Ann Arbor: From small college town into the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

The sad but interesting story of the transformation of Ann Arbor into a one-party town written by Ann Arbor's ex-city attorney R. Bruce Laidlaw who helped set the whole process in motion.

Being an Ann Arbor city employee is nice work if you can get it

Jebus how times have changed. I can remember when I was a kid growing up in Ann Arbor that being a cop, fireman firefighter, or most other city employment was definitely considered "blue collar work" albeit decently paid blue collar work. Now Ann Arbor cops, firefighters, bureaucrats, and etc. are like unionized royalty. More than a few are making a $100k plus a year now. No wonder Mayor King Hieftje had to trim so many of them from the payroll. We just can not afford them at this level of pay and benefits. But if you disagree with that assessment why then you're just a Tea Bagger, RethugliKKKan, conservatarian asshole who hates working people and wants them all to starve while working for minimum wage until they drop, while their houses all burn down.

Ann Arbor bureaucrats up in arms about development. Again.

They can't make up their minds I guess. Ann Arbor can't have much outward expansion because of the Green Belt. The urban planning types want higher density, multiple family dwellings, but not too big. Or too many. Or too tall either. So they're gonna look into zoning law matters yet again.

Nuggets gathered from the Internet today

* A Cnet blogger explains his reason for dumping Microsoft's Word™ for Google Docs™permanently.

* Daily Mail poll says (some) English doctors support denying NHS treatment for smokers and the obese. (H/t: to STR for the link.)

* Trading dog poo for Wi-Fi access. What a concept!

* The site of the  lumpen shit hole watering hole and perennial trouble spot  The Fifth Quarter bar in downtown Ann Arbor has been sold. Good news for downtown Ann Arbor IMHO. I just hope that this isn't a scam by the previous owners to open another joint using a different DBA.

* The FBI has been breaking up its own terror plot sting operations, says the NY Times. Go figure?

Things wot I learned on the Internet today

* Even terrorist's websites get hacked sometimes. Tough luck Tali-gangsters.

* Ann Arbor should stop trying to be  hipster heaven and just stay a nice place to live in the Midwest.

* It's not a good idea to have first cousins marrying each other.

* Detroit is not going to be "ready" for a white mayor  any time soon.

In re the crime wave washing over Ann Arbor; cops say 'don't worry'

There have been a spate of armed robberies of late in Ann Arbor and which is a bad thing for our community, (and especially bad if you're the one with the gun barrel in you face), whatever the cops say about gun violence being "rare" in Ann Arbor.

Local guy who antagonized the police on YouTube busted

Once Ypsilanti resident Madison T. Mealing's anti-cop videos showed up on YouTube the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department started investigating him. Then they raided Mealing's home and he was arrested and charged with illegal weapon possession. Something about glass houses and throwing stone comes to mind here.

pot-shots

local pot-shots

Send in the clowns. The editorial board of the MLive (Jackson edition) webzine has called for the ATF to put a detachment in Jackson to help with busting all the felons caught with firearms around there. Be careful what you ask for folks, just in case you get it.

An interesting but altogether too short piece on an Ann Arbor-area homeless encampment with some photos here. Even in the midst of the People's Republic of Ann Arbor's bourgeois whitetopian bliss grinding poverty and its related maladies exist. As does the hateful attitude toward these casualties of the ongoing class war.

Meanwhile back among the People's Republic's lotus eaters comes this semi-amusing vignette which illustrates all too well what passes for a major problem in their lives. Quit a contrast with the above mentioned, eh? If the author of this screed had to live in a tent in mid-Winter Michigan he'd appreciate that he has phone service of any quality at all. Or maybe he just gets paid by the word?

Corruption, malfeasance, stubbornness and idiocy in re the Ambassador Bridge/Maroun family versus MDOT lawsuit continues ad nauseum. The old Alinsky-style tactic of "accusing the accusers" has now been employed by the Maroun legal team. Muddying up the waters isn't going to work though I predict.

When wearing second-hand clothes is a fashion statement rather than a necessity. UM of students prowl the clothes racks at thrift shops toward that end. Funny as toothache.

Rabid skunk problem around Ann Arbor

Fourth incident with rabid skunks in the past six months reported. 

This what democracy (really) looks like: Voting in a one-party town.

 Ann Arbor is solidly in thrall to the Democrat Party and so voting, except in the primary election, is nearly always an anti-climax to put it mildly. The intern over at the Ann Arbor Chronicle picked through the write-in ballots from 2011's First Ward Democratic Party primary election. Pathetic doesn't come close describing the feeling you get looking at these ballots. People show up to vote and find there is only one name on the ballot. So they vent their feelings with write-in votes. Some write in their wife, or themselves, H.P. Lovecraft characters, or scrawl fragments of political graffiti like "no fuller road" a reference to the proposed train station-parking structure boondoggle currently under discussion. One man, one vote, and one frickin' candidate. This is what democracy looks like in a one party town. Embrace the suck.

Don't call it theft. More like "holding it for ransom".

Police affiliated tow companies are prowling metro-Detroit (and Ann Arbor) streets looking for cars to high-jack and hold for ransom says this Detroit News article. Back in the old days when we all rode horses they used call what these tow companies are doing horse theft.  The remedy for that problem in those days was to routinely hang horse thieves, just to show how seriously this crime was taken. Just sayin'.

The Dear Leader is speaking now...

The Dear Leader

...so there isn't much happening. (10:22 AM) The suits with wires in their ears and unidentified black uniformed men with automatic weapons as well as the local cops have all us peons on lock down. So I am just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the Dear Leader to finish his speech and go home. Hope & change mofo!

The "leader of the free world" creates his own mini-police state everywhere he goes

And so it seems we Ann Arborites must endure another Obama visit this coming Friday. Look for DTX to be closed to take offs/landing whilst the Imperial Barge Air Force One is on the runway. Look for major highways like I-94 between Detroit and Ann Arbor to be closed to traffic and for police/feds/unidentified black uniformed goons to be posted at all the bridges, on/off ramps and on the tops of every tall building along the way. Furthermore, the immediate area around the pres will become a civil liberties free zone  and from which you can/will be barred from regardless of your business for being there. The Big Ø will zip into town in a fast moving multi-SUV motorcade, speak, and then zoom back out to DTX but even so downtown will be on lock-down for 24 hours probably starting around Thursday until the Big Ø leaves.

As you may surmise I've experienced quite a number of presidential/presidential candidate/First Lady/VIP visits to my town over the years and so I know the drill by now.

I guess we're all supposed to feel honored that he and his entourage have deigned to grace us with his presence yet again. Myself, I was hoping that with advent of the modern police state we'd only need to endure the Dear Leader's digital presence on a jumbo-tron screen rather than in person. Less disruptive.

Desmond Ryan, educator, athlete, thespian, and all-round renaissance man has died

One of my more memorable teachers from my high school days has died. Desmond Ryan had quite a life. He even had a character on the TV show Lost named for him by a writer who was a former pupil. R.I.P. Mr. Ryan.

Notes and pictures of the ruling nomenklatura class of the People's Republic of Ann Arbor

Old lame Democratic Party hacks from Ann Arbor and its environs like Congressman-for-Life John Dingell, his wife, various local pols, hacks, fanatics, kooks, dopes, and wannabes are pictured and profiled. Know your enemy folks.

Ann Arbor rated "6th gayest city" in America

What?

"The Advocate magazine has ranked the gayest cities in America according to its own admittedly unscientific and somewhat quirky criteria, such as the number of nude yoga classes and International Mr. Leather Competition semifinalists in the city. (To be fair, we’ll note that the criteria also include things like the number of LBGT elected officials and number of transgender legal protections.)"[Ann Arbor.com]

The People's Republic of Ann Arbor is quite tolerant of sexual and life-style choices but it isn't "gay" in the sexually freaky sense as The Advocate crowd seem to think. The number of "nude yoga studios" a city has is more an issue of its own sleaziness than sexual/life-style tolerance. AA doesn't even allow XXX bookstores or "Asian massage parlors". Too sleazy, tacky, and low class.

No tears in my eyes: No Raises for Ann Arbor Mayor, Council

Ann Arbor's so-called "independent" commission (who are all appointed by the mayor) on salaries for AA elected officeholders says no raises. Reports the Ann Arbor Chronicle:

"Salaries for Ann Arbor’s mayor and 10 city councilmembers will remain constant for the next two years at $42,436 and $15,913, respectively. That was the conclusion of the four members on the local officers compensation commission (LOCC), who met Friday morning for around a half hour." 

And so that's that until 2013.

Elections have consequences; except in Ann Arbor

The Ann Arbor Board of Education narrowly passed salary increases for top administrators it has been reported. Seven to ten percent increases too. When push comes to shove Ann Arbor's BOE comes down firmly on the side of the guys and gals who polish chairs with their asses all day and against the students, workforce, and taxpayers. How do they get elected, never mind re-elected? Go figure?

This what democracy looks like?

Applicants are lining up to be appointed to the 15th District Court (city of Ann Arbor) judgeship recently vacated by Julie Creal. Why can't have a primary and then an election to fill this seat? That is what democracy looks like at least to me. Having the governor pick some partisan hack to fill the position isn't democracy. Any governor not just  Governor Snyder.

Ann Arbor politicians dither while people freeze

Ann Arbor politicians and their bureaucrats say they want to find a downtown building for a warming center but while they are looking for the perfect site the homeless lumpen freeze. Jeez. So what if this proposed building is not a perfect gem of architectural quality? As a place to avoid freezing to death it will do fine. Clear out some space, get running water, and haul in some porta-potties and it'll do. The city could come with some cash to hire some of their laid off cops to provide overnight security. Not a perfect solution but it'll do.