The library has now switched to different service that is apparently compatible with all platforms including iPods. Unfortunately, it is even less useful than the Netlibrary system. The service offers a grand total of 64 titles. That’s not a typo, it’s 64 titles. Loans are only available for one week at time and each title is only available to one user at a time. These are digital files, why are they only accessible to one person at a time? This is absolutely ridiculous.  Why even bother to offer a download service with so few titles? It seems like a complete waste of time and money.  If the library is not going to get serious about actually making downloadable content useful to patrons, it should just quit trying.

One example is the squash blossoms filled with goat cheese that were lightly battered in an almost tempura like coating and fried. These were amazingly tasty and didn’t feel at all greasy. Another of Brandon’s signature appetizers is the date, chorizo and blue cheese which always go quickly when he caters a party.

In spite of the fact that Brandon keeps the menu deliberately short, you’ll find yourself struggling to choose. Personally I went for the grilled halibut with a Portugese style seafood stew. The fish was perfectly cooked and sat amongst a bed of mussels, shrimp and house made chorizo sausage. The best part was the broth that surrounded it which was full of all the flavors combined.  Max had the grilled pork loin with chorizo and buckwheat dumplings while Sofia had the roasted chicken breast with crispy skin and Jules had the steak. The fillet was covered in a bacon-blue cheese crust and accompanied by whipped potatoes and red-wine syrup.

This may have been the first time that the kitchen staff worked together for customers other than the Grange team, but it didn’t matter. All of the food was perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. Our server was also very professional and very well prepared. She was able to explain the various items on the menu and what made selections like the squash blossoms special (that is that they are only available for about two weeks a year).

At Brandon’s last establishment over on Main St, the main courses and starters were also typically well prepared, but desserts were often a bit of a disappointment. This time, Brandon and Sara have taken the feedback to heart and Sara’s sister (this is definitely a family business) is now responsible for preparing desserts. Here again we could find nothing to complain about other than the fact that we were too stuffed to eat more. The blueberry roll, chocolate cake and the fruit and nut tart were all outstanding.

We haven’t had a chance to try the menu at the upstairs bar yet, but for those looking for something a bit lighter than the main menu, it looks like there will be great choices there too. Grange will be open for dinner every night except Sunday and you should definitely check it out.

He and Sara along with my boss Rob Cleveland and another partner have bought Bella Ciao on Liberty St and will be transforming it. Bella Ciao will shut down later this month and then re-open in August as the Grange Kitchen and Bar. Brandon plans to continue the local food effort with a rotating menu based on what is available at different times of the year.

Hopefully with full control this time, things will work out better and the Grange will become a permanent fixture on the local restaurant scene.

By the way if you happen to be in downtown Ann Arbor around lunch time, you might want to hit Kerry Town and check out Monahan’s seafood market where they have a daily special that you can find posted on their twitter feed at http://twitter.com/MonahansSeafood. Sparrow’s meats is also doing sandwiches and salads at lunch now over by the checkout counter.

My work colleague Sara Johns and her husband Brandon, recently bought a stake in Vinology.  Brandon was formerly the chef at the Chop House and practises his culinary craft in the kitchen of Vinology. The menu has been drastically pared down and several new dishes have been added.  We went to Vinology for Jules’ birthday dinner the other night and all the dishes were excellent.  The gnocchi with morels that I had was especially good and Jules loved her pan roasted chicken with a whole grain salad.  The asparagus salad with poached duck egg was also a fabulous appetizer. Brandon prefers to use local ingredients wherever possible and the menu will be adjusted periodically to take advantage of in-season produce.

If you’re looking for a great meal and you haven’t been to Vinology since the beginning of June, it’s definitely worth checking out.

It sounds like someone in charge has a thin skin when it comes to criticism of their policies and if that’s the case they have no business being in politics.  Whoever made the decision reverse the approval should step forward and explain themselves.  This move is outrageous and the person/people behind it should be removed from office.  If indeed it was the mayor it shouldn’t be a surprise given the dirty politics they play during last year’s campaign.  Perhaps a recall should be on the ballot right next to the tax proposal.

On an unrelated note, I also want to send best wishes to Dr. Maggie Brandt. Maggie is a trauma surgeon and also Steve Pierce’s wife as well as an army reservist and she is heading off to Iraq at the end of this week. Unfortunately it looks like she is going to be very busy for the next few months repairing the physical damage being done to troops over there. Stay safe Maggie.

Right now we are looking at what the kids need to learn and be able to do and figure out how technology can make that happen.  We’re also looking at the district’s tech infrastructure needs to determine what will be needed to support that both to optimize productivity and minimize operating costs going forward.  As part of this effort, I set up a special blog at ypsdtech.wordpress.com as a place where anyone who’s interested can participate in the discussion.  We’ll be posting questions on there and looking for the community’s input.  If you have some ideas about how technology can be useful, please feel free to head over there and participate by commenting in response to the questions.  The comments are moderated, and if you have any suggestions about what questions we should be asking, send me an e-mail.

The reason people who graduated from Ypsilanti High School have been successes in life has nothing whatsoever to do with the Braves name. It’s because of the teachers they had, the relationships they built and the lessons they learned. If someone is so attached to team nickname that they would stop supporting a school when the name changes, then I say good riddance to them, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. As my friend Eric put it best, the way we treat the least among us says much more about us than the way we treat the majority. Just because the native Americans are relatively few in number, that does not excuse our appropriating their identity for a cheer.

The junior student who spoke of coming into Ypsi High with no connection to the name, but then becoming attached to his identity as an Ypsi High student spoke the truth without even realizing it. Students who come in next year will have no connection to a new name. But over the time they spend there, they will build their own identity, based on their own experiences. Only those who refuse to let go of what is already gone will have a problem. We must learn the lessons of the past but live in the present as we move into the future. If I see one more person crying about what a nickname means to them or their parent, I think I’ll scream. Get a life people! Move on.

The event started with a presentation by the dean of the EMU business school David E. Mielke. The presentation that Mark Maynard did on the history and status of downtown Ypsi is also available. Speakers included David Curtis (Pub 13, Club Divine) Tandra Williams (Puffer Red’s) Paul Shemon (Cogdon’s Ace Hardware) Jennifer Albaum (Henrietta Fahrenheit) Reynold Lowe (Materials Unlimited) Peter Rinehart(Bombadil’s). The speakers talked about their experiences trying to open and operate a business downtown. The results have obviously been mixed with some (Bombadil’s) being more successful than others (Henrietta Fahrenheit). One interesting thing to learn was that such a high percentage of downtown businesses are locally owned. Other attendees included Linda French, Brian Robb, and prospective mayor Paul Schrieber. The best thing was to see so many people who are optimistic about the potential of Ypsilanti and are willing to work so hard to make it happen.

In some cases the the subjects are still young and had their children recently, including one fifteen year old who just recently gave her child up for adoption. Another story comes from a 100 year old woman who had her first child at age 16. The subjects came from a variety of circumstances and each had their own unique story. The one common thread is that none of them had an easy time of it. Some had supportive families, others did not. All the stories were compelling. The show was put together by photographer Michael Nye. Our friend Ann Schafenacker was on the planning committee for the event. You can get more information on the event at the Washtenaw County public health department site.

The show runs through this weekend and is definitely worth checking out. Set aside an hour or two and pay a visit.

The exhibit will be open for our community October 5 – 21, 2006
King Hall, Eastern Michigan University
Monday – Thursday, 10 AM – 2 PM & 4 – 8 PM
Fridays 10 AM – 6 PM Saturdays 11 AM – 5 PM Sundays 1 – 5 PM
Please join us for this remarkable event!

Finally if you want all the recordings automatically downloaded as they become available, you can subscribe with the orange xml button. Just click and drag the button to the podcatching software of your choice. You can use iTunes, Juice, Doppler and other software for getting podcasts. If you do this the podcatching software will periodically check the feed for new recordings and automatically download them and install them into whichever audio player you use. This works on Windows, Mac and Linux machines. You can learn a bit more about podcasting in this article on podcastalley.com. The podcasts are absolutely free and are just straight mp3 files. That means that you can listen to them on any digital audio player, not just iPods. You can also listen on the computer, on a cell phone that plays mp3s, or burn to a cd.

Subscribe to the podcast with this link YPSD Board Meetings
If anyone wants to assist in this project by volunteering to record some of the meetings or record meetings from the other local districts (Willow Run and Lincoln) please let me know.

Update: It appears Steve Pierce has already had the same idea. I’m going to talk to Steve about participating in this project.

I don’t deny Mrs. Schriebers right to express her opinion of myself and other members of this community. Make no mistake, we Idiots are members of the Ypsilanti community and most of us have been involved in trying to make this a better place to live and work. If Paul Schrieber is to be mayor of Ypsilanti, he needs to step forward and tell the whole community exactly where he stands, on this and also on the actions of his other supporters. If he decides that he will continue to sit back quietly and let others do the dirty work than maybe the voters of the city should reconsider who should be mayor before the election. Maybe if Mr. Schrieber decides that being honest with the community is not important, there should be a write-in campaign for the November general election.

If you haven’t tried out Google Calendar you should definitely check it out. It’s free and has some really nice features and is easy to use. You can manage multiple calendars such as work, home, school, etc. You can also set sharing preferences for each of your calendars and subscribe to public calendars. For sharing you can set each calendar to private, share with specific users or make it public like I did with this calendar. If you use gmail and you get a message with a date in it, you can click on the message and quickly add it your calendar. If an event includes a location, when you click on the event in the calendar it will include a link to the google map showing the location. You can import calendars from iCal or any other program that can generate .ics calendar files. The only downside is that you can’t manage your calendar offline and sync it to GCal. But apparently they are working on this. I would like to be able to sync my palm treo to my google calendar.

If you have any additional school events you’d like added to the calendar, just send me a message with the info using the contact form at the top of the page and I’ll put it in.

Two big issues that came up were curriculum and grouping of students. On the subject of curriculum, they are currently reworking how it is defined and how students are evaluated against the curriculum. The plan is to have a clearer description of what the goals and expectations are for each subject at each level. By clarifying what the goals are the teachers can get help in planning different activities to target the skill and capabilities of students. In conjunction with that will be better defined ways of evaluating whether students know what they need to know at each level. The implication is that there will be more flexibility in moving students when they have demonstrated proficiency at a particular level. I think that this would be a very good thing and might help to overcome the other big issue that came up. This has to do with grouping and distribution of students.

Although Mr. Weigel denied that it was official policy, the reality in the classroom is that students are assigned to classes in such a way that there is a mix of students at different levels of capability and achievement. The idea behind this is that the higher achieving achieving students help set a good example for the struggling students and can help bring them along. In principle this may be a good idea. The problem with this is that the reality is a lot tougher. In an environment where you have a particularly wide range of students, unless the teachers are really prepared to facilitate, the students help each other, it just doesn’t work. There is also the issue of behavior. The top students are expected to provide and example for the behaviorally challenged students. When you are talking about elementary age children, this idea puts a lot of pressure on the higher achieving students. They are expected to help the other students but at the same time the teachers still end up having to focus on the behavior problems. While the teachers are doing this, the more adept students aren’t getting challenged and as a result are getting dragged down through boredom and frustration. At the same time I suspect (and this purely conjecture on my part, I have no evidence to back it up) I think it may also be frustrating to the struggling students to see other kids have a relatively effortless time with work and this can also be counter-productive. I think that students can help each other. But I also think that the kids should probably distributed with a somewhat narrower range in each individual classroom. I understand the desire and the rationale to have widest distribution in each classroom, but I don’t think the reality works. Many of the parents in attendance last night expressed basically the same concern, Richard heard us and took copious notes. Where it goes from here remains to be seen but at least we are talking and someone from the administration is listening and acknowledging the concerns.

Finally at the ending of the meeting I spoke to Richard after asked me if I knew much about podcasting since I was recording the discussion so Jules could hear it. I told him about Max’s podcast We talked a bit about my ideas for providing the teachers with training on free and open-source software tools that they can use. He was very enthusiastic and wants to move forward with that. I definitely want to do whatever I can to help the schools improve and I urge everyone in the community to contribute whatever skills they have to the cause.

Instead of selling off buses to a private for-profit company, why don’t we consolidate all the buses at one facility with one manager. Why do we need three superintendents? three payroll departments? three maintenance managers, etc. If we consolidate the districts we can offer more flexibility to students in terms of course availability (more languages for example). We can sell off redundant properties. We can eliminate redundant managerial positions. Why does no one seem to be discussing this seriously? Anyone?

Our experience at CiCi’s brought another thought to mind. I don’t often carry much cash with me these days. When possible I prefer to use a debit card. I believe that this is a pretty common practice these days. One thing I never, ever do is withdraw cash from ATM’s that don’t belong to my bank. A few years ago banking regulations were changed to allow banks to charge non-customers for using their ATM’s and charge customers for using some other banks machine. That means that if you use the ATM at bank where you don’t have an account you get charged twice, once by the owner of the ATM and once by your own bank. This can often cost you as much $4, $2 per bank. I make a point of trying to avoid these egregious charges.

Now back to my story. When you walk into CiCi’s there is cash register where you pay in advance before proceeding to the “gourmet” all you can eat pizza buffet. Mull that concept in your mind for a moment! Prominently displayed adjacent to the counter is an ATM. As I place the order and hand the cashier my debit card I am informed that they don’t take cards at the moment, only cash or check. I was also informed that I could use the ATM behind me. I declined to pay the extra fees that would go along with using an ATM that didn’t belong to my bank. So we ran over to Jules’ bank which was right nearby and got some cash. When we returned Jules noticed the little notice on the machine about the fees, and it stated that the machine was owned by the pizza company. All this got me thinking about all the ATM’s you see in gas stations, convenience stores and every other business. It occurs to me that since all these machines collect a transaction fee, these businesses are almost certainly getting a cut of the action. I wonder how much of that dollar or two they are getting? So it seems highly probable that CiCi’s is getting a cut of every time they tell someone they can’t use their debit card, and they turn around to grab some cash. This is ridiculous. Jules told me that New York Pizza Depot which used to take credit/debit cards has informed her the last couple of times that she was there that their card machine was broken. They also happen to have a conveniently located ATM.

It seems that more and more business are taking part in the hidden fee economy. That includes all the assorted regulatory recovery charges you find at the bottom your phone bill under that low advertised service price. There are more and more of these bogus fees popping up everywhere. Companies get your business by advertising really attractive prices and then end up nickel and diming you with all kinds of little fees that add up to a pretty significant percentage of your total cost. I will simply decline to patronize businesses that insist on applying these hidden costs.

Based on what I have heard from the candidates, I would have to say that Steve Pierce is the best of of the choice for mayor. I have heard criticism of Steve, accusing him of being a Democrat in name only. He is being accused of being a Republican running in a Democratic town under the only banner with which he could be elected here. To this I say Bullshit! Steve Pierce has demonstrated repeatedly his commitment to this community. He has demonstrated a belief in civil rights. My friend Cam Getto uncovered to documentation about what really happened with the DDA (of which Steve Pierce was a member) during the campaign to amend the city charter to protect the civil rights of all members the Ypsilanti community so I will not reiterate the whole story here. Steve Pierce has some good ideas about how to improve the fiscal stability of the city in both the short term and the longer term. Consolidating administrative services with the surrounding region makes sense for the city and the region. The health of the city has an effect on the health of the region. Neither exists in isolation from the other. It is vital that the city, the townships and the county find ways to cooperate and make the best use of the resources that each possesses.

Steve has also been accused of being too “eloquent”. This is also ridiculous. Being eloquent is no sin and is certainly not antithetical to being a democrat. There are many “Democrats” who claim the title but clearly don’t walk the walk (witness Joe Lieberman, Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton). I don’t think that Steve Pierce is one of them. No doubt he is not perfect. If I were him I would not drag out that shirt I saw him wearing on the 4th of July and Memorial Day quite so often. I don’t know the man personally and my knowledge of him is limited, but from what I have seen he is definitely the best candidate for the job. I think with Steve Pierce as mayor, the city stands a fighting chance. I think the voters of the city should give Steve Pierce a chance.

A community is not defined by some arbitrary line drawn on a map. It is defined by the people who populate it and participate in it. This can be a geographic or a virtual community. I am a member of many communities. It is the responsibility of all members to do what they can, big or small to make it better for everyone. Ultimately the one in which I and my family live is the most important one. Viva Ypsilanti!

BTW Congratulations to Mark Maynard and all the other organizers. The ballroom was packed with probably over 300 people and there were excellent questions. It was a great event and demonstrated that the people of of this community do care about its future.

If you are already setup to use bittorrent then please download this torrent file for Azureus, a very good bittorrent client. The file is only 7.6 MB. If it downloads OK please let me know.

If you are not setup for bittorrent and you are running windows, and you want to get the debate this way, please download this setup file for Azureus, install it and then download the torrent file and test the setup. If you are not running windows you can find Mac and Linux versions of Azureus here

Please let me know if this works or if you have any problems. Once I post the video and audio files I’ll put the links here. thanks

I have an idea, how about Ypsilanti? The Corner Brewery has bought part of the old Motor Wheel plant, maybe the rest could go to Google. Or how about the site of the soon to be vacated Ypsilanti Public Schools bus garage? Or the Water Street site? Or the current site of the former Visteon plant that will soon close? Come on Ypsi needs the tax revenue and there are plenty of spaces that might be suitable. What do the mayoral candidates think? Steve Pierce can you here me?

Since Michigan schools have had increasingly tight budgets in recent years thanks to the tax policies of the Republican legislature, it is ever more important to reduce costs. Ypsilanti schools got new computers about 5-6 years ago. For PC’s this is a long life span. At some point in the future they will need some upgrades. There are now several Linux distributions that are specifically geared to the needs of schools both for workstations and servers. There are also many open-source educational programs and also programs like GIMP for image editing, InkScape for drawing and blender for 3d modeling and animation. Of course OpenOffice provides all the functionality that is needed from MS Office at ) cost. As updates are needed the district IT staff should really need to consider moving to open-source solutions. Linux generally needs much less in terms of hardware resources than Windows (and with last weeks release of the hardware requirements for Windows Vista that one is out of the question without complete hardware replacement) The existing hardware could be updated with new open-source software at much less cost.

Congratulations to all the kids who worked so hard to prepare and learned so much new stuff, to head coach Lisa Lava-Kellar and to all the parents who volunteered to coach the teams!

Sunday, April 30th from 12-3pm (at the Senior Center on Congress at Oakwood) will be your first chance to sign up for passes and swim lessons for this summer. Please check out the price structures below as some things have changed. If you can’t make it on the 30th the pre-season sale will be available on Ypsilanti Pride Day and Memorial Day weekend. Please remember that although we do open on Memorial Weekend regular hours will not start until June 10th when Ypsilanti schools are out for summer. More program information will be available on the 30th.

Check or cash only-no credit cards

Family Pass Pre-season (last year’s price ) $110.
After Memorial Day $125

Swim Lessons First lesson $50. next lessons $45 each

Individual pass $60

Adults $3.00 per session
Child (1-5pm) $2.00
Child (6-8) $1.50

We will be offering a gift card this year. The card can have up to 5
punches on it at a reduced rate. Children’s gift card-$8 and Adult gift
card $12. Perfect for out of town guests.

Pennies for the Pool, too, on April 30: Please feel free to bring your pennies(or other coins/bills) that you might have in your couch cushions or on top of the dresser. We even take pop cans as donations.

When cleaning out your garage-if you have any stackable, plastic lawn
chairs that you wish to get rid off-we’ll take those, too.

If you have any questions please contact Cathy Thorburn at 485-xxxx (e-mail me and I can give you the number if you need it) or
catabates AT hotmail DOT com

Hope to see you all the pool this summer!

This preserve is a wonderful little piece of nature not very far from where we live. If you are in the area it is definitely worth a visit.

Another recent addition is Taqueria LaLoma on W. Michigan Ave. The location has been home to several different establishments in the last few years but it looks like La Loma is going to stick around for a while. The food is great, and the service is really fast. The chimichangas are very tasty and the various tacos and burritos are great too. They also make great Mexican sandwiches. Depending on what you are looking for each of these restaurants has great choices to offer, with their own unique menus.

On the other hand any “Mexican” restaurant that doesn’t know what cilantro is must be avoided at all costs. In that vein make sure you stay away from Tios. This place started in downtown Ann Arbor and has had a second location in Ypsilanti for a few years now. The appeal completely escapes me. We’ve tried it a couple of times and been completely underwhelmed each time. Throwing some jalapenos and hot sauce on your dishes does not make Mexican food. The hot sauces seem to be the sole appeal of Tios, and if you take those away the food is bland and uninspired, reminiscent of Taco Bell.

Zooming in on the image reveals that the red-tailed hawk was apparently partaking in a pre-christmas duck for lunch (note the red stain on the snow to the right of the hawk).

It’s amazing what you can see in nature around here if you just keep your eyes open. Unfortunately as I approached the fence of the golf course the ducks started to quack, the hawk looked over at me and the took off carrying the rest of it’s meal in it’s talons. This is the first time I have seen a hawk here in town, although I see them pretty regularly on my drive to work, in Superior Twp. and along M-14.

First, we’re a poor school district. Poor school districts can’t afford to throw good money after bad on the current us maintenance facility. Why don’t we fix it right and clean it up? Because school districts aren’t eligible for federal brownfield leanup funds. We can’t afford to fix it up right, but we *can* sell the property to the city, which *is* eligible for cleanup funding. After the certified cleanup, the city can sell the property for some extra cash. That’s a winning scenario for the city and the school district. But even if the city doesn’t buy the property, it would be fiscally irresponsible of the district to retain the current bus facility.

First of all, the city of Ypsilanti is facing financial problems probably even more serious than the school district. The chances of the city coming up with the money to buy the current bus garage property seems very slim at best. Also very close to the current bus garage is the site of the old Motor Wheel plant. This plant has been shut down for several years and no seems to to be very interested in cleaning up and developing that. If an existing facility in the same area is available with no interest, what makes Eric think that there would be any more interest in the bus garage? I agree that we need to take a look at any an all possible ways for the school district to cut costs. This is especially true given that as long as the republicans control the Michigan legisilature, we are unlikely to see any policy changes that will result in public schools getting even enough funds to keep up with inflation much less grow. They seem to be obsessed more with charter schools than funding public schools. With companies like Delphi and Visteon shrinking fast, the situation is only going to get worse. But this does not appear to be the right answer at this time.

Later we had lunch at the Sidetrack. I love the fish and chips there, but today I had the BBQ pork sandwich and it was great. If you are ever i the Depot Town area of Ypsilanti definitely stop in at the Sidetrack. Then this afternoon I took Max and his friend Nick out to a corn maze. The boys had a good time running around the maze. Then we stopped off and got some apple cider and donuts. All in all a really nice fall day. The Ypsilanti area is really a great place to live and raise a family.

While we’re on the subject of, “Just how far is too far?”, what do you think about Peta’s new, “Your Daddy Kills Animals” campaign? Would you be pissed if you kid came home crying, with one of these comics tucked under her arm, asking why you delight in the murder of innocent little animals?

For many years I think PETAs tactics have just been stupid and most of the celebrities they have advertising for them are just dilettantes looking for attention. I don’t hunt, but that is not because I don’t believe in it. I just don’t feel like it. I have no problem with hunting or fishing. I do think that there need to be rules to prevent over hunting and fishing so that we preserve the population for the future but that is just common sense. We also need some safety regulations for hunting, like where you can and can’t hunt and making sure that hunters know how to properly use a firearm or bow or whateever. Where PETA could actually do something useful but doesn’t is the case of industrial farming. Any potential impact that PETA could have on industrial farming is largely lost because of their extremist views and tactics when it comes to hunting.

Industrial livestock farming does a great deal of harm to animals, and also to human health. They pack tens of thousands of animals (pigs, chickens, cows etc) into impossibly small condtions. They force feed these animals on feed that is not what they would normally eat, pump them full of hormones and antibiotics, and mutilate them to get them to grow as fast as possible so they can turn them around. They produce chickens and turkeys with big white meat breasts, but no taste. They make lots of milk but pass along antibiotics and hormones to humans. The antibiotics allow bacteria to grow resistant so that they become more dangerous and the normal human antibiotics become ineffective. The feed is made from all kinds of stuff the animals would normally never eat, like bones and brains of cows, leading to problems like mad cow disease. Cows are supposed to graze on grass in pastures.

Americans have become so used to eating artificially cheap food that all of these problems have become endemic. The problem is that instead of paying up front for good food, they pay after the fact in increased health problems, and tax dollars that go in insane farm subsidies to industrial farms. What proponents of those billions of dollars a year in subsidies don’t tell you is that the vast majority of those subsidies go to the huge factory farms not individual family farms. This money should be redirected toward a single payer universal health care. People need to stop supporting factory farms and buy there food from places like Sparrow Meats in Ann Arbor. All the meat Sparrow sells comes from local organic farmers. The beef is grass fed in a pasture, the chickens are free range and it all has vastly more flavor than anything with a Tyson or Purdue label. Whole Foods also sells a lot of produce and meat from local farmers.

Support your local farmers, buy good local grown and raised food. It is better for the farmers, better for the environment, and better for your health.

I would urge all Ypsilanti residents to contact Christy Havens at the library at

Christy Havens
Ypsilanti District Library
5577 Whittaker Road
Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197
734-482-4110 ext. 1375
havens@ypsilibrary.org

Voice your displeasure with this plan before it is too late.