Heading to Philly for a meeting with family foundations and excited to check out the Southeast Asian weekend market, Maker’s Faire, and a Black-Asian solidarity film festival. Truly the City of Brotherly Love.
Council and city admin work pretty hard to at least be notified when UM takes property off of tax rolls but there’s no way the city or county can compete with a $20B endowment. We asked to be added to Detroit’s LVT effort, which I hope will be revisited.
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-...
This is my copy from when I was in council so now I’m dying to see the updated one after the November 2024 election. I’ll check with newer CMs!
Correction, renters pay the taxes.
My son pays $960/month for a room in a 6 bed, 2 bath student rental with 5 friends. Annual rent is $69.6K, owner pays $15K a year in taxes, updates are lacking, house built before 1978. What again about PE and out-of-state developers? Tin foil hats, tin foil windows. youtube.com/shorts/wrBq1...
#a2council candidate starter pack. @drlopezimmigration.bsky.social’s books not shown but on order because Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County have been through ICE mayhem before.
Relevant in #a2council races this year as nonprofits try to operate in very challenging times. Michigan munis already struggle with capturing tax revenue at the local level, thus the push to reform Prop A and Headlee. Ann Arbor does not have extra revenue or bonding abilities.
There is no scenario that 100% publicly funded housing and social services exists in these times here. Insisting so demonstrates inexperience in nonprofit financing and recognizing current ongoing challenges post-COFU. Coordinated funding with county and philanthropy was dissolved in 2020.
Plans were to hire a director to manage grant distribution in 2026. Millage organizers had planned their effort for 8 years prior to the vote including estimated expenditures going back to a 2019 evaluation. www.sayyestoseniors.com/_files/ugd/c...
Ask any nonprofit board member whose agency relied on County grants. The Senior Millage passed in November 2024, $11M came in December 2024, with $4M granted in 2025. An agency told me they won a grant to buy food for low-income seniors but not to staff the pantry. December 2025, $12M more came in.
Private, nonprofit social service agencies rely on federal, state, county, and private funding in Washtenaw County. No municipality has capacity to bring services in-house ESPECIALLY as federal funding disappears. The County struggles as a funder, ie the 2 year delay on Senior Millage funding.
Columbus, look at you and your duplexes, SFH, and historical homes with small businesses sprinkled throughout your neighborhoods. Show Ann Arbor the way!
Best local board meeting of all time. Thank you, @aadl.org for seeing us through the pandemic.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=f5bN...
Hello from Seattle.
Wassim, LAHC’s CEO, started life here like my parents. He relied on the kindness of others to guide him as he became a New American. He returns that kindness via LAHC, making sure there are no barriers to programs. Song Foundation and The Children’s Foundation are proud supporters. lahc.org
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, be like Milo. Release that stress and be free and agile enough to jump over a dachshund.
Loved cohosting an event for @cbhines586.bsky.social to help her win a seat in Congress. We need a deeply principled and effective former county prosecutor who led the charge on sexual assault and child abuse cases. Go, Christina!
The jeon life is a good life.
A note from the @acluofmichigan.bsky.social to start the day.
Board retreat for Great Lakes Housing Services takeaways includes remaining committed to providing technical assistance to rural, tribal, and underserved communities fighting the housing crisis…..and stickers. YIMBY all day, for all of Michigan.
Delighted to announce the Song Foundation’s grant of $300K in support of RX Kids launching in Ypsilanti. This public-private partnership shows how placed-based philanthropy can be responsive to local needs in a timely manner. Thanks to Dr. Mona and Ypsi’s leaders for showing us how it can be done.
Words and their uses and meanings beyond phonetic sounds can be challenging.
This Halloween I dressed up as Maria from “The Sound of Music,” in celebration of the musical’s 60th anniversary and in recognition of antifascism. The video loop projected on our garage was a good reminder of what that actually means. youtu.be/4RFS0SEqPtQ
White words on a black background read: 50+ Immigration agents have the authority to detain whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino. ~130 Agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers. ~20 Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.
I did it because the government isn’t.
This is what I found.
Helped bring the Housing Innovation Roadtrip to Detroit with a stop for Lebanese manoush in Dearborn on the way back to Ann Arbor. Truly the best of the Midwest.
Wild times in Marquette, where this otherworldly portal leads to the Michigan Land Bank Association’s summit, with Godfather @dan-kildee.bsky.social as the keynote.
“Some still insist ‘downtowns will never attract kids and shouldn’t try.’ Then they design downtown to virtually repel kids, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Vancouver proves the opposite can be true...”
Canadians @johnlorinc.bsky.social & @brenttoderian.bsky.social in this Cali article!
AKA partly why 9,000 college graduates leave the state of Michigan on an annual basis.
Truly the best place ever to have cut my teeth as a local elected. Libraries serve the public in so many ways because of course institutions of learning are institutions of DOING. Thank you, @aadl.org!
