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A2Politico
City Vendor Records Reveal Handful of Board/Commission Members Paid $1.33M
by Patricia Lesko
NextDoor is a city-wide listserv where neighbors can post everything from requests for babysitters to football tickets for sale. Neighbors have also taken to posting information about local city government. In Feb.…
A2Politico: Doing Less for Longer—A Politician’s Dream
by P.D. Lesko
KIRK WESTPHAL CAUSED the political firmament to tremble (convulse, really) when he was just rumored to be prepared to pitch the idea of changing the length of City Council members’ terms from two to four years. The…
A2Politico: But, Soft! What Hare-Brained Budget Allocation Through Yonder Fiscal Prudence Breaks?
by Bryan Kelly
IT IS OPEN season on the public purse. Budget negotiations for the 2016-2017 fiscal year are nigh. The City Administrator’s plan has been submitted to City Council. In the current forecast, a $1.7 million deficit in the…
A2Politico: BAMNing for a Soupçon of Minority Enrollment at U-M? Sacrebleu & Maize
by Bryan Kelly
SO IT’S COME to this: protesters from BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), the radical Trotskyite organization with a heart of gold, “bulldozing” through a barricade at a Board of Regents meeting at the University of Michigan to…
A2Politico: Some Modest Suggestions for the Downtown Development Divas
by Bryan Kelly
AFTER MONTHS DORMANT, Ann Arbor officials have rekindled the effort to market for development the Library Lot, a parcel of land about the size of the parking lot that used to be adjacent to the downtown library.
I have…
A2Politico: Ann Arbor—the Bicyclists’ Medina
by Bryan Kelly
IN LAST WEEK’S issue of The A2 Indy, my physically fit colleague Brent McDermott published a column dubbing Ann Arbor “a Mecca for runners.” Few may know that our city is, at the very least, in the running for a…
A2Politico: Pounding the Pavement for Politics
by Bryan Kelly
I AM GOING door-to-door gathering signatures for a candidate (who isn’t me) to run for City Council in the partisan election.
At least, I’m trying to gather signatures. Often, no one’s home when I visit, or their hiding…
A2Politico: Why is Chris Taylor Chatting With “Friends” Behind Our Backs?
by P.D. Lesko
LET’S START WITH the good news: Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor is reaching out to residents and trying to keep in touch about important matters such as city government, transit and public safety and the environment. It’s a…
A2Politico: Crowdfunding— for Lunch at Zing*****’s
by Bryan Kelly
I HAPPENED INTO a sandwich shop the other day whose name shall be withheld from the record (though it shall not be spared the indignity of being guessed correctly).
It charged some uncompromising prices! These were no…
A2Politico: I’ll Take Manhattan, the Bronx & Ypsilanti, Too….
by Bryan Kelly
IF YOU HAVE been following along, you know that the New Vision is to make Ann Arbor Manhattan and Ypsilanti Brooklyn. If you haven’t been following along, well, there you have it.
That’s Downtown Development Authority…