by P.D. Lesko THE LAST TIME Julie Grand ran for City Council, she told a room full of voters at a Democratic candidate forum: “And I don’t know that we can get every road paved in the neighborhood. I don’t know that we can fix all of the…

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…

WARD 2 CITY Council challenger Kirk Westphal sent out a fundraising letter that includes several interesting claims, one of which is he is the "only Democrat" running in the Ward 2 November general election. Well, yes. For those who were…

by P.D. Lesko Today, Jack Eaton announced his candidacy first via email to a loosely-organized group of neighborhood activists, city and county politicians. He wrote, "I wanted all of you to hear it from me, because so many of you have…

by P.D. Lesko Usually, employees get fired for filching money or abusing an employer-issued credit card. Except in Ann Arbor. Auditors past and present, in fact, have sent the city's Audit Committee letters of warning about sloppy…

John Hieftje and his political pals have a reputation of ignoring public opinion. Perhaps the most egregious example was a 2008 Council meeting at which petitions with 6,000 signatures were presented to Council to urge them to put the…

We begin with a fairytale: Once Upon A Time there were five Ann Arbor City Council members named Sandi Smith, Carsten Hohnke, Leigh Greden, Stephen Rapundalo and Tony Derezinski. They all unquestioningly supported Ann Arbor's Percent for…

by P.D. Lesko On November 6, 2012 the firmament trembled in Ann Arbor—the political landscape opened up and swallowed local politicos and their monied donors whole, casting the owner of Main Street Ventures, members of the Downtown…

by P.D. Lesko 52nd District Representative Mark Ouimet and Governor Rick Snyder both let mainstream media assumptions that they were moderate Republicans go uncorrected. The last laugh, in retrospect, has been on all of the Ann Arbor and…

Ward 1 City Council member Sabra Briere recently voted to kill a resolution intended to protect parkland from de facto sale through leasing—a strategy being used by John Hieftje and his Council pals to try to "repurpose" a several acre…