Local in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor always has and always will change. That is the basis of our theme, “Ann Arbor emergent”. But the direction of those changes, to the extent that the community has any agency, relies on a basic question:  “What is a city for, anyway? Why do people choose to live in a city and what should it do for us?”  Urban Science, a field that uses both empirical data and complex mathematical relationships to explore how cities function and grow, has many answers. The textbook by Luis Bettencourt (Introduction to Urban Science, MIT Press, 2021) devotes an entire chapter to the history of cities and discussion of how they come into existence. The conclusion seems to be that formation of cities is an innate expression of how humanity functions. Once the population is large enough, cities appear independently, even on different continents, and then grow organically (like a living organism), according to mathematically predictable rules, especially scaling (a property of population and area). As they grow, they become more complex. Just as with an organism, they demonstrate material flow, have energy requirements, develop communication systems. They can even be said to have metabolism, with interaction and dependencies among parts. All of these features have been studied and demonstrate similarity among cities.

The Emerald City and Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz movie (1939)

But what these scholarly investigators do not explore is the role of cities in the imagination. Certainly since Rome, eyes have turned toward the City as the place that desires and hopes can be achieved. This has been a subject of fiction and fantasy. One of the best modern evocations of the magic of the City is Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. The Emerald City is the place where dreams come true. When Dorothy and her companions speak with the different inhabitants of Oz, they are always directed to “follow the Yellow Brick Road” to the place where all their problems will be solved. They must, of course, go through many trials before they get there, such as stealing the broom from the Wicked Witch of the West. But they persevere, heeding the words of the song,

Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place on the face of the earth or sky!

Greetings to the Emerald City (Wizard of Oz movie, 1939)

Everything in the City is, of course, green. In the original book, visitors are required to wear green spectacles. In the movie, the travelers are met with jollity and happiness and what appears to be unending wealth. All this has been provided by the Wizard so that this is the best of all possible places.

Ultimately, all this happy illusion turns out to be a fraud. (“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”)

Aspirational Ann Arbor

Certainly people living in Ann Arbor have always regarded the city as an exceptional place. The long-quoted but apocryphal description is “24.6 square miles surrounded by reality”. There have been many instances of cultural innovations and lots of ferment. Remember that Ann Arbor’ City Council established a $5 fine for possession of marijuana, followed by a popular vote for an amendment to the City Charter, all at a time where possession of marijuana could get you jail time in most places.

“Part of the origin of the Hash Bash was the efforts of activists to free John Sinclair from prison. Sinclair, chairman of the Rainbow People’s Party, had been sentenced to nine years in prison for possession of marijuana in 1969. This enraged the local marijuana smoking community and they lobbied for his release.

In 1971 they sponsored a “Free John Now” concert at Crisler Arena. Some of the performers at this concert were Bob Seger, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The Michigan Legislature did reduce the penalties for marijuana possession effective April 1, 1971, thus the date of the Hash Bash. The first Hash Bash was held on April 1, 1972 on the Diag. Sinclair was released from prison on appeal in 1971 and stated, “I’m going to go home and smoke some joints man!” (Ann Arbor District Library summary)

And the “Zone of Reproductive Freedom” still lives on in the City Charter as well. It was passed in 1990 in anticipation of any time in which abortion might become illegal. The account in MLive celebrates the day in 2022 when the State of Michigan finally caught up with Ann Arbor.

But aside from all that fun, Ann Arbor has often led the way in environmental consciousness. This 2018 summary of “sustainability” achievements, beginning with designation as the “Tree City” lists quite a few milestones. It leaves out some. The millage that has paid for the acquisition of many acres of parkland was initiated by citizen petition in the late 1980s. (It was subsumed in the Greenbelt ordinance and part of the resulting millage is now invested in preservation of farmland and natural areas outside the City boundaries.)

The summary also omits major movement and achievements in the management of solid waste (a.k.a. garbage). The environmental crisis of the 1980s was the landfill crisis. As this account of the history explains, the landfill was overflowing, causing contamination of the aquifer through poor early design and construction. Recycle Ann Arbor was originally a citizen-initiated effort that used volunteers to pick up recyclables from homes. But this was not adequate to address the needs of a growing population. There was a proposal to build yet another landfill nearby, but a vigorous citizen-led campaign led to the passage of an environmental bond paid for by a new millage tax. Recycling became mandatory in Ann Arbor, and a composting revolution followed. Today’s solid waste mechanisms are a real accomplishment for both the City government and an engaged citizenry.

And Ann Arbor citizens and elected officials were also paying attention to the increased concern about energy usage and its effects on both climate. Here are some of the accomplishments (from the 2018 summary already cited; click on image for easier reading).

Clearly, the Ann Arbor community has a good reason to feel “green”, with many environmental efforts still ongoing.

Wealth Through Placemaking

But there were conflicts in the aspirations and visions for the City. In this article from the Ann Arbor Observer, I describe the conflicts between the citizens who preferred their open space and other who supported increased density, especially in the downtown area. The result was a new Downtown Plan, A2D2, adopted in 2009. The push for density was on, but also a strong voice emerged for those who wished to establish Ann Arbor, with its green and appealing image, as a location for growth and opportunity.

This post from 2014, The Placemaking Agenda and Ann Arbor Politics, is still accurate today. In the recent concern about Michigan’s loss of population, we are hearing the same agenda and solutions being voiced. The objective is to attract the top-flight “talent” to Ann Arbor. And our history is a major selling point.

Here is the headline from the presentation of the newly hired director of the Sustainability and Innovation department. (Please do notice the mixed message in this title.) Melissa (Missy) Stults presented her workplan to the newly elected City Council on November 19, 2018. She requested an increase in her budget. It was refused.

This entry was posted on June 15, 2024 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Business, civic finance, politics, Sustainability. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.