I was disappointed that Hohnke did not appear, nor give any valid excuse for not appearing.

Give him a “zero” for effort.

It is one one the reasons I am supporting John Floyd.

John has taken the time to appear at City Council meetings and act as an advocate for the citizens of Ann Arbor.

Even Newcombe Clark has actually gone through the motions of a campaign and gone toe-to-toe with the Mayor, which I appreciate.

Floyd’s and Clark’s enemies in this campaign are straight-ticket Democrats. It may all but guarantee Hohnke’s re-election.

Councilman Hoehnke, you are asking for reelection; where were you and why did you choose to not participate? I’m a longtime ward 5 voter and would appreciate your response.

Thank you for your kind remarks. My guess is that others are waiting for someone to show that it can be done.

As to the discussion at the end, Mr. Clark seems to have some deep, inexpressible longing – because I kept trying to get him to tell us what his vision was, and all he could seem to come up with was that it was NOT growth in numbers. He never quite seemed able to say what it was we were lacking, just that he was unhappy with our community as it is.

As to Mr. Clark’s statement that we are competing for sustainability, growth and happiness, the only one that makes sense to me is growth. I don’t think that sustainability or happiness are things that we compete for. Your sustainability does not make me less sustainable, and the idea that we compete for happiness, as if there were a finite amount of happiness in the universe, does not sound like something we would pick up in a yoga class. This leaves us with growth. Growth, to me, does sound like something one does compete for: if we draw population from some other city, they go down, we go up.

Does anyone know why we are doubling the capacity of the city’s sewer system?

I am surprised at how much this election conversation reminds me of Sinclair Lewis’ “Main Street”.

Chronicle: good job, and thank you again for something creative and informative that serves the greater good.

John Floyd
Republican for Council
5th Ward

I’m looking forward to December 31 and the “real” numbers.

I hope the Chronicle does this again. And again.

On a technical note to go with my Name, the ACS data are not supposed to be used for population counts:

Here’s the quote from the Census Bureau:

Although the American Community Survey (ACS) also produces population, demographic and housing unit estimates, it is the Population Estimates Program that produces and disseminates the official estimates of the population for the nation, states, counties, cities and towns and estimates of housing units for states and counties.

So, if you look at the ACS2008 population for the city of Detroit and compare it to the Pop Estimates number there is a big discrepancy. ACS (2008): 777,493 Estimates (2008): 912,632

Starting with the 2009 release, the ACS is using some sub-county estimates so that there isn’t this wide discrepancy for cities that do not span an entire county. Cleveland/Cuyahoga County is another comparison with pretty wide discrepancies. between ACS population and the Pop Estimate number.

We’ll find out with the 2010 Census, we’ll have a better handle on the population of Detroit city.

And, in the case of Ann Arbor, the ACS/Pop Estimates are quite close to each other. Armentrout’s number is more on the spot than 120,000. But, 120,000 is closer than that 6% number, which started the comment in the first place.

I am disappointed that no other Republicans (or any other party except Democrats) appear on the City Council ballot.

~Stew