At Tuesday night’s Ypsilanti City Council meeting, Council voted unanimously to allow Adams Outdoor Advertising to erect a giant digital billboard at the I-94 entrance to the City. The digital billboard has a carbon footprint similar to that of Poland.

There are several key issues here at play with the first being the deal itself.

The City owns the land. It’s ours. It belongs to the people. However, in this deal, two third-party organizations hammered out a deal and brought it before Council. We have very few bargaining chips in this City, but when we put our hands on one, we fumble it away. In this case, the deal that was worked out gives between $26K and $39K worth of advertising time to Eastern Michigan University and the Ypsilanti Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Technically the advertising time will come to the City, but since we don’t pay cops and firemen with advertising time, we will give the ad time to EMU, an organization that doesn’t pay taxes.

We did this for two reasons. The first is that we’ll get money. Despite reports on the radio, the City will get $35K a year in lease for the land. This has 10% escalators every 5 years. We will also get personal property tax on the sign. The General Fund share will between $5K and $6K. The second reason we did it was because it was a lousy deal but we’d aldready shown our hand. We had no leverage. When this came before Council last year, I asked that we negotiate a deal that cut out payments to non-taxpaying entities. That request fell on deaf ears, and we have what we have. As with a lot of the deals we’ve made lately, it was the best deal we were going to get.

The second key issue here is the one of environmental irony.

Here we are a city trying to evolve from “The City that Works” of yester-year into a “green” community. What’s so crazy is that even though we have solar panels on the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op, even though we won grants for putting solar hot water on the Rutherford Pool and solar panels on City Hall, and even though we have tons of community gardens that try and promote sustainability, we authorized the installation of a monsterous, energy-sucking billboard. The only thing worse might have been my idea of parking a 1972 Oldsmobile 442 with a brick on its gas pedal on the land and having it idle all day long.

Perhaps with our free advertising we can run ads that say, “Ypsilanti: Going Green For The Future.” Dave Strenski has a lot of work ahead of him if we are going to offset this carbon footprint.

The final key issue is that of our ideals.

Like it or not, we sold our souls in this deal. We decided that money was more important than principle. It was a parcel of land that had generated only $10 since 1824 for the City. (The reason for this is that we had a lease with EMU and CVB and they just haven’t paid us the $1 per year for the past 13 years. Let’s partner with THEM.) The point is we had a chance to make some money to pay for services (hopefully Water Street debt payments) and we took it regardless of the cost to our image.

A friend of mine recently approached me and asked me to investigate banning plastic shopping bags in Ypsilanti like they’ve done in Malibu, CA and China. The person argued this would send a message to potential wind turbine generator manufacturers or other green companies looking to locate in Ypsilanti that we get it and we support the new green world order. It’s brilliant reasoning, but we took our thirty pieces of silver and turned our principles over to Pontius Pilate because we can really use the money now. I struggled with this decision, but still voted yes.

The corollary to this is that we also approved a Water Street Master Plan amendment that limits the options for what may be built on the site. I seemed to piss off the City Planner when I asked why we wouldn’t want proposals for manufacturing at the site. His line of reasoning was that heavy manufacturing is not aligned with the project’s goals and asked if paying the debt the number one priority for the project.

He’s right. Sort of.

Are the goals obsolete? Two developers couldn’t make similar zoning work. The majority block of Council still seems wedded to the Joseph A. Freed plan despite its failings. I want something that people can be proud of in 100 years. I do, but I’m not sure that can still be the overall priority now unless we get the community behind subsidizing this project with their tax dollars. It’s an interesting philosophical question that is certain to cost of millions and millions of dollars.

Our green principles were sold for $40K a year, but our development ideals are worth $1.5M a year. Try explaining that one to an angry constituent.

This whole selling of ideals isn’t over. A contract for the digital billboard project will be brought before Council in the upcoming weeks wherein we will sell out our First Amendment principles when we ban free speech on the billboard.

NOTE:

• One digital billboard consumes 397,486 kWh/year (we will have two)
  
• The carbon footprint of a digital billboard is the equivalent of 49 traditional billboards or 13.39 homes
  
• One digital billboard outputs 108.41 tons/year of carbon dioxide
  
• A standard size digital billboard contains 449,280 light-emitting diodes

The Ann Arbor News did the right thing and updated the pictures for some of the candidates.

Word is that both Mary Morgan and Judy McGovern apologized. Too bad they couldn’t have done the right thing before the Sunday papers hit news stands.

According to Wikipedia, yellow journalism is

“a pejorative reference to journalism that features sex scandals, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or other unethical or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists. It has been loosely defined as “not quite libel”.

In totally unrelated news, the Ann Arbor News ran a piece today about the upcoming City Council elections here in our fair city of Ypsilanti.

Now I have to be honest with you. I don’t follow local politics that closely, but when I first glanced at the article, the first thing I noticed was that some of the pictures were studio headshots and some looked like mugshots. I know from experience that the candidates are asked to provide a quality, high-resolution photograph for publication in the paper. I would be quite surprised to find out that the candidates with less than compelling photos did not submit a sample.

This was a very clever play by the Ann Arbor News to paint some of the candidates as professional and some of the candidates as borderline criminal. It will be interesting to see who the Ann Arbor News endorses this time around and how those endorsements match up to the aforementioned photos.

I look forward to the Ann Arbor News breaking a story about Council candidates and their nefarious role in the sinking of the USS Maine as well as their role in starting the Spanish-American War.

An article in the Ann Arbor News on Wednesday, July 9th says that Dave Curtis was recently named the 2008 Small Business Person of the Year by the Ypsilanti Area Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Curtis is the owner of Pub 13, Club Divine, and the soon-to-be-opening J. Neil’s Mongolian Grille, all located in Downtown Ypsilanti (for your convenience).

I think I’ve met Mr. Curtis on occassion. I did have a guy with the name of Dave Curtis recently do some painting for me. I’m not sure if he’s the same guy or not, but if he is, he sure knows how to handle a paint sprayer.

Whatever the case, kudos to Mr. Curtis for this prestigious honor. It don’t think the Ypsilanti DDA will ever have to set up clandestine meetings with him in Saline again.

According to reports left on my answering machine, the Roloffs just had lunch at Aubrees in Depot Town.

Drew Barrymore was also seen at the Elbow Room hanging out, talking about possibly filming there in August.

All of this celebrity sighting nonsense is getting out of hand. Perhaps it’s time for some kind of celebrity tax.

The Ann Arbor News, those adamant endorsers of the failed Ypsilanti City Income Tax, published an editorial on Sunday titled, “People are struggling - are leaders listening?“

It’s like an episode of the “Twilight Zone.”

Just a short seven months ago, the News’ editorial team was urging a YES vote. Now they are urging elected officials to consider the plight our constituents.

In Ann Arbor, for example, taxes and fees that residents pay are high - even as public officials bemoan a lack of affordable housing. In Lansing, state legislators seem incapable of dealing with a structural deficit that is crippling Michigan’s future.

Meanwhile, our neighbors, family, friends and colleagues do what they can to get by - hoping that if our government leaders don’t help, at least they won’t make things worse.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed, too.

I’m hoping the Ann Arbor News has finally gotten it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

My dear friends at the Ypsilanti Courier (located in Belleville for your convenience) published an article a week or so ago that said, “New budget calls for cuts.”

When the folks from the Ann Arbor News also published their article on the budget it stated, “Ypsilanti City Council adopts budget with millage increase, reduction in services.”

For the month of May, Ypsilanti City Council held five specific public sessions to discuss the budget. No one in our local media has yet to mention that City Council has authorized the Police Department to hire two part-time officers in this budget cycle.

Seriously. Look at 7 of 88 under 307 - Police Services. In Account Number 707-01, there is $73,379 in FYE 2009 and $75,580 in FYE 2010 to pay for two part-time cops.

It’s like the newspapers use random news article generators to write articles.

We are going to hire part-time cops. Councils before us tried to do this and were never successful. Sometimes we do stuff right. Give us a little credit.

Our good friends Joseph Freed and Associates are back in the local news again.

This time, it involves the Daisy Square developemnt in Plymouth. Daisy Square is the site of the old Daisy Red Ryder Western Carbine factory (or the classic Daisy BB gun for those who are weapon-impaired or have never seen that stupid movie, “A Christmas Story“).

It turns out that Freed wants to tear down the last part of the factory’s façade claiming that it is structurally unsound. According to the article, “Under the 2003 agreement the developer was allowed to demolish the majority of the then 121-year-old building if they agreed to preserve the façade and existing buildings around it. The development agreement was amended in 2005 to allow Freed to only preserve the façade and wall of the structure.

I wonder if the City has called Freed to see how sales are going for this project. More to the point, I wonder if the City has called the City of Plymouth to get the sales history from their City Assessor. It would be an interesting way to track trends and resale value. With what we learn, perhaps we won’t be so eager to do commercial on Michigan Avenue with residential in-fill behind it. Of course, that’s just me, and everyone knows I’m nuts.

For what it’s worth, townhouses in the Daisy Square project range from $234K for 1658 square feet to just under $300K for 2436 square feet of magic. Loft residences go for $179K for a 891 square foot condo to $268K for nearly 1400 square feet of room.

It looks like they still have a lot left to build. That sort of makes one long for a giant nuclear power plant at Water Street.

It pays to read.

In the most recent Council Information Letter, there was a jurisdicitional breakdown of all the A-Ride trips by client home address provided by the AATA. The breakdown was for the first quarter of calendar year 2008.

Of particular interest were the rides from Concord Road, Firwood Street, Concord Drive, and Medford Road.

For those of you playing at home who haven’t caught on just yet, none of those addresses are in the City of Ypsilanti.

After a flurry of emails, I received the following response from the AATA (via the City):

Councilman Robb’s message relates to A-Ride service. Each quarter the AATA provides records of the use of A-Ride service for the three month period. Councilman Robb has apparently examined the records and found these street addresses which are not in Ypsilanti. We are revising the jurisdiction code for these users, and adjust our records to eliminate the trips by these users from the totals for Ypsilanti. The charge for A-Ride service is based on the number of trips by Ypsilanti residents in the previous year, so this doesn’t result in change in the charge this year, but will affect the calculation for the FY 2009 charge.

Speaking of the FY 2009 charge … The AATA board met this past Wednesday to discuss some possible changes. Of particular interest to the City of Ypsilanti was Ypsilanti’s fixed cost calculation. The AATA is interested in reducing their hourly operating costs from $107.17 per hour to $96 per hour. If Treasurer Ted Annis gets his way (and the hourly rate isn’t reduced), Ypsilanti could be on the hook for a $443,561 bill. It was for discussion purposes only, but it really makes you wonder where those discussions will lead.

UPDATE:
In 2006 and 2007, the AATA thought Carpenter Road, Chestnut Drive, Glory Lane, as well as Concord Road, Firwood Street, Concord Drive, and Medford Road were all in the City.

I completely forgot to mention this, but there was a pull-test performed this morning on bolts that were sunk into the mortar of City Hall. This was a test to determine pull-out loads for the structural engineer working on the analysis for putting solar panels on Ypsilanti’s City Hall.

Sadly, the pull-test failed and a sizeable portion of the back wall of City Hall collapsed.

The test needed one thousand pounds at a minimum in order for a robust design. The results were even better than expected with results exceeding two thousand pounds.

It looks like this will be back on the Historic District Commissions agenda for a final showdown on July 8th. The cost of hiring a structural engineer, hiring a test engineer, and actual solar panel themselves taken care of, the meeting will be rather interesting.

UPDATE:
No portion of City Hall actually collapsed. That was simply bad information I received after reading a similar report at YpsiNews.com.

When talking about the Velvet Underground’s first record, Brian Eno supposedly said something like only a few people bought the album, but almost every single one of them was inspired to start a band.

Wireless Ypsi isn’t responsible for a cover-band (yet), but it is the reason for three new Meraki networks in southeastern Michigan with those being Open Dearborn, Wireless Trenton, and a network getting ready to come on line shortly in Lincoln Park.

One of the aides from a local congressman put the Downriver Communities in touch with us and invited us to talk to them about wireless. Long story short, we were given a seat on the panel for a wireless discussion at their Downriver Summit in May. After only a few months, Open Dearborn finally went public last week with a newspaper article.

The most interesting thing about all of this is the West Dearborn DDA gave the wireless project $5,000.

Hmmmm. The DDA giving money to a wireless project in the downtown? I’d never even considered such an idea. I would have thought there would be all sorts of legal questions surrounding such a proposition, but apparently at least one other community has been able to get the idea to work.

UPDATE:
Wireless Ypsi is also partially responsible for a wireless network in Downtown Dexter. With the help of one of Dexter’s Village Trustees, I was able to spread the gospel of Merkai to our friends to the west.

If you’re anything like me, then you love historic preservation. As such, you won’t want to miss this tonight.

Donovan Rypkema, author of “The Economics of Historic Preservation,” will be speaking tonight at 7:30PM in the Michigan Union’s Pendleton Room (located at 505 State Street in Ann Arbor).

From the presser:

This event will feature Donovan Rypkema, author of The Economics of Historic Preservation, a pragmatic preservation scholar known for his bold communication style on the topic. He is the principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development consulting firm. The firm specializes in services to private and public sector clients who are dealing with downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization and the reuse of historic structures. Rypkema was educated at Columbia University where he received a Masters of Science degree in Historic Preservation. He has lectured widely on economic and preservation issues relating to rehabilitation, community development and commercial revitalization. In 2004 Rypkema established Heritage Strategies International, a new firm created to provide similar services to world-wide clients. He also teaches a graduate course in preservation economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Rypkema is also meeting with local officials at 3:30PM at the Ann Arbor Downtown Library if you are local and official and so desire.

If you can’t make it, Mr. Rypkema will probably blog about it.

The event is sponsored by the Washtenaw County Department of Planning and Development.

In less than five and a half months, Wireless Ypsi has seen 3,597 users. We’ve transferred 1.058 Terrabytes of information. And we’ve become the seventh largest Meraki network in the world.

Well now, we’re going to be part of a nice, young woman from Temple University’s PhD dissertation on mesh network communities.

Yes, you heard that right. We are going to be part of the annals of academia.

Questions ranged from Wireless Ypsi’s ideology to our business model to whether or not local government is trying to partner with us. Dirt was dished on every seedy rumor involving Wireless Ypsi. Unfortunately, you’ll just have to wait three to five years to read all about it. Of course, by then it will be a respectable business model copied by do-it-yourselfers everywhere.

I have to be honest with you. I never thought taking over the world would be so easy.

I told the Chief of Police it sounded like he was trying to “pimp his ride” after he submitted an request for $4,280 for side window lighting for a new police car. (It turns out the quote from the vendor was wrong and never corrected.)

I got the City Attorney to write a legal opinion about the possibility of holding Satanfest here in Ypsilanti.

I asked if there was going to be a “sweet-heart deal” in regards to dramatically lowering the property taxes of the Starkweather House after it was flipped. Uh, nevermind about that one.

I even got Bob Eccles to quote me saying that some unsound fiscal policy regarding fully funding the AATA purchase of service agreement was quote asinine.

That’s why it wounds me that a prestigious newspaper like the Ann Arbor News, who I admit that I am not quite cozy with, would run THIS headline.

I guess that’s what happens when you have a short name.

This event is all ages from noon until 6pm at which time it becomes 18+. Smoking will not be permitted in the stage room during the all ages portion of this event unless you are one of the bands performing.

TC’s Speakeasy is located at 207 W. Michigan Avenue. Doors open at noon and the fun continues all day long into the night. A donation of $5 to $10 is suggested at the door. Parking is free.

The entertainment begins with an offering of bands featuring students from the Ann Arbor Music Center also know as the “School of Rock“. Students range from the ages or 8-18. At 8 pm the 18+ portion of the schedule begins with a performance by Ypsilanti’s premier sketch comedy troupe - Monkey Rampant.

In addition to the contributions they receive at the door, TC’s is donating a percentage of their sales to the Crossroads Festival.

Scheduled performers include: HMS Epidemic, Shady Lane, Monkey Rampant, Maybe August, Paddy Ash, Rebecca Ryskolczyk, A Hotel Nourishing, 2 Day escape and Mumble.

The City of Ypsilanti has finally concluded its budget sessions. While most residents ignore the budget, they are never dull and are always filled with tons of fascinating information.

Take this for example:

The City’s Fire Chief is the highest-paid, fully-loaded employee in the City. For FYE 2009, his loaded costs to the City come in at $159,851. For FYE 2010, that rises to $165,162.

This increase is the result of a Council decision back in February of 2007 to amend the ordinance for the Fire and Police retirement system. Council voted 6-1 to provide a pension to the Fire Chief. As a result, this increased the cost of having a Fire Chief more than $73K per year. At that meeting, the former Assistant City Manager said the increased liability to the City was only $99,570 ammortized over 30 years. There was no mention of the massive increase in fringe benefits for future Fire Chiefs.

To put this in perspective, on January 7th of 2007, the City was paying a fully-loaded cost of $172,730 for both the Fire Chief and Fire Marshal. Today we pay almost that amount for one person.

As a result, we merged our two groups and marched as one. We had a much more powerful influence than anyone expected. Had this been a County-wide parade, as a group, we would have had almost as much of a presence as Ann Arbor.

I have been accused on several occassions of having a “cozy” relationship with the Ypsilanti Courier (located in Belleville for your convenience). That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

In a totally unrelated news item, the Ypsilanti Courier featured me and fellow Ward 3 resident and important voter, Adam Riccinto, from the Ypsilanti Symphony Orchestra on its front page for their PRIDE Day wrap-up. They even made the color of the font in their headline match the color of the shirt I was wearing in the picture.

I’m not going to pretend that the YSO’s “Ypsi Pops - A Tribute to the Americas” was such a well attended event because Mr. Riccinto was pictured on the front page with me. That would be silly, but I’m pretty sure at least a dozen people came up to me after the concert and said they were there because they saw the picture in the Ypsilanti Courier. I’m just saying.

After receiving Tasers via a Justice Department grant and a 6-1 vote by City Council, the Ypsilanti Police Department has finally had its first Taser deployment.

From the most recent Council Information Letter:

Chief Harshberger reports we had the first Taser deployment on Saturday, April 26th. Officers responded to an incident involving a subject (white male, 53 years old) experiencing mental problems. His girlfriend requested our assistance to commit him to the hospital for a psychological examination (he has a long history of mental issues). He became aggressive toward the officers who repeatedly tried to calm him down by talking with him. He got into a fighting stance and the officers tried to tackle and hold him for handcuffing, but he was too strong and was able to break free. Sgt. Gress deployed the Taser and he immediately went down incapacitated. He was handcuffed without further incident. He was transported to the hospital for evaluation by HVA. Everything went well and by the book. The Taser worked exactly as billed, which kept the officers from fighting with this subject.

If it’s Ypsi PRIDE weekend, then it must also be the annual Ypsilanti Firefighters Pancake breakfast at the Ypsilanti Fire House Musuem located at 110 West Cross Street for your convenience.

This year marks the 4th anniversary of the event and it runs from 9AM to 1PM. The money raised from this event will go towards a stone in memory of Rick LaPensee who was tragically killed when a plane carrying a transplant team from the University of Michigan crashed in Lake Michigan last year.

The cost is $5for adults, $4 for seniors and children aged 3 to 12, and free for anyone under 3.