of a third party – the developers. I also see it as a profit-driven attempt to erase Ann Arbor’s character and replace it with a big box you could find in anywhere USA. Aren’t we any more creative than that?

All codes are minimum requirements and “housekeeping” items are open to interpretation. From my experience most poor housekeeping is not the fault of the property owner. It’s easy to understand why an owner might not be so inclined to maintain property above the minimum code requirements because of neglectful tenants who have little respect for their residence or others property.

Yes, decisions for all inspection staff, rental and construction, have been hampered by the dysfunctional operations in PDS. Rental housing inspections have always been at least 6 months behind their required intervals and more often a year or more.

In the case of rental housing inspection, there are often other circumstances that delay inspection, not strictly because of staffing decisions.

In the case of construction code inspections, all I can say is that is a terrible mess that has no solution in sight.

I offer a few observations and suggestions in previous thread on #21, #25 and #29 here. [link]