And You Thought the Kerry-in-Rolling-Stone Flap Was Bad
We didn’t get to read the latest Observer yet, but Brandon Past the College Grounds did, and it’s an eye-opener. Among the revelations: a shadowy figure named Doug Cowherd runs everything in this town and practices an odd brand of “NIMBY environmentalis[m].” Also, an unnamed city employee refers to Dicken Woods and Sunset Ridge as “pieces of shit.” If you voted for the greenbelt, it’s worth checking out.
Hmm, I thought I posted a comment here.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on February 5th, 2004 at 11:56 amI’m not up on the whole greenbelt thing (and I can’t get the Observer), but I have a sense that it’s important, because the idea is going to gain currency around the country. So, I would really be interested in what people think….
posted by Anna on February 5th, 2004 at 2:15 pmDepending on what happens next, the greenbelt could either be a very good thing or a very bad thing. It would be good if it made development patterns a little, uh, saner (read a random sample of, say, five posts from my blog and you’ll probably have at least one that defines this), but it would be bad if it were just used as an attempt to freeze Ann Arbor. All the good things and all the bad things said in the pre-election spats were true; which set happens depends on how the follow-through goes.
(fills out application to serve on greenbelt commission)
posted by Murph on February 5th, 2004 at 3:41 pmLet me see if I can reconstruct what I wrote earlier…
Doug Cowherd is not a “shadowy figure”. He’s just a local politico like dozens of others, myself included. He’s not secretive or unapproachable. The notion that he is supremely powerful is just weird. He has worked on some successful campaigns, but he didn’t even run them.
Yes, he helped get John Hieftje elected mayor. That’s not like getting somebody elected president: hardly anyone in local politics is interested in being mayor of Ann Arbor. There was only token opposition.
The most interesting part of the story is that it documents the falling-out between Doug and John. Note well that Hieftje is the elected mayor, who is likely to be there for a long time, and his public commitments (e.g. to greater density) carry a lot more weight than Cowherd’s NIMBY preferences.
I was interviewed for the article, but apparently Betzold didn’t use anything I told him.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on February 6th, 2004 at 11:00 amCowherd’s a NIMBY jerk. The NIMBY jerks hypocrisy is rampant in Ann Arbor. You cannot be in favor of the Greenbelt and preventing sprawl and in the same breath not be in favor of increasing urban density. These self serving environmentalists are anti-development pure and simple. Their claim of “nature and neighborhoods” is nothing more than a political slogan to get the NIMBY’s away from their television sets and into the voting booth.
Hieftje’s comments about the poor students that would suffer because of the proposed (but dead in the water) income tax is bullshit. Student rents wouldn’t be affected by the income tax casue most of them are suported by their parents, who would pay the rent anyway. Most of them don’t work here so they wouldn’t be affected by the income tax. Heiftje is incredibly out of touch with the community except for his fawning faux environmentalist followers. A2 cannot balance the budget on the backs of the taxpayers or low income wage earners who work here and yet cannot afford to work here. If Hieftje is so convinced that the income tax is a bad thing (and would never pass on a referendum) why should we even bother having a study about it’s merits or faults?
There are no natural areas within the city. Every so called “natural area” within the city is a fake. Natural my ass, especially the so called “Prairie” that is the median strip on Huron Parkway next to Pfizer property. Yet we pay to support and extend these fakes to assuage our human guilt for raping the land around us. One cannot call areas that have been logged over, that have non naitve and invasive species, areas that can no longer support animal species and that have been stripped of any semblance of what they were before white people populated the Huron Valley. Any so called natural area that needs “restoration” by human hands cannot be called a natural area. They’re about as natural as Melanie Griffiths lips.
posted by mucho gusto on February 6th, 2004 at 2:26 pmAnd every now and then Mucho’s anger strikes the right target.
posted by js on February 6th, 2004 at 6:28 pmjs
Anna! You *can* get the Observer. Yes! Please call them–er, I mean, us–at 769-3175 and they’ll–we’ll–set you up. In the meantime you can get the (blush) most excellent calendar of events and the City Guide and some other stuff at http://www.arborweb.com. Full disclosure: yeah, you already guessed.
posted by Laura on February 6th, 2004 at 9:42 pmLaura’s true Ann-Arbor-ness emerges at last. Oh well. I still like your “Main Street” lyrics even if you work for the Observer.
posted by Nick on February 6th, 2004 at 11:43 pmlarry - thanks for your perspective
The green belt proposal was very controversial, and unfortunatly i missed the debate (in the michigan theartre i think it was). But I have two friends who are both very left/liberal thinking, but both also studied urban planning in college (and they are about 20 years apart in age), they both said that it was a flawed idea, and both opposed it. On thier opinion alone I was against it.
Thier words (paraphrased); good idea in general, but the specifics of the plan made is a failure. They felt it was so poorly written that it would end up costing the city huge $$$ just legislating the damn thing.
posted by just a voice on February 7th, 2004 at 8:28 amLaura, I guess I could get it, but since I live halfway across the country now, they probably wouldn’t like picking up the postage (I meant get it online…).
posted by Anna on February 8th, 2004 at 12:22 pmIt’s true we post just the calendar of events and the City Guide and sundry other trinkets online…I recently asked why we didn’t put editorial online and got no clear answer, I’m afraid. Nick! I am an Ypsilantian! Although I do work for the Observer. But, no, (shudder), I don’t have any latent Ann Arbor-ness! I go to, and relish, the campus ethnic festivals, like the recent wonderful gamelan concert. That’s it, though. THAT’S IT.
posted by Laura on February 9th, 2004 at 12:43 amIt’s OK, Laura - I understand the compromises we have to make for professional reasons sometimes - I am, after all, not living in LA anymore. But this Observer thing might be the beginnings of a slippery slope you’ll want to keep your eye on. (If I’m too tired right now to convey that I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
posted by Nick on February 9th, 2004 at 11:33 amThis is a bit off the current thread, but as far as I could tell Betzold never asked Cowherd why he opposes higher density. One of the arguments against the Greenbelt was that it would make Ann Arbor more unaffordable, with one response being — we’ll build more dense developments to increase the housing supply. Does Cowherd believe that density will put too much stress on the infrastructure, increase pollution, and/or change the character of A2? Does he think it won’t provide more affordable housing, or just doesn’t care if it does or doesn’t?
posted by Pete on February 11th, 2004 at 12:29 am