Past the College Grounds

I'm leaving to visit my friend Joey in New York for an extended weekend, hence there will be no updates until sometime next week.

Hopefully Rob, Murph, and/or Ann Arbor is Overrated report on last night's interesting public forum regarding the draft Northeast Area Plan.

"I think we'll rise and fall together."

-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, on the need for regional planning.

It looks like I agree with Ann Arbor News columnist Judy McGovern for once. Her (not-online) column in today's paper critically addresses the recent city hall restructuring that eliminated the planning department, which reported to the Planning Commission, moving all of its functions to a new building and development department under the oversight of the city administrator.

Planning, says [former Ann Arbor mayor Ingrid] Sheldon, a four-term Republican, is a place for objectivity, balancing competing interests and, ultimately, acting on the basis of what's good for the community ... as opposed to acting on the prevailing mood of the city council

[...]

So who [following the restructuring], Sheldon wonders, will represent the community? Political appointees to the commission?

McGovern goes on to attack the "cockamamie rationale" behind the reorganization, which claims the changes are intended to streamline the approval process for developers.

Whatever regulations the city's professional planning staff administers, the real obstacles come when projects get to the Planning Commission and then the City Council, where developers who've met all written requirements are then asked to satisfy unwritten, ad hoc criteria.

I thought this seemed a little fishy at first, and now I'm becoming quite convinced that these changes weren't made purely in the name of efficiency.

...the school plan, it seems to us, is the product of old-paradigm suburban-style thinking: Growth is good. It has been proven across America that fresh new schools built at the edges of towns cause rapid development and enjoy rapid student-population increases (with each student bringing thousands of dollars of state money into the school system).

-Ann Arbor residents Lakhi N. Goenka and Brenda E. Bentley-Goenka, in a letter published in today's News.

Two stories in the Friday Ann Arbor News' "Regents Briefs" section illustrate how the University is doing its part to fight sprawl, promote sensible land-use, increase residential density, and discourage automobile use... or not.

1) The University is purchasing an apartment building at 206 Glen for $425,000, with plans to replace it with a parking garage.

2) The Regents approved a design for the East Ann Arbor Ambulatory Surgery and Medical Procedures Center (it really rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) on Plymouth Road. The facility will be a 49,000 square-foot, 1-story building. The artist's rendering prominently portrays vast expanses of asphalt and Kentucky bluegrass.

Last time I checked, there were a few urban planning experts on faculty in these parts.

For some reason the streets were thick with weblog proprietors this weekend. It must have been that time in our 17-day cycle where we emerge into the daylight.

Friday night, while entertaining former prospective roommate (she bailed due to a no-cat policy) Marianna, I ran across Ann Arbor is Overrated, who were celebrating an occasion at Leopold Brothers.

Last night, Kristin and I found Murph at the Blind Pig. Disappointingly, The Avatars canceled at the last minute because drummer Claudia Leo was apparently detained overseas, but we saw The Riots, who were very impressive, the pretty mediocre Tough and Lovely, and the entertaining soul of The Elevations. Hey, the band I primarily went to see didn't play, but I got my $6 worth.

In any case, on the walk home, I was ranting about the poor funding of Amtrak in comparison to highways when I heard my name called-out in the dark, only to find Rob, who completed said rant without missing a beat. Small world... small city. The evening ended around 4:30, after a few hours of Rob, Murph, and I subjecting Kristin to lots of talk about local politics, blogs, and other subjects of only peripheral interest to the general public. Ah, the unexpected encounters of walkable neighborhoods. Jane Jacobs would be happy.

This is one of the best electrical storms I've ever witnessed. Lightning is running across the sky in really slowly-growing fingers. It's like nothing I've ever seen, and frankly I don't have the scientific vocabulary to do justice describing what is happening. It's just plain cool.

Or, skip Lollapalooza and check out some free outdoor music this Summer:

June 19 & 20: Rock City Festival

July 1-5: TasteFest

Okay, I know I swore-off ever going to Pine Knob (I'm still going to call it that) again, the whole festival concept is a bit lame, and tickets are $46.50 for one day or $66 for both (plus "handling" fees). But this lineup... I'm tempted to at least go to day 2-- Wilco and The Flaming Lips?!. But why the heck is the String Cheese Incident on top of the bill? It's only going to attract the damned neo-hippies. Luckily, there are three stages. Anyone interested? Tickets are onsale now at the Lollapalooza website.

Lollapalooza 2004
DTE Energy Music Theatre
Clarkston, Michigan
August 2 & 3

Day 1:
Morrissey
Sonic Youth
Modest Mouse
Le Tigre
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
The Von Bondies
Broken Social Scene
The Walkmen
Wolf Eyes
Danger Mouse
The Datsuns
Sparta
Mike Watt
The Dresden Dolls
Bumblebeez 81
Carina Round
The Living Things
Peretz

Day 2:
String Cheese Incident
The Flaming Lips
Wilco
Gomez
The Polyphonic Spree
TV on the Radio
The Thrills
The Coup
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Elbow
Wheat
Mike Watt
The Dresden Dolls
Bumblebeez 81
Carina Round
Ross Golan & Molehead
Peretz

"I want to keep this community small. I think that's why most people moved here." -Cindy Bruggner

"The reason I moved out here was to avoid the congestion and traffic of other suburbs." -Daniel Dempsey

The Northfield Township residents quoted above seem to be completely blind to the fact that they are the growth and traffic problem which they are so eager to combat. But heck, now that they're on board, it's time to pull-up the plank. In any case, Northfield voters rejected the rezoning of 212 acres for the proposed 450-home Grand Sakwa development off US-23 by a more than 2-1 margin. While the outcome is positive, in my opinion, this is pathetic and oblivious NIMBYism. At least rezoning proponent and subdivision enthusiast Janice Hall acknowledges her role in the sprawling of the county: "I think it's exciting watching our little town grow. I've only been here four years, and if the people would have voted down my subdivision, I wouldn't be here, either."

"There are not enough pirates in Holland compared to the Dutch. We are just trying to support Gov. Granholm's Cool Cities program."

-West Ottawa High School student Cameron Schuster, who, along with 19 other students, was recently fined for parading without a permit while dressed as a pirate.

Maybe if they had worn Piet Heyn costumes they might have gotten away with it. Thanks to Ann Arbor is Overrated for the link.

Two semi-exciting things happened to me today.

1) I won tickets from Metro Times to see The Thermals at the Magic Stick on May 24. Anyone want to join me?

2) On my way home from campus, I ran into the Bike to Work Week folks, whom I informed that every week is bike to work week for me. They awarded me with a pile of swag, including a t-shirt, a water bottle, a Clif Bar, and an Ann Arbor Bicycle Map. Nice. For the rest of you folks-- ride your dang bike this week! It's easy, free, fun, clean, and healthy. Plus, you couldn't ask for better weather.

Sasha is moving to DC in a week, but she's begun a blog.

Last night I headed over to Dylanfest at the Blind Pig with Alex and Dana. It was a night of mostly good and some excellent covers of Bob Dylan songs, with standouts including Mike Boyd & the Genesee Ramblers' rippin' "Tombstone Blues," Timothy Monger's haunting reading of "Gates of Eden," and some band (who was in that? Greg McIntosh and who else? Brandon Wiard? I don't remember) playing an unexpected kick-ass punk version of "My Back Pages." Okay, so we drank too many pitchers of Old Style and missed Jim Roll, Jo Serrapere and others while taking a break at the Fleetwood. It was a good night, though, and I even won a copy of Dylanfest 2002 during the Dylan trivia (Q: What year did Bob Dylan come to New York? A: 1960). It was just one of those loose local-music nights with nearly everyone around town present.

It's a big Ann Arbor music weekend.

Last night was the first time I've gone to shows alone for a while; I forgot how slowly and awkwardly time passes between sets. On the other hand, I'm not going to let a lack of joiners keep me from going out.

For starters, Timothy Monger played a solo show at Crazy Wisdom, with Scott DeRoche joining-in on bass during the 2nd set. Monger performed a variety of songs from his upcoming solo record (scheduled for a July release), some cuts from the still-in-limbo Great Lakes Myth Society album, a few TOBASOL classics, and a Big Star cover. Tim's songs are simple, colorful paintings of the recent and distant past. They are pop tunes without literary pretensions, landscape scenes of times had and times imagined. Summer has just begun.

Shifting gears only slightly, I ambled over to the Blind Pig for a night of more summery pop music, courtesy of Saturday Looks Good to Me, who were kicking-off their tour with Nomo. Our local music writers have been talking Nomo up as the jam band that isn't one, and I went in somewhat skeptical but still open-minded. I didn't count how many folks were onstage, but I think it was more than a dozen players, on everything from keyboard to hand drums to a full horn section. The first song was a powerful, multi-layered edifice that came steaming at the audience like an ore freighter. I was impressed, I was into it. Fast-forward to the end of Nomo's set, a few very long songs and several minutes later: I'm at the back of the Pig leaning against a rail grinding my teeth with impatience and boredom. The band is full of great musicians, and they may be good in their genre, but I've come to the conclusion that I don't much care for "afro-beat" music. So much for being open-minded.

However, the hidden benefit of Fred Thomas & Company touring with Nomo is that they now have a horn section. Oh yes. Something always seemed to be missing when I've seen Saturday Looks Good to Me live in the past, and I've now discovered what it was-- that huge brassy wail reinforcing the band's junior Wall of Sound. The band were as on as I've ever seen them, taking-on all the best songs from their last album, as well as more obscure gems, including a few from their upcoming autumn record. And yes, I danced. This is the only band that's ever had that effect on me, so that says something.

Tonight: Dylanfest 2004.

In response to the recent article on increasing density downtown, Arno C. Buhrer fairly points-out that the News' coverage didn't identify the reasons residential density can be desirable. In a letter printed in Wednesday's paper, he writes:

I could not discern the answer to one question which either does not get asked or is ignored. Namely, what is the virtue of packing more and more people into a fixed space? I also noted that the proponents did not say where they were living. I presume that they would lead the way.

Well, Mr. Buhrer, I'm glad that you asked. Most obviously, "packing" more housing units on less space uses land wisely. Not only is higher-density development often more profitable for the developer, it similarly generates more tax revenue for the city, which benefits us all. Furthermore, now that voters have decided to tax themselves to preserve sensitive areas surrounding Ann Arbor through the purchase of development rights, we should further reduce pressure on the greenfield housing market by creating opportunities for more people to live in the city rather than merely diverting them elsewhere in the townships. Another environmental benefit of a higher-density downtown is a decreased dependence on automobiles or even buses-- the average downtown resident can walk to reach most of his/her basic goods, services, and entertainment. Such a lifetstyle is especially attractive to those of us who already work on campus or downtown-- no more traffic-clogged commuting. What else? Well, downtown businesses would surely benefit from more nearby customers, and some of our streetscapes would surely be enlivened by well-designed new buildings. Moreover, more people walking and watching the streets at all hours will create a safer and more interesting environment in which to live and visit. Then there's the affordable housing issue. New construction doesn't typically come with particularly cheap rents/price tags, but subsidized or mandated affordable units could be included, and the bulk of the rest could hopefully be at least middle-class. With more units available in central Ann Arbor, increased residential development on overall housing costs could decrease rents in the area, making it easier for students and working-class people to live closer-in. In response to your final comment, I'm a "proponent," and I live in Lower Town right now. No, it isn't downtown, but cheap rents are tough to find over there at this point-- that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to live a block from the Fleetwood. I'm pretty sure most of the other proponents of greater densities aren't living in Green Oak Township McMansions and commuting-in via Range Rovers every morning. Anyway, I guess I am leading the way, though, as I'm moving just off Main in September. Thanks for your concern.

Q: Why are Christian Reformed couples not allowed to make love standing up?

A: Because it might lead to dancing.

-Joke from the 1950s, in Dutch in Michigan, Larry Ten Harmsel.

Polish the cobblestone
Starch your Dutch hat
Thousands of tulips
Put us on the map!

I spent the weekend on vacation in my hometown with Kristin in tow. I find that when you are with someone who is new to a place, you see it with fresh eyes. Thus I dove into Holland and all of its weirdness and beauty, all of which was magnified due to the fact that it was Tulip Time, that annual celebration of flowers all things Dutch-American.

Getting into town late Friday evening, there wasn't much to do but bar-hop... between what are essentially downtown Holland's only two bars, beginning the night at the once semi-dank Skiles Tavern. It's been remodeled, but it still luckily doesn't attract much of an upscale clientele. It was quite a reunion there- Jon was in town for the weekend with Stacey, and John was up from Chicago for a wedding. Over in the other corner were such luminaries as my sometime-roommate Paul, who is working for the City of Holland for the summer, along with Jon, Rachel, Jess, and other folks from high school. We all eventually headed-over to New Holland Brewing Company, where braving the cheeseball jazz band and middle-aged Bobos was well worth the Belgian trippel style Black Tulip.

We immersed ourselves in Tulip Time like wide-eyed Indiana tourists on Saturday, after lunch at the Southside Inn, which featured a surprisingly ethnically-diverse clientele. Things are changing. Because the MAX buses weren't running due to the parade (wouldn't it make more sense to have buses run during a day when so many people needed to crowd into the center of town?), we decided to walk downtown. Kristin soon came to the conclusion that people are more friendly in Holland than in Ann Arbor, as so many said hello to us as we walked past. I think the disparity is more likely due to the fact that most of her time in Ann Arbor is spent in an area where there are so many pedestrians that they aren't novelties. Walk through some of the quieter neighborhoods of Tree Town and greetings certainly ensue, in my experience. Similarly, folks in downtown Holland weren't saying "hi" to everyone they passed. In any case, we eventually got to 8th Street just in time for the pomp, pride, and ridiculousness of the Muziekparade, which included everything from the wooden-shoe-clad Holland High School Marching Band, the Queen of the Netherlands' horse escort, to Senator Debbie Stabenow, to a rather disturbing float that featured a tank pointing its barrel at the crowd, to countless mediocre realtor-sponsored floats and festival queens from around the state. The rest of the afternoon was spent eating oliebollen, purchasing banket, babbelaars, even less-necessary items like a Dutch hat and vintage shirt, and a bottle of Fenn Valley Riesling for my mom. At this point we were rather walked-out, so we sat outdoors with some coffee at Lemonjello's and then headed over to Centennial Park to watch the klompen dancers (wooden shoe-shod dancers in authentic costumes performing inauthentic "folk" dances). The evening ended with the world's thinnest, greasiest pizza at Fricano's, a walk to view the tulip plantings and the windmill from Window on the Waterfront, and a ride on the Ferris wheel. Then, a very long walk home.

Following a very out-of-my-element Mother's Day brunch with my family at Ravines, Kristin and I headed to one of my favorite places in the world, Saugatuck Dunes State Park. We hiked the Livingston Trail through songbird-filled wooded dunes to Lake Michigan, where we waded in the still-frigid water, built sandcastles, and napped in the sand on a near-empty beach without a vacation home in view. I love some of the wooded areas and lakes of Southeast Michigan, but they pale in comparison in terms of beauty and solitude. After a little coffee in ever-touristy Saugatuck, we ambled through the orchards and vineyards of Allegan County, stopping at my parents' little red cottage on Hutchins Lake, and then down I-94 into a storm that lasted all the way to Ann Arbor.

As much as I wanted desperately to get out of it growing-up, and as much as I get bored and annoyed soon enough when I visit, I really do love my hometown and its environs. Holland is a really attractive little city that seems to be slowly getting a few cool establishments and more racial and ethnic diversity. The landscape is just prettier than most of Southeast Michigan, and, as long as you don't go north of town, urban sprawl is minimal. I do enjoy it over there, and maybe I'll move back in my later years. I'm getting more in touch with my ethnicity, too. Growing up, I got sick of all the Dutch Calvinism I was raised on and wanted to see what "real" people were like, as if somehow Irish, Greek, or Black folks were more valid. Now that I've distanced myself from it, though, I want it back. My parents' generation sort of slacked-off on the cultural side of things-- I envy my friends who are Jewish or Indian or Italian and celebrate so many festivals and cook so many special foods. I'm trying to get back in touch with my roots, even if that doesn't include the religion and the conservatism that I found so stifling. As a white American, I realize ethnicity is essentially optional, but I yearn for some sort of identity more specific than that beamed to me on the TV screen. If I ever have kids someday in the far, far future, I want them to feel they have a history. I want to raise them on rusk biscuits and vegetarian saucijzenbroodjes, and have at least a few tulips growing in the yard or on the balcony. As they say in Holland, "if you're not Dutch, you're not much."

"What's special about Northfield Township is what it doesn't have, namely a lot of subdivisions and shopping malls."

My favorite NIMBYs are preparing for Northfield Township's May 18 referendum on the rezoning of 212 acres for a 450-home subdivision near US-23 in a rural area north of Ann Arbor. More power to 'em.

It's not hard to see why the community's collective waistline continues to expand.

At a Washtenaw County Public Health Department workshop on obesity Friday afternoon, presenter Risa Wilkerson paged through a slide show of parents dropping kids off right at the front door of school, people cruising through drive-throughs at fast food restaurants, dry cleaners, the post office. Another presenter even showed a slide of someone walking a dog by holding the leash out the car window as the canine trotted alongside.

While some of this may be attributed to sheer laziness, most of it probably stems from the fact that we are not building neighborhoods where people can easily and comfortably get to school, restaurants, the cleaners, and the post office on foot or bicycle. Suburbia is literally killing us:

The statistics are alarming. Inactivity and poor nutrition are now considered the second leading cause of death, Wilkerson said. Today's generation of children may actually be the first with a shorter life expectancy because of obesity-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

What are we doing about it?

Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell noted the city requires sidewalks not only in all new subdivisions, but in business developments as well.

How about sticking some pedestrian-friendly business developments in dense subdivisions instead so folks will actually have somewhere to walk to? Otherwise all you are bound to get are a few power-walking moms tooling-around the cul-de-sac. New Urbanist neighborhood design seems like such an obvious choice for so many reasons, but somehow people think slapping a few sidewalks in front of the strip malls and McMansions is going to magically get people out of their SUVs. It ain't gonna happen.

"Life is a card game, and you can either play this hand to the fullest of your ability or say this game stinks and throw your cards down and walk away."

-my coworker Don Griffis, profiled in the University Record.

LOCATION:
-106 West Madison
-on the edge of Ann Arbor's historic Old West Side, a classic walkable neighborhood
-1 block from South Main Market, Leopold Bros. brewpub (best jukebox in town), and Washtenaw Dairy (ice cream)
-2 blocks from Downtown
-5 blocks from Central Campus & UM bus line
-on AATA bus line & 3 blocks from Blake Transit Center

SPECS:
-1920s Dutch colonial home in excellent condition
-large front porch (watch/interact with your neighbors/random pedestrians!)
-hardwood floors
-2 bathrooms
-living room
-good-sized kitchen
-5 bedrooms (+ 2 other rooms that could be used as low-rent bedrooms)
-2 refrigerators
-washer & dryer (free, NOT coin-operated)
-central air-conditioning
-unfurnished
-2-car garage and ample driveway parking (not that you'll need to drive too much)
-small backyard
-large basement for storage

RENT:
-$375-$425 depending on room size, even less if marginal basement room & study are rented-out as bedrooms also
-plus utilities
-12-month lease, starting September 1

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
-Non-smokers preferred
-Must be relatively clean, quiet, and responsible, yet preferably still interesting and entertaining. If you like drinking on porches and seeing live music: bonus points.
-May need to put-up with cat that my roommate is considering bringing along

According to a print-version-only Ann Arbor News article, the City Council rejected a proposal that would have required one-third of the money raised by the greenbelt millage to be used for purchasing land for parks within the city of Ann Arbor. If you recall, Proposal B supporters claimed that 1/3 of the funds raised would go to purchase land inside the city. Judy McGovern is none too happy about this development and writes, "It's certainly farfetched to think that someone - greenbelt friend or foe - wouldn't have raised questions about the one-third/two-third split before now if it was as impractical as those opposed to including it in the city ordinance argue it may be."

Well, some of us did raise such questions. I agree that there are a few places where parkland could be purchased in the city, like filling-in the riverfront greenway, and do find it bothersome that such campaign promises are so flippantly broken. On the other hand, the 1/3-2/3 plan was idiotic in the first place if the purpose of the millage is to minimize the impact of urban sprawl surrounding Ann Arbor. We already seem to have more parks than just about any city I've ever been to, and precious-little vacant land. Thus, these lots should be used for infill development while land outside the city is protected. Unfortunately, I predict a lot of NIMBY pressure for poor park purchases in the near future, but I'm glad to see that the City will still have its options open in regard to how the greenbelt funds are used. The rest of us will have to remain vigilant and make sure they aren't squandered.

The Ann Arbor News profiles Tree Town's hottest new nightspot, Club Triune.

"'I think this is really cool,' said Brittany Cole of Hudson, who came to the Ann Arbor club on a recent Friday night to hear the alternative rock band Soul Launch. 'It's a place where you can love God, and people aren't sneaking around and smoking and drinking.'"

Now, I'm pretty sure you don't have to check your religious beliefs at the door of the Blind Pig, and I don't know how much "sneaking around" is going on there, either. Smoking and drinking? Check. I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't have any qualms with wine, though, unless I read that part about the wedding party wrong. The bands Club Triune books, who "are ministers first," are surely reaching scores of unvconverted heathens who must be flocking to the place every weekend, too. Cool Cities indeed.

"The paradox is people are against density and against sprawl."

-Q & A with University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning Dean Doug Kelbaugh.

"'For us, it's all about getting passengers out of the car,' said [Ann Arbor District Library Director Josie] Parker. 'People need convenience, and they don't identify this facility with convenience.'"

Let me get this straight: a building across the street from Ann Arbor's central bus hub, within easy walking and biking distance of a large percentage of the population, and with a neighboring pay lot (with even a 10-minute grace period for library patrons) and two free 5-minute parking spots isn't convenient enough? (Not to mention the several satellite branches that exist for the very purpose of serving far-flung neighborhoods.)

According to a Sunday Ann Arbor News article, the Library Board doesn't think so, and thus proposes to build a new entrance facing the parking lot and a passenger drop-off loop off 5th Avenue. The catch: the DDA would have to give up 16 spaces from its parking lot, which it isn't anxious to do. If an agreement can't be reached? Well, they'll build a shiny-new building elsewhere that will surely be more commodious for vehic-- er, patrons. Your tax dollars at work.

Thus begins Past the College Grounds v. 2.0, a continuation of my old Diary-x site. I've decided to stick with the same title, which was taken from the Uncle Tupelo song "Outdone". The name worked on many levels when I settled on it last summer, being an alt.country-listening recent university graduate working as a groundskeeper and making the transition into towniedom. Despite the fact that I'll be returning to the classrooms of The University of Michigan this September, it still applies, as I expect to continue my broader engagement with the Ann Arbor community in a way that is less-myopic than the view of many undergraduates. Heck, maybe I'll still work for the Grounds Department, too.

I believe Blogspot will provide a much cleaner, more easily-navigable format for my postings than the old site did. Bear with me as I build this weblog, work-out all the kinks, and eventually move the archives over here.