Local Politico to City’s Voters: You’re “Xenophobic,” “Old,” “Selfish” and “Stingy.”

by P.D. Lesko

DDA Board member and former Second Ward City Council member Joan Lowenstein (right) is having a really tough time of it, politically speaking. Should you care? Absolutely. It’s a better show than “Real Housewives,” but with some of same characters, crazy plot twists, and zany attempts to make the 1 percent look like they’re have the same concerns as the other 99 percent of us. Plus, you don’t need a television to watch. Just pick up the December copy of The Ann magazine, watch the video below, or read some of the articles linked throughout this piece. It’s JoLo uncensored and unedited.

Her story starts in 2008:  Second Ward City Council member Lowenstein wanted 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 fantastical new 15th District Court facility that “brought the police force out of the wretched, moldy basement of the old City Hall,” she writes in The Ann. Oddly, Lowenstein is ignorant of the fact that the basement of the new city hall was recently revealed to be just as wretched and moldy 8 months after a February 2011 flood damaged the police officers’ refurbished locker area.

Facts are for the 99 percent, evidently.

Then, after her unsuccessful run for District Court, no doubt because of her extensive experience as a downtown merchant at her law firm where she practices libel law (whether by libeling others, or simply conducting sparsely attended libeling/cooking classes), she was appointed to sit on the Board of the Downtown Development Authority.

It was after her appointment to the DDA Board that Joan Lowenstein started to become downright dotty—as in Washtenaw County Commissioner Barbara Levin Bergman-argues-for-hiring-sexual-predators dotty.

In April of 2010 when JoLo spoke in support of a development project, she stepped forward to urge City Council members not to give in to the 5th Ward “sulkers.”

Shortly thereafter, Lowenstein suggested the DDA “control” parking rates so that her friends on City Council didn’t have to take any political heat. 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, Lowenstein prepared a short video to show at the DDA’s Annual Board retreat. “Parking” is the star of the video, and the rainbow bear, “parks,” is the not-so-bright sidekick in need of “instruction” (i.e. parking represents you, Laddy Buck).

In summer 2011 Ward 2 resident Lowenstein tried to throw her political clout around in Wards 3 and 5. Each of the candidates she endorsed and supported financially went on to get thrashed, politically.

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. It was the kiss of death—Rapundalo went on to get, you guessed it, thrashed in the November election.

One month later, almost to the day, Lowenstein published her own personal Diary of a Mad Housewife in the December 2011 issue of The Ann magazine in which she calls Ann Arbor voters, well, old, stupid and Republican.

Rapundles, as critics call him, couldn’t have been thrashed by his opponent because he lied about her voting record on his campaign web site, or because he is a closet Republican finally outed by every news site in town for parading as a Democrat. He couldn’t have lost because he shot himself the foot by accidentally sending an email to AnnArbor.com which read, in part, “As for the Mallet’s Creek project — be sure to involve me in any meetings, etc., if there any, before the election — just so I look like I’m engaged.”

“Just so I look like I’m engaged?” Could Stephen Rapundalo have said anything more damaging? Yes, he could have supported a poorly thought-out pedestrian crossing ordinance. He could have wasted months on a failed ordinance to ban plastic bags. He could have enraged constituents by bashing the city’s labor unions like a Canadian carbon copy of Mitt Romney. Oh, he did all that.

According to JoLo, these things have nothing to do with why Stephen Rapundalo lost. No. Baby Boomer Joan Lowenstein blames Ann Arbor voters whom, she writes, have become “conservative,” “old,” “selfish” and “Republican.” Lowenstein would have us believe that Ann Arbor is filled with xenophobic misanthropes who are inexplicably against everything the Hieftje-Hive-Mind-Borg-Collective on City Council want to buy, do, give away or build.

Worst of all, Joan Lowenstein wants readers of The Ann to believe that political differences are “pernicious,” and that resistance is futile. Former Third Ward power-broker Leigh Greden’s loss in 2009, and Stephen Rapundalo’s loss this past November may look like unrelated political incidents. They’re not. Some of the most powerful politicians in the city, county and state could not save Leigh Greden in 2009; the same people couldn’t save Stephen Rapundalo in 2011.

In her piece in The Ann Baby Boomer JoLo pines for “young, intelligent, industrious civic-minded people” with the embarrassing ache and sly longing of a cougar who sits back, sips a martini, and stalks a shirtless Noah “Puck” Puckerman as he cleans her swimming pool. The Ann’s editor allows Lowenstein to misuse his magazine as a platform to insult and bully —to chastise and cajole readers into giving her friends and former colleagues on City Council that which they rarely deserve: the public trust.

19 Comments
  1. […] candidate, former Ward 2 Democratic Council member and current DDA Board member Joan Lowenstein published an essay in The Ann magazine in which she called Ward 2 voters “old, stingy and […]

  2. […] In response to the ouster of her former Council colleague Stephen Rapundalo in 2011, JoLo published an essay in The Ann in which she called Ann Arbor voters “old, stingy, xenophobic and Republican.” In April of […]

  3. […] voters should definitely take that into consideration. If Grand touts the support of JoLo, who has insulted Ann Arbor voters in public and in print as “sulkers,” “selfish,” “old,” “Republican” and […]

  4. […] member Joan Lowenstein (right). Lowenstein, with her arrogance and acid tongue, has repeatedly insulted city residents, in public and in print. That Julie Grand’s words sounded as though they’d been written by JoLo was […]

  5. […] PAC. Lowenstein, in response to the ouster of former Council colleagues Stephen Rapundalo in 2011, published an essay in The Ann in which she called Ann Arbor voters “old, stingy, xenophobic and Republican.” In […]

  6. Eric Scheie says

    Lowenstein calls those she disagrees with “conservative,” “old,” “selfish” and “Republican.”

    Assuming Republicans and conservatives don’t object to being called “old,”does this mean it’s OK in her circles to attack people and attribute “selfishness” to them on the basis of their age?

    I read through her screed carefully, and her number one complaint seems to be with those who don’t want massive development, and don’t want Ann Arbor park land sold off to the highest bidder. (At least, not without a modicum of democratic participation.) Why does Lowenstein not mention that the Sierra Club along with a number of Democrats supported Jane Lumm? Instead, she paints opposition to illegal park conversion (which violates the city charter) as some sort of vast right wing conspiracy.

    Forgive my cluelessness, but I had thought the right wing was more associated with big developers (especially those who want to pave park lands and bring in developers like Amtrak) than with those who oppose them.

    1. Junior says

      “Forgive my clulessness, but I had thought the right wing was more associated with big developers(especially those who want to pave park lands and bring in developers like Amtrak) than those who oppose them.”

      What has occurred, Eric, is that developers, through campaign contributions and other more subtle influences, have co-opted the elected officeholders of every major Michigan city where development is occurring. Republican or Democrat. Devlopments mean property tax revenues and jobs for local residents, so Democrats can say with a straight face that development approvals dovetail with traditional Democratic interests.

      Joan Lowenstein, Christopher Taylor, and Leigh Greden all were employed by law firms that derive substantial fee revenue from big developers.

      Look at your opponent Marcia Higgins; she received a $500.00 political contribution in her race against you and draws a salary as a full-time clerical employee of the University of Michigan School of Engineering. U-M has leases and other arrangements with the city and would benefit heavily from the Fuller Road project. She is owned lock, stock and barrel by interests who benefit from development. The city and county Democratic party organizations guarantee support that returns her to office while most citizens in the know about what is occurring think her performance in office is nothing short of asinine and embarrassing.

      I thank you for mounting a campaign against her in 2011 and hope that candidates continue to oppose her in the future.

  7. Junior says

    Joan’s background is as a journalist, but she has also practiced law in a firm that represents developers; ditto for Leigh Greden’s former law firm and Councilman Christopher Taylor’s current firm. She had questions raised when she represented a developer in a family law case in circuit court and that developer had business before City Council but City Attorney Steve Postema declared no conflict of interest existed that would disqualify Joan from deliberating and voting on matters involving that developer.

    It was this family law case that aroused suspicions that these City Council members were actually de facto representaives of their lucrative fee-paying clientele rather than the citizens of Ann Arbor.

    Joan’s run for District Judge was a disaster of her own doing. She did not get a website posted until only a few months before the primary election and it did not list any endorsements like her three opponents had; she engaged in little or no door-todoor campaigning as her opponents did. Margaret Connors quit her job at the Prosecutor’s Office to campaign and Chris Easthope went extensively door-to-dooras well as Eric Gutenberg did. Joan had an uninspiring “Voice of Reason” ad posted on AATA buses but did little other than this. She finished 1,400 votes behind the second-place primary winner Eric Gutenberg and quitly gave up her City Council seat in November to Tony Derezinski.

    Joan did get a plum position on the DDA as a mayoral appointment after her embarrassing primary loss. She has not run for any political office since 2008.

    It also bears mentioning that Joan applied for a vacancy in the Washtenaw County Probate Court but was rejected by Governor Granholm, who instead chose the popular and experienced Darlene O’Brien.
    Joan continues to be a wannabe, not receiving the six-figure plum government positions that Chros Easthope and Leigh Greden currently enjoy.

    Joan is quickly fading into the sunset of an underchieving career in politics. She has failed to attain the accomplishments and respect as others, such as Leah Gunn, Larry Kestenbaum, Leigh Greden, and Chris Easthope have done.

    Her essay in “The Ann” is the product of a bitter and misanthropic individual who is angry at an electorate that has not accepted her.

  8. Dave D. says

    @Jack thanks for the heads up. ‘Journalistic deficiencies’ is putting it nicely. The Ann served up fish wrapper writing and tried to call it journalism. Now it’s a letterto the editor – sheesh. Don’t we get enough of that with AA.com and the Ann Arbor Observer?

  9. Jack Eaton says

    The Ann has posted Ms. Lowenstein’s article on its web page:
    http://www.theannweb.com/letters/2010-2011/december-2011/
    In apparent recognition of journalistic deficiencies of that piece, it is now being treated as a letter to the editor.

    For an alternative view of the distinctions between the Lowenstein/Rapundalo crowd and those in the community who overwhelmingly elected Jane Lumm, Mike Anglin and Stephen Kunselman, I recommend the following blog post:
    http://localannarbor.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/the-council-party-vs-the-ann-arbor-townies/

  10. xtreme meanone says

    If Ann Arbor voters were “conservative,” “old,” “selfish” and “Republican.” our city would be run a lot better! Instead we are stuck with “Mind Numb Robots” who only know how to vote for a Democrat!

    1. A2 Politico says

      @xtreme calling the present mayor and his Borg-Hive-Mind-Collective “democrats” is missing the point: they are members of the party of opportunists.

  11. GoBlue says

    In her piece in The Ann Baby Boomer JoLo pines for “young, intelligent, industrious civic-minded people” with the embarrassing ache and sly longing of a cougar who sits back, sips a martini, and stalks a shirtless Noah “Puck” Puckerman as he cleans her swimming pool.

    This is an image that I’m not going to be able to get out of my mind for a while. Joan Lowenstein in insulting the city’s voters for being angry “antis” appears to forget why voters toss politicians out of office. Mr. Rapundalo may have been a good friend to his friends on City Council, but that doesn’t mean he was a good friend to the people he was supposed to represent. Insulting the voters after the fact won’t change the fact that Stephen Rapundalo got trounced.

  12. Carol C. Hall says

    I have to admit that I did not read the essay in question, and have never seen The Ann. I am of the opinion that if we can’t disagree about the issues with a measure of civility there is something very wrong. A2Politico is sometimes sharper than I am comfortable with (I’m one of those ‘old’ voters), but I see a difference between asking questions that are pointed – which is what A2Politico does very well and consistently – and classifying an entire group of people with whom you disagree as “sulkers.” I’m willing to give Ms. Lowenstein the benefit of the doubt, and urge her to do the same.

  13. John Dory says

    I perused Joan’s campaign committee contributor list from when she ran for judge in 2008 and recognized many of the names of health care professionals employed locally. I asked several of these donors why they were supporting Joan Lowenstein for judge; I was told by them that they were not actually very familiar with Joan or her abilities, but rather they contributed because they knew her husband, a physician, and that he was promoting her judicial run for elected office.

    Joan finished far out of the running in that race, finishing last in the August primary.

    Her only real positive contribution to that race was her endorsement of Christopher Easthope in the general election, whch gave Easthope a needed boost in Lowenstein’s Second Ward, in which she had been the top vote-getter there.

  14. Michelle says

    I am flabbergasted and disappointed that Joan Lowenstein would write something like this about Ann Arbor voters. We can’t all agree on everything, but from someone who was in elected office and (I think) served the city well during that time, it’s shocking that she could turn around and attack people as “stingy” and “conservative” simply because they didn’t vote to keep her friend and Council colleague in office. I voted for Joan when she ran for judge and thought it was too bad she lost. I’m not so sure now. Sad.

  15. anonymous says

    Come on! Give JoLo a break. She’s right. Some Ann Arbor voters are old, stingy and Republican. Specifically the ones who have kept Hieftje in office all these years. How else did JoLo get elected to Council? Let’s not even talk about Marcia Higgins or Sandi Smith. Republicans the lot of them voted in by old, stingy, conservative voters. I think Lowenstein’s on to something.

  16. ward2voter says

    Ms. Lowenstein’s rant is just that. Dave D. is absolutely right that Lowenstein made a fool of herself by insulting the city’s voters. I finished reading the piece and tossed out The Ann. No need to keep that kind of thing around the house. What was the editor even thinking in publishing such a ridiculous piece of drivel? Good riddance to Stephen Rapundalo and welcome to Jane Lumm. I am a Democrat and I voted for her gladly.

  17. Dave D. says

    Well I thought this was a joke when I read the title, turns out JoLo (wicked funny) has decided never to run for any office again. She just made a fool of herself in front of the whole town. Too bad. I liked her when she served on Council, I agree that since she left it’s been downhill from there.

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