#A2Council I finally finished the edit of the @annarboraf.bsky.social episode with Sunil Rajaraman from Hamlet, author of the data-driven article "The City That Won't Agree" about Ann Arbor:
annarboraf.com/episode-83-a...
“Riese & Müller…will cease its business activities in the United States as of July 31, 2026…Key factors include the persistently challenging and increasingly volatile market conditions in the United States.” 😞
www.r-m.de/en-us/press/...
For years now the US Auto Market has trended towards being an isolated -- but still large -- backwater, and our automotive and policy makers have intentionally built a fence around it even as it shrinks their market competitiveness.
Everyone in the US loses that way!
this is a good example of what I mean when I talk about some democratic politicians making unions magical wish fulfillment entities rather than simply another political stakeholder that can be a force for good but also is at risk of being captured by reactionary forces
ASL interpreter is great. Captions at the bottom of screen less great; can’t see them!
The snack machines only take dollar bills and half the drink machines don’t work. Quite a high tax for participation if you’re not in to party fealty and cacophony.
All very on brand for Democrats, though.
At the MI Dem Convention for the first time. It’s a sensory nightmare. The check-in process confusing and the online voting system having trouble actually registering people. Waste of handbill and sign paper everywhere. Brought our kid but no child care or kid spaces.
That would be the funniest way for him to lose.
My most recent 10 day trip I brought 3 merino pair and could have been fine with 2. It’s a trade off but having a light load makes the uncomfortable parts of travel much nicer. To each his own, I guess
Of course, the correct policy response is an “all of the above” housing strategy and a massive investment in transit because the geometry of cars is not possible to actually resolve sustainably if you fixate on trying to have “enough” parking or travel lanes etc, so Yousef is missing by a lot of
Tbh if he spends a lot of time around UM nurses I can see where the parking obsession comes from. We’ve priced nurses out of the city so they have to drive far and hospital parking is stressful and they pay for the privilege.
Re: nostalgia for VHS tapes and other analog media, I saw someone say like "a VHS tape never sold my information to a nazi" and yes that's true! But the reason it's true is actually because Congress passed a law in 1988 specifically making it illegal for video stores to sell your rental history
Our nearest playground has a train.
It’s all kayfabe and fake drama and fake disputes, all designed to get everyone to not know what is true
Mamdani hasn't had time to really think about all that space he now has, because he spends most of his time at City Hall and around New York City. He tries to keep a semblance of his old life by getting around the city on foot, by bike or train. "If you spend every single day driving around in a tinted window security detail, you will have a very specific view of the city," he said. "You actually meet other New Yorkers and you break out of the bubble that so many have come to expect of politics, where politicians only seem to be spending time with other politicians or the people who donated to make them politicians."
I'd say that this applies to anyone traveling in a car in any city. Being in a car versus walking, riding, or taking transit fundamentally changes how you view a place and your relationship to it. I wish more leaders set this kind of example.
www.npr.org/2026/04/16/n...
I don’t understand your comment in this context. Ann Arbor cannot tax the University of Michigan because it is a separate government entity created by the state. We also cannot impose zoning or other regulations. If they buy land/property, it becomes untaxed.
Delaware is a much smaller state, so I can see how this would fly there because people are more likely to see Newark as a typical town with a real problem vs Michiganders who largely (and justifiably) see Ann Arbor as extremely privileged relative to other cities
UD does own almost 40% of the land in Newarks which is an unusually high percentage and is the first public university I’ve heard of to have a pilot. What is the political movement that could possibly make this happen here? I don’t see it.
I also think the idea of a formalized PILOT is a hard nonstarter for a State U. Why would the rest of the State tolerate an institution subsidized by their tax dollars be passed through to Ann Arbor of all places?
the U also does pay for a lot of their adjacent infrastructure (eg the bulk of the water & sewer upgrades for the new dorms that will benefit the whole area, the E Medical Center Dr bridge (even if I didn’t love the design decisions), etc.
Some of the things described as “PILOTs” in the press are also the kinds of things the U does occasionally (like donate a fire truck to the FD). PILOTs are uncommon and take a lot of different forms…
Also strong evidence that Schumer is far out of step with his caucus. How is he still leader?
I know it's easy to lose sight of this with everything else that's going on, but we all really should be talking more about what a truly evil person Russ Vought is.
Just pure malevolence dressed up as a nerdy professor.
That’s a bigger chunk of overall City revenues than I’d have guessed
One of my favorite facts when Ann Arbor residents complain, with confidence, that UM takes up a majority of city land and doesn’t pay taxes. They do pay taxes AND own less than 10% of land in the city, roughly the same square footage as our parks. #a2council govrel.umich.edu/impact-land-...
We've been pushing MDOT to correct their Speed Limit page -- and they did. The old page (see photo) incorrectly implied that the 85th fastest motorist always set the speed limit. The new page also mentions other factors that can be considered.
www.michigan.gov/mdot/travel/...
Dems don't have the votes to pass most things but they should be doing this for every unpopular thing the administration is doing. Force the GOP to defend all of their unpopular positions repeatedly!
Thank you for your service
Neighborhood scale upzonings increased housing production in many NYC neighborhoods
Upzoned block faces saw significant increases in housing unit permits in Philadelphia
How do upzonings impact housing supply?
In brand-new research published today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, we show that big upzonings in New York City & Philadelphia had large, statistically significant effects on supply & permitting with several years of reforms.
www.urban.org/research/pub...