Business Week is also excited about the potential for continued housing unaffordability in A2, “a college town in the southeast corner of Michigan known for liberal marijuana laws (many residents and students take part in the annual Hash Bash) and intense loyalty to Wolverines football.”
Ann Arbor Business Review columnist Paula Gardner expresses her hope that housing in Ann Arbor remain unaffordable. (Credit for the wording of this post goes to Dean Baker.)
“I think it will change the whole feel of downtown … Every little space in this town, people will try to sell liquor,” laments a community member. Is it Joan Lowenstein or one of her crypto-prohibitionist fellow members of Campus Community Conversations? Nope, the concerned citizen is none other than the owner of the Arena, who’s not thrilled about the 800 liquor licenses about to become available in A2. Similarly, we were very upset when we learned that just anyone can go to Wordpress or Typepad and start a blog.
“Whereas in Berkeley two City Council districts contain the majority of the student population, in Ann Arbor students are distributed centrally throughout the city, said Ann Arbor Councilmember Joan Lowenstein,” reports the Daily Californian in a story comparing students’ involvement in local government in the two cities. Isn’t it actually the districts that are distributed throughout the city in order to dilute student influence?
We were going to have this op-ed about University Village in the Daily (under our real name!) but never finished revising it before the end of the semester:
Sick of all those best-cities lists that employ laughably faulty methodology? How about one that employs no methodology at all? A2 ranks among the Smithsonian magazine’s top 15 “where to live next” places, a list aimed at retirees from the “culturally-attuned Smithsonian audience.”
Prominently featured among A2’s “compelling strengths and amenities” is “a three-week-long summer festival that features musicians and performers … runs the gamut from popular to classical.” Remember that when the festival’s directors are trying to argue that the event is just a wonderful public service that shouldn’t be held to the same labor standards as other employers. These kinds of events have a direct effect on the wealth of A2 property owners.
Well, it’s not exactly surprising: Council unanimously passed an amendment to the city living wage law to exempt the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. As Chris Easthope argued, “the festival’s seasonal employees — almost all students — are not the kind of workers the wage law was meant to protect.” We’re sure that they aren’t.
You’d think that student journalists might be interested in our local government’s ongoing debate on how they can best change laws to discriminate against students. But the Daily devotes its one story about last night’s Council meeting to some public commenters who don’t want the AAPD participating in immigration enforcement. Perhaps it’s appropriate that today’s opinion page carries a column ruminating about summer internships and whether they really allow one the “time to examine the world and your place in it” that a “gap year” study-abroad program could provide. With these kinds of pressing questions to ponder, one can’t expect them to focus on their classmates who have to spend a summer scraping out trash barrels.
CORRECTION: The quotation above — “the festival’s seasonal employees — almost all students — are not the kind of workers the wage law was meant to protect” — is the characterization of News writer Judy McGovern, not Easthope’s actual words, as we should have noted. Easthope writes, “I appreciate your concerns on this issue and I limited this amendment to a single small event. I have no bias toward students whether in high school or college. I had to pay my own way through college and law school and understand what students, especially college and graduate students face. I was also proud to advocate for and support the living wage law when we passed it on council years ago. If you review the council video you will note that I never mentioned anything about excluding students.”
A skate park seems like an odd cause for Ann Arborites to throw their weight behind. The sport appeals to young people, has a reputation for being dangerous and, most importantly, could result in more people using the park, which is generally not considered a desirable outcome. Of course, these young people are the supporters’ kids, not some out-of-town interlopers.
City Council wants to amend the living wage ordinance to include a loophole that will end up exempting the mostly younger workers that clean out trash cans at Summer Fest, but why stop there? How about adding some explicitly discriminatory language to make extra sure that employers of some high school and college students don’t have to pay them as much as other workers? Here’s an amendment to the amendment proposed by Council member Stephen Kunselman (seconded by Sabra Briere):
5) This Chapter shall not be applicable to the establishment and/or continuation of the following if developed specifically for YOUTH, high school and/or college students: (a) A bona fide training program; (b) A NONPROFIT SUMMER PROGRAM; (c) A NONPROFIT YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM; (d) A work-study, volunteer/public service, or internship program.
On a voice vote, the Mayor declared the motion carried.
Internships are some of the biggest scams around. In fields like journalism and publishing, they are not only unpaid but often restricted to college students only, effectively closing them to all but students from the most affluent backgrounds. Inside Higher Ed reports on “the internship racket,” concluding that “American colleges do a fairly good job providing access to students of varying economic means; they should stress the superior value of achievements within school, instead of lending respectability and support to an internship racket that reliably, and inaccurately, presents the well-off as more enterprising.” (Here’s a good blog on the topic.) It’s unclear why the Ann Arbor City Council wants to enshrine the low pay of internships in law.
Okay, it’s totally clear.
The News once again misleadingly ignores the contributions of graduate students to the university’s research output in their story on the GEO work stoppage: “Graduate student instructors teach part time while working on their advanced degrees … The typical instructor teaches 16.5 to 20 hours a week during the eight-month academic year in return for a salary of $15,199, benefits and a full tuition waiver.” Most people are probably not aware that “working on…advanced degrees” often requires the production of research that benefits the university.
By the way, our server has been slow because of spammers. We’re probably going to move servers soon; posting may be light while we work on this.