Comments on: Westphal Pulls Petitions for Ward 2 Council

By: Timothy Durham

Timothy Durham — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:49:04 +0000

If you’ve ever taken the time to listen to the available portions of Westphal’s urban planning video:

He talks up the Main Street corridor and its architecture (with a ~200% FAR, by the way) as an example of a nice, “accentuated core” noting how the buildings address the sidewalk- what new urbanists refer to as an “active, permeable membrane-” with a diverse mix of businesses, and that this part of Ann Arbor is what most people think of as the “heart” of the city.

But knowing what people love about the city (by asking them) one might expect that, as head of planning, he might seek to extend or recreate some of this magic when the opportunity knocks?

Then look at the Connecting William Street proposal and the student mega-monoliths (700-900% FAR) built, and yet to be built, during his reign on the planning board…. What could explain ditching his own research so readily? Research still up for sale in *DVD form for $94.99?

[link]

*By comparison, if Borders were still around, you could get:
Léon Krier’s “Architecture of Community,”
Jane Jacobs’ “”Death and Life of Great American Cities,”
JH Kunstler’s “Geography of Nowhere” and
Andres Duany’s “Smart Growth Manual” and have enough left over to take your sweetheart out to dinner. I’d love to hear what each of them has to say about what’s going on in Ann Arbor these days…

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:00:21 +0000

@11: Do you want me to ask him for you, John? It would be more direct for you to do so yourself. if Kirk wondered about your thoughts as a candidate on something, would you have preferred that he ask me or you? Or would you prefer that he draw conclusions and skip the questions?

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:10:07 +0000

Actually, the CWS process was explicitly constructed to avoid a messy public process. Instead, they used focus groups from “stakeholders” and the LOC as a means of avoiding unwanted public input from “the usual suspects”, i.e. members of the public who actually pay attention. There are mentions of this throughout the LOC meeting documents. For example, in one chart (January 2012), responses from a parking survey were analyzed to indicate that ages 35-70 were “overrepresented”. It called for reaching out to “Those that we need to attract as employees, entrepreneurs, and future residents”, which apparently was the under 19-34 age groups.

The bias in the final survey against open space has been well documented by others, so I’ll leave that alone.

By: David Cahill

David Cahill — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:11:15 +0000

The fix was in on the Connecting William Street project long before the first public meeting.

By: john floyd

john floyd — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:39:19 +0000

Mr. Bean,

I would be interested to see Mr. Westphal address the “Robust Public Process” of the Connecting William Street project. Is not including the opinions expressed by the public part of his understanding of Robust Public Process?

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:55:11 +0000

Steve, of course not. However, one can reach tentative conclusions based on available knowledge.

Personally, I’m always open to more information. But when there is already a fair public record of an individual, it can be used to establish a tentative hypothesis of where that person stands. We are fortunate in having a substantial number of votes and public statements to scrutinize in the case of Kirk Westphal. We have those for Jane Lumm, too.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:53:00 +0000

Vivienne and John, as you well know, limited impressions don’t tell the whole story about a candidate.

By: John Floyd

John Floyd — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:30:02 +0000

@7 Apparently, Westphal is the DDA candidate. After the Connecting William Street fiasco, this tells us a lot about what he would do – and who he would represent – on council.

By: Hillary Murt

Hillary Murt — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:09:17 +0000

I am very pleased that Kirk Westphal has decided to throw his hat into the ring to run for City Council. Kirk brings with him a breadth of experience and a strong sensitivity to ways in which cities can grow and prosper and still hold onto their defining character. I was asked to serve on the DDA’s LOC Connecting William Street because of my experience as a former business owner in downtown Ann Arbor and, with no former knowledge of Kirk, came to appreciate and respect his insights and perspectives during our lengthy discussions.

I have been an Ann Arbor resident since 1975 and like many who comment on these pages have witnessed an evolving city. I endorse candidates like Kirk who recognize that thoughtful growth and development is better than no growth at all or worse, growth that has no limits or boundaries.

By: Mark Koroi

Mark Koroi — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 01:10:02 +0000

Kirk Westphal was a University of Pennsylvania grad prior to his graduate work at the University of Michigan.

His entry into Ann Arbor politics came after he was a student in a class at U-M being taught by John Hieftje. The Mayor promoted his entry into Ann Arbor municipal government.

My guess is that John Hieftje asked him to run against Jane Lumm.

Will Jane run under a party affiliation this time around?