Today we talk about the next City Council meeting, coming up Monday, May 3rd. We touch on a few interesting agenda items, including shenanigans, the budget, and healthy streets, and offer some ways for you to get involved.

If you haven't already, please fill out our listener survey!

Links:
- this week's agenda
- February city budget presentation (attachment #2), and check out the Deeper Dive episode on the budget for more information on specific line items
- The Dispute Resolution Center (this is the thing we couldn't remember the name of during the episode) as a possible mechanism for the unarmed responder program

Email your city councilmembers if you have any questions about the budget, as it will be approved at the next council meeting!

Thanks to the generosity of our listeners, we have launched a website!  Come find episodes, show notes, and transcripts over at www.annarboraf.com.  For our ko-fi donors, thank you for making this possible.  And thank you to each one of our listeners. If you'd like to find and talk to each other, come check out the thread for each episode in Ann Arbor Humans Who Wonk.

Thanks to Juliet the Greyhound for her audio cameo.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we take a deeper dive into Master Planning and Zoning. We’ll talk recipes, and racism, and heists - you know, normal master planning stuff.

Links from today's episode:

•  View the City's master plan and resource documents
•  An interactive map of Ann Arbor zoning
•  Descriptions of Ann Arbor zones
•  Form-based code: a Strong Towns article and a Michigan white paper
•  The Color of Law book

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

We discuss the next City Council meeting, coming up Monday, April 19th. We’ll be touching on a few interesting agenda items, including lots of housing, a little bike stuff, and shenanigans.

If you haven't already, please fill out our listener survey!

Links from today's episode: 

• This week's Council agenda 
• From the City Administrator Communications: the quarterly Equity Report, Ann Arbor Housing Commission's report out on community engagement and next steps around possible affordable housing sites, and the budget presentation

We have zero chill about Councilmember Jeff Hayner's use of a homophobic slur. Read about his initial comment; statements by Ann Arbor's out electeds, Councilmember Travis Radina and County Commissioner Katie Scott; and a statement from the Jim Toy Center.

In the "Beyond Council Advocacy Corner": 

• The Transportation Commission and Planning Commission are holding a joint meeting at 7pm this Tuesday, April 20th, to review and discuss the proposed Transportation Plan Update
• More information on the Washtenaw Camp Outreach protest and their demands

Thanks to the generosity of our listeners, we have launched a website! Come find episodes, show notes, and transcripts over at www.annarboraf.com. For our ko-fi donors, thank you for making this possible. And thank you to each one of our listeners. If you'd like to find and talk to each other, come check out the thread for each episode in Ann Arbor Humans Who Wonk.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we are talking about the next City Council meeting, coming up April 5th. We touch on fair access to housing, the Trans Day of Visibility, and as we often do, defunding the police. 

Links from today's episode: 

• This week's Council agenda 
•  The Ann Arbor Tenants Union is re-forming, and we should also have a Renters Commission
• The sidewalk gap prioritization framework
• The CAHOOTS program in Denver as a model for an unarmed responder program

If you write to Council in support of the unarmed-responder resolution (and we hope you do), here are some points you can make:

• This model has the potential to operate with a vision of helping communities resolve problems internally without the justice system. Public safety is about more than just policing; when residents experience crime or disorder, they should have tools beyond the police at their disposal. 
• By adopting an alternate model, we have an opportunity to reduce the volume of calls to which police must respond, mitigating the negative impacts that can result from an overreliance on policing.
• Our local public and nonprofit housing providers have all dealt with police engagement where an unarmed/non police response would have been a more appropriate fit for the circumstance. 
• The funding for this should come from the police budget, not elsewhere.

Finally, we didn't get to mention this last resolution on the podcast, but we wanted to thank Council for bringing forward resolution DC-4 "Condemning Hate Crimes, Hateful Rhetoric, and Hateful Acts against Asians and Asian Americans, Encouraging Ann Arbor Residents to Report Hate Crimes and Harassment to the Proper Authorities."

Thanks to the generosity of our listeners, we have launched a website! Come find episodes, show notes, and transcripts over at www.annarboraf.com. For our ko-fi donors, thank you for making this possible. And thank you to each one of our listeners. If you'd like to find and talk to each other, come check out the thread for each episode in Ann Arbor Humans Who Wonk.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

In today's episode we talk with Addy Finch of ANSWER Detroit about sex worker labor rights and advocacy.

More on ANSWER:

• send them your follow 
• send them your dollars 
• check out their podcast
• check out Black Mamas Bailout
• Addy's twitter

More on national legislation pertaining to sex workers:

•  SISEA is a bad bill
•  FOSTA/SESTA were also bad bills 

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we are taking a deeper dive into the Healthy Streets program that Ann Arbor implemented in response to reduced car traffic and increased demand for safe walking and biking space.

Links and references:

• Ann Arbor's Healthy Streets website, and 2021 survey. You can also see the current 2021 survey results on a map.
• Dr. Destiny Thomas, ‘Safe Streets’ Are Not Safe for Black Lives. 
• If you want to get deep into the data the city collected on the 2020 Healthy Streets program, it's all here. Or you can just read the summary memo.
• A2 Council resolution for downtown street closures and citywide street closures in 2020.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we are talking about the next City Council meeting, coming up March 15th. We touch on fair access to housing, the Trans Day of Visibility, and as we often do, defunding the police. 

Links from today's episode: 

• This week's Council agenda
• The University of Michigan Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality (PCCN)
• Reporting trans discrimination to the City of Ann Arbor and to the State of Michigan
• what trash thing?

And, for our Beyond Council Advocacy Corner, 

• The Planning Commission agenda covering ADUs, which includes info on how to dial in to voice your support for the meeting on Tuesday, March 16th; or you can email [email protected] anytime between now and then
• Learn more about ADUs here
• And make sure to press A2 congressional reps Debbie Dingell, Debbie Stabenow, and Gary Peters to make sure Ann Arbor gets its proper allocation of the federal American Recovery Plan funds

We've launched a ko-fi! If you'd like to support the podcast beyond listening, you can now send a few bucks our way. Listening will always be free! This just helps defray our hosting costs of hosting the podcast. Thanks to those of you who have already found and supported the ko-fi; you have covered our first year of fees, and gotten our hamster wheels turning about new projects...

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we are taking a deeper dive into City leadership, because there's more to council than just the resolutions. We’re talking about different visions for the city and how those affect the choices our leaders make, along with personalities, power, and local news. We even get into our first conspiracy theory.

Links from the show:

•  Chuck Marohn's article on the good party/bad party analogy
•  More information about the weak-mayor system (Ann Arbor is a version of Version 3)
•  The a2council hashtag on Twitter
•  Cohost Michelle's Twitter, in case you want to mainline those good good civics
•  If you're not sure why we talked about spoons

Thanks to those listeners who have thrown a few dollars our way! If you'd like to do the same, you can find our ko-fi here.

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.

Today we are talking about the next City Council meeting, coming up March 1st, including a little bit about development, a little bit about rules, and a lot about sidewalks.

Links from today's episode:
- themeeting agenda
-materials from the Transportation Commission meeting on sidewalk snow removal
- thePedestrian Safety and Access Task Force
- the latest SnowBuddy report

And, for good measure, the full text of the sidewalk snow removal resolution we fangirled so hard.

We've launched a ko-fi! If you'd like to support the podcast beyond listening, you can now send a few bucks our way. Listening will always be free! This just helps defray our hosting costs of hosting the podcast. Thanks to those of you who have already found and supported the ko-fi; you have almost covered our first year of fees!

Support the show

Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.