On Tuesday November 16th, I sent an email letter to City Council members, as well as the heads of several local organizations, and to my friends and acquaintances, whom I know care about gardening and composting, concerning city staff’s November 8th recommendation that Council approve the WeCare Organic’s proposal to take over operations of the Ann [...]
AnnArbor.com, as I’ve written before, doesn’t “correct” mistakes or errors in its articles, but rather like the blowsy Uncle who gets caught in a contradiction, AnnArbor.com “updates” its articles on the fly, as it were. The result is that pieces are revised throughout the day on the site. Unfortunately, with a bounce rate around 70 [...]
Ann Arbor’s own SHOPerations professional Sue McCormick (Ann Arbor’s public services area administrator) is always on the look-out for a way to cut a few bucks on services so she can fritter away tax dollars on something that is absolutely unnecessary, such as the recent $200,000 grab for an Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system to track city [...]
On November 12, 2010, the Ann Arbor Parks Preservation Association (A2P2) group fired a shot over the collective bows of John Hieftje and Ann Arbor City Council. The A2P2 group, in this five page letter prepared on the association’s behalf by attorney Susan E. Morrison, presents one demand: ditch the Miles of Golf proposal to [...]
As you may have guessed by now, Ann Arbor’s next budget is going to be even uglier than the last one. Mind you, the last one was ugly, because City Administrator Roger Fraser, John Hiefjte and his Merry Band of Rubber-Stampers on Council, continue to over-spend, use the city’s budgeting process to grandstand politically, and [...]
I try not to blog about blogging. It’s as tedious as when the media comments on, well, the media. However, I thought it might be fun for those who fritter away their time regularly on the blog (and 70 percent of readers are regulars) to know who’s hanging around on the site with you. To [...]
We had dinner with friends not too long ago, and fell to chatting about the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Bobby shook his head and said when people ask him about the public schools (and thanks to his job, he gets asked pretty often), he replies that the school system isn’t that great. His kids went [...]
Third Ward Councilmember Stephen Kunselman has taken some lumps this past term for spouting heresies. My favorite was at the May 17, 2010 Council meeting at which Kunselman suggested that people whom John Hieftje wanted to appoint might come before City Council and answer questions from Council members. I loved that one. Imagine some of [...]
Have you ever wondered about the slow pace of removing dead trees and replanting new ones, poorly plowed streets or huge potholes that are never filled? Wonder no longer! The City’s Diva in charge of SHOPerations, Sue McCormick, has told City Council the problem is that no one knows where City trucks are. Well, they sort [...]
Both the AnnArborchronicle.com and AnnArbor.com invited Fifth Ward City Council candidate incumbent Carsten Hohnke to participate in candidate forums. AnnArbor.com’s candidate event was called a “debate,” though anyone who has ever debated wouldn’t recognize the format as a debate. The candidates each had a limited amount of time to answer the same question. It’s nice. [...]
