Member Of Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority Board Of Directors Insults Residents And Criticizes Council Members In Public Rant
Please note: Kathy Griswold is the Chair of The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board.
JOAN LOWENSTEIN, A long-time member of the Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors launched a website titled A2BetterCity.com. On her site, Lowenstein’s latest post derides residents who speak before City Council, particularly those who do so repeatedly.
That list includes Lowenstein herself, as well as several of Lowenstein’s fellow DDA Board members, including former Ward 1 Council member Sandi Smith and Michigan Theater Director Russ Collins. Both Smith and Collins have spoken on a variety of topics before City Council over the past several months.
At each Council meeting, 10 speakers may sign up for public commentary to address specific issues included in that evening’s agenda. There are also various public hearings, at which anyone may speak and public comment time at the end of the meetings.
On her website, Lowenstein refers to people who speak regularly before Council as “arm-chair experts.” She opines that they speak before televised City Council meetings “because they love to hear themselves over and over again.” These residents who speak at Council meetings “derail discussions,” according to the most recent post on Lowenstein’s website.
In 2008 Second Ward City Council member Lowenstein campaigned to be the next 15th District Court judge. She gave up her seat on City Council to run. She lost. Before she ran, however, she voted in support of the new Police-Court facility. In April of 2010 when Lowenstein spoke in support of a development project, she stepped forward to urge City Council members not to give in to the 5th Ward “sulkers.”
Then, a short time later, Lowenstein suggested the DDA “control” parking rates so that Council members could avoid political repercussions.
In response, Third Ward Council member Stephen Kunselman dubbed the unelected DDA Board on which Lowenstein sat, a “shadow government.”
Kunselman said after a May 2011 meeting of City Council: “I have no confidence in the DDA board. Their obstinate demands for authority over setting rates and hours illustrates to me they’ve just become addicted and dependent upon parking revenues for their own purposes, and they’re not necessarily interested in the public health, safety and welfare of our community.”
In January of 2011, Joan Lowenstein prepared a short video to show at the DDA’s Annual Board retreat. “Parking” was the star of the video, and the rainbow bear, “parks,” was the not-so-bright sidekick in need of “instruction.”
In summer 2011, Ward 2 resident Lowenstein endorsed Council candidates in Wards 3 and 5. Each of the candidates she endorsed and supported financially lost.
In November of 2011, Lowenstein endorsed her former Ward 2 Council colleague Stephen Rapundalo in his race against Independent candidate, former Second Ward City Council member Jane Lumm. Rapundalo went on to get beaten in the November general election. One month later, almost to the day, Lowenstein published an opinion piece in an issue of The Ann magazine in which she calls Ann Arbor voters old, stingy and Republican.
In August 2013 Lowenstein backed former Park Advisory Commissioner Julie Grand in her bid to unseat incumbent Stephen Kunselman. Grand lost and in September 2013 Joan Lowenstein launched a website which she has used to mock, criticize and complain about certain City Council members and, most recently, the public and private citizens. She writes:
“One critic of almost everything, former school board trustee Kathy Griswold, even claimed that no ‘professional engineers’ or P.E.s had ever been consulted when Ann Arbor enacted its ordinance and placed crosswalks.” Griswold is a Ward 2 resident. She had this to say about Lowenstein’s poke: “I took it as a compliment. Joan is noticing what I’m doing.”
One Council member, when asked if appointed officials should criticize the public and private individuals said, “Her term’s up soon, and she’d better get used to wearing her bathrobe. She’s gonna to be watching DDA Board meetings from the comfort of her own home.” Another Council member said with a sly grin, “Joan criticized people as know-it-alls. That’s interesting.”
A2Bettercity.com weekly readership is in the dozens, according to online web traffic measurement tools. Lowenstein allows no responses to be posted. Instead, she invites people to “find her,” and to speak face-to-face.