ypsi~dixit

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30 april 2006

Floatin'!

YPSIDIXIT spent an idyllic day floatin' on the Huron with an adventurous friend. We saw tons of trilliums in the woods behind St. Joe's. Also steel-blue kingfishers, purple martins, a swan, a hawk, vultures, mallards, swallows, and a mama Canada goose with four fuzzy brown cygnets. It was a day of breathtaking loveliness, soul-drenching wonder, and delicate spring beauty

(pictures inside; please allow a moment to load).

Y. and rugged friend put in at Moss Island. In the path-walk through the woods to Moss Island, we stopped to wonder at many lovely white trilliums blooming in the woods. Lush patches of green skunk cabbage erupted here and there along the dirt path. We noted my simple wire rod-holder still Velcro'd to one shrubby tree on Moss Island, a tiny testimony to my many hours there last summer.

We cast off and quietly rowed upstream, past the 40,000 different delicate greens on either bank, and the humming water-treatment plant. We reached the Dixboro Bridge and dam. Here we moored and had a snack. Wavelets from the dam lapped and rocked the boat. Y. and friend quietly made fun of the self-important Parker Mills bikers in their lurid rubber pants. After a time lolling by the dam, we cast off and drifted downstream.

Y. and friend twirled slowly downstream, unaffected by any worldly care. Purple martins with downy apricot bellies darted around us, one dipping in the water midflight for a drink. We noted that the dreamy greem-mist tree scenery resembled a Thomas Kincaid painting, sans rosy sky and thatch-roofed cottage and lantern-bearing dancing dwarves. Y. attempted to teach some boating lingo to her obstinate friend, who refused to register such elemental terms as "rocks to starboard" but insisted on referring to "portboard" and commanding we "raise the mizzenmast" and "jibble the staysails." He also maddeningly insisted on calling Y.'s boat a "dinghy," until reminded that oars can double as weapons.

Y. and friend rowed into the inlet just west of the bridge on the western edge of Superior Pond. In summer, this inlet is choked with lily pads. Many a time last summer I rowed into this inlet and let the pads moor my boat and enjoyed quiet reading-time. I've seen egrets here. Today we saw a giant white swan clapping its wings against the air before ruffling itself into neatness. A few hand-sized magenta lily pads dotted the surface, presaging the mat of leathery green plate-sized pads to come.

We passed under the railroad bridge, where a platoon of dorks were throwing rocks into the water, and into Superior Pond, heading for a peek at the boathouse once owned by onetime Ford henchman Harry Bennett.

The boathouse with its fake concrete tree-chimney, at left, had a haunted air. It seemed to be in use. Two new canoes were stored here. We skirted the many snags in this area, got a good look, and began the long journey upstream to Moss Island.

On the way back upstream, Y. and friend passed many enchanting vistas, such s this green-mist tree. We spotted a mama Canada goose and her four fuzzy brown cygnets. We marveled at the light-green catkins drooping from one tree, resembling a classical Chinese painting. We laughed over silly and absurd jokes, drank tea, and munched on trail mix.

It was a magical day of sun sparkling on the water, lolling at lazy ease sideways in the cushiony, super-comfortable boat, barefooted, as my friend manfully rowed, and perfect peace and loveliness. Y. is blessed.

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:20 pm | Comments (4)

YPSIDIXIT is up early today because she's going boating at 8 a.m.! Yay! It'll be the first time I hit Moss Island this year! Adventurous friend is driving, which is a big help. Taking some bread for carp-feeding, and my camera for pictures later. Woo!

Posted by ypsidixit at 06:44 am | Comments (6)

29 april 2006

KYR Petition Party #1 A Success

DESPITE receiving less than 24 hours notice, a crack team of petitioners showed up at Cafe Luwak today at 2. We each took our packet, which I'd prepared last night. Each packet addressed a different region of Ward 3, Precinct 2 and came complete with maps, blank petitions, and detailed info about each specific region. We hit the streets.

Y.'s region was Prospect and some side streets just to the west of Prospect. I met two adorable dogs and one super-sweet kitty, who, humorously, followed me meowing for several houses down Prospect, and I had some good conversations with neighbors. With only 2 exceptions all day, ALL the folks I talked to signed the petition. I received kind thanks from one lady with a handicapped husband and another who'd just moved into town and from a gentleman who shared some pungent reflections on local government.

It was hard work. Y. grabbed a root beer at the Chick-Inn when I hit the end of Prospect. Sheesh, what a mess the road is up there. You can still get to the Chick-Inn from Forest, but must inch through a construction/destruction zone with giant machinery littered about. As I sat for a moment on the bench there, a guy materialized out of nowhere and cadged a smoke. He also signed the petition. We chatted on the bench amid the eerily quiet apocalyptic scene as the twirling Chick-Inn sign occasionally creaked overhead. One of those peculiarly Ypsi moments.

Afterwards the team pulled up chairs around some tables outdoors at Aubree's, had a beer, and swapped stories. One team member described a tiff between a husband who signed and a wife who refused. Another related a tale about a colorful local personality who signed, against all expectations. Another explained why there was barbecue sauce on one of his completed pages, and we collectively decided that a small barbecue sauce stain does not invalidate that completed page. Another described skipping over the home of Barry LaRue, co-author of the recent "don't sign this petition" email, which presumably a lot of folks in W3P2 received. I collected the pages team members had filled--geez Louise, we're off to a bang-up start! "Good job!" said one KYR member whom I've come to rely on. I felt proud he thought we'd done a good job.

Petition Parties will be every Saturday from now till June 10. Join us! We meet at Cafe Luwak at 2, hit the streets, then debrief at Aubree's at 5. It ain't too much time and, despite being hard work, it's very interesting, I must say. I'll be there and would welcome your help, even if only for an hour. We're on our way!

Posted by ypsidixit at 06:52 pm | Comments (2)

28 april 2006

Ypsi City Council Drafts Anti-Charter Amendment Resolution

Download the pdf here.

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:12 pm | Comments (8)

Kind Reader Instantly Responds to KYR Wish List

MERE MINUTES after sending out the usual KYR Weekly Update (email me at ypsidixit@gmail.com if you'd like a copy) one kind and generous Friend of KYR offered to not just loan, but give us one of our wish-list items: an answering machine. (Y. does not have one, and cannot afford one right now). I told this person I'd donate this item to a social service agency after the campaign. Our other wish list items:

1. Temporary loan of legal-sized clipboards
2. 500 business cards with our logo (email me for a hi-res color
version) and the following info in any arrangement (you can choose how
to arrange it): Keep Ypsi Rollin', www.keepypsirollin.org,
ypsidixit@gmail.com, 482-4113.
3. Temporary loan of an answering machine--(Done).
4. Small cool items, donated (non-tax-deductible) for our early-fall fundraiser

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:20 pm | Comments (3)

Friday Open Mike

Take it away!

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:56 am | Comments (10)

27 april 2006

Ypsidixit Builds a Dumpster Enclosure.

WHY did the city recently pay $150,000 for two dumpster enclosures? I decided to build my own, to find out. (The photo is not of my dumpster enclosure, which is virtual, but is just a representative example).

My enclosure's dimensions are 10 feet by 5 feet by 6 feet high, and it is made of standard privacy fencing. That's 180 square feet of fence lumber, plus the lumber for its frame.

I called Home Depot on Carpenter. I told them I was building a dumpster enclosure 10 by 5 by 6 feet high, that I was gonna use standard privacy fencing to do it, and that it was sitting on concrete (and therefore needs a frame, as opposed to sinking posts in the ground).

Richard at HD said, as he was figuring out the cost, that incidentally they have lumber specials going on there this weekend and if I buy it this weekend I could get a discount.

He said the cost of the dogear cedar fencing (plus framing lumber and hinges) would be $300-$325.

And let's say $10 worth of carriage bolts.

OK, now I've got my lumber. Y. is reasonably handy and could build this herself. Not hard. Let's say I take my lumber home. I can build this on one Saturday. I guesstimate it would take 3 or 4 hours. Let's say a carpenter gets $20 an hour. The labor cost would be $60-$80.

To use the high estimates, $325 plus $80 plus $10 is $415.

$415 from $75,000 leaves $74,585.

What's the $74,585 for?

Coating the thing with diamond pave?

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm | Comments (26)

Food for Thought

Ypsi's yearly POSA (purchase of service agreement) for the AATA is $170,000. With the fare increase, this drops to around $117,000 annually.

--The city recently authorized $150,000 for two downtown dumpster enclosures.
--The city recently allocated an additional $100,000 for Water Street consultants.
--The city recently added approx. $3 million in new debt for Water Street.
--The city is working on hiring 2 new planners.
--The city is working on hiring a new DDA director.
--At the last DTDDA and DDA meetings, Y. is told, it looked as though there may be an extra $75,000 in the budget, and the new maintenance contract will probably save another $25,000 annually. Total: $100,000. From what I hear, there was no discussion as to how to return these monies to the general fund to pay for police or firefighters or buses. Instead, Y. is told that Mayor Farmer proposed that the DTDDA approach the Bank of Ann Arbor about borrowing more money to install, on West Cross, historic style street lights.

For two dumpster enclosures, the livelihoods of thousands of Ypsilanti neighbors could have been saved for one whole year.

Likely with enough change to bring back route 19 to the Whttaker Road library.

Unbelievable.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:16 pm | Comments (6)

Ann Arbor News Story on Charter Amendment

Here.Text, below.

Funding for bus routes in Ypsilanti might find a spot on the November ballot.

Keep Ypsi Rollin, a group of people who want to retain bus service in the city, began collecting signatures Wednesday to amend the city's charter and allocate 0.65 mills for bus service.

This is not a new millage, said Laura Bien, director of the group. It is shifting part of the existing city millages toward transportation, she said.

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If a countywide transportation millage is established, the city charter would revert back to its original language, Bien said.

The group would need 960 signatures to place the issue on the ballot, or about 20 percent of the 4,799 votes cast in the last mayoral election, said city Clerk Cherry Lawson. The city has 11,893 registered voters. The deadline to place the amendment on the November ballot is Aug. 15, Lawson said.

Ypsilanti Mayor Cheryl Farmer said the city is going through a tough time financially, and the amendment would restrict money spent on police and fire services that serve the entire city instead of a small number of people who ride the buses.

"It's a wrong-headed approach,'' Farmer said. "I thought we we're working together on getting more money, not taking the money we have for different services. This is not a better way, this is a worse way.''

The city is considering cutting from its budget about $83,000 it contributes to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to help pay for two of the bus routes in Ypsilanti. The city contracts with the transportation authority for four bus routes at a cost of $1.1 million. The city now pays $170,504; the rest is covered through fares and federal and state assistance.

The Keep Ypsi Rollin group and the city have been discussing solutions to preserve the funding for the two routes - No. 3, along Huron Street and No. 5, along Packard Road. The routes transport about 135,000 riders a year to jobs, schools, doctors and grocery stores.

Bien said the amendment, if approved, would guarantee funding for the service and would take the issue off the city's budget chopping block.

"It locks up the money (for the bus) in the Ypsi budget,'' she said.

The city has been working with AATA and Bien's group to increase bus fares and find additional revenues to pay for bus service.

Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township officials have indicated they would be in favor of 25-cent fare increases, raising cost of a ride to $1.25.

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AATA Executive Director Gregory Cook said increased fares would help offset some of that $83,000 the city pays AATA. The proposed increase would yield about $53,000 a year.

Cook said he is discussing contributions from Eastern Michigan University, the University of Michigan, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and Washtenaw Community College to make up the rest of the money needed to keep the two routes operating. Employees of those institutions, along with students who attend the universities and WCC, also use the routes.

Bien said her group is still willing to work with the city on solutions. She said the amendment is needed because group members believe the council will not support a charter change. It was necessary to go the residents instead, she said.

"We knew they would not like this plan,'' Bien said of the council.

The city's 2005-06 millage is 19.0211, yielding about $8.8 million that is most of the city's $13.5 million budget, said Marilou Uy, the city's finance director. The money pays for employees, police, fire, street services, debts and other services. The 0.65 mill would raise about $247,000, she said.

The city is proposing a series of cuts in services and employees to make up a deficit of $1.6 million over the next three years. Administrators blame the deficit on slow growth in property tax revenues, dwindling state assistance and the increasing cost of doing business.

City Manager Ed Koryzno said that if voters approve the amendment in November, it would affect the 2007-08 budget and cuts would have to be made to replace the money the amendment seeks. "It would have to come from the general fund,'' he said.

The city is holding five meetings in May to discuss the 2007, 2008 and 2009 budgets. The first meeting is Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1 S. Huron St.

Khalil E. Hachem can be reached at khachem@annarbornews.com or 734-482-3225.

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:17 am | Comments (1)

2 Ypsi Council Members Send Anti-KYR Petition Email

A KIND READER sends the following email. I assume it is genuine, but have no way of knowing that.

From: Brian Filipiak bfilipiak@cityofypsilanti.com
Subject: Please Don't Sign This Petition
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:21:39 -0400
Greetings:

As some of you know, a group has been coming down to City Council to
advocate for maintaining the current level of bus service in Ypsilanti.
We currently spend $180,000 per year to fund the routes serving the city.
The City Manager has proposed reducing the contract by 50% this coming year
and eliminating it the following fiscal year.

As a result of input from "Keep Ypsi Rolling" and Council's own desire not
to eliminate bus service we have worked with AATA to come up with alternative solutions. Both the City and the Township of Ypsilanti will be raising the bus fare from $1.00 to $1.25 this summer. This increase will net the city enough that we will only be short $30,000 to maintaining the
status quo.

AATA and individual councilmembers have been approaching entities such as
the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, Eastern Michigan
University and St. Joes Hospital to request small contributions to make
up the shortfall. The thinking being that each one of those enterprises
relies on mass transportation to bring students, staff and others to their
respective campuses.

Laura Bien, a township resident, is proposing that Ypsilanti amend its
charter to dedicate a portion of our millage toward bus service. As
most of you know, the city is struggling to meet the obligations of public
safety, parks, ordinance enforcement, elections and many other services.

To tie the hands of your elected officials as we grapple with the closure
of the Visteon Plant and the reduction of State Shared Revenues would be
devastating.

We urge you to REFUSE TO SIGN THE PETITION to amend the City Charter!
Please tell your friends, neighbors and customers to politely refuse to
support this misguided attempt to fund mass transportation. A move is
afoot to initiate a county-wide millage to pay for a coordinated bus
system. Another possibility being discussed is forming a Eastern
Washtenaw Transportation Authority which would consist of Ypsi, Ypsi Township and
perhaps others such as Superior Township which would allow a voter
approved millage to fund a contract with AATA. Either of the above millage
proposals would not reduce funding for essential city services.

Thank you for your consideration and please don't hesitate to contact
either one of us if you have questions or comments.

Barry LaRue and Brian Filipiak
Ward 3 Ypsilanti City Council Members

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:45 am | Comments (20)

26 april 2006

REMEMBER last year's Summerfest online preview video? It was special. This year's Fest has a movie, too, one that betrays the Fest's excitement at booking Elvis Costello. Enjoy.

Posted by ypsidixit at 01:11 pm | Comments (4)

Today's News contains a story about Ypsilanti Township's expeditious passage of a resolution to agree to raise bus fares to $1.25. Ypsi Twp. did so quickly and efficiently. Kudos to them.

EXCERPT: "The city is studying the issue and may later also endorse the increased fare."

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:25 pm | Comments (3)

KYR Holds Press Conference on Charter Amendment

Y. held a press conference this morning at 8:30 a.m. at the downtown bus stop, after previously alerting the media. Y. read a press release and a summary of the Charter Amendment and later distributed press releases and collected signatures for the ballot initiative. Two photographers attended!Press release.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:16 pm | Comments (4)

Slimy Viral Marketing?

Boy, does this strange-looking email sounds fake. Nobody talks like this. And anyone who doesn't know what cafe au lait is has been living in a cave for the past 70 years. Text below.

From: lgendron@bus.umich.edu
Subject: Starbucks info.
Date: April 26, 2006 10:41:56 AM GMT-04:00

I intend to go this Sat if you care to join me-it sounds interesting! call me...734-649-4192

Laurie Subject: FW: Starbucks info.

Laurie,
Hi! I found this article in the April 19th - 25th Metro Times, which says that Starbuck's (at 222 S. State Street in Ann Arbor) is diong free "Coffee Exploration" series every Saturday from 2-3pm until December. They'll discuss everything from coffee roasting, to blending and brewing to how to pair coffee and food. Sessions include free coffee and food. (I would SO totally go to this kind of thing if I didn't work on weekends, and if a Starbucks in my area were participating in this!!!) Let me know how it goes! (-then, you can teach me about cafe au lait!) :)
(((Hugs)))
Mir

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:59 am | Comments (3)

Standard Printing Helps KYR

Y. HAS LEARNED THAT LOCAL PRINTERS Standard Printing, on Cross Street, recently printed up a run of April 18 Council meeting fliers for KYR--gratis. Ypsidixit is humbly grateful to SP for this unselfish and generous gift. I've written a thank-you letter to SP, and plan to take my business to them in the future, when I'll be needing more petition copies, fliers, and, if they do them, yard signs. Kudos to SP for their admirable generosity in supporting this community effort!

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:47 am

Web-Band Thingie

OK, back to bus stuff. KYR has a new web-band thingie. It's that red doojobbie up in the corner there. It is a link to the KYR site. Purty nifty. Wish I could take credit for it. It's the work of one particularly God-like KYR team member. At any rate, would you like to clutter your own blog with our web-band? It's easy! Just pop this script [scroll down] under the (body) tag in the html of your main page:

If you do kindly decide to display our web-band thingie on your site, would you please let me know? Thank you.

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:01 am | Comments (7)

Non-Bus-Related News

And you thought there wasn't any. There's plenty. For example, my cherry trees are blooming. 5-in-1 peach, too. Yellow tulips at their peak; weigela splendid. I'm digging up the main front garden bed. Realigned my lovely border of artfully arranged concrete chunks yesterday. Listened to WAAM talk radio tonight as usual. Checked the pond boys (thriving). Today's highlight: I got one, maybe more, free heirloom tomato plants (the Mortgage Lifter!) as thanks for something I wrote. No, two highlights today: baked some lovely chicken pieces for dinner; dog got the scrumblings.

Posted by ypsidixit at 01:56 am

KYR Charter Amendment Language

Here is the precise language of the charter amendment KYR will be placing on the November ballot.

Posted by ypsidixit at 01:35 am | Comments (4)

25 april 2006

Water Street Special Council Meeting

WATER STREET has a new developer. Joseph Freed & Co., LLC. Tonight's meeting was short. The group approved a resolution to sell or convey 6 city properties, at 220 and 222 N. Huron, 849 Brooks, 615 Washtenaw, and two others. The Huron property, at Huron and East Cross, will have a historic home moved onto it, which should be interesting. John Gawlas asked if any monies from these sales would be applied to this year's budget--yes.

Council approved 2 resolutions pertaining to Water Street. One was to pursue negotiations with a developer, the other to refinance 13.1 million in capital improvement bonds issued in '03 and '04 to a new amount with a ceiling of $17 million. The bond guy said it shouldn't cost more than another $2.9-3.1 million dollars. Tops. Y. wondered if she were the only one feeling a bit woozy that this figure represents a quarter of the city's annual budget of $13.5 million.

Mayoral candidate Steve Pierce spoke to respectfully request that the council inform the public as to how much we've spent on this project to date. He also asked for Council to allow for citizen input.

And that was it. One audience member mused to me that for a project of this scope, the meeting was mighty quick. This gentleman also observed that he thought the city was "on the brink of...something."

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:40 pm | Comments (2)

KYR is a Bona Fide Campaign Committee

Y. filed a Statement of Organization for Ballot Committees at the courthouse today, making KYR a bona fide campaign organization to get our solution on the November ballot. "You have the neatest handwriting I ever saw," said the helpful clerk. "Like a typewriter." That's because Y. was very apprehensive about doing everything perfectly. Y. feels the gravitas of this move, and intends to do it right.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm | Comments (5)

Keep Ypsi Rolling Launches Ballot Initiative

Letter to City Council this a.m.

Dear Council:

I am writing to offer you our solution to the bus crisis: our Charter
Amendment ballot initiative.

This mid-range solution provides a way to secure funding for the bus
service and permanently take this hot-button issue off the table. The
language of the amendment provides that if a regional or county
millage is passed, the amendment will be dissolved.

I'll be sending you a PDF of the complete language of the charter
amendment later today for your kind consideration. For now, I am
attaching a FAQ outlining key points about the amendment.

Keep Ypsi Rolling wants to work cooperatively with you to solve our
bus crisis. Let's work together to implement this solution.

I hope you'll please excuse the impersonal nature of a group e-mail.
I'd rather have called each of you in person, but time is extremely
short and I wanted you to be the first to know. Please let me know if
you have any questions.

KYR will be holding a press conference tomorrow morning downtown to
explain our plan.

***[end]***

[FAQ may be found below]

WHAT DOES THE CHARTER AMENDMENT DO?

The proposed Charter Amendment would require the City to designate .65 mils of the existing taxes on the real and personal property of the City to be used for the funding of a public transit system in the City. This tax would be a part of the City’s state authorized maximum of 20 mils. This would provide for a secure and designated funding source for public transportation.

HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD THIS DESIGNATE FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION?

The .65 mil is equivalent to about $225,000 and the current budget for public transportation is $201,000. This is 1-1/2% of the City’s $13.5 million dollar general operating budget. If passed, in November, 2006, it would be in effect for next year’s 2007-08 budget.

WILL THIS CHARTER AMENDMENT INCREASE MY TAXES?

No. Since the City is at the maximum tax levy authorized by State law, the tax milllage rate can not be raised without a voter approved Headlee override.

WHY DO WE NEED THIS AMENDMENT?

Public transportation is a vital part of the Ypsilanti community. It is critical to many of our residents for transportation to work, school and medical resources. The City Council has placed the elimination of this service on the table for consideration. This amendment would take it off the table and provide for a secure designated funding source to maintain at least a minimum of service.

WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS HAVE ON THE CITY BUDGET?

The City’s financial woes are significant, and all the options for remedy are still open except for elimination public transportation service. This amount would be about 1-1/2% of the City’s Operating Budget. – less than is budgeted for interest payments.

WHAT ABOUT A REGIONAL-COUNTY WIDE SYSTEM WITH IT”S OWN MILLAGE?

In the long range a regional system would make the most sense and Keep Ypsi Rollin’ would actively support the creation of such a system. But the reality is the restructuring and political will necessary to accomplish this will take several years at best and the proposed elimination of service is for next year and we need a short to mid-term solution.

WHAT HAPPENS IF A REGIONAL SYSTEM IS DEVELOPED?

This proposal does not get in the way of any regional system. In fact, the charter amendment would sunset and the language revert back to it’s original language if a regional system and financing covering the City of Ypsilanti occurs.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:55 pm | Comments (10)

24 april 2006

Ypsi Twp Approves AATA Fare Increase

[many thanks to a kind reader for sending me this!]

CHARTER TOWNSHIP OF YPSILANTI
Resolution No. 2006 – 11

In Cooperation with the City of Ypsilanti for AATA Fares

WHEREAS, the Ypsilanti Township Board hereby agrees that we need to maintain the same level of AATA bus service for the City of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township residents; and

WHEREAS, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA), in an effort to avoid a significant decrease in bus service in the City of Ypsilanti has proposed a twenty-five cent increase to full-cash fares and a smaller increase to corresponding discount fares; and

WHEREAS, the increase will not be an additional burden on our taxpayers; and

WHEREAS, the AATA bus service provides the only affordable means of transportation for many Township and City residents;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Ypsilanti Township goes on record and extends our cooperation in providing the same level of bus service to all residents in Eastern Washtenaw County by increasing the AATA bus fares by twenty-five cents, if it is agreeable to the City of Ypsilanti; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution of cooperation be sent to the Ypsilanti City Council and the townships of Superior and Pittsfield.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:32 pm | Comments (3)

CAFE LUWAK celebrates selling over 100 sandwiches on two Saturdays so far in April with a super-nice coupon!

Owner Jim Karnopp says in a Cafe Luwak e-newsletter, "The month of April has turned out to be quite a month for us. We have had two Saturdays where we sold over 100 sandwiches in a day. This may not sound like much when you see the number of billions served at the local fast food chain, but for a business like ours it is a milestone we have been waiting to hit. Last year at this time, if we sold half that many sandwiches we were happy.

"To celebrate reaching the 100 sandwich milestone, we are giving away free scoops of Ice Cream with the purchase of a sandwich and a drink. Click the link below to get your printable copy of the coupon.

http://www.cafeluwak.com/coupons/happy100coupon.pdf

Our location had a long and distinguished history as being Millers Ice Cream, and many of our customers still come here because they have always known it as Millers. Since we still have Ice Cream, many of them assume that is all we do. Over the past year we have been working really hard on marketing our sandwiches and coffee drinks. Now a lot of our customers know us for all that we do. What could be better, have a great sandwich followed by an awesome ice cream dessert?"

Sounds darn nice to Y. How generous of Mr. K. to offer a coupon and thank his patrons. Nice.

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:35 pm | Comments (9)

SOME BUNNIES just hopped onto Freecycle! One mini rex (awww!) and one Holland Lop (must be fed imported tulip bulbs but are darn cute). AND--Ypsidixit has, among my million sundries, a bunny cage! If there's anything that says "I love you, Mom" more than temperature-sensitive rodents, I don't know what it is.

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:21 pm | Comments (609)

The Market in Henry Ford's Hair: Getting Hotter!

THERE'S A BIG MARKET IN HENRY FORD'S HAIR. You can get it for $14.28 a strand. A bargain! But don't surprise me.

More and more Americans are collecting hair. Especially Henry Ford's hair. Pictured: small statuette of Henry Ford bedecked with froot loop tribute replica.

No, this disgracefully messy desk is not (the neatnik) Y.'s.

Posted by ypsidixit at 02:26 pm | Comments (7)

A LITTLE BIRD tells Ypsidixit that tomorrow's Ann Arbor News will feature an editorial about Depot Town Radio. Tweet!

Posted by ypsidixit at 01:06 pm | Comments (24)

YPSIDIXIT has learned that World of Rocks has just gotten in a shipment of fossil wooly mammoth hairs. They also have fossil fishies and "phenacite," whatever that is. Mother's Day is just around the corner. What says "I love you, Mom" more clearly than a nice, big chunk of fossil wooly mammoth hair?

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:39 am | Comments (6)

23 april 2006

YPSIDIXIT'S ADVENTUROUS FRIEND treated her royally tonight with a dinner at the Chick-Inn. We pulled up to the intercom-thingie and Y. had her friend read to her the choices, since Y. is too myopic to read the tiny lettering on the sign. Y. selected for her repast the Paul Bunyan, which turned out to be two slabs of ground dead cow with Thousand Island dressing and stray bits of lettuce which kept falling onto my shirt. It was good. Y.'s friend had a chicken breast sandwich. We munched in silence, listening to the 50s music. "You don't come to the Chick-Inn for the food," noted Y.'s friend, "you come for the atmosphere."

Afterwards Y.'s friend introduced Y. to Von's, a grocery not a mile from my home. I'd never even knew it existed, hermit that I am. We browsed the aisles and Y.'s heart fluttered to note giant tins of sardines as big as my hand! Chicken slabs were on sale--68 cents for 2 pounds of chicken slabs. I loaded up, and Y.'s friend kindly paid. It was an eye-opening experience. Y. plans to forgo the dreary monthly schlep to the Michigan Ave. Kroger's and patronize the smaller, friendlier, funner Von's from now on. Thank you, adventurous friend!

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:58 pm | Comments (11)

Pruning 101

YPSIDIXIT LOVES TO PRUNE. If you saw my house, cluttered with five trillion mementoes, you might not think so. But I do. If I didn't have my current job, which I love, I would love to be a freelance pruner (business card: "Keep Ypsi Neatly Trimmed"). I love helping plants and, uh, talking to them (the forsythia whisperer). But that will, regrettably, probably never happen. So in the meantime, I'd like to tell you how easy it is to prune correctly. All you need to know is a couple of key facts & you're golden. A recent comment by kind reader Maryd shows me that some folks might not know how easy it is to prune correctly. It's no sweat. Here's all you need to know:

BUSHES, SHRUBS: There are two kinds. Spring-flowering, summer-flowering. For spring flowering shrubs, the blooms grow on wood that grew last year. So, prune spring-flowering shrubs right after they're done blooming. That way, they'll grow new wood all throughout the summer that will make blooms next year. And prune 'em back HARD. Spring-flowerers tend to be toughies. They can take it. Don't be afraid to make drastic cuts. Spring-flowering shrubs include lilac, dogwood, mock orange, azalea, honeysuckle, viburnum, allspice bush, flowering quince, beauty bush, daphne, forsythia, deutzia, flowering almond, and mountain laurel. And anything else that is blooming *right now*.

Summer-flowering shrubs make blossoms on wood that they grow *in the same year*. So, prune these guys in late fall or VERY early spring. These include butterfly bush (buddleia), rose of Sharon, Abelia, sweet pepperbush, spirea, Kerria, tamarix, and vitex. And anything else that blooms in mid-June or later.

Easy, huh? For both kinds, prune out any branches rubbing against each other or crisscrossing. Prune out weak branches and reduce the shape of the bush to a simple structure composed of its strongest branches. If it's a thickety mess, prune out branches *at ground level*. Don't just saw off the top (the "beheading" method, which results in new growth only at the top). Cut it back by approximately half--yes, half. Open it up. Allow light and sun to penetrate the plant. Make it neat, as if its outline had an oval dotted line around it. And that's it! Anyone can do it.

Maryd asked about raspberry canes, too. These can get out of hand in just a few seasons and need stern pruning. They key fact is this: canes grow one year, fruit the next year, and then die--and must be removed at ground level and destroyed, to prevent insect problems. Black/purple raspberries should be pruned in summer when they're about 2-3 feet high. Reason: if not, the cane gets leggy and tips over and touches the soil, making a new plant (and an untidy thicket). Red raspberries are different. They spread by underground suckers. So just thin out the canes so that they're all about 10 inches from each other, to provide good air circulation.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a wildly sprouting purple smoke bush that needs The Kindest Cut.

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:08 pm | Comments (2)

22 april 2006

Boating at Delhi

YPSIDIXIT and an adventurous friend took out the boat for the first time this season and headed for Delhi Park.

We went there to visit a Potowatomi cornfield I'd written a story about years ago. This cornfield is documented on very old plat maps and lies between the train tracks and a loop in the river.

Ypsidixit's friend amused himself by taking a video of Y. looking even dorkier than usual while pumping up her boat with the foot-bellows. A laugh riot. Y. and friend found a good cast-off spot and headed into the river.

We spun over sparkly water. I steered clear of rocks. Y.'s friend proclaimed himself to be a progressive type male who didn't mind if I was at the oars. Y. secretly suspected he was just lazy. But I didn't mind. I like to row, and brought us safely to the cornfield.

Here we disembarked, tied up the boat, and ventured into a cricket-quiet field. Dead dried grass made a soft cushion for walking. The field was quiet and brown, with tiny sprigs of green. We fell under its spell and crossed over.

We visited a large mound reputed to be a Native American burial mound--one cut in half by the 1839 advent of the railroad. We walked down the tracks to the other end of the site. The sun was warm and Y. felt supremely lazy and at peace in this lovely spot. I picked a couple of fuzzy cattails and bopped them together as we walked. The fine fuzz started streaming out into the wind, which lifted it up into the sky. More and more streamed out, making a blizzard of cattail lint. It swirled, streamed, rose up like snow falling up into the blue. Y. was dazzled.

Y. and friend quietly picnicked in a patch of tiny pink forest flowers. Cheese sandwiches, dried cherries, date-sticks, hot tea, and apples. We looked out at a fallen tree in the water while eating. And the moving sparkles of light. Y. is fortunate to have friend who understands that you don't have to talk all the time. We were quiet, like the trees around us.

Y. was blessed to spend a day in the spring on the water, in the cricket-quiet field, and in the woods. It was a wonderful day so full of quiet, omnipresent, overwhelming beauty that it seeped and then poured into my soul until I felt like a vessel brimming over with wonder-filled thankfulness.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:37 pm | Comments (2)

21 april 2006

A. E. Housman: Dead Wrong

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now/Is hung with blooms along the bough...

The cherry is pretty, but it ain't the loveliest of trees. That distinction belongs to the glorious Magnolia, many Ypsilanti specimens of which, including two of my own, are currently blooming all over town. I note and savor each one as I bike past.

I love magnolia. In the late winter, they are great craggy candelabras of knuckly, knotty grey twigs. You look at it and think, "That bumpy old tree ain't worth the strength to chop it down."

Then, before sprouting any leaves, they abruptly erupt in dazzling pink and white shattered-teacups of bloom, soft, velvety petals aimed towards the strengthening April sun. Ypsidixit's jaw drops to see these marvels. Don't forget to visit the one in the Arb: Grandpappy Magnolia. A gem.

Pictured is one of my two purple maggies, which I planted several years ago. It's a slow grower, about an inch a year. No matter. It bestows incomparable beauty each April, so it can grow as slow as it wants. Viva Magnolia!

Posted by ypsidixit at 02:07 pm | Comments (16)

The Meme is Everywhere

A KIND READER WRITES: "This morning on my daily walk between my office and Sweetwaters, I saw a guy on a bicycle with a milk crate strapped to the rack over the rear tire riding down 1st Street. Taped to the milk crate was a hand-lettered cardboard sign reading "Keep Ypsi Rolling". The meme is everywhere."

Y. relates this story not to boast--well, maybe to boast of the KYR team--but only because it is a charming story. Thank you, Mr. Hand-Lettered Sign.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:46 am | Comments (4)

20 april 2006

Ypsidixit-WEMU Pledge Drive Aims for $1,000

YPSIDIXIT PROMISES TO PLEDGE $50 TO WEMU IF THEY PICK UP CAP'N DANGER'S OLDIES SHOW.

The Cap'n and WEMU have entered what could be called preliminary negotiations to explore the possibility of shifting Cap'n Danger's hugely popular Depot Town Radio oldies show over to WEMU. A WEMU employee has very reasonably pointed out that years ago, another oldies show didn't earn its keep at fundraising time. But this was not the same show as the Cap'n's popular and well-loved show, which in its short life gathered a large local audience of very appreciative listeners.

So let's show WEMU that the Cap'n's loyal listeners will pony up a buck or two to support WEMU's adoption. From today till May Day, May 1, Ypsidixit is launching a pledge drive of her own. All you have to do is, like me, promise that when the next WEMU pledge drive rolls around in the fall, you'll kick in some cash. Could be $5. Could be $365. Just make the promise. I want to raise $1,000 in promised pledges by May 1. Will you, kind and generous readers (I know very well how generous and thoughtful some of you have been to the humble yours truly) please join my humble and small pledge with one of your own?

Let's show WEMU that loyal Ypsilantians stand behind the Captain!

Posted by ypsidixit at 06:41 pm | Comments (30)

Steve Pierce for Mayor

YPSIDIXIT STRONGLY ENDORSES STEVE PIERCE FOR MAYOR. A key member of the "Keep Ypsi Rolling" team, Steve has worked hard to preserve bus service for Ypsilantians. Without his invaluable help, Y., with her meagre talents, would not have been able to have had much impact at all. I credit that, and the eventual successful 2006-7 preservation of the bus system, to him. Y. finds Steve to be driven, focused, down-to-earth, practical, and common-sensical. When he wins, as he will, he will be a good leader for Ypsilanti. Go, Steve! Here's his press release (PDF).

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:54 pm | Comments (3)

Freight House Progress

A KIND READER sends an update on progress on the Freight House (in "Continue Reading":

Part of the issue here has been that the State Historic Preservation
Office (SHPO) holds a lien on the property - therefore, they are much
more involved in the process than they would otherwise be. However,
going through their processes is not necessarily a bad thing, but
time consuming.

This week, the City received bids back for the selection of a company
to provide a qualified Condition and Inspection Report, a requirement
of SHPO, and that report will include a detailed Plans and
Specifications report, for all of the work to be done. My
understanding is that the Friends of the Freight House attempted to
do this type of report themselves, but SHPO disqualified the report,
because the Friends group is not, itself, certified in historic
architectural preservation.

The City has evaluated the four bids, and is going to be forwarding
that info on to the Board of the Friends of the Freight House, which
meets early next week, and if all goes well, we will be able to
announce the winner of the bid, send it off to SHPO for their
approval, and get through this phase very soon.

Of course, once we have all the approvals, and the report is
delivered, we will then issue a bid for the next phase, which will be
for a contractor to do the actual work outlined in the report.

I realize it's been a lengthy process, but at least now we're making
headway.

The web site for SHPO is here:

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Posted by ypsidixit at 12:38 pm

The News's story on the demise of DTR.

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:20 am | Comments (3)

YPSI'S wonderful food co-op, whose array of goodies has sustained Y. for lo these 6 years now, is celebrating its 31st anniversary on Sat. Stop by the River Street Bakery to enjoy free pizza from 5-8 pm.

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:55 am | Comments (1)

Water Street Redux?

YPSI'S ALBATROSS, the bungled Water Street Project, will be discussed at a special Council meeting Tuesday, April 25th, at 7:30 pm, presumably at City Hall. A kind reader says: "there's a Special Council Meeting to discuss the Water Street Project. I don't have any confirmed details, but it sounds like we *may* have identified a developer to work on the project! I'll send out more info later. Feel free to attend the Council meeting if you like." I like.

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:50 am

19 april 2006

YPSIDIXIT has been closely monitoring the forsythia bushes in yards in the greater Ann Arbor and Ypsi area for the past week, from a bus window, and has concluded from her survey that 30% of local residents know how to prune a forsythia. The way to prune it is hard, cutting way back, in the late sprung after it's all done blooming, and keep it neatly shaped with minimal cuts after that. Forsythia blooms on new wood--the sprigs that grow in the spring. Next year, that will be the blooming wood. Cut it in the fall, and you cut off all the bloom-wood. Don't cut it at all, and the bush becomes a sprawly mess too exhausted to bloom much.

This pruning wisdom is completely unapplied to my house, which is silted up with mementoes, letters, Christmas cards years old, (small) antiques, and layers upon layers of things I've kept. Coasters from a German cafe visited in 1985. An ordinary clamshell here on my desk--and none too clean, either--from a trip to Canada in the early 90s. A tiny and unremarkable green bottle I dug up in the back yard. If I were a forsythia bush, I'd be a big sprawly one too clotted up with old wood to have the strength to bloom.

Periodically I go into paroxyms of throwing things out--unworking markers, warped and stained pads of paper, the truly unusable things. And I always feel lighter and freer afterwards, like the bush pruned so that sunlight can penetrate its interior. But the clamshell, useless and sand-encrusted though it is, is immune from such sweeps, as is anything else with any sort of sentimental meaning.

Luckily, life is not like a forsythia. Each one of those objects is a tiny blossom of memory.

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:50 pm | Comments (8)

A KIND READER sends an update on protestors today on the EMU campus. Note: this kind reader thoughtfully photographed them so that the picture doesn't show upsetting images.

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:00 pm | Comments (4)

Self Storage Proposal and Master Plan

IT IS INTERESTING to compare the proposed development of 539 and 569 Huron in the Historic South Side district just north of I-94 with the relevant section in the Master Plan (here) that covers the Kramer/Bell Street neighborhoods, site of the proposed development.

Quotes from this page:

"Input from existing residents will play an important role in any proposed rezoning."
"The land use designation is for mixed commercial/industrial with an emphasis on commercial uses compatible with surrounding residential areas and appropriate to the Gateway location."
"Industrial uses should be limited to light industrial and high-tech uses in order to promote a positive visual image in the area and enhance compatibility with surrounding development patterns."

So. If not a bleak U-Stor-It compound, what, pray, should greet the eye of a visitor to Ypsi who's just pulled off 94 and is heading downtown?

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm

Ahoy, Cap'n Danger! Still Afloat?
3 p.m. UPDATE: DEPOT TOWN RADIO DEAD!

YPSIDIXIT has heard some alarming news concerning Depot Town Radio. Without blowing the story of the reporter who just interviewed me about it, I just wanted to check with the Cap'n and see if the good ship DTR is.....still watertight. Avast!

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:34 pm | Comments (30)

More Junk in the Arb

Yet another tedious art installation cluttering up what used to be a wild park. Details below.

EVENT: Kigital Kami is an interdisciplinary project of four installation sites at the University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum, each dealing with its own theme.

A shrine installation in the peony garden will investigate issues of spiritual and physical human interaction with the landscape. The problem of invasive tree species in Michigan's forests will be highlighted along the Ridge Trail. The fluctuating environment of the Huron River will be given a voice and documentary video footage of the land management process of the prairie burn will illuminate grasses in Dow Prairie. Together these installations point to the idea of making invisible or typically unnoticed processes of ecology and land management visible or audible.

The installations will be active during park hours of 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Sunday. Maps and artist statements are located at the booth on the north entrance to the Arboretum.

PLACE: Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan, Central Campus map: http://www.umich.edu/news/ccamp.html

SPONSORS: Grant Opportunities for Collaborative Spaces (GROCS); School of Music, Theatre and Dance; School of Art & Design; School of Natural Resources and and Environment, Landscape Architecture.

WEB LINK:

GROCS: www.dc.umich.edu/dmc/grocs/
Digital Kami: www.digitalkami.org
School of Art & Design: http://www.art-design.umich.edu/
School of Music, Theatre and Dance: http://www.music.umich.edu/
School of Natural Resources and Environment: http://www.snre.umich.edu/

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:35 am | Comments (12)

Peep Windfall

THE GREAT SPIRIT just smiled on Y. by depositing THREE WHOLE BOXES of Peeps in the workplace kitchen, in the "I can't bear to eat this food item--please take it off my hands" area. Y. has me-cycled these pristine boxes of sunny yellow, blushing pink, and deep violet chickies, and tonight will herd this multicolored flock of 45 over to the house of a friend--one who, unaccountably, loves gummy, sticky, sugary, candy-type "food" (shudder). Bonus!

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:01 am | Comments (5)

Non-Participatory Government

LIKE MANY PEOPLE, Ypsidixit does not have a car, or want one, and does not drive. I'm a townshipper. Ypsi Township Board meetings are held in the Civic Center, out by the Whittaker Road library. This location is linked to downtown Ypsilanti by Whittaker Road, one of the most hair-raising sections of road in Washtenaw County. It is NOT bikeable by any stretch of the imagination. The upshot? Thanks to the demise of bus route #19, I cannot attend my own township's meetings and, though being taxed, and heavily, my voice* is not represented.

In the meantime, Y. has learned the interesting tidbit, from one valuable contact at the local Center for Independent Living, that it is fact illegal to conduct governmental meetings in a manner that excludes certain members of the community. I'll have to nail this down and dig up the relevant bylaw, &., to see if that applies to this situation. Might be a useful bit of information, if not an Archimedean lever.

*(a gravelly alto that's been charitably characterized as "dulcet")

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:30 am | Comments (3)

Council Residency Puzzler

YPSIDIXIT was under the impression that City Council members must live within Ypsilanti city limits, if not the very ward they represent. However, I note that 2 of our 7 Council members are listed in the phone book, at least, as living in Ypsilanti Township. A puzzler.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:21 am | Comments (4)

SCULPTURE PARK: There's a meeting today at 5 p.m. at Kerrytown Concert House to discuss "improvements" to Sculpture Park (near People's Food Co-op, possibly the last spot in AA that needs any improvement.

Quote from a forwarded email:

"The City of Ann Arbor and the Downtown Development Authority are working together to improve Sculpture Plaza. The Plaza is a lively place with constant activity that the community values as a great asset. A public meeting was held in February. At this second meeting, several concepts will be presented for discussion based on input from the first meeting. Please come and share your ideas. For questions call Susan Pollay at 994-2700 or Amy Kuras at 994-1827."

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:43 am | Comments (3)

18 april 2006

Council Meeting Report

COUNCIL met tonight at the Senior Center. While biking there, Y. noticed two gentlemen waiting outside City Hall. Y. biked to them and examined the door of City Hall. It did not contain a notice saying that the meeting had been moved to the Senior Center.

Y. told these two gentlemen the meeting was at the SC, where they later arrived, and where one of them spoke during Audience Participation time--a voice that would have gone unheard otherwise, thanks to the lack of notice of the meeting change.

Y. spoke and thanked the Council for getting the ball rolling on the fare increase and for seeking funding from community entities such as WCC, thus, as Mayor F. emailed me, ensuring bus service for fiscal year 2006-7. Y. thanked mayor F. for inviting KYR to participate in the long-term solution beyond the bandage. We will be involved. I turned the petition in to Council.

After that, some developers outlined their plan to build a self-storage unit complex at 539 and 569 Huron in the Historic South Side district just north of I-94. Several neighbors from that region spoke against the plan, saying they'd had no notice whatsoever at their last neighborhood association meeting that this was being planned. The developers claimed that this complex would be a pleasing aesthetic additiion to the residential area (paraphrasing), a claim which made Y. chuckle to hear such hubristic nonsense. One neighbor pointed out that retail should be going into that fast-developing area, and pointed out that retail would offer more jobs, and characterized the aesthetic prospect of a self-storage complex as "bleak." Steve Pierce, who lives in that area, pointed out that this highway exit is the last undeveloped highway exit left in SE Michigan, and should be developed more lucratively. Nevertheless, Council approved the rezoning necessary to build the complex [CORRECTION: Council approved of tabling this item till June 6; I misheard something].

Y. was busy networking for the remainder of the meeting, until a bus-discussion near the end. John Gawlas raised some good basic millage questions: when will it be on the ballot? how will it be done? can we shuffle around budget items and move some up from 2008/9 so as to cover the bus subsidy? (yes, it was confirmed).

Y. found this last idea particularly insightful.

Y. made some new contacts, had a long talk with a key KYRite, and found that the more Council meetings she goes to, the more interested she gets in the whole creaking complicated juggernaut of local politics.

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:25 pm | Comments (8)

WHAT EMU STUDENTS are really doing with their laptops in class.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm | Comments (4)

The extensive "Stupid Candy" store includes Lava Lick ("It's like putting the 60s in your mouth"), Marshmallow French Fries, Mega Foot, edible rats, Crane Candy ("work for your candy"), the Fire Extinguisher Lollipop, and the Rolicks Gummi Watch ("it takes a licking and keeps on sticking.")

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:33 am | Comments (7)

A KIND READER (thanks, E.!) sends a link to an Eastern Echo story and says,

"The a2 mayor notes how valuable the aata is in freeing up parking spaces in downtown ann arbor (space that can be used for businesses).  He wasn't wearing a keep ypsi rolling shirt though."

Mayor Hieftje, may I, a fellow person of Dutch extraction, (who notes that your name delightfully rhymes with "liefje,") respectfully advise you that you may satisfy your desire for a KYR shirt right here.

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:20 am

17 april 2006

If You Need a Transfer AATA Literary Magazine

YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE COOL? An AATA literary magazine. Distributed from a rack in the buses. Just a simple folded 11' by 17' sheet, to start. It could be a community-building tool, as riders and drivers start to email stuff in, and it could be a good way for the AATA to disseminate info about key upcoming AATA events, and mobilize entire cities, if necessary. I..er, rather, the AATA...could call it If You Need a Transfer, which, as all busriders know, is broadcasted periodically inside the bus in Bus-Lady's calm recorded voice: "If you need a transfer, please ask your driver, before you board."

OK, I just thought of this and I'm already afire with ideas. I would want to write an advice column called "Fare Deal" that is like the Ann Landers of bus etiquette. People email me vexing questions about all those little "situations" that often crop up on bus rides. There's also a Cartoon Corner for those who like to draw, and a haiku section. Stories, poems, letters, snippets, jokes--the possibilities are endless. All submissions would have to be somehow related to the bus, however tenuously. I'd slap it together by cutting and pasting stuff--I mean, with scissors--so it'd have an appealingly retro look (amateurish is the new retro). If Found magazine can cut and paste, so can I. Yep. This could fly. It'd be fun.

But the AATA would need a driven, super-organized person, ideally with a degree in English literature from the U-M, one who currently works as an editor, and who's got the fire, imagination, and resourcefulness to pull it off--and who would do it for free. YES--all that talent, passion, and creativity--gratis. How hard would it be for the AATA to find such a person?

Maybe not too hard.

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:33 pm | Comments (28)

Ypsi City Council Meeting Tues, April 18, 7:30 p.m.

At the Senior Center at 1017 Congress, in Recreation Park. The last chance to speak you piece before the Council makes its decision "by the end of April." Show up and let your voice be heard. I'll be presenting our petition to Council.

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:27 pm

NYT TRASHES BOOK: There's nothing quite so fun as reading a review that decimates a book, in this case, Harvey C. Mansfield's "Manliness" (In "Continue Reading.")

'Manliness,' by Harvey C. Mansfield
Link for TimesSelect subscribers

Who's the Man?

MANLINESS
By Harvey C. Mansfield.
289 pp. Yale University Press. $27.50.

Review by WALTER KIRN
Published: March 19, 2006

REMEMBER those great old "Saturday Night Live" bits about the
moronic Germanic bodybuilders who kept offering to "pump you up"
while flexing the delts of their bulbous foam rubber muscle suits?
Remember how unwittingly fey they seemed, partly because of their
wagging little pinheads but mostly because of the way they loved
the words "girly" and "manly" a pair of usages that was poignantly
out of date by then among even minimally hip Americans? Remember
that?

Apparently, Harvey C. Mansfield doesn't. In fact, this Harvard
professor of government and the author of "Manliness" (yep), a new
polemic about the nature and value of masculinity, shows little
awareness of much that's happened recently televisually and
otherwise in the allegedly feminized culture that he aims to shake
up. Like Austin Powers (who, come to think of it, made even more
fun of "manly" than Hans and Franz), Mansfield seems stuck in a
semantic time warp in which it is still possible to write sentences
like "Though it's clear that women can be manly, it's just as clear
that they are not as manly or as often manly as men." A time warp
where it's further possible in a passage on the sexes'
characteristic senses of humor to cite an event from over 40 years
ago as his one and only illustration of feminine wit. I'll quote it
at length because Mansfield likes to write at length (and in a
pipe-smokey academic baritone that I for one thought had vanished
from this planet).

"But I cannot accept that they never make jokes. Women excel in
put-downs. . . . During the trial over the Profumo scandal in
Britain in 1963, counsel asked Mandy Rice-Davies, a witness to
prostitution, whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied any
impropriety in his relationship with her. Her answer: 'Well he
would, wouldn't he?' It's a put-down joke, reactive to male
bluster, even equipped with an ironic tag question."

In just which far-off galaxy has Mansfield set up his telescope to
scrutinize the doings of us earthlings? Or, if he dwells among us,
when was the last time he left the faculty club? Let's put these
mysteries aside, though as well as the puzzle of how a writer can
purport to analyze human humor (even flat-footedly and badly) while
remaining personally immune to it and move on to the essence of
Mansfield's argument, to the hot sweaty groin of it, the manly
crux.

"Manliness" starts in a fussy lecture-hall mode with Mansfield
taking the wordy, long way around to prove a few points about the
male and female that they're innately different, and in exactly the
ways people always thought they were before they did any thinking
on the subject. He may as well just pound the table, since those
who don't agree with him already won't have their minds changed by
the case he makes (which largely consists of reassuring us that the
case has been made by others). "Our science," Mansfield writes
(slyly suggesting with a possessive adjective that he is, indeed, a
fellow Homo sapiens) "rather clumsily confirms the stereotypes
about manliness. . . . But we already knew before science told us
that men are more aggressive than women: is there also something to
be learned in this fact?"

The answer is meant to be, "yes," of course (or, rather, "yes,
professor"), but a reading of Mansfield's book suggests it's "no."
No, there is actually nothing to be learned from deciding that
we've known everything all along about how men are a mixture of
pluck and pride and a certain primordial selfish-unselfishness that
would rather die than live unfree, but which, if permitted to live
free, isn't afraid to kill, if necessary especially to protect the
weak.

But just because there's nothing to be learned doesn't mean there's
not plenty to be lectured on. Once Mansfield has put science
squarely on his side, he moves on to literature and laboriously
demonstrates that when it comes to matters manly, the work of
Homer, Kipling and Hemingway is just as we remembered it from our
high school days. He pays special attention to "The Old Man and the
Sea," Papa's least complex statement of these themes, which reads
nowadays like a novel for young adults, and pays no attention to
the less well-known posthumous books (like "The Garden of Eden")
involving cross-dressing and so on. Conclusion: "The manly man, as
we say, 'makes a statement.' " And: "The old man is portrayed as
thinking for himself."

After a section on the history of "the great explosion of manliness
that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries"(an image
that gives even me, a straight man, erotic chills), it's time for
Mansfield to stop preheating the oven and cook up the geese he's
already got trussed and cleaned: the feminists. Remember the
feminists? These would be the late Betty Friedan and the even later
Simone de Beauvoir, along with the somewhat more recent, but not
very recent, Kate Millet, Germaine Greer and so on.

These thinkers are all somewhat different from one another,
Mansfield carefully shows, but they also have something profound in
common: they stole their best ideas, by and large, from two great
men. From Marx they pilfered their economic theories. From
Nietzsche they swiped their "nihilism." For Mansfield, nihilism is
the idea that in a godless universe people are free to invent their
own identities. At least I think that's what he means. Next to
"manly," "nihilism" is Mansfield's favorite word, and it shows up
in such a variety of contexts, attached to so many names and
objects, that he might as well have rendered it as "X," as in:
Simone de Beauvoir + all those other gals + the fact that they're
female + the notion that "becoming manlike is a strange way of
proving you are independent of men (ladylike would seem to be a
better way)" = X.

After making what he believes to be a meal of all these clucking
hens that think they're roosters, Mansfield wipes up the grease by
going back to Aristotle and something called "philosophical
courage," which is held out as the manliest manliness yet, and
something that we, in these trying times of ours, could use a whole
lot more of. "Extreme manliness," he warns us, is not the answer,
though, nor is returning women to the kitchen and holding them
there with the threat of a sound flogging. Still, they may want to
remain there voluntarily once they understand, as Mansfield does,
that "weaker than men, women have to be indirect in getting what
they want; they cannot simply insist."

Hear him now, believe him later.

Walter Kirn is a regular contributor to the Book Review. His most
recent novel is "Mission to America."

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm | Comments (5)

AATA Sprinkles Passengers with Fabulous Prizes!

PRIZES! Yay! Ypsidixit loves all prizes, large and small. How does a bag of bus tokens sound? A bit prosaic, yet oddly exciting? I thought so. If that doesn't cook your tamale, try: A BIKE! Yes! For simply riding the bus on May Day, you, yes you, could win a fancy-schmancy new bike! You could be like me! And that's certainly something to aim for. Yes, hop on the bus May 1 and win, win, win!!! More info.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:38 pm | Comments (9)

Blogger Files for City Council Seat

YPSIDIXIT STRONGLY ENDORSES BRIAN ROBB, known for his blog East Cross Street, in his run for an Ypsilanti Ward 3 City Council seat. Brian is one of the most thoughtful and savvy persons Y. knows. He has a shrewd grasp of local politics and has worked hard, as a KYR team member, to preserve bus service in Ypsi. His work, always top-quality, has been invaluable in preserving Ypsi buses. Brian is also a good person whom I admire. Brian seeks Barry LaRue's Council seat--LaRue won't seek reelection. Story.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:08 pm | Comments (21)

14 april 2006

YPSIDIXIT dug up the pepper bed this evening, a triangular bed in the front yard. I folded the top mat of faded winter leaves into the soil shovelful by shovelful. Raked it out, and using a rope and some stakes, realigned the edging. It is black loamy soil that gave me many delicate, sweet peppers last season. She's ready to go! Ypsidixit has Sunday off and will spend all 24 hours in the yard, removing winter's depredations and spiffing things up to get ready for Big Planting the weekend after this one. In the meantime, the hyacinths by the back door, the daffs around my cranberry tree, and the forsythia in the front yard are fully abloom, injecting the first bits of color into the browned landscape. Y. becomes six years old when contemplating with bemused and thankful wonder the curly fragile yellow petals of the forsythia and the fresh green 4-inch shoots of daylilies.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:44 pm | Comments (6)

PEEP surgery. Warning: graphic images.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:19 pm | Comments (9)

Friday Open Mike

TAKE it away!

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:10 am | Comments (17)

"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" Weekly Update Mailed

YPSIDIXIT has just emailed out the usual Thursday-night KYR update to the kind friends of KYR, who now number over 700! This weel's update is particularly informative, with lots of resources for you to contact the Ypsi City Council and local-media players. Even one small emailed paragraph to the media helps enormously. I've made it painless for you, in the update. If you'd like to receive a copy of the update, please email me at ypsidixit@gmail.com.

Posted by ypsidixit at 01:36 am

13 april 2006

Mystery Man Emerges from Mist

Well, you're not gonna believe this one. Mr. Mystery Man, mentioned in a blogpost from April 11, sent me a very nice email just now. Yes, he did! The tiny note-in-a-bottle that was the original blogpost actually floated through the vast and nameless sea of strangers in Ypsi...and beached on his door!

Can you believe that? I am astounded. At any rate, this kind gentleman is the latest person to offer to circulate the petition--it's a veritable whirling tornado of paper out there!

At any rate, it was a delight to hear from this gentleman. Wow! Amazing.

Posted by ypsidixit at 05:40 pm | Comments (7)

New Bus Story in Courier

A KIND READER (thanks, E.!) sends this interesting story.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm | Comments (2)

Schnucks Crispy Hexagons!

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:47 pm | Comments (11)

New Flyer for April 18 Council Meeting: Senior Center

THE KYR publicity department has expertly whipped up a new flyer showing the Senior Center location. Please feel free to use this one. And thank you.

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:51 am

New Bus Meeting Flier Made by Center for Independent Living

Thank you to the kind folks at Ann Arbor's Center for Independent Living for creating a new flier! They have given me permission to disseminate it, so please feel free to use it.

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:18 am

Email from Mayor Farmer: April 18 City Council Meeting Moved to Senior Center

A note from Mayor Farmer, with my reply in "Comments."

Hi Laura

If you are planning to bring a huge crowd again next week,
we can just plan to have the meeting at the Senior Center
again.  Let me know.

Please understand, however, that your message has already
been heard.  At the conclusion of the last meeting, during
Council proposed business, the Council directed the City
Manager to plan on moving ahead with an increase in the
fare to $1.25, and to have AATA pursue grant funding from
EMU, St. Joe's and WCCC to make up the difference for the
coming year's budget.  If that doesn't pan out, we would
pursue a "trim" of Route 5 to make up the difference.

So bus service is secure for FY 06-07, if we have the
cooperation of Superior and Ypsilanti Townships.  Because
our bus routes mesh with theirs, they have to agree to the
fare increase.  Have you had any conversations with these
townships?

Our bigger challenge is the following year, because if
nothing changes in Lansing we will be facing even bigger
cuts to our city general fund budget then.  Are you and the
other supporters of the bus services willing to present
your very compelling stories to other communities, in order
to help them embrace a county-wide bus millage?  Ypsi and
Ann Arbor have been providing bus services for many years,
but there are communities in our county that have never
provided bus service whose support we would need in order
to be successful.

At the end of the last meeting Council also discussed
putting together a meeting between the Chair of the County
Commission, Ypsi's County Commissioner, Greg Cook, the
County Administrator, the City Manager and myself about the
desireability and timing of a putting a County-wide bus
millage  on the ballot.  If they are willing to do that,
and I think they will be, then are you interested in being
part of a Committee to Pass the Bus Millage?

Feel free to call me at home at 481-1804.  I'm up late and
up early, so if I am not home when you call, be sure to
leave me parameters as to how late and how early I can
return your call.

Cheryl Farmer

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:58 am | Comments (3)

12 april 2006

Umbilical Cord Bikes

YOU KNOW THE ONES. A long rod leading off an adult bike, ending in a half-a-bike that a kid rides. Reason 14,587 why Ypsidixit's eyes are sore from rolling.

My folks would no sooner have bought such a ridiculous contraption than tickets to the moon. We were on our own--to skin a few knees, watch for traffic, and explore and develop independence. To find our own balance on our own bikes, so that we could later find our own balance in jobs, responsibilities, marriages--well, flat tire on the marriage score--but at any rate.

One wonders if these child-obsessed parents have lives. Lives involving books, foreign languages, workshops full of drill presses and milling machines and bandsaws, and other adult pursuits. In Victorian times, children were seen and not heard, and somehow everyone survived. Cut the cord, North Face-wearing Farmer's-Marketing middle-agers!

(to be filed in the "more money than sense" category.....if there's room left in the file).

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:25 pm | Comments (13)

Letter To Mayor Farmer: April 18 Meeting To Be Large

To: mayorsis@provide.net

Dear Mayor Farmer,

I've been hearing about the bus cuts from community members at local social services agencies, some of whom are concerned about the April 18 Council meeting being overcrowded.

One worker at the Center for Independent Living is wondering if the meeting will be moved, and is concerned since transportation arrangements for her clients need a long lead time and could not be changed on the meeting night. She said it would be illegal to move the meeting on the meeting night, since that would mean some attendees (e.g., those in wheelchairs) could not go to the Senior Center (but could, however, go to the Riverside Arts Center). She is waiting to hear if the meeting will be moved in advance (instead of on meeting night), so that she and clients can make arrangements.

One worker at the Corner Health Center says "These proposed cuts
would not only cause our program to come to a screeching halt, it would
also damage business and social life in Ypsilanti." He plans to attend.

One worker at Ozone House says she and possibly some Ozone House youth will be there.

I've been fielding other emails and phone calls from community members.

I think the meeting will be large. If you decide to move it ahead of time, I will do all I can via KYR's publicity department to help you publicize it, and will take responsibility for letting local social service agencies know. Would you please let me know at your earliest convenience?

Also, might you know what day before the end of April Council will decide on a bus-preservation solution?

Thank you,

Laura Bien
"Keep Ypsi Rolling" director

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:12 pm | Comments (8)

Ypsi Housing Market Squishy as a Rotten Pumpkin?

YPSIDIXIT likes to keep an eye on houses for sale in Ypsi. Well, I like to keep an eye on everything, but this is just an interest of mine--I always stop the bike and pick up the little flier and scrutinize the price and details. In the last few months, it seems that the Ypsi housing market has slowed to stagnation. I see "For Sale" signs becoming permanent front yard fixtures. I see "Price Reduced" signs going up on Normal Park signs. And the nice house next to me has been for sale since last September. Yep. And that's the nicest one on our street.

Is the Ypsi housing market pancake-flat? Y. did some checking. Ah-hah.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:40 am | Comments (27)

11 april 2006

Black Meal, Black Cat: A Test from God

YPSIDIXIT stopped off at the little Korean grocery on Michigan Ave. today and bought ja jang (fermented black bean paste), the proper noodles (myun) to make ja jang myun, a vat of kim chi, and some delectable gochu jang (red pepper paste). I had stumbled across the ja jang and immediately remembered how agonizingly good ja jang myun is. I hadn't had it since I taught in Korea. My mouth watered; I got the big jar.

I sauteed some chopped onion with a generous glop of peanut oil and five heaping tablespoons of ja jang. When I licked the spoon...heaven. Ja jang has, like many Korean flavors, such a deep, earthy richness. It makes American flavors seem pallid and weak. I dipped the spoon in the ja jang and licked it again.

Just as my noodles were done and ready for draining, I heard a kitty crying. I peeked outside--a black at in my neighbor's tree! It must be my neighbor Mel's cat! Here was a test from God. Should I run over to Mel's? Or eat the dish perfuming the entire kitchen with fermented soybean goodness that I'd been drooling over? I peeked out the door. Kitty wasn't going anywhere. So I quickly stuffed myself with ja jang myun, put the rest in the fridge, then knocked on Mel's door. He came over and made a positive ID, we fetched his extension ladder, and kitty was saved. God noted I ate the ja jang myun before running over but also noted I ate it very quickly--B+.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:21 pm | Comments (14)

Mystery Man on Bus #4; Flier-Posting Update

TO THE GENTLEMAN ON BUS #4 TONIGHT who took one of the Keep Ypsi Rolling fliers that "someone" had stealthily deposited in the bus schedule-book rack: yeah, you, Mr. New York Times, Mr. Hoodie, Mr. Occasional Crossword Puzzle, Mr. Get-on-at-the-hospital-and-sometimes-South-U.-and-Washtenaw:

Lemme know if you have questions. ypsidixit@gmail.com. FLIER-POSTING UPDATE in "Comments."

Posted by ypsidixit at 07:12 pm | Comments (3)

Stinging Critique of Egg Hunt

Last Saturday's Frog Island egg hunt and marshmallow drop wasn't that hot.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:15 am | Comments (11)

10 april 2006

Yard Work

prune prune prune
gotta get these bushes out of here, this is a mess.
save the weigela, though--it already has little red-pea buds all over.
gotta straighten out this edging
(wave)
Hi, how are you"
Hi, Laura. Beautiful day.
It's gorgeous.
these sticks have to come out
rake rake rake
squish this down in the garbage can
Hi, how's it goin? I'm lookin' for my cat. It's a black cat.
Hi. I saw a black and white cat a few doors down yesterday.
With a white belly?
Yep, white belly and feet.
My name's Mel.
Oh, my hand's dirty...(shake) no wedding ring.
I think I've seen you...you live a few houses down.
Yeah, at 570........
(chat.....)
nice guy.
if I dig this up, I can put peppers here. This can be the pepper bed.
grow peppers, plant is decorative, it won't look like food...this grass has got to come out.
Hi Clover
lick lick lick
I love you too.
I gotta get stuff in the ground...frost date is April 15.
Getting dark.Don't forget the hoe.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:22 pm | Comments (19)

A KIND READER passes along this tragic story of an EMU student, saying it's "kinda making the rounds on campus today."

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:53 pm | Comments (4)

ONE of Y.'s spies reports that there is a particularly choice art show currently at the Historical Museum, with a few exquisite pieces, quote, "heavily influenced by Bob Ross." Y. is aquiver with anticipation!

Posted by ypsidixit at 03:55 pm | Comments (1)

YPSILANTIANS, I hate to rain on your parade. But I'm a debunker by nature, yes sir, I am, a stern defender of the unvarnished truth, like many Leos.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:57 pm | Comments (17)

Stylin' New Flier for April 18 Meeting

FLIER or flyer? I never know. Anyways, the KYR Design Department has crafted a New Fli/yer that is about a trillion times better than my utilitarian one. You can download the new flier, if you like, here. And if you do--thank you.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:48 pm | Comments (1)

ISN'T IT SUPER SPECIAL being a martyr, Thomas?

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:27 pm | Comments (3)

KYR's press release has been sent to the Ann Arbor News (2 contacts), the Courier, WDIV (6 contacts), WXYZ-TV, the Milan News, Saline Reporter, Chelsea Standsard, Dexter Leader, Manchester Enterprise, Belleville View, Heritage Press and Guide, and the Detroit Free Press (17 contacts). Who am I missing?

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:41 am | Comments (616)

MDOT State Long Range Plan Public Meeting April 20

A KIND FRIEND forwards this info:

From: Terri Blackmore
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 11:32 AM

The Michigan Department of Transportation has graciously agreed to add an additional first round public meeting for Washtenaw County to allow for those without a car to provide comments to the State (the nearest meetings were in Dearborn and Ferndale). The meeting will be held on: April 20, 2006 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Washtenaw Community College, 4800 Huron River Drive, Room 101 Morris Lawrence Building.

The meeting will provide an overview of the process but will more importantly provide an opportunity for the attendees to identify the transportation issues that are important to them by voting on those provided, allow them to identify new issues not presented at the meeting, and allow the attendees to vote using fake money how they want MDOT to spend the limited transportation funding available.

This was by far one of the best MDOT public involvement meetings that I have attended. It is an open house arrangement allowing folks to come when convenient and spend only as much time as needed to provide input. I encourage all to attend this important meeting.

I have also received a copy of a report from the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) titled “Community, Character and Cash: How you can Reform Transportation with Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS)” that discussion the implementation of MDOT’s move to CSS. This report is short and very readable and available free on the MEC website at http://www.mecprotects.org/css_report.pdf. I would urge you to look at the changes that MDOT has made in the project development process.

Terri Blackmore, Executive Director, Washtenaw Area Transportation Study, 705 N. Zeeb, 2nd Floor, Ann Arbor, MI 48103

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:32 am

Ciara and Bow Wow Officially Split

WHILE sending our the KYR press release, Y. received this one in return and thought you should know:

"Good Morning:

"There is a quote that is circulating right now, amidst the rumors of Bow Wow being spotted at the Regent Beverly Hotel with a stripper, stating that he and Ciara have been split for "awhile" and that it was "amicable" which is incorrect.

"If your respected media outlet will be running any stories of the breakup, kindly be sure to run the correct statement from Ciara's camp, which is:

"I cannot comment on the reason, but can confirm that Ciara and Bow Wow have split," says Tracy Nguyen, spokesperson for Ciara.

"Thank you so much and should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact either myself or Christina Rice at 212-999-5585 ext. 252 or crice@5wpr.com."

Y. had been worrying herself sick about this--it's a relief to finally know. In other news, Y. is eating a bagel with cream cheese and salami (my fave, gross but good).

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:15 am | Comments (6)

"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" Mounts Petition & Flier Campaign Prior to Crucial April 18 City Council Meeting

KYR had a productive and informative meeting tonight. We heard a presentation from an AATA rep and discussed our next steps. The group mounted a flier/petition campaign to draw community members to the crucial April 18 City Council meeting. This meeting is the last April meeting before the Council makes its bus-funding decision "by the end of April." KYR sent a press release to the Ann Arbor News, Ypsi Courier, and Free Press, and will send this release to other SE MI media outlets tomorrow. We're down to the wire. We need folks to show up to the April 18, 7:30 p.m., Council meeting at City Hall at Huron and Michigan Ave. to speak their piece.

Posted by ypsidixit at 02:55 am | Comments (2)

09 april 2006

AMERICAN ARTS AND LETTERS is "pretentious, banal and Oprahfied," and University-trained poets are the "drones and clones" of academia, "like high priests murmuring to each other," said Camille Paglia at a recent Austin book party for "Break, Blow, Burn."

Bit of a sweeping statement, but between the idiot James Frey and the highly irritating, shrivelled-up manipulations of language poets, the Billy Collinses seem few and far between.

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:50 am | Comments (1)

08 april 2006

AATA Film Festival Fundraiser (AATAFFF)

YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A REALLY COOL EVENT? An AATA film festival. Community residents make short films in some way incorporating the bus--either in a really creative and offbeat way or documentary. Docu-drama? Romantic comedy? :) Y. met a former husband on the bus, after all. Yes sir. Route 3. Anyways, KYR could get prizes donated (currently non tax deductible, dangit), crank up the publicity machine, see if the Michigan Theater would be willing to donate the screening room, and have audience members vote for the winners. It would be fun, offbeat, creative, artistic, appealingly weird, and a fabulous PR tool. Mostly, fun.

Each prize could be labeled with instructions on how to get to the donating business on which bus. :) This could be really fun and exciting! I'm geeked already and I just barely thought of it!

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:33 pm | Comments (15)

YPSIDIXIT is looking into the process of becoming a nonprofit. Like millages, it's one of those topics that, two months ago, interested me about as much as the taxonomy of toenail fungi. Maybe less. Questions I'm pondering include: how does one become a nonprofit? Can I open a bank account in the name of KYR? Do nonprofits file taxes? Hey!--dumb question, I know. Dumb questions are the only way I learn anything.

The reason I'm looking into this is because I think KYR could raise some money, and I don't want donors to think I'm piling their cash into a satchel to take to the Hummer dealership. I'd rather everything be very transparent. Back to research...

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:57 pm | Comments (625)

07 april 2006

"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" Community Outreach

TONIGHT I WROTE the following letter (below) to the following local social service agencies. If you know of one I should contact, I'd be grateful for the info.

LOCAL SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Catholic Social Services
Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County
Washtenaw United Way
Ann Arbor Center for the Family
Jewish Family Services
Power, Inc.
Samaritan Counseling Services
Women's Center of America
Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living
Assistive Media
Children's Special Health Care Services
Down Syndrome Support Group
Michigan Ability Partners
Partners in Personal Assistants
Therapeutic Riding
Washtenaw County Library for the Blind
Avalon Housing
Community Leaning Post
Conover Food Pantry
Food Gatherers
Habitat for Humanity, Huron Valley
Homeless Empowerment Relationship Organization
Interfaith Hospitality Network
MSU Extension Food and Nutrition Program
Shelter Association of Washtenaw County
Salvation Army
Staples Family Center
Housing Bureau for Seniors
Turner Geriatric Center

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing you to inform you of proposed changes to Ypsilanti bus
service that may affect your clients.

The City of Ypsilanti is considering budget cuts that in 2007 will
eliminate routes #3 and #5 to downtown, and that in 2008 will
eliminate all bus service to Ypsilanti.

I lead a group called "Keep Ypsilanti Rollin'" which is working to
preserve bus service to Ypsilanti.

I am writing to invite you and your clients:

1. to attend the 7:30 p.m. April 18 Ypsilanti City Council meeting at
City Hall, Huron at Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti (near the downtown bus
station). There is an Audience Participation Time near the beginning
of the meeting. You can speak for 3 minutes. You don't have to be from
Ypsi to speak. There's a clipboard just outside the Council door where
you can sign up to speak.

2. to receive our weekly KYR email update bulletin. We are currently
forming alliances with other community groups, in our drive to
preserve bus service to Ypsi and ensure that the voices of all
community members involved are heard.

Thank you for considering my letter.

Sincerely,
Laura Bien
"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" director (more info: www.keepypsirollin.org)

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:33 pm | Comments (2)

Big Bucket O' Love

GOT A BUCKET? And airfare to England? Why, then you can help frisky frogs and their blushing brides journey safely to a romantic hideaway. Or girlfriends. Fiancees. Whatever. I'm not here to judge.

The cynical Ypsidixit, who says "Bah!" to romance, looks with a jaundiced eye on these naive, dreamy innocents hopping into love.

But, someone's got to help them. Won't somebody please think of the tadpoles?

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:02 am | Comments (2)

Open Mike Friday

TIME TO TALK ABOUT WHATEVER YOU WISH. I've been dominating things around here for the past two months--well, it is my blog, but anyways--and it's time for a breaklet from the endless bus entries. So chat about whatever topic you wish with the friendly asteroid belt of kind readers that's always hovering around out there in the nebulous mists of 0s and 1s.

Posted by ypsidixit at 08:28 am | Comments (11)

"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" Weekly Update Mailed

I've just e-mailed out this week's weekly KYR update. If you'd like a copy, please email me at ypsidixit@gmail.com.

Posted by ypsidixit at 02:17 am

06 april 2006

Depot Town Radio Contact Information Requested

A KIND READER asks for the DTR email address. I *think* it's depottownradio@hotmail.com but am not sure. Might there be another kind reader who could set me straight, please? Thank you.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:35 pm | Comments (7)

Letter to News Opinion Editor Ms. Morgan

(in "Continue Reading").

Dear Ms. Morgan,

I am writing to thank you for your lovely editorial in today's paper. I was so moved and humbled by it, and so grateful to the News. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.

"Keep Ypsi Rolling" is currently building alliances with the sorts of other community entities mentioned in the editorial. The real work has barely begun. We are also investigating various millage options and procedures. I'm joining an advisory committee per Mayor Farmer's invitation that will work to get information and options to our City Council before the crucial budget vote.

It's been enormously inspiring and exhilerating to see the community join together in this effort, and I'm very honored to be the leader. I am confident that by all of us working together, determinedly and creatively, we can preserve bus service to Ypsilanti.

Yours truly,
Laura Bien
"Keep Ypsi Rollin'" director

Posted by ypsidixit at 04:02 pm

THE WASHTENAW JAIL IS SO FAR PAST ITS CAPACITY OF 332 INMATES that it's bussing inmates to no fewer than seven different counties, at considerable expense.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:29 pm | Comments (9)

HUD Smackdown of Ypsi Fairway Trails Apartments

"Harry Tyus wanted to pay his rent. The problem was his Social Security check didn't come on time.

"Each month he was a few days late, and the apartment management company for the Fairway Trails Apartments in Ypsilanti, MI, charged him a $50 late fee each time.

"Tyus asked property manager Nicole Morbach if he could please pay his rent a few days late, without incurring the late fee. Morbach refused.

"Tyus brought his problem to the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan, which contacted Fairway Trails, asking that they make a "reasonable accommodation" for Tyus's disability.

"Nope. "Doing so would result in extending a preference," they said, and denied the request." (via)

Tyus didn't just acquiesce. He acted, and he won.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:24 pm | Comments (3)

Ann Arbor News Editorial: Ypsidixit Could not be Prouder of the "Keep Ypsi Rolling" Team

YPSIDIXIT IS FLOORED to see an editorial in today's Ann Arbor News (thanks, Murph!)

I can't say how proud I am of the fine, talented, principled, upright, and astoundingly hard-working people on the "Keep Ypsi Rolling Team" when I read this editorial. It actually brings tears to my eyes. B., D., I., R., S., P., K., read this editorial and BE PROUD of yourself, as I am of you. WOW.

Editorial: Activists leading way to Ypsilanti bus solution

To call the Keep Ypsi Rollin' campaign a civics lesson doesn't capture the power of this effort to save a valued bus route between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.

It's an effort that deserves the attention and participation of a much broader group, including local government officials, community leaders and employers throughout Washtenaw County.

The city of Ypsilanti is struggling to balance its budget, and officials had proposed cutting about $80,000 from a subsidy paid to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. Those funds help pay for two bus routes - No. 3, which runs along Huron River Drive past the campuses of Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College, and No. 5, a southern route that runs along Packard Road. By 2009, the city is looking at getting rid of all subsidies, which could eliminate all AATA bus service to and from Ypsilanti.

Those buses are a lifeline to many, connecting them to jobs, schools, doctors and other services. Residents who use the bus system have mounted a vigorous, organized crusade, coming up with several strategies to address the shortfall. A Web site - www.keepypsirollin.org - was posted as a focal point for the campaign, and includes specific suggestions about ways to get involved.

In an emotional show of support on Tuesday night, about 100 people turned out to tell Ypsilanti City Council members just how crucial that bus service is to them.

"I don't drive and I don't make that much money,'' Martha Horton told the council. "If you cut the bus, I will be out of a job. I beg you ... please don't take the bus away.''

Laura Bien, who calls herself the "bullhorn'' for this effort and who is known in the community for her local blog (the Web log www.ypsidixit.com/blog), gave a presentation at the meeting that culminated in asking council members to sign a petition of support to save the bus service - and they did.

No final decisions are expected until later this spring or early summer, however. Options include raising the fare from $1 to $1.25, altering the routes, seeking a countywide tax to support the service or finding other financial assistance.

AATA Executive Director Gregory Cook said he plans to talk with representatives from Eastern Michigan University, Washtenaw Community College, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and the University of Michigan to see if those institutions can help fund the bus service. More details about AATA's strategies for the Ypsilanti routes are online at www.theride.org.

Others should be part of the solution as well. Employers who rely on workers from the Ypsilanti area need to look at their own budgets and try to find ways to contribute financial aid.

Longer term, local governments and community leaders need to develop a comprehensive transportation strategy, one that addresses the needs of residents throughout the county, environmental impact and funding sources.

Meanwhile, kudos to the Ypsilanti residents who are engaged in this debate and are influencing local decision makers. They're showing us community activism at its best.

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:33 am | Comments (7)

Gearing Up for a Millage: Note from Mayor Farmer

EXCERPT: "In the long run, we need a county-wide millage for bus service. Would you be willing to become part of a committee to pass such a millage? It occured to me at the last meeting that if people who spoke to Ypsi's Council so eloquently would be willing to do the same in Saline, Dexter and other communities, it would really help sell the idea of such a millage. Think about it. I am going to
talk with Council during Council proposed business about hosting a meeting of bus supporters willing to discuss a strategy to pass a county-wide millage."

Posted by ypsidixit at 10:24 am | Comments (2)

IF GOD created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated. --Voltaire

I was walking across a bridge one day , and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!...there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" He said, "Baptist Church of God." I said, "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off. --Emo Philips

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:14 am

05 april 2006

SOME KIND READERS may ask, in all fairness, what do you care about Ypsi politics? You're a townshipper. Yes, indeed, I am, by 3 blocks. But there's no way I can get to my own Council meetings. They're at the Civic Center, I don't have a car, and there's no freakin' way I'm bikin' on that Road of Death, Whittaker Road. At night. In winter. The bus used to go down there, and to the courts, and library, but all those resources are gone to me. Government without a chance at my participation, as a taxpayer? And I assure you we DO pay QUITE HEFTY taxes. Not what I call fair or right.

Posted by ypsidixit at 11:42 pm | Comments (14)

YPSIDIXIT RODE HOME on the #4, trying and failing to read Alistair Cooke's America in the dim buslight. A small, tired-looking man in worn secondhand clothes holding a clear trash bag of empty plastic soda bottles got on at the hospital. Y. stared moodily into the darkness. The man got off at Medford-Manchester and he stopped in front of the Ann Arbor News paper box. His stooped form was still as he read the banner headline: "Bus Riders Say Don't Cut Routes."

Ypsidixit's heart just about broke. Then I got mad. I'll be at the next Council meeting on April 18, and have just contacted the Council tonight to join their advisory bus committee that is supposed to be forming. I'm not appeased by the good gains made last night. Until I see a plan nailed down, I'll be there, every meeting, representing the bottle-man.

Posted by ypsidixit at 09:27 pm

heh.

Posted by ypsidixit at 12:58 pm |