Ypsilanti


Paul Schrieber and the Ypsi City Council don’t believe in the 1st Ammendment! 8

I just heard from Steve Pierce that the city of Ypsilanti has done a turnabout and bounced the Stop City Income Tax group from the Heritage Festival Parade.  The group which is campaigning  to defeat the proposal for city income tax that is due to be on the ballot this November had previously applied and been approved to march in the parade.  They filled out the paperwork indicating clearly the groups name and no one saw it as a problem initially.  But apparently someone down at City Hall was reviewing the list of participants and decided that dissenters weren’t welcome at the parade.

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.


Ypsilanti School Bond election 2

ypsd.gifIn case you haven’t heard on Tuesday August 7 there is a bond election for the Ypsilanti Public Schools. The district wants to raise $40 million for upgrades to the district facilities. A lot of mechanical updates are needed to school buildings to keep them up to code and safe for the kids staff. Some of the money will also be used for technology upgrades as well as building the new bus garage. If the bond is approved there won’t be any tax increase because the millage will be replacing an expiring millage so this won’t cost local property owners any extra money. I urge anyone who’s reading this to head out to the polls on Tuesday and vote in favor of the bond. Our district needs it.


Vote for local businesses as the best 4

I got an email from Kate Conat tonight that Channel 4 in Detroit is running a poll right now called 4 the Best with all kinds of SE Michigan businesses nominated in various categories.  Locally we’ve got several nominees including Cafe Luwak for best sandwich shop, the Sidetrack for best burger and Smokehouse Blues for best wings.  Zingerman’s Bakehouse is also in the running for best bakery.  Head over to www.clickondetroit.com/4thebest and cast your votes for some local businesses.


smart fortwoIt’s that time of year again, the Art Fairs are back! The action kicks off this weekend at the Corner Brewery with the Shadow Art Fair. From noon to midnight on Saturday July 14 over forty artists will be hawking their wares amidst live music from Patrick Elkins, Black jake and the Carnies and more. Once the fun is over at the brewery if you have any cash left over you can over to A2 for some other fair. Actually their is a reason why some of you might want to head down to South University between Wednesday and Saturday to check out the Smart USA road show. The tiny Smart ForTwo is coming to the US market early next year and they are touring the country this Summer to let people check out the cars. If you’re interested you can even get a test drive in a Smart.


Ypsi Board of Education to vote on reinstating Braves nickname! 2

The agenda for the June 25 Ypsi School Board meeting is out and Tom Reiber has put the following item on the action items list.

     h. Ypsilanti High School Nickname Reinstatement Recommendation (Enclosure #9)

All of us with some common sense need to call Mr. Reiber and tell him that the students have selected a new nickname and it’s time for the adults to start acting like grown ups instead of whiny little babies and get over it.  The kids are.

You can reach Tom Reiber at home at (734) 434-1425 and by e-mail at techtom@comcast.net.  Everyone should come out to the board meeting on Monday night and speak out against this.


Statement to the Board of Education on sex ed and the Braves 10

Last Monday night I made the following statement before the Ypsilanti Public Schools Board of Trustees during the public comments and I wanted to share it here.

I’ve got two kids in the Ypsilanti Schools. My daughter has been in the Ypsilanti public schools for ten years and my son for seven. In that decade aside from ridiculously cursory HIV awareness, they’ve gotten absolutely zero reproductive health education. The fact that this district has failed to provide any comprehensive health education to it’s students is an absolute disgrace. Just because one very vocal opponent has repeatedly spoken up at every single meeting of this board and some administrators may be squeamish about teaching kids about condoms, it’s not an excuse for continuing to stall on a very important element of these kids education.

Earlier this year you saw the results of a survey that was conducted by the Reproductive Health Advisory Board where almost seven hundred parents overwhelmingly said they want comprehensive reproductive health education. Some people may want to just tell kids not to have sex before marriage but the reality is that sticking your head in the sand like that will do absolutely nothing to protect kids. No matter how much you urge kids not to have sex the reality is that it will happen. Not all of them will but a significant number will. They always have and they always will. Believing anything else is deluding yourself.

Given that we need to make sure that we teach kids about healthy relationships, alternatives to intercourse and how to minimize risks if they do choose to have sex. The reproductive health advisory board has spent more than two years evaluating curricula and have chosen a comprehensive plan. They presented it to you and in public presentations. It’s time to stop stalling just because certain members of this administration and a very vocal minority of the population are uncomfortable with reproductive health education. The parents have spoken and the kids need this. We must face the reality that kids will have sex and most parents are just as uncomfortable as you are when it comes to talking about sex to them. Any parents that don’t want their kids to get this education are free to opt out of either the whole program or any individual lesson.

Finally on an unrelated note, this board in a previous iteration made a difficult and correct decision to retire the Braves nickname. It’s just a nickname and people need to get over it and move on. It offends a group within our community and tradition doesn’t make it OK. I urge you not to re-open this issue and not to restore the name. Starting this fall and over the coming years the kids will get used to a new name and within a few years none of them will care about the old name. Meanwhile alumni will always have their memories. Thank You.


Positive attention for Ypsi events

corvairFor those who haven’t been paying attention to my activity over on Autoblog.com I’ve been giving car related events in Ypsi some national blog love of late.  I’ve done features on the Show and Shine, Vintage VW and Orphan Car shows in recent weeks.  If you didn’t get a chance to get down to Riverside Park you can still see some of the vehicles that were on display.  It was nice to see a big turnout for each of the events both from participants and spectators.


Wurst of Ypsi 6

There was a fundraiser for the Rutherford pool over at the Corner Brewery this evening with Hullaballoo providing some live tunes. The younger kids all seemed to be having a blast and hopefully they raised a few bucks for the pool. I also tried something new here. Google has a new feature with their web albums that allows you to embed a flash slide show in a blog post. What do you think?


Prayer is not going to solve Ypsilanti’s problems 2

Thank goodness that Lois Richardson didn’t win the Ypsi Mayoral election last year.  If the best solution she can come up with for the city’s financial problems is participating in the national prayer day then she probably shouldn’t even be on city council.  The city needs some real action on attracting business to town and resolving the Water Street debacle.  Ypsilanti needs real ideas.  Whatever became of that task force that Mayor Schrieber was going to implement after his election?  We haven’t heard much about that.