by Robert Paarlberg From Whole Foods recyclable cloth bags to Michelle Obama’s organic White House garden, modern eco-foodies are full of good intentions. We want to save the planet. Help local farmers. Fight climate change — and childhood obesity, too. But though it’s certainly a good thing to be thinking about global welfare while chopping [...]
by Hannah Wallace When he was seven-years-old, Malik Yakini, inspired by his grandfather, planted his own backyard garden in Detroit, seeding it with carrots and other vegetables. Should it come as any surprise that today, Yakini has made urban farming his vocation? The Executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), which he [...]
by Betsy McMillin I truly don’t know how to do justice to long-time Ann Arbor Public Schools teacher Rick Dekeon. Anyone who knows him knows exactly what I am talking about. He is by far one of the most amazing teachers you will ever come across, and I have hundreds of people who are nodding their [...]
A2Politico Notes: This is filed under “Scoops & Scores!!” because you read it here first. by P.D. Lesko England’s Queen Elizabeth had her “annus horribilis” in 1992. AnnArbor.com had its own annus horribilis in 2011. First, in late-February 2011 the news blog lost a trio of its most experienced staffers to the Detroit Free Press. [...]
by P.D. Lesko Brenda Lawrence (left) grew up on the northeast side of Detroit and was raised by her grandparents; her mother died when she was three-years-old. She graduated from Detroit’s Pershing High School, and earned her bachelor’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University. In 1997, she was elected to the Southfield City Council and in 1999 she [...]
Brandon Jessup is young, black and lives in Detroit. Newspapers and magazines all around the country that trumpet bad news generated by statistical analyses and studies about the city will tell you that Brandon Jessup should be unemployed, dead or have decamped to the ‘burbs for a better, safer, cleaner and more profitable life. Instead, [...]
by P.D. Lesko “I just hope everyone who’s asked to sign a petition gets all the information about the condition of the spaces we’re trying to replace and the cost of not doing anything,” said Council Member Chris Easthope, who’s worked on the plan for a new police-court building for several years.—Ann Arbor News, April [...]
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 When I opened reporter Erik Schilling’s email to me, I had to read it twice. The Columbia Journalism Review News Frontier Program had assigned him to write a piece about A2Politico. The Columbia Journalism Review? For those not in the field of publishing, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism offers one of [...]
Documents released by Ann Arbor city officials in response to a recent FOIA request revealed that the March 31, 2011 meeting to discuss “police dispatch” was set up via email and included Ann Arbor’s interim City Administrator Tom Crawford, management consultant Kerry Laycock, and Gregory Dill, director of administrative services for Washtenaw County. By April, [...]
