Archive for July, 2010

The Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, in a post on its blog, is rallying supporters to attend a July 29 event in Detroit to protest an Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid last week at a Chili’s restaurant in Canton: “Four people were detained when ICE agents went into the kitchen and arrested everyone who could not produce a green card! These are exactly the kinds of raids President Obama promised he would stop: rounding up innocent, hard working people at their place of employment and separating them from their families!” Organizers are planning to send one bus or more from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to transport supporters to the event, which begins at 7 p.m. [Source]

University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting (July 15, 2010): Pete Arbour and his 12-year-old daughter Lilly are on a mission to meet all of their elected officials – local, state and national. They carry a list of the 115 people, and mark off those they meet by putting a smiley face next to their names. (All of the city councilmembers in their Rochester Hills hometown are checked off, but president Barack Obama is not.)

Pete Arbour and his daughter Lilly, who live in Rochester Hills, are on a mission to meet with all of their elected officials – including University of Michigan regents. A UM photographer took a photo of them with regents after the July 15 meeting. From left: Julia Darlow, Andrea Fischer Newman, Pete Arbour, Lilly Arbor, Mary Sue Coleman, Denise Ilitch. (Photos by the writer.)

The pair added five more names to the “met” category on Thursday, when they attended the UM regents meeting. They got their photo taken with regents and president Mary Sue Coleman after the meeting. During the meeting, they had a chance to see presentations, some rare public disagreement among board members, and votes on a range of items.

The disagreement stemmed from a proposal to lower the distribution rate on the university’s endowment from 5% to 4.5%. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, made the case that the change will help protect the core of the endowment’s value. Julia Darlow, the board’s new chair, argued that they shouldn’t spend less at a time when families are struggling, noting that much of the payout goes toward financial aid and instruction. Other regents disagreed with her and the change was approved, with Darlow and Denise Ilitch dissenting.

Regents also voted – in each case, unanimously – to approve designs for three construction projects: at Crisler Arena, a golf indoor practice facility, and the Institute for Social Research, which is building an addition. Architects for each project gave presentations of the schematic designs before the votes.

Also unanimous was a vote to approve a $1.25 million purchase of assets of the Michigan Information Technology Center Foundation (MITC), located in the South State Commons on Oakbrook Drive. As a result of the sale – a voluntary turnover foreclosure – the university will be taking over MITC’s computing resources. Regents approved two conflict-of-interest disclosures as part of the deal, with regent Katherine White recusing herself from the votes.

Leaders of the Clements Library and the UM Film Office both gave presentations to the board, featuring celebrities past (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln) and present (Pierce Brosnan, Rob Reiner). Regents also heard a report from the chair of the Committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty, who in general indicated that the overall status was good, but could be better. Specific recommendations to improve conditions were outlined.

Finally, the meeting’s only speaker during public commentary, a board member of the UM Student Sustainability Initiative, described for regents a vision of “zero waste” sporting events. They tried it at a football tailgate last fall, and will aim for a zero waste men’s basketball game against Harvard in December. The ultimate goal: An entire campus that doesn’t send any material to the landfill or incinerator. [Full Story]

At its July 19, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council allocated $1,268,092 in city general funds to more than 30 different nonprofit agencies for human services programs. The funding had already been approved as part of the city’s FY 2011 budget, which was adopted at its May 17, 2010 meeting.

This brief, filed live from city hall, will be followed by a detailed report of the July 19 meeting: [link]

At its July 19, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council authorized a $260,000 contract with Clean Energy Coalition (CEC) to hire a community energy program coordinator. The coordinator, to be hired by CEC with input from city staff, will be supervised by Andrew Brix, the city’s energy programs manager. The contract also includes technical assistance from CEC to a community energy financing program such as a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. The funds for the contact come from a U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) worth $1,243,400.

This brief, filed live from city hall, will be followed by a detailed report on the July 19 meeting: [link]

At its July 19, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council passed three separate resolutions in support of a proposed expansion of Zingerman’s Deli: (i) a site plan approval, (ii) a brownfield plan approval and (iii) a communication to the city’s historic district commission (HDC) expressing support for the project. The HDC must give a formal “notice to proceed” in order for the project to be constructed.

Previous Chronicle coverage: “Zingerman’s: Making it Right for the HDC,” “Zingerman’s Deli Expansion Moves Ahead,” “Zingerman’s Project Seeks Browfield Status,” “DDA Approves Grant for Zingerman’s.” This report, filed live from city hall, will be followed by a detailed report on the July 19 meeting: [link]

At its July 19, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council recommended to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission that Downtown Development District liquor licenses be approved for two downtown businesses: @Burger, which will open at 505 E. Liberty St.; and Revive, located on the ground floor of Zaragon Place at 619 E. University.  The liquor licenses  are recommended under Public Act 501 (MCL 436.1521A(1)b, which enables the MLCC to grant additional licenses to businesses located in development districts.

This brief, filed live from city hall, will be followed by a detailed report on the July 19 meeting: [link]

At its July 19, 2010 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council approved a change to its ordinances that provides greater protection for pedestrians approaching crosswalks. The revision requires motorists to stop and yield the right of way, not just to pedestrians who are already in crosswalks, but also to those who are approaching them. Previous language was stricken, which limited the requirement on motorists to yield only to pedestrians in the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling.

This brief, filed live from city hall, will be followed by a detailed report on the July 19 meeting: [link]

The Ann Arbor District Library is hosting two information sessions – on July 27 and Aug. 11, from 6-7 p.m. at the downtown library – for people interested in becoming candidates for the library board of trustees. Three 4-year terms and one 2-year term will be elected in November. [Source]

The New York Times reports that UM’s swim team is the only program to have purchased the AvidaMetrics system, which uses wireless sensors to collect performance data in real time – allowing coaches to give swimmers stroke-by-stroke feedback in their ears. The article quotes UM men’s swimming coach Mike Bottom: “We hope this is a revolutionary system that will let us see all this data and know what they’re doing in real time. That will give us a lot more info than just watching their stroke.” [Source]

Listen: Given the option of electing a Harvard law professor or a glass-eating clown, vote for the clown.

Pop the bulb, and feed pieces to candidates. Vote for those who will eat the glass.

For the average citizen, the voting conundrum is born of finite time and imperfect information: You don’t have the time or resources to actually meet and research each candidate yourself, and thus must rely on second-hand research of dubious provenance. ["Uncle Ted says the incumbent's mother was a half-goat demi-god from beyond the stars!"]

The traditional solution is a voter guide: Your local paper, or community-of-faith, or pregnancy-termination-opinion-group, or storefront outpost of a deep-pocked national political action committee, or unqualified demagogue runs off a tidy little list of who you should vote for, occasionally offering highly abridged bulleted summaries of why those candidates are Right for You, and how the other guys are Basically a Bunch of Crooked Fools.

It doesn’t take much cynicism to see a voter guide is little more than a marketing piece that a special interest group publishes to magnify its vote by reproducing its opinions in many concerned, trusting citizens. Viewed with properly jaundiced eyes, it begins to seem like an electorate that is well-informed only by voter guides is worse than one that isn’t really all that well-informed at all.

As such, you may be better off relying on a heuristic of your own making. My preferred rule of thumb is this: Always vote for the glass-eating clown. [Full Story]

The Detroit News reports that Rick Snyder, an Ann Arbor venture capitalist who’s making a bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has released his federal tax returns for 2007 and 2008, showing that he paid more than $500,000 in taxes on cumulative income of more than $2.5 million. During that time he contributed nearly $1 million to charity, according to the report, including $608,400 to the University of Michigan. [Source]

Michigan Innovators launches a new “Hired” series by interviewing Jordan Komoto of Adaptive Materials, an Ann Arbor-based fuel cell manufacturer. Komoto talks about job openings at his firm, and gives tips on getting hired. [Source]

On Thursday evening, July 15, just as a thunderstorm was rolling in, Tamara Real and Carl Rinne opened their home on Fountain Street to the Ann Arbor Ward 5 Democrats. As the former home to the Fountain Church of God in Christ, the venue is suitable for events like the candidate forum, which drew somewhere around 30 people – once all those who straggled in from the rain were counted.

Lou Glorie, left, and Carsten Hohnke, Democratic candidates for Ward 5 city council. (Photos by the writer.)

The Ward 5 city council Democratic primary this year is contested by incumbent Carsten Hohnke and challenger Lou Glorie. City council representatives are elected for two-year terms and each of the city’s five wards has two seats on the council, one of which is elected each year.

In November, the  winner of the Aug. 3 Democratic primary will face a Republican challenge in John Floyd, as well as an independent challenge in Newcombe Clark.

Glorie portrayed herself as an underdog candidate – a citizen activist who’s not as interested in leading as in collaborating with ward residents to find consensus.

Hohnke focused heavily on various accomplishments during his first two years in office and sought to distance himself from the idea that he is a career politician.

Of interest to readers who follow city council meetings closely, Hohnke left open the possibility of bringing back some kind of proposal for a historic district in the Germantown neighborhood, as well as reconsideration and approval of the Heritage Row development – but not for exactly the same project. [Full Story]

Marianne Rzepka

If you like going touring other people’s gardens – especially because someone else is doing all the work – you’ll love Hidden Lake Gardens.

They’ve got a guy who mows the lawns full time, along with a couple of part-timers. They’ve got people on their staff who can move a full-grown tree in less than half an hour. They’ve got volunteers who help weed and dig and plant, all so you can take the time to literally stop and smell whatever flower is currently blooming.

There are acres of displays, including an extensive collection of dwarf and rare conifers, a hillside of hostas, and the requisite annuals and perennials, along with a tidy conservatory and miles of trails. If you bring your lunch (yes, there are picnic areas) and some bug spray, you’ll be able to spend the day looking at plants, listening to the birds and appreciating the swaths of lawn that someone else has to mow.

“Our mission is the enjoyment and education of the public,” says Steve Courtney, who manages the site for Michigan State University, “and enjoyment is first.”

Courtney recently gave me a guided tour of the grounds. Located west of Tipton, in Lenawee County, Hidden Lake Gardens is at least a 40-minute drive from Ann Arbor (if you can avoid any backups at the construction on M-52, south of I-94). But if it were any closer, it wouldn’t be the quiet hideaway I found when I went to visit last week. [Full Story]

The Detroit News publishes a profile of Motawi Tileworks in Ann Arbor, and includes a Q&A with founder Nawal Motawi: “We definitely have a flagship glaze – Lee Green, No. 5002. It’s a warm, satiny matte, a forest green that breaks brown on the edges. I’ve been using it since day one. There’s also my titanium matte glaze, Granite, a mixed, mottled grayish-brownish glaze with a lot of variations.” [Source]

Michigan Today posts a video by historian Jim Tobin, who looks at the history of Division Street in Ann Arbor. He reports on what the name originally signified, and how it became a “significant boundary in the battle over the geography of student drinking that went on for 100 years.” [Source]

John U. Bacon

It was a beautiful summer morning. I walked from my home in Ann Arbor, down State Street, to St. Thomas the Apostle Church. A crowd had already gathered outside, waiting to pay respects to our old friend, Mr. Brown.

No one told us to call him that. We just did.

In 1937, Mr. Brown’s father and grandfather opened a store called College Shoe Repair. Mr. Brown took over the business in 1951, the same year he married Dorothy – or Mrs. Brown, to us. They worked together every day. They had seven kids, and all of them worked at the store at some point.

When the shoe repair business slowed down in the ’70s, Mr. Brown started selling hockey equipment and sharpening skates. That’s how most of us got to know him. [Full Story]

At their July 15, 2010 meeting, University of Michigan regents approved a $1.25 million purchase of assets from the Michigan Information Technology Center Foundation (MITC), located in the South State Commons on Oakbrook Drive. According to a cover memo, the sale is through a voluntary turnover foreclosure. Tim Slottow, UM’s CFO, told regents that MITC “is not succeeding in their mission.” UM is already a tenant in South State Commons, and will be expanding its operations and data center there. Regents also approved a total $1.9 million project, which includes the $1.25 million MITC data center purchase plus $650,000 in facility improvements. Regent Katherine White recused herself from the votes.

A detailed report of the July 15 meeting will follow: … [Full Story]

With dissent from two members, the University of Michigan board of regents voted to change UM’s endowment distribution policy, reducing the distribution rate from 5% to 4.5%, with a gradual implementation starting in the quarter that ends Sept. 30, 2010. Tim Slottow, UM’s CFO, told regents that the goal is to safeguard the corpus of the pooled endowment funds, which stand at an estimated $6.7 billion. Regents Julia Darlow and Denise Ilitch voted against the action. Darlow said it sends the wrong message to the public at a time when many families are struggling.

A detailed report of the July 15 meeting will follow: [link]

At their July 15, 2010 meeting, the University of Michigan board of regents unanimously approved the schematic design for $20 million in infrastructure improvements to Crisler Arena – part of a massive renovation to which the board gave overall approval in January 2010. Among other things, this phase includes replacing the roof, installing a new electrical system, reconstructing the north tunnel, building a new tunnel from the arena to a new player development center, and replacing seats and widening aisles in the “lower bowl.”

A detailed report of the July 15 meeting will follow: [link]