Location for New Dorm All Wrong
The latest argument against the new dorm: it’s on a busy street. Why can’t they build it on a nice quiet street in the OFW instead?
The latest argument against the new dorm: it’s on a busy street. Why can’t they build it on a nice quiet street in the OFW instead?
“The herds of sport utility vehicles moving east on Huron Street blast through the State Street intersection at 35 mph.”
Won’t that only kill students during peak SUV migration?
posted by nrvstorm on May 11th, 2006 at 11:46 amJaywalking incidents?! Oh crap!
What about all those drunken students who stumble home to their homes on Catherine, Ann, Kingsley, etc… They have to stumble across Huron and they don’t get killed all that often… Talk about a lame, desperate argument.
posted by Scott T. on May 11th, 2006 at 12:26 pmConveniently enough, the peak stumbling-around-drunk-on-busy-streets days intersect with the peak SUVs-blasting-through-intersections days: football Saturdays. These occur predicatably and over a long period of time. We can look at the statistics longitudinally and predict the danger. How many pedestrians get killed each game day each year? How many get hit? What is the risk? Looks pretty small to me, but I don’t read the AA News that carefully.
Talk about desperation. Aren’t there any endangered lizards or bats or something over there they can worry about?
posted by Chris on May 11th, 2006 at 12:38 pmI’ve often stumbled around drunk on the streets of Ann Arbor both as a student and as a “townie,” and so I think speak with authority when I say that I have not died.
posted by Dave on May 11th, 2006 at 1:31 pmso you say
posted by OFWinsurgent on May 11th, 2006 at 1:51 pmChris wrote: “Talk about desperation. Aren’t there any endangered lizards or bats or something over there they can worry about?”
Nothing quite so esoteric is required. A couple of weeks ago on a sidewalk along Washington St. not far from the new YMCA, someone (presumably a child) had cobbled together a makeshift barrier with a handwritten sign admonishing pedestrians to “Please Walk Around: Ants at Work”
posted by HD on May 11th, 2006 at 2:48 pmWhat about the uncles?
posted by Dave Cahill on May 11th, 2006 at 2:58 pmI don’t get the drunken students stumbling out of North Quad across Huron: where are they going, all drunk like that?
To the Glen-Ann Service Station for some 10W40? To try to pick up Nurses at the School of Nursing? Will they be so drunk they can’t find their way back to “Scorekeepers”? And if so, won’t they simply get trapped in the closet trying to exit their room?
posted by Nitro on May 11th, 2006 at 3:37 pmThe letter-writer also seems to be suggesting that a more appropriate location for the new dorm would be on the site of one of the existing Hill dorms. That would certainly solve the problem!
posted by Carolyn on May 11th, 2006 at 4:15 pmThat’s Scorekeeperz.
posted by Michael McC. on May 11th, 2006 at 4:41 pmAw, Carolyn, they should just tear down that old Observatory and build a high-rise dorm there. What good is it doing anyone, anyway?
posted by Chris on May 11th, 2006 at 5:09 pmIf it’s the hill area they want, they could always put up kids in the new Cardiovascular Center at the hospital and stick the heart-attack patients in North Quad. The patients probably won’t be doing any drunk stumbling across Huron.
Course, they might get run over at the damned blinking-yellow at Huron and Fletcher on their way to the University Hospital for a CAT scan, but I’m sure a casualty here and there is a fair sacrifice for a nice traffic flow.
posted by Jen on May 11th, 2006 at 9:24 pmWhat about that weird fucking oval thing in front of the new Life-Science building that looks like a mashed Devo-hat?
posted by OFWinsurgent on May 12th, 2006 at 12:17 am“…they should just tear down that old Observatory and…” but Observatory is the name of the street! How would one know why the street got its name? As a former student of more than 20 years ago and a current townie, I say nuke the Freeze! It was an ugly building 20 years ago and still is today. I think increasing the population density downtown will make the area more interesting.
posted by Chuck on May 12th, 2006 at 12:47 amOf course, the University could be intending the grim results the writer forsees. The Administration can cull the herd a bit when a greater than predicted number of applicants accept admission.
Plant Maintenance unlocks the Huron St. doors of North Quad on Saturday night and problem solved . . .
posted by halflight on May 12th, 2006 at 1:37 amThe University should exercise its power of eminent domain, take Forest Hills Cemetery and build North Quad there. The U can pay an architect millions of dollars for a design that incorporates the grave monuments in the cafeteria.
posted by halflight on May 12th, 2006 at 1:57 amI’m with you on the weird oval thing, Insurgent - it looks like a replica of the Calgary Saddledome but I’ve never met anyone who has any idea what it’s for.
posted by Nick on May 12th, 2006 at 12:08 pmyeah, what the hell is that? …a mini-cyclotron?
posted by OFWinsurgent on May 12th, 2006 at 1:27 pmIt’s a lecture hall.
posted by Polshek on May 12th, 2006 at 1:40 pmI liked the speculation on what the oval monstrosity might be more than I like its real function. A friend of mine suggested that it was a tomb for University presidents past and future. I think I’ll stick with that.
posted by Heidi on May 12th, 2006 at 1:59 pmSUVs travelling at 35 mph?
i think she’s confusing student housing with the busch’s parking lot.
posted by Anonymous on May 12th, 2006 at 2:51 pmi propose having a drinking contest…and teams assigned to each existing dorm…at the stroke of midnight..everyone stumbling..no running allowed..to the new North Quad site..
posted by saa on May 12th, 2006 at 4:53 pmWow, she got a dig at SUVs and Students. If she could have incorporated George Bush, she would have hit the trifecta.
posted by Kozzie_13 on May 12th, 2006 at 9:23 pmUhm. I have witnessed a variety of near-deaths on Huron. Think about it this way — Huron is a street on which people who are visiting Ann Arbor end up driving. These visitors don’t know the laid back, pedestrian-friendly traffic customs of Ann Arbor.
While I would prefer that the MLB be put out of its misery (Frieze is actually comfortable inside, unlike the MLB, though the two come close to a tie wrt ugliness), I support building North Quad in spite of the traffic. A simple foot bridge going over Huron would be one way to diminish the death toll.
Also, the med school area construction eliminated much of the sidewalk. I have jogged along that area a few times and you have to be pretty agile to go from, say, the Power Center to the Med School w/o going way out of your way.
posted by This Blog is Overrated on May 13th, 2006 at 12:01 amwhat about halflight and Chuck stumbling around here drunk last night after midnight? (see above) Can I trust those date/time stamps? sheesh.
posted by Daniel on May 13th, 2006 at 9:20 amI always wanted a sticker for the front of my truck that said “Warning: Driver is from Ypsilanti and does not value your life.” It may have stopped one or two umich students from stepping out in front of me (maybe.)
The last college student death I can think of was the EMU student that got hit near the water tower in ypsi several years back. Of course, trying to cross 30 yards from the cross walk, down a hill, late at night, at a point where most drivers are still doing 50 will do that to you…..
Also, everyone knows that the wierd oval thing is an NSA data monitoring post. All of U of M / Merit’s fiber runs through that point.
(shhh, maybe we can get Mlive to pick that one up as fact….)
posted by Ypsi Transplant on May 14th, 2006 at 11:49 pmChuck, Chuck, they could name the new high-rise dorm Observatory Dorm and then the name of the street would still have meaning! Don’t get caught up in traditionalist thinking!
Oh, wait, that would preserve the Frieze and support traditionalist thinking. I’m getting confused here.
posted by Chris on May 15th, 2006 at 9:56 amCool, so they can get run over near their dorm instead of at that disaster of an intersection right in front of the Union? Because that’s where I’ve seen more near-misses with cars, buses, pedestrians, and any combination thereof than anywhere else. It’s a hazard having students constantly streaming through that place. They should shut down the Union.
I’ve been calling the oval thing The Pringle.
posted by Boston Fan in Michigan on May 15th, 2006 at 3:51 pmMan, I am so tired of drivers whining about all the horrible pedestrians thinking they can *gasp* cross the street in a crosswalk. How inconsiderate– who do they think they are, really?
posted by Brandon on May 15th, 2006 at 6:35 pm(I almost never go down to the crosswalk in front of LSA. It’s out of my way and no one stops anyhow. I just dart out in front of traffic. And I never was an undergrad here, so.)
posted by Chris on May 16th, 2006 at 11:34 amI almost got rearended by a motorcycle when I stopped at the pedestrian crossing on Fuller and Bonisteel (I think it was that one)–he was yards and yards behind me but as he approached he didn’t slow down b/c he couldn’t imagine why I would just be stopped like that 20 feet before the light. When I told him I was stopped to let pedestrians cross in a marked crosswalk… he gave me the finger.
I won’t stop at them in Michigan anymore. Too dangerous.
posted by buzz on May 17th, 2006 at 10:30 pmbuzz-
I caused at least 2 or 3 accidents on State St back in my college days by having a car stop to allow me to cross State and they end up getting rear-ended by the unsuspecting person behind them
posted by Daryl on May 18th, 2006 at 2:47 amDaryl it sounds like you caused the accidents for sport!
On State Street I’ll always stop b/c people tend to look out for it. At the zebra crossings on Plymouth, Huron, Fuller, Washtenaw etc people regard them as… nothing. If you step into one you see cars in the distance speeding up, they are SO mad there are pedestrians and refuse to slow down on their account.
posted by buzz on May 19th, 2006 at 10:03 amI’ve had drivers scream at me for being in the crosswalk in front of the Union. My favorite was “Hell-ooo, there’s a CAR here!”
posted by RD on May 19th, 2006 at 7:21 pm