Hey! That’s Our Slogan!
Former A2 planning commissioner Braxton Blake suggests a possible new slogan for Mayor Hieftje: “We must protect development from out-of-control neighborhoods.” Well, preservationists too, but that sounds like the right idea. Hieftje deserves credit for breaking with Blake and his fellow NIMBY-enabling planners.
What is the deal over there? This inordinate fear folks seem to have for “tall buildings?”
posted by RJ White on January 17th, 2006 at 12:39 pmThey loom. It’s scary.
posted by David on January 17th, 2006 at 10:10 pmThe fear of tall buildings is completely strange to me. It’s not like A2 is going to sprout 20 buildings that 30 stories tall or something overnight.
And what’s with this “Ann Arbor’s downtown will lose its small town feel?” A2 isn’t that small of a town to begin with.
Having lived briefly in Santa Barbara, CA, I encourage folks to look there for a fairly vibrant downtown with two major grocery stores and several drugstores/pharmacies and a mix of major chain stores and local shops. It’s not perfect, but it’s a place to start. It was a much more resident friendly place in many ways. And I’m not talking solely about the 70 degree weather and proximity to the Pacific. . .
Of course, they don’t have tall buildings there, either, but that might have something to do with the fault underneath.
posted by Young OWSider on January 17th, 2006 at 10:54 pmI drove through AA the other day, taking a friend back to school. It didn’t have a small town feel from the hundreds of people swarming the streets. Once that happens, your ’small town feel’ is gone.
posted by Big John on January 18th, 2006 at 4:42 pmYou want a small-town feel these days, I think you pretty much need to go to Dexter or Chelsea. Even there you’re pushing it. Perhaps Stockbridge or whatever they call it.
posted by Daniel on January 21st, 2006 at 12:45 pm