The Ann Arbor City Council met at Larcom City Hall Monday evening to vote on the city’s proposed budget and millage rates for the 2024 fiscal year. The council also approved new funding for an unarmed mental health response team, advanced a development proposal for 721 S. Forest Ave. and responded to vandalism of Black Lives Matter mural at Wheeler Park.

Mayor Christopher Taylor began the meeting by reading a proclamation celebrating May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Ann Arbor, in observance of the annual heritage month which takes place nationwide. Taylor highlighted the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders within the community.

“AAPIs are the fastest growing population in the state of Michigan … with Washtenaw County having one of the highest concentrations of growth,” Taylor said. “(AAPI people) have committed to community wellbeing, health and justice for all throughout their personal and professional work.” 

Several council members expressed disappointment with the recent vandalism of the Black Lives Matter mural at Wheeler Park to read “all lives matter.”

Councilmember Cynthia Harrison, D-Ward 1, said she feels it is important to combat this  vandalism to advance broader efforts toward racial justice in Ann Arbor. 

“(The vandalism) dismisses the need for targeted efforts to address racial injustices and sidetracks conversations about the specific challenges faced by marginalized communities,” Harrison said. “The defacing of ‘Black Lives Matter’ with ‘all lives matter’ disregards the systemic issues that persist and contributes to the erasure of the experiences, voices and demands of the Black community.” 

Councilmember Ayesha Ghazi-Edwin, D-Ward 3, encouraged residents to attend an “equity-focused coffee hour” organized in response to the vandalism at Wheeler Park on May 21. The event will take the form of a community listening session led by Ghazi-Edwin, Harrison and Councilmember Linh Song, D-Ward 2.

Several community speakers expressed support for new social services in the FY 2024 budget aimed at combating housing insecurity, such as substance abuse programs, eviction protections and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s mental health hotline. 

Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton spoke in favor of the planned mental wellness funding. While the County Sheriff currently offers a phone number for mental health response, the support for new social services comes amid calls directed at the council to separate unarmed crisis response from the police force entirely. Clayton said he believes the increased funding will improve overall public safety in Ann Arbor.

“You can’t have a safe community until you have a well community,” Clayton said. 

Daniel Kelly, executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, also spoke in favor of two amendments to the budget that would increase funding for equitable housing.

“(These amendments) will allow us to support some of the most vulnerable neighbors in our local community,” Kelly said. “This winter, we saw an increase of over 20% in those seeking overnight shelter, and now almost 70% of our guests have a disability … I appreciate that the amendment highlights utilizing a trauma-informed approach as well.” 

Both amendments were passed unanimously. 

Song praised the amendments, but said additional changes to housing policy are still necessary. 

“I want to point out how the additional money to support our homelessness work is not in place of our housing work,” Song said. “Temporary housing is not the same as permanent housing and we still need to remain committed to providing housing accessibility across all incomes.”

Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1, responded to public comments concerned with the sustainability of the proposed zoning change to accommodate a new development at 721 S. Forest Ave. 

Disch said while the building does not meet all A2Zero climate standards, WDG Architecture and Subtext Development, the developers for the project, are prepared to purchase carbon offsets instead. Disch also outlined the affordability measures that will be taken by the developers. 

“(Planned Unit Development) regulations require a minimum of 15% of the total units be dedicated as affordable or a contribution in lieu of units,” Disch said. “The petitioner has chosen to provide a cash in lieu payment of $4.7 million, which is $98,000 over the required amount … They’re also making a voluntary contribution of $50,000 to the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corporation.” 

The council will vote on the proposal at a later meeting. 

The council also discussed adding market-rate housing to the property surrounding City Hall. City Administrator Milton Dohoney initially proposed this development on April 19 as a way for the city to raise revenue.

Dohoney acknowledged the controversy of adding market-rate housing on city property. 

“Admittedly, the use of the Kline Lot for market-rate versus affordable may get me uninvited to a Thanksgiving dinner table,” Dohoney said. “But the spot that we’re in, we simply … cannot afford to take all of our assets and do all these development deals with (the) private sector and others where the city gets no money.” 

Councilmember Jenn Cornell, D-Ward 5, spoke in Dohoney’s defense. Cornell said she believes the city needs to facilitate development of all types of housing, including market-rate housing. 

“I think that when we talk about housing, we need housing of all kinds in the city, and I think it’s entirely appropriate to consider market-rate housing for city-owned sites in tandem with city-owned sites for affordable housing,” Cornell said. “The either-or, or one versus another, it’s a false dichotomy that oversimplifies a complex problem.”

The meeting concluded by discussing ways the approved increased funds to the parks and recreation budget will be spent. The council selected Southeast Area Park as the future site of Bicentennial Park in preparation for the city’s bicentennial in 2024, shifting gears from a past proposal for Fuller Park. 

Ghazi-Edwin said she is excited about bringing new recreational opportunities to the ward she represents.

“This amenity will be able to be enjoyed by a side of town that is more racially, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse,” Ghazi-Edwin said. “It’s also a side of town that has eight out of 12 Title 1 public schools, and it’s an area of town that deserves a need for patronage and economic development … It would be close to community social services such as (Community Action Network) and Mallets Creek Library, providing future opportunities for youth programs.” 

Daily News Contributor June MacDonald can be reached at junemac@umich.edu. 

The post City Council meets to approve 2024 budget, discusses social services and parks appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

Between Jan. 7 and April 30, visitors filtered through the doors of Matthaei Botanical Gardens to view the Connatural Exhibit by Art & Design lecturer Cathy Barry. Barry drew inspiration from patterns she observed in nature in an effort to call attention to the importance of environmental conservation.

Barry used natural pigments derived from local sources found in a variety of plant sources in her work for the exhibit, including purple and yellow onion skins, turmeric, beets, cattails and  forsythias. For the past few years, Barry has been working towards “greener” practices of creating artwork in order to lessen her environmental impact. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Barry explained her progression toward using more environmentally-friendly materials 

“I had been using oil paints and other very toxic pigments before, and I was really getting tired of doing that,” Barry said. “After my last exhibition of oil paintings, I just packed all those up and put them away and started investigating nontoxic pigments, which is how I found the earth pigments that I used in many of the paintings, and those were purchased pigments from all over the world … France, Italy, Germany. (The) carbon footprint of that was a problem for me, so I decided that I would start making my own with local materials.”

At the front of the exhibit, a written artist statement tells visitors that Barry’s main inspiration for her art was a desire to create  pieces that speak to natural beauty in light of the current climate crisis. The description said drawing inspiration from nature has allowed her to create artwork that not only represents the natural world but celebrates it through preservation.

“Nature is the big umbrella of what inspires and has always informed my work,” the statement read. “The climate crisis has created an urgency that has called many artists to make works that speak to the beauty, preciousness and precariousness of our environment. My recent work goes a step further by challenging the nature of making art itself.”

Rising Art & Design senior Natasha Leavitt said Barry’s work has influenced the way Leavitt approaches her own work.

“There’s really such a beauty in that ephemerality of her work and that it’s so real, that it changes and that’s really played into my work a lot too,” Leavitt said. “I’ve been trying to make more organic pigments and being really eco-minded with making work and trying not to use toxic materials.”

Barry said her exhibit has sparked conversations with members of the art community about utilizing more eco-friendly practices and experimenting with natural pigments.

“I’m not the only person feeling or thinking this way … from the Botanical Gardens, there (have) been several people who have called and asked questions about life with those natural earth pigment paints,” Barry said. “I’ve had people email me and ask me, ‘How do you make your paints?’ I’ve had conversations with colleagues from (the School of Art & Design) itself, becoming more careful and responsible about the materials that we asked students to buy and that we are having students use.”

When naming the pieces of the exhibit, Barry turned to Taylor Swift for inspiration. As a big fan of Swift’s music, Barry said she wanted to emulate how Swift hides clues in her work.

“I was super inspired during the pandemic (by) how productive and prolific Taylor Swift was,” Barry said. “I always think about what inspired me for this, what was I looking at, what was I thinking about? And then I often will use a thesaurus to find the right word. And then I started thinking about the Taylor Swift influence, so I thought that was just kind of funny because she always hides clues in her work.”

Barry said that her pieces “Labyrinth” and “Bejeweled” were both named after the respective songs in Swift’s album Midnights released in October 2022.

“The word labyrinth sort of implies a maze,” Barry said. “The way that I compose is, really moving pieces around 100,000 times until I feel like ‘Oh, yeah, that’s it.’ And then things kind of clear together, and it’s a lot of different decisions. So that kind of connected to ‘Labyrinth.’‘Bejeweled’ – I had kind of thought of it as a jewel piece before that even came out. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it was just kind of sparkly.

U-M alum Claire Furio first attended the exhibit at its opening in January with friends and said she felt the setting of the botanical garden enhanced her experience of the exhibit.

“I don’t know what a better location would be because it’s all surrounded by plants and the environment,” Furio said. “It seems like a fitting place for Cathy’s work to be presented in because so much of her work surrounds the environment and is derived from plants and her inspiration comes from the natural world … so it just seemed like a perfect fit.”

Summer News Editor Sneha Dhandapani can be reached at sdhanda@umich.edu.

The post Art exhibit ‘Connatural’ celebrates nature through eco-friendly practices and Taylor Swift titles appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

The Ann Arbor City Council met Monday evening to discuss a resolution to dissolve the city’s Brownfield Plan Review Committee, approve upcoming construction projects and hear community feedback on the city’s budget for fiscal year 2024.

During the public commentary portion of the meeting, many Ann Arbor residents expressed concern over Resolution DB-1, which would disband the Brownfield Plan Review Committee. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, brownfields are a property whose redevelopment “may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

Ann Arbor’s Brownfield Plan Review Committee determines whether construction projects which applied for brownfield development financial incentives should be recommended to City Council. One such financial incentive is tax increment financing, which reimburses a developer over time using money generated by the increase in tax revenue from a brownfield property after it is improved. The council can then recommend the projects for Washtenaw County’s Brownfield Program. 

Ann Arbor resident Ken Garber said removing the Brownfield Plan Review Committee would hurt the city’s ability to review applications for brownfield funding and limit opportunities for input from the public.

“This is a very capable city council, but you simply do not have the time or the bandwidth at your meetings to fully vet these complex and opaque (development) plans,” Garber said. “By dissolving the committee you are also eliminating one of two chances for public comment.”

Councilmember Jen Eyer, D-Ward 4, said the resolution would enable increased public scrutiny of proposed developments and reduce costs by having developers only present their plans at City Council meetings.

“What we are doing is going to increase public participation and transparency regarding the Brownfield review process,” Eyer said. “Instead of a small committee that meets quietly when the public isn’t paying attention, and receives the presentation from the developer (during the committee meeting) … the entire body here will receive that presentation from the developer and will be able to consider the plan as a body.”

During the City Council’s discussion of the resolution, Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1, responded to concerns that the resolution gave disproportionate power over brownfield proposals to Washtenaw County. Disch said the decision to recommend development projects for the County Brownfield Program is up to the City Council, and it will remain so under Resolution DB-1.

“The (Brownfield Plan) Review Committee has never been the committee of final review,” Disch said. “It is now and will remain the responsibility of City Council to review brownfield agreements for projects within the city of Ann Arbor and deny or approve them … It is now and will remain the role of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to give final approval to any brownfield plan that comes before it.”

Resolution DB-1 was approved by a vote of councilmembers.

The City Council also approved multiple contracts for construction projects. During the discussion of CA-5, a resolution to approve a contract with Fonson Company for a water main project, Eyer said many of Fonson’s employees did not have safety training from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To address this, she proposed an amendment that would require all employees on projects contracted by the city of Ann Arbor to complete OSHA training prior to beginning construction.

“From these proposals, Fonson admitted and revealed that they have just two laborers who will supposedly have the (OSHA) training by the time construction begins,” Eyer said. “I’m going to propose an amendment …  that companies must provide evidence that all craft labor that will be employed by the bidder on city projects has, or will have prior to commencement of the project, completed at least an authorized 10-hour OSHA construction safety course.”

Several community members spoke during the public hearing on the city’s budget for the fiscal year 2024. Representatives from Ann Arbor for Public Power, a local organization advocating for a publicly-owned energy utility, asked the council to set aside $250,000 for a valuation of DTE, in the event that the city’s feasibility study of public power comes back in favor of doing so. 

Ann Arbor resident Lauren Sargent gave an example of a community-owned utility in Holland, Mich. as a model for Ann Arbor. In order to finance the initial cost of improving energy efficiency, Holland created the Holland On-Bill Loan Program, a partnership between the Holland Board of Public Works and the nonprofit Michigan Saves. The program covers the initial costs of the switch to a public energy grid and the funds are repaid in monthly installments as part of residents’ electric bills.

“Holland actually had … a problem twice within the last decade,” said Sargent. “(The first was) how to return all the extra money that they got from the revenues from customers … And also, the electric utilities borrow money for infrastructure repairs at half the rate that DTE does, it’s a budget no-brainer.”

The council will vote on whether to approve the budget at a later meeting. Summer News Editor Abigail VanderMolen can be reached at vabigail@umich.edu.

The post City Council meets to dissolve Brownfield Plan Review Committee and hear concerns over 2024 budget appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

In June 2021, Ann Arbor finalized their Vision Zero plan, which aims to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from car crashes by 2025. From 2020 to 2021, the fatal and serious injuries resulting from crashes have been reduced by 15%. However, crashes still caused more than a dozen deaths and critical injuries on Ann Arbor roads in 2021. The Michigan Daily spoke with government officials, students and local activists to understand Ann Arbor’s efforts toward pedestrian safety. 

In an email to The Michigan Daily, Raymond Hess, Ann Arbor transportation manager, wrote that the main cause of these fatal crashes is speeding. Studies show that at an impact speed of 20 mph, pedestrians have a 95% chance of survival. When impact speed increases to 40 mph, the chance of survival drops to 15%. Hess wrote that despite local governments’ limited jurisdiction to set speed limits, there are still many road design components the city can employ to reduce speeding.

“We are currently engaged in a multipronged approach to address speeds in Ann Arbor,” Hess wrote. “1) We review capital projects for opportunities to make improvements that can reduce speeds and/or provide better facilities for people who walk/use a wheelchair, bike, or take transit. 2) Absent a major capital project, we look for opportunities to implement quick build improvements. 3) The City is working on a Speed Management Program for Major Roads — this can be thought of as a traffic calming program for arterials and collectors. ”

Hess wrote that the metrics on current progress are still unavailable due to a normal delay in state data sharing and the city’s ongoing efforts to create a dashboard to visualize the progress.

In response to persisting pedestrian deaths and injuries, U-M students have taken action to foster discussions surrounding pedestrian safety and urban planning on campus. The Urbanism Club is a U-M student organization dedicated to informing the University and Ann Arbor communities about pedestrian safety and sustainable development. One of the club’s current objectives has been making the stretch of North University Avenue near the Central Campus Transit Center open for buses and emergency vehicles only. Engineering senior Shane Guenther, one of the co-presidents of the club, told The Daily he believes this would make the area safer for students and easier for buses to navigate.

“There’s no parking there (and) there (are) no destinations,” Guenther said. “The only reason for private cars to be going through is to get to the other side just as through-traffic … (prohibiting cars) is essentially a free way to speed up the bus system.”

Guenther elaborated further on how urban planning directly impacts the behavior of city residents.

“As we all know, the design and structures around you impact your behavior,” Guenther said. “They guide the behavior of people walking, of people driving. So it’s not just putting a lower speed limit on a road, it’s designing that road to be driven at a lower speed.”

Both Guenther and his co-president, LSA senior Hazel Magoon, believe the Ann Arbor City Council has the right idea surrounding efforts toward improving pedestrian safety, but must ensure they are executed correctly. Magoon said the Urbanism Club is working to support the council’s efforts however they can.

“We’re also working with the City Council to just help them in any way possible to improve the bike lanes around Ann Arbor,” Magoon said. “Whether that’s going to City Council meetings or just being a voice for students who can’t show up to these City Council meetings and express that it’s something that the students are really interested in, as well as trying to spread the word around campus that pedestrian safety, biking and transportation (are) important.”

Peter Houk, a Transportation Commission member and owner of the Facebook page Safe on Scio Church, said his advocacy work has yielded results, with the city agreeing to install a pedestrian refuge island in the center lane to discourage high-speed passing. Houk said he was generally satisfied with the city’s road diet plan along Scio Church Road, but he does not believe it addresses the fundamental problem that roads are often not designed to protect pedestrians. 

“There are a few things that I disagree with,” Houk said. “What we don’t have in the plan is the right elements to break up this very long, very straight section of road. The nearest stop light from (the corner of Scio Church and South Seventh) is 4000 feet. This is really straight, really flat and really wide. This makes people want to go fast.”

Kirk Westphal, former City Council member and a member of Walk Bike Washtenaw, a non-profit advocating for pedestrian and cyclist safety in Washtenaw County, has been calling for lane-reductions along Huron Parkway since 2017. Westphal told The Daily his current advocacy is driven by concerns for the safety of his son, and the memory of a crash on Huron Parkway involving one of his neighbor’s children.

“The issue here on Huron Parkway is of particular relevance to me because I lived close to it,” Westphal said. “A neighbor’s child was hit while going to school, and now I have my own son who mostly goes to school by foot or by bike. So it is personal for me in this instance.”

Although the city’s maintenance plan for Huron Parkway at the end of last year included lane-narrowing in an attempt to increase pedestrian safety, Westphal said he was disappointed the plan didn’t include lane reduction and other safety-enhancing reconfigurations like roundabouts. He said he believed wide roads would inadvertently encourage speeding, and said in his personal experience he has continued to observe speeding near school zones despite previous changes. “Since I have moved here, they have implemented school zone speed reduction, and more recently, the flashing lights near crosswalks and speed feedback signs,” Westphal said. “However, it took me three minutes standing down the Parkway (to take) a photo of someone speeding down at 54 miles in a maximum 25 mph school zone … there just seems to be nothing advantageous to keep Huron Parkway as a four-lane route.”

In an email to The Daily, Hess wrote the city has not ruled out the possibility of future modifications along Huron Parkway.

“Huron Parkway is a preventative maintenance project, which is a project of a lesser magnitude than resurfacing,” Hess wrote. “It was not analyzed for a road reconfiguration or lane reduction at this time. But nothing precludes us from revisiting this topic in the future.”

Daily Staff Reporters Chen Lyu and Alexandra Vena can be reached at lyuch@umich.edu and alexvena@umich.edu.

The post A walk through Ann Arbor’s pedestrian safety efforts appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

As Washtenaw County faces increased housing insecurity in recent years with a surge this past winter, county officials and nonprofits around Ann Arbor are hoping for relief in the form of funding from the American Rescue Plan. The Washtenaw County Office of Community & Economic Development applied for the Home American Rescue Plan Program this past March with hopes of building more permanent affordable and supportive housing around the county by 2030. 

HOME-ARP provides about $5 billion nationally in the form of grants to support communities dealing primarily with homelessness. Its grants can be used for the development or restoration of affordable housing, rental assistance, supportive housing services and non-congregate shelters. Affordable housing means tenants only have to pay a certain amount of their paycheck towards housing, usually less than 30%. Supportive housing consists of housing units that come with social services such as addiction services, counseling and youth programming. 

Morghan Boydston, human services manager for OCED, oversees grant funding from state and federal programs. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Boydston said her office also works to track housing insecurity trends in Washtenaw County and share this data with the community. This past winter, due to increased rates of homelessness, OCED had to take on the additional temporary role of directing community programs.

“I think one direct impact (OCED has had) is the programming that we’ve seen (this winter) — the winter shelter response and the hoteling of families,” Boydston said. “That typically isn’t the role that the county would play, (but) we’ve had to step in and provide that resource as a response to the increased family homelessness.”

Boydston said many factors are contributing to this increased housing insecurity, including the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation rates and the fact that rent control is illegal in the state of Michigan. She said ultimately, a lack of resources is the main reason for the crisis facing Washtenaw County.

“Any community can expect – with the resources they’re given – to be able to solve one in four eligible families’ homelessness crisis,” Boydston said. “That means we are only resourced to provide services, or actually attend to the crisis, of 25% of the people who are eligible. At a baseline, that’s where the crisis comes from: not enough resources on any level to attend to the crisis.”

Washtenaw County submitted the HOME-ARP Funding Allocation Plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on March 31.The current draft of the plan was informed by conversations with community organizations and analysis of homelessness data within Washtenaw County. It would allocate 77% of the funding toward the development of about 60 new affordable housing units. In an interview with The Daily, Tara Cohen, housing and infrastructure manager for OCED said this was motivated by the lack of affordable housing currently available in the county.

“The sad truth is that we’ve lost at least 990 affordable units since 2015,” Cohen said. “We’ve only gained about 233, and we have about somewhere between 400-500 in the pipeline for over the next three years, but as you can see from those numbers, we’re not even getting back to where we were yet in 2015.”

The county would also allocate 11% of the funding to supportive services for some of these housing units, 5% to non-profit operations in the county and 7% to administrative staff to ensure HOME-ARP program compliance over the life of the funding. Cohen said while drafting the allocation plan, they felt the most impactful way to use this one-time funding would be to focus on one large goal, such as the development of affordable housing, rather than putting small amounts into many different programs in the county.

“We found ourselves going in the direction of putting the majority (of the funding) toward development of affordable rental housing,” Cohen said. “We were trying to not water down the funding such that we were covering all the different possible categories: non-congregate shelter, development, affordable housing, and supportive services and tenant based rental assistance.”

If HUD approves the OCED plan, Cohen said they will return the current allocation plan to the community for additional rounds of comments in order to ensure equitable distribution and maximum impact. 

According to Cohen and Boydston, OCED reached out to multiple local organizations for direct comment on their initial application to HUD and their funding plan. Avalon Housing is a community-based non-profit that develops, owns and manages supportive housing in Ann Arbor, Chelsea and Dexter.  Wendy Carty-Saxon, director of real estate development at Avalon Housing, said in an email to The Daily she advised OCED to put the majority of their grant funding towards the development of affordable housing to create a long-term solution for the county.

“Given the limited and one-time nature of this funding, using the funds to develop supportive housing enables the initial investment to support the operation of units as supportive housing into the foreseeable future,” Carty-Saxon wrote. 

Carty-Saxon also pointed out the discrepancies between Ann Arbor and broader Washtenaw County housing services. Ann Arbor has an Affordable Housing Millage to provide funding for supportive and affordable housing in the city and has also actively studied its existing properties for future designation of affordable housing. 

“These combined efforts are providing great opportunities for affordable and supportive housing development within the City of Ann Arbor, and can help lead to the leveraging of other funding sources,” Carty-Saxon wrote. “Funding for supportive housing services outside of the City of Ann Arbor can be more challenging, which is one reason we suggested some County HOME ARP funding be used to fund supportive housing services (similar to the Affordable Millage structure).”

Jennifer Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, echoed the importance of permanent housing as a long-term solution to housing insecurity in Ann Arbor in an email to The Daily. Hall said public subsidies are critical to increase affordable housing availability, either on the development side through free or reduced land costs, or on the operations side through reduced taxes, energy efficient utility subsidies and rental vouchers.

“If the private sector were able to build enough housing to meet the current demand in the County, then there would be a better distribution of price points for people of all incomes, but it would still be insufficient to meet the demand for housing for households that have the lowest household incomes,” Hall wrote. “The cost to construct housing and the cost to operate housing … is too high to be financially feasible or sustainable without significant public subsidy.”

Hall said she believes current national housing policies have failed to address housing insecurity. She said while this project alone cannot solve the housing crisis, it is crucial to ensure people have affordable places to live.  

“Shelters and eviction prevention funding are needed as a short-term crisis response, but they should not be our long-term solution as a society to our failed housing policies,” Hall said. “It is hard to prioritize limited local funds that are wildly inadequate to address the magnitude of the problem. Regardless, we need to make a commitment, no matter how small, to adding more permanently affordable housing owned by mission-driven organizations to the local housing market.”

Boydston emphasized that homelessness is usually the result of a combination of systemic problems, rather than the fault of any one individual. .

“We need to change the narrative around what makes homelessness a thing,” Boydston said. “I think people blame the individual for having experienced homelessness and don’t give enough credit to all the other things, (such as) lack of quality employment opportunities, lack of wealth building opportunities, lack of education opportunities (and) lack of quality accessible health care and mental health care.” 

Jennifer Erb-Downward, a research specialist at Poverty Solutions at the University highlighted the center’s Michigan-focused poverty and well-being map as a resource for learning more about homelessness.

“You can search by county to look at the data on the percent and number of children identified as experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in public school,” Erb-Downward said. “This could give you a sense of how much larger the issue of housing instability is in Washtenaw County than the shelter or PIT count data alone indicate.”

LSA sophomore Liem Swanson, co-president of the Michigan Movement club, told The Daily the organization is working to raise awareness on the University of Michigan campus about homelessness in Ann Arbor and the surrounding areas.  

“The club is trying to help find solutions to homelessness in Ann Arbor that are more lasting,” Swanson said. “We’re trying to find ways that we can increase awareness about homelessness for students, to bridge the gap between the student population and everyone else in Ann Arbor.”

Daily Staff Reporters Sirianna Blanck and Emma Swanson can be reached at sirianna@umich.edu and emms@umich.edu.

The post Washtenaw County applies for funding to fight rising housing insecurity appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

The Ann Arbor Natural Area Preservation branch of the Ann Arbor Department of Parks and Recreation hosted a stewardship workday at the Furstenberg Nature Area to celebrate Earth Day on Saturday. Eighteen community volunteers pulled invasive species such as garlic mustard, Dame’s rocket and narrowleaf bittercress from the woods bordering the Huron River. 

In addition to the event at Furstenberg, NAP hosted two other workdays throughout Ann Arbor to celebrate Earth Day. Saturday morning, volunteers pulled invasive species at Mary Beth Doyle Park Saturday morning, and on Sunday, community members collected larger, heavier pieces of trash at Bluffs Nature Area. 

Tina Stephens, NAP volunteer and outreach coordinator, said although NAP hosts these kinds of events all spring, it is still hard to control the invasive plant population. 

“I think it’s really hard to make progress because (the invasive species) seed so prolifically,” Stephens said. “That being said, we have really seen the effects of our effort. Populations of garlic mustard have been declining in many other natural areas where we’ve been working so hard.” 

Stephens said events like this are important, because they help keep the populations of invasive species in check. 

“Because they’re not native here, they don’t have predators,” Stephens said. “Sometimes deer or something will munch on them a little bit, but they really are not the preferred plant. So there’s nothing to kind of keep their population in check if it wasn’t for us going out.” 

Novi resident Yuna Hahn said it was her second time attending a NAP event and that she felt excited to do something good for the planet this Earth Day.

“I came here today to help celebrate and protect our planet, which is really important, especially in the wake of climate change and the extinction crisis,” Hahn said. “I really like (NAP’s) program because it’s about nature restoration instead of just picking up trash or spreading mulch. You get on a … deeper level with the ecosystem and ecologically with NAP than if you were to do (this) with another organization.” 

Thejas Rengaswamy, Business junior and Chi Psi president, said he has attended more than 10 NAP workdays with his fraternity before Saturday’s event.

“(Chi Psi has) been doing these types of events for the last three years and so it’s definitely something where a lot of our guys like to come out and help the community,” Rengaswamy said. “On campus, it’s tough to find time to go outside and enjoy nature. (Volunteering) kind of makes … a good getaway from all the hustle and bustle of the city.” 

Rengaswamy said he finds the volunteer work at these events relaxing and appreciates the opportunity to spend time in nature.

“I had this expectation that it was going to be super backbreaking work, and you’re going to be constantly doing it,” Rengaswamy said. “You can work (at) your own pace. No one’s forcing you to really do anything at any pace. And so you can come in with any amount of enthusiasm and willingness … you can also really spend a lot of time just enjoying yourself in nature.” 

Blake Duddles, LSA senior and Chi Psi member, said volunteering with NAP gave him the chance to learn more about invasive species and the effect that they have on the local environment. 

“Speaking from personal experience, I didn’t know anything about any of this before I started with NAP,” Duddles said. “So it’s been an amazing educational opportunity. I think everyone should try it, honestly.” 

Stephens said the workdays help maintain the biodiversity of Furstenberg Park and restore areas that have been harmed by humans. 

“Invasive plants are here because people … have brought them to North America and have spread them around for various reasons,” Stephens said. “Furstenberg Park is one of our most diverse parks in terms of wildflowers. And if it wasn’t for both staff and volunteers going out … we would lose that biodiversity.” 

Duddles said Earth Day is an important reminder to care for the planet, but that work to restore the environment must continue year-round. 

“We can’t just stop caring about the environment once Earth Day is over,” Duddles said. “It’s more of just a good opportunity…it’s a reminder.” 

Hahn said she feels education is key to raising awareness about environmental issues. 

“I tried to spread the word about (NAP) at my school … but a lot of people didn’t even know it was Earth Day,” Hahn said. “We could start with teachers maybe because they reach like, hundreds of students every day … I think education is a great place to start.”

Summer News Editor Astrid Code can be reached at astridc@umich.edu.

The post City of Ann Arbor hosts volunteer workday celebrating Earth Day appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

The city of Ann Arbor first announced its A2Zero plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 on Nov. 4, 2019 following the city’s adoption of a Climate Emergency Declaration. The project is built upon seven core strategies, including powering the city’s electrical grid with 100% renewable energy and reducing residents’ vehicle miles by at least 50%. Although it is primarily backed by the Ann Arbor City Council, the climate plan states that the success of the project is contingent on mass community engagement. The Michigan Daily’s City beat talked with Ann Arbor council members and commissioners to track the progress of the city’s A2Zero Plan.

According to the city’s A2Zero Climate Action Plan, the community must eliminate the equivalent of 2.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2030. The Office of Sustainability & Innovations published annual reports for both 2021 and 2022 alongside videos outlining the city’s plans for carbon neutrality and the city’s greenhouse gas inventory. Alongside these resources on the website, Ann Arbor residents may also opt to take an A2Zero Pledge.

“I pledge to help achieve an equitable and just transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030,” the pledge reads.

Daily News Editor Sejal Patil can be reached at sejpatil@umich.edu and Daily Staff Reporters Alexandra Vena, Sirianna Blanck and Astrid Code can be reached at alexvena@umich.edu, sirianna@umich.edu and astridc@umich.edu.

The post What you need to know about Ann Arbor’s A2Zero plan: Carbon Neutrality by 2030 appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

Ann Arbor City Council met in Larcom City Hall Monday evening to discuss the possibility of using the library lane surface parking lot for food trucks and mobile vendors and acknowledge April as National Arab American Heritage Month. City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. also proposed the budget for fiscal year 2024

Mayor Christopher Taylor began the meeting by officially recognizing April as National Arab American Heritage Month and highlighting the Arab American community in Ann Arbor. 

“We are blessed in Ann Arbor to have people in our homes, people among us, people who comprise us from all over the world and (this diversity) makes us what we are,” Taylor said. “In that light, it is my great pleasure to honor Arab Americans here in our community through the proclamation of National Arab American Heritage Month.”

Taylor continued that it is incredibly important to celebrate how Arab Americans have contributed to American culture. 

“Arab Americans have been making valuable contributions to every aspect of American society, in medicine, law, business, education, technology, military service and culture,” Taylor said. “Whereas Arab Americans join all Americans and the desire to see a peaceful and diverse society where every individual is treated equally and feels safe. Whereas the incredible contributions and heritage of Arab Americans have helped us build a better nation. And I’d like to add: a better city.”

Dohoney spoke on the proposed city budget for FY 2024. Dohoney said the city of Ann Arbor had almost $600 million in their all-funds budget, which encompasses all of the city’s budget, and almost $130 million in their general budget, which goes towards the community’s basic public needs and services. 

Dohoney emphasized that he has faced pressure from the community to be frugal with the budget and went on to say what the city has prioritized spending money on for the upcoming fiscal year. The department, in support of Ann Arbor’s 200th birthday, plans on allocating $200,000 for the bicentennial project over the next two fiscal years. This project will include a bicentennial park under the legacy project A200. 

“We propose to take what is currently Fuller Park, rename it to Bicentennial Park and place a number of new amenities within the park,” Dohoney said “This will not be accomplished in a single year. It will require investments from the city government. But there are also opportunities for sponsorships in order to make this vision (become) reality.”

Dohoney also proposed that part of the budget be put towards creating a physical election center to support voter safety and timely voting. 

“If you think back to the last election, there were two narratives at play: the long lines that were experienced in Ann Arbor and across the country and the second narrative around voter integrity, the protection of the ballots and the protection of the count,” Dohoney said. “In order to address this, we are proposing to establish an election center (that) will be an actual physical location.”

The Council then opened the meeting to public comment, which largely focused on using the library lane surface parking lot for food trucks and mobile vendors. 

U-M alum Dan Adams, who currently works on General Motors’ legal staff, expressed his opposition to this resolution. Adams referenced the proposal from the Council of Commons back in 2021 which asked that the library lot on 5th Ave. be changed into a public park, and has seen  little to no advancement. 

“The Council of Commons was created in 2020 to advise this body and help plan the creation of a public park on the library lot,” Adams said. “What it has become is a dysfunctional, deeply divided body that’s neither advising you nor effectively advancing that project.”

Adams said he believes  approving this resolution would not actually advance the city’s long-term goals. 

“Asking city staff to analyze whether food trucks are viable on the site … is the best option of bad options to activate a site that everyone understands to be undesirable,” Adams said. “This is something they proposed back in 2021.”

Ann Arbor resident Alex Lowe echoed Adams’ thoughts.

“(A resolution to approve vendors on the library lot is) a squandering of the city’s limited resources,” Lowe said. 

At this meeting, the council members would not take a vote on the proposal for food trucks to park on the library parking lot, promising to take action in a future meeting.  

Daily Staff Reporter Emma Swanson can be reached at emms@umich.edu.

The post City Council discusses the 2023-2024 budget and use of the Ann Arbor Public Library parking lot appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

End the Cycle, a student organization at the University of Michigan working toward improving equity in Michigan schools, raised over $5,000 during the winter semester to completely pay off student lunch debt at Carpenter and Allen Elementary Schools in Ann Arbor. 

End the Cycle was founded at the University in 2020 to address inequality in Ann Arbor schools, with the city being one of the most economically segregated in the nation. The organization provides virtual supplemental tutoring services to elementary students and organizes various committee projects. 

LSA senior Rija Awan is the co-founder and current president of End the Cycle. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Awan said the organization was originally founded to address the impact of homelessness on students, though they have since expanded to helping underserved students from a greater variety of backgrounds.

“The original goal was to bridge the gap in educational disparity for students facing homelessness in Ann Arbor,” Awan said. “We’ve expanded to online tutoring for underserved students and then these committee projects … It’s a very community-engaged organization.”

End The Cycle has a committee centered around food insecurity, which is chaired by LSA sophomore Elizabeth White and led by LSA junior Zubaida Azeeza. In an interview with The Daily, Azeeza said they saw providing funds for school lunches as a step toward achieving educational equity within the district.

“We saw a TikTok, actually, about other schools paying off lunch debts and we thought that would be a great idea,” Azeeza said. “We know that food insecurity goes hand-in-hand with educational instability, and by making sure that a student has food, they’re less likely to drop out.”

Azeeza said she believes lunch debt can not only affect the students who cannot afford lunch, but can also lower the quality of educational resources at these schools if the school district has to cut into its budget to cover the accumulated debt.

“Students who aren’t part of the free and reduced lunch program can accumulate debt and the debt still has to be paid,” Azeeza said. “The school has to address it in some way, and that can cut into educational resources.”

White told The Daily people might not expect food insecurity to exist in Ann Arbor, the city with the highest number of households making over $200,000 annually in the state. Still, 16% of Ann Arbor Public Schools students rely on the federal free and reduced lunch program to eat at school and White said there are likely other low to mid-income students who don’t qualify for federal support, but struggle to pay for lunch.

“I think that there’s a misconception that because Ann Arbor is a relatively wealthy city and area, there isn’t food insecurity,” White said. “Because Ann Arbor is such a high-income city, the entire district doesn’t receive free lunch. Then those students who can’t afford it, but aren’t disadvantaged enough to receive federal aid, can’t even afford lunch, and that’s where the debt is really accumulating.”

White said they chose to fundraise for certain schools in part because of their proximity to the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti border, because while schools in Michigan cities with a higher number of low-income students might qualify for federal aid, the majority of schools in Ann Arbor do not. The median household income in Ypsilanti for a household in 2021 is $40,256 while Ann Arbor’s is nearly double, or $73,276.

“A lot of the schools that we’re targeting are on the border of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti,” White said. “Ypsilanti is a district that does qualify for federal aid for the whole district, so if you live in Ypsilanti and you go to school there, no matter how much money your family makes, you get free lunch, whereas in Ann Arbor, that’s not necessarily true.”

White said the committee decided to target elementary schools instead of middle or high schools because student lunch debt accumulates over a student’s K-12 academic career.

“(Lunch debt) adds up over a student’s life,” White said. “It follows you through middle school and into high school, so paying off debt in an elementary school can still end up reducing the debt of a high schooler.”

End The Cycle raised funds through a combination of grants, social media campaigns and sticker sales. Awan said the grants and awards helped the group raise awareness in the community, which brought in more individual donations.

“We knew that we needed support early on, and if we could get grants, then we can get a push towards the goal immediately,” Awan said. “We won the TEDxUofM grant, which was super big for us. … We got to speak on stage for that, and that allowed us to get a ton of awareness about the project, and we got lots of donations from that. We also won the U-M Medical School’s Galens Medical Society grant.”

LSA sophomore Archita Girmannagari was the lead of the TEDxUofM subteam that selected End the Cycle as the winner of the Award for Innovation, a $1,000 grant given annually to a U-M community member or organization. In an interview with The Daily, Girmannagari said the organization’s proposal stood out due to the direct short-term impact on the community, as well as the potential for long-term impact.

“One thing that I really liked about End the Cycle was that paying off the lunch debt would have a direct impact on the community within this year,” Girmannagari said. “We knew for a fact that our money would be going to a good cause … and secondly, the way that they phrased their plan was that making this impact now would only be a building block for their future plans.”

Receiving the TEDxUofM grant allowed the End the Cycle to talk about their mission with a larger audience. Girmannagari said members of the organization spoke at the TEDxUofM conference, which allowed attendees to learn about food insecurity in Ann Arbor and how they could help.

“(End the Cycle) actually were able to speak at our conference,” Girmannagari said. “A big part of this award is to raise awareness for that organization. It’s not only about the funds, it’s also about having the opportunity to share their ideas.”

Awan said the food insecurity committee intends to continue working with these schools to eliminate childhood food insecurity in Ann Arbor.

“We’re not done,” Awan said. “We know (the donation) is not addressing the root cause of food insecurity. … Some next steps would be establishing food pantries in (local) schools, and we want to work to create a database online where people can see the schools that need the most help in eliminating that lunch debt so that they can donate directly.”

Azeeza said she believes establishing food pantries in schools would have the biggest long-term impact, which is a project End the Cycle would like to pursue in the future.

“There are food banks in Ann Arbor, but it’s not as accessible as a food pantry located in the school,” Azeeza said. “It will help the families out tremendously. Children … can just go to the pantry, pick up the groceries, load them in their backpack and go home. It’s much more accessible than a food bank.”

By working with Ann Arbor Public School administrators and local organizations like Ozone House and Alpha House, Awan said she believes the work of the organization will go far.

“(The donation) is just the first step,” Awan said. “We’re super excited to keep this going for the next semester.”

Daily Staff Reporter Madison Hammond can be reached at madihamm@umich.edu.

The post UMich student organization raises $5,000 to pay off lunch debt at 2 Ann Arbor elementary schools appeared first on The Michigan Daily.

Government officials from across the country have been pushing for climate legislation over the past decade to try and turn things around before it is too late. The city of Ann Arbor is among those dedicated to reducing carbon emissions locally through A2ZERO, a plan to reach carbon neutrality in Ann Arbor by 2030. One aspect of the A2ZERO plan is Solarize, a community-based program that sources solar panels and infrastructure to make clean energy more accessible in residents’ homes. 

Founded by Julie Roth, senior energy analyst at Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations, Solarize connects homeowners interested in purchasing solar panels with contractors to make group buys that reduce the price of solar infrastructure for residents. In late 2019, Roth hosted a group buy and was shocked by the turnout, with over a dozen purchases after a single meeting. Seeing the interest in group buying solar panels, she worked with the Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability and Innovations to start Solarize and make it a city-wide program. Roth told The Michigan Daily that once things got started, the Solarize program just kept expanding.

“I reached out to someone who had been in the first group and asked if they were interested in paying it forward and creating a new group and they were … then there was so much momentum,” Roth said. “It’s just kind of grown and snowballed from there.”

Zach Waas Smith, a Community Engagement Specialist at OSI, also played a big role in the development and implementation of the Solarize program and A2ZERO. Smith was originally cautious about attempting a program such as Solarize, because the federal government attempted a similar program with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with limited success. Critics claimed the act came too late and didn’t have a broad scope to have any real impact.

“(The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) was proposed by Obama, but it didn’t take off,” Smith said. “So (Roth) just took that toolkit and said, ‘I’m doing this and I’m gonna do it in Ann Arbor,’ and it took off and it’s been wildly, wildly successful, and it’s now an official program of the city of Ann Arbor.”

Smith said though he and his teammates at OSI are still solidifying the details of A2ZERO, they remain dedicated to reaching its goals in innovative ways.

“We expect that we’re going to reevaluate,” Smith said. “We’re going to revisit some of these things. And there are going to be new technologies that emerge that we couldn’t have imagined when we wrote this and we’re going to need to utilize those technologies to help get us to zero net emissions.”

The Solarize program has warranted an overall positive response from local environmental activists. Public Health junior Joseph Cerniglia is the president of the University of Michigan chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a group dedicated to passing climate legislation at all levels of government. In an interview with The Daily, Cerniglia said his group approves of the Solarize program and its goals. 

“(In) our opinion, the Solarize initiative is a great initiative and an important part of the renewable energy solution to climate change,” Cerniglia said. “It really serves the goal of making solar more accessible … I think any way that you can make renewable energy more affordable and more accessible is a very important part of the climate solution.”

However, Ceriglia said he believes the Solarize program has its limitations, citing its focus on providing more accessible clean energy access for solely homeowners. 

“It still leaves renters, for example, which are a large portion of the population here in Ann Arbor, out of the equation,” Cerniglia said. 

Smith said he believes Solarize has been a huge overall success in Ann Arbor thus far.

“Solarize has been really successful in Ann Arbor,” Smith said. “We just passed four megawatts of installed solar on rooftops throughout the city, which, for the layperson, is a lot of solar.” 

Solarize meetings are not only for people interested in participating in a group buy; they also serve as learning opportunities for people interested in the environment and how they can reduce their carbon footprint. Roth said she welcomes any Washtenaw County resident interested in clean energy to get involved with Solarize.

“There’s absolutely no obligation or pressure (to buy solar panels) or anything,” Roth said. “You could just come and learn about solar and how it works and your energy grid and electrification and greenhouse gas emissions. The meetings are a lot of fun, they’re extremely informative and anybody can come.”

Daily Staff Reporter Mary Corey can be reached at mcorey@umich.edu.

The post Ann Arbor Solarize program seeks to make solar power more accessible appeared first on The Michigan Daily.