by Pete Nicely Ann Arbor homeowners pay some of the highest property taxes in the state, yet community members are anguished by their neighbors’ unwillingness to fund a tax to fix what some have dubbed, “the smile deficit.” “There are some children in this community who go hours without ever seeing a smile,” said Ann [...]
A2PNotes: This is filed under “Scoops & Scores” because you read it here first by P.D. Lesko Collectively, Ann Arbor residents own about 2,000 acres of parkland. A conservative estimate of the value of the land, according to city officials, is anywhere from $600 million to $1.5 billion dollars. Now a question. Barton Pond, Bird [...]
by P.D. Lesko The Boomers on Ann Arbor City Council are fixated on turning the city into a mecca for Young Professionals. After all, 35,000 wanna-be YPs study at the University of Michigan, and if all of them would just stay put, in less than 10 years Ann Arbor could have a population to rival, [...]
By Kristina Lakes I am the mother you shun in Wal-Mart. Your disapproving eyes flit from my unbrushed hair to focus upon my four-year-old son, who is dressed in a long-sleeved, fatigue shirt and tight, black-wool leggings, even though it’s August. He’s also wearing a cowboy holster and sheriff’s badge. Any minute now, he’ll begin [...]
By P.D. Lesko In 2007, Ann Arbor City Council passed the Public Art Ordinance that sets aside one percent of funds from all public construction budgets for art projects — to a maximum of $250,000 per project. On the City of Ann Arbor web site, it says that John Hieftje “championed the Percentage for Art Program to [...]
by Pete Nicely It was H.L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis or some other dead white Anglo Saxon who once sort-of said, “When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross.” Or maybe it was Ryan Seacrest who said, “When Lady Gaga shows up at the MTV Video Music Awards, it will [...]
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Borders executives are getting in one last punch below the belt of the company’s 10,000 workers who lost their jobs. As laid off workers battle for their remaining compensation, and on the same day Borders Group Inc.’s employees filed a suit which alleges that did not receive proper [...]
by P.D. Lesko Ann Arbor residents pay some of the highest per capita property taxes in the state, including a street repair millage that is up for renewal in November. Ann Arbor has the third worst roads in the entire state, and a Street Repair Millage Fund with a $14-$28 million dollar surplus, depending on [...]
