Opinion: Show up tonight to support strong police oversight in Ann Arbor

Tonight at 7:00 at Ann Arbor City Hall there is a joint meeting of the Police Oversight Task Force and City Council Work Session. At the meeting, the Task Force will be presenting a ordinance that would create a strong, independent Police Oversight Commission. Some highlights of the Task Force ordinance:

Functional independence: Current and former law enforcement will not be eligible for membership on the Commission (though they can be invited to act as consultants when needed) and the Commission will be able to hire independent counsel.

Adequate funding: The Task Force requested that at an amount equal to 1.17% of the AAPD’s annual budget (or approximately $327,000) be set aside for oversight.

Representative of the community: As written, the draft includes a participatory nomination process through the Human Rights Commission which focuses on racial, economic, and experiential diversity to ensure that people most impacted by policing and people with the skills to address policing are represented.

Power: As written in the draft ordinance, the proposed Commission will be empowered to issue subpoenas and participate in arbitration when needed to compel the police and the City to provide information to the Commission.

Access to data: The proposal gives the Commission broad access to data about policing in Ann Arbor, data that can be used to shape policy changes and develop programs for the police, the city, and community members to address disparities in use of force and enforcement, and develop alternative forms of resolving conflicts.

City administrator Howard Lazarus is also presenting an competing ordinance that would create a weak, non-independent Police Oversight Commission. Here are some highlights from his proposed ordinance:

Not independent: former law enforcement officers can be members, and police and the City Administrator will be more involved in the process

Not well-funded: less than $25,000 to start

Not empowered: it has no power to act on its own

Not representative: members will be chosen by the Mayor (vs. the Human Rights Commission)

If you want strong, independent oversight of the Ann Arbor Police Department, please come to City Hall tonight and show your support. Amber Hughson, a community member who has been following the Police Oversight Task Force encourages folks to show up to tonight's meeting: "Showing up tonight at the City Council work session, and the public meetings that follow, is key to supporting oversight of the police. City Council needs to see that community members want community oversight of the police that is functionally independent, especially oversight that ensures people can file confidential complaints about the harm they've experienced." I reached out to Julie Quiroz who is an organizer with Transforming Justice Washtenaw for a comment about tonight's meeting and here's what she shared with me:

"In its entire 194 year history Ann Arbor has never had community oversight of police. Since the 1970s Ann Arbor's black community has been working for community police oversight. In 2014, when AAPD shot and killed Aura Rosser, a long history of community outrage erupted again, which moved leaders like Dwight Wilson on the Human Rights Commission to take real steps toward an actual policy. Thanks to this long history of organizing, and the more recent work of so many groups and individuals, we now have a strong proposal from the community-led Task Force.

Right now we can really stand up for something. By supporting the Task Force recommendations Ann Arbor has the opportunity to do something that matters in real people's lives, that puts racial justice values into practice, and that serves as a model for the country. What do we want our city to do? What do we want our city to be? It's time for us to make sure the Mayor and City Council know."

At tonight's meeting there will be parent volunteers on hand to provide free childcare. Also, the Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America are providing transportation for those who need it. If you need transportation, drop HVDSA a line at: huronvalleydsa@gmail.com. So if you support strong police oversight, come out tonight and show your support.

Where have the Birds gone?

A flock of 11 Bird Scooters at the City's DPW lot

It looks like we have a real Silent Spring situation on our hands. Yesterday afternoon, local Twitter user, @jhritz noticed a large flock of Bird Scooters on the far South Side of Ann Arbor in the city's public works lot. Immediately there was speculation: were city workers commuting using these electric scooters?

@jhritz took it upon himself to investigate. Using the map from the Bird Scooter App, he was able to locate the 11 scooters. They were locked in the back of a city trailer:

Murph was correct. I took a drive over to the flock. It’s a trailer next to garage 16. pic.twitter.com/XRRLBm3QsU

— jhritz (@jhritz) September 12, 2018

It seems like the city has been scooping up Bird Scooters. I imagine the ones that are not placed well after usage. Big shoutout to @jhritz for solving the mystery of the missing Bird Scooters.

First Friday and Festival of the Honey Bee tonight in Ypsi

Gentle reader, tonight is First Friday in Ypsi. It is also Festival of the Honey Bee, so Washington between Michigan and Pearl will be blocked off with bee related activities. Our friends at Bløm Meadworks will be partnering with Bona Sera and serving mead at an outdoor bar. It should be a fun evening. Also, it's a great opportunity to test the range of the new Bird Scooters. It's only 10 miles to Ypsi along the Border to Border Trail.

Bird Scooters have arrived in Ann Arbor

Bird Scooters on Liberty at Main

Bird scooters have landed in Ann Arbor. They were not here when I left work yesterday evening, but this morning there were small flocks of them in several places in town. Now, I have not yet seen anybody riding one in Ann Arbor yet. I was in Detroit last week for a show at the Opera House and saw several people using the scooters to get from far away parking to the Taylor Swift concert at Ford Field.

Let's talk specs: Bird uses the Xiaomi M365 Electric Scooter which has a top speed of 15 mph and a 15 mile range. They cost $1 to activate and then cost an additional $0.15 per minute. That means a long scoot from Ann Arbor to Ypsi along the Border to Border trial will set you back $7 to $10.

It'll be interesting to see what the reaction to the Bird Scooters is like in Ann Arbor. So far, they don't seem to be taking up much public space. Given how much cleaner and safer they are compared to cars, perhaps we could rent some on street parking to Bird. Gentle readers, have you ever ridden a Bird or a Lime scooter? What was your experience like?

Bird Scooters on N Ashley at Huron

UPDATE:

Here's a map of all the Birds:

YpsiFest is this weekend in Riverside Park

YpsiFest, a rebranding of the annual Heritage Festival, kicks off this Friday in Riverside Park. The event starts with a combination pet and baby beauty competition. The winners will get to march in the 2019 Ypsilanti Fourth of July Parade. Saturday's events start with Yoga in the Park. There will also be live music and a luminary parade in the evening. Sunday kicks off with another round of Yoga in the Park and finishes with the annual Kiwanis Rubber Duck Race. YpsiFest features some great events. It'll be interesting to see how this rebranding works.

Parkridge Festival this Saturday in Ypsi

Ypsilanti's annual Parkridge Festival is this Saturday in Parkridge Park. This family friendly event features live music, activities, and food vendors. Parkridge fest is a great event. It runs 11 am to 6 pm.

DIYpsi this weekend at Corner Brewery

DIYpsi is this weekend at Corner Brewery. And no, I will never call it Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery. There are over 75 vendors and cover is just $1. DIYpsi is a great place to find local arts and crafts and just see some interesting artists. Think about it like ETSY, but IRL. The event runs Saturday 11-8 and Sunday 12-6.

Shoutout to Ypsilanti Ladies’ Literary Club in JSTOR Daily

The Ypsilanti Ladies Literary Club get's a nice shoutout in the JSTOR Daily. The article, Women’s Groups and the Rise of the Book Club, chronicles the rise of book clubs in the US. The article traces the origins of modern book clubs to 19th century women's clubs:

One of the first such societies, Sorosis, was founded in 1868, when several female columnists were barred from a New York Press Club event honoring Charles Dickens. Journalist Jane Cunningham Croly, who created the club with a circle of professional female colleagues, took the name from a botanical term: Sorosis refers to a type of fruit formed from an aggregate of flowers. Inspired by Sorosis and the New England Women’s Club in Boston, women across the nation began forming similar societies, from the still-running Ladies’ Literary Club of Ypsilanti, Michigan (1878), to the Ladies’ Reading Club of Houston (1885).

The image above is an undated 4th of July picture of the Ypsilanti Ladies' Literary Club.

H/T: EJ

Ann Arbor City Council Preview for August 9, 2018

Gentle reader, tonight we are going to be treated to something very special: a rare Thursday #a2council meeting. Here's the agenda.

The agenda starts of with an update on the project to annex the remaining township islands and then we move into a thick consent agenda with 26 items. CA-25 is part of the People Friendly Streets project and would approve the conversion of First Ave and Ashley to allow two way traffic. There is a bike caravan of supporters of this project meeting at the Farmers Market at 6:45 to ride to City Hall for the meeting.

PH-1/B-1 is on rezoning a 0.41 acre parcel at 2455 South Main from R4B (Multiple-Family Dwelling District) to O (Office District). PH-2/DB-1 is on a new site plan for 115 Research Drive.

C-2 adds conditions to the rezoning of the parcel at 1140 Broadway. Given the controversial nature of this project, the discussion of C-2 could be interesting to watch.

Gentle reader, what are you most looking forward to at tonight's #a2council meeting? We are well into campaign season so there may be some political fireworks. Make sure you tune in tonight at 7 to watch CTN's live stream and follow the blow-by-blow action on #a2council hashtag on Twitter.

An election night dispatch from Ed Vielmetti

At 10:30 this evening, I received an the following email from Ed Vielmetti:

Ben, for Damn Arbor if you choose.

Larry Kestenbaum is the Washtenaw County Clerk and Register of Deeds. I spoke to him just after 10:00 p.m. on election night at his office in the county building on N Main St in downtown Ann Arbor.

Kestenbaum reported that there was a "huge turnout" in this election, with more than 90,000 ballots counted so far county wide. Most of the ballots remaining to be counted at this writing are a bunch of absentee ballots, with Superior Township and the City of Ann Arbor still waiting for absentee votes to be counted.

The clerk's report is that the state senate race is currently "very close", with Jeff Irwin at a margin of +2 votes. Irwin has a big lead in Ann Arbor absentee voting to this point, with more Ann Arbor absentee votes yet to be counted.

Kestenbaum noted the phenomenon of "temporal displacement" in absentee voting, in which early voters don't incorporate late news into their voting decisions. He noted that Gretchen Whitmer had a large lead in the absentee voting over Abdul El-Sayed, suggesting that El-Sayed's late surge in popularity did not translate into absentee votes.