City
elec tions:
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
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News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1972
NIGHT EDITOR: ZACHARY SCHILLER
Vote HRP on April 3
WHILE THE thought of electing radicals
to City Council might have been an
idle dream .several years ago, the coming
of the eighteen-year-old vote and a con-
centrated effort by the - Human Rights
Party have almost made that dream a re-
ality.
In this context, we endorse the entire
slate of Human Rights Party candidates,
and express confidence that they indeed
can be elected.
While endorsing a straight ticket often
resultsfrom political dogmatism rather
than intelligent thought processes, we
feel that the Human Rights Party repre-
sents a unique caseof a unified party.
The candidates are bound by party
rules to support a platform drawn up at
an open party meeting. The five City
Council candidates all had major roles
in formulating the platform, and in fact,
were chosen as candidates by the party's
open nominating convention partially be-
cause of their commitment to HRP's
goals.
Thus, the candidates and the platform
are inextricably bound together. If one
supports the platform, extending that
support to all of the party's candidates is
only natural.
The platform the HRP candidates have
committed themselves to is an excellent,
one. Among their programs are those
which would provide:
--Community control of public services,
including low-cost housing, health care
and child care facilties - all on "an
ability to pay basis;"
-Community control of the police de-
partment, including an end to enforce-
mient of such victimless crimes as drug
laws, loitering and curfew violations,
abortion and homosexuality;
-A comprehensive transportation sys-
tem to serve everyone in the community;
and
-A guarantee of equal rights to all
persons, regardless of race, sex or sexual
preferences.
ALTHOUGH A number of Democratic
candidates are currently advocating
similar platforms, we have no confidence
in the ability of these candidates to carry
out their programs or to listen to their
constituents.
Too many times in recent years, we
have watched Democrats compromise
their ideals because they were unwilling
to show the perseverance and strength
that is needed to reform the practices of
city government.
Moreover, too many times we have seen
the Democratic Party willingly join hands
with the interests of big business - the
landlord, the billboard company, and the
development corporation -- all for the
benefit of an elite at the expense of the
people.
We are simply tired of compromising,
and endlessly accepting ,a "lesser of two
evils." We demand representatives that
will be responsive and receptive to the
community's needs and suggestions.
WE FEEL HRP will do just that. As was
the case with the HRP platform and
candidate nominations, all future deci-
sions of the party will be made at fre-
quent mass meetings. All who attend are
eligible to vote. Thus, who can argue with
the party's literature, which exclaims,
"Vote HRP, elect yourself?"
We urge you to join us in our confi-
dence Monday at the polls.
Chance
The endorsements of City Council
candidates and the recommendation on
the Ashley-First bypass proposal repre-
sent the majority opinion of the edi-
torial staff of The Michigan Daily. We
urge you to give creful consideration
to our recommendations, but whether
or not you agree with us, we urge you
to vote in Monday's election.
City Council
?ndorsements
First Ward
JERRY DeGRIECK (HRP)-On three
occasions; in three past elections, The
Daily has endorsed the candidacy of
Jerry DeGrieck. And once again, we are
giving him our endorsement - this time
for the First Ward City Council seat.
This record of 'four endorsements in
four campaigns reflect a deeply held be-
lief that DeGrieck can be an exceptionally
effective advocate for progressive legisla-
tion on any governing body to which he
is elected.
While serving as executive vice president
of Student Government Council two years
ago, DeGrieck was a prime mover in :-
cal campaigns against the Vietnam war,
classified research and on-campus recruit-
ing by discriminatory corporations.
Just as important as his political stance,
however, is his proven ability to get things
done within the framework of established
bureaucracies.
As a past member of the University's
Office of Student Services Policy Board.
DeGrieck helped pass OSS's strict guide-
lines on corporate recruiting. He also
played an important role on the Com-
mittee for a Permanent Judiciary, in ne-
gotiations for a new campus jidicial
mechanism in which students would be
judged by their. peers.
DeGrieck is no stranger to city politics.
As one of the founders of the Radical In-
dependent Party, now known as the Hu-
man Rights Party, he ran a spirited cam-
paign for the Second Ward City Council
seat- despite restrictive election laws
which forced him to run as a write-in
candidate.
High rents and inadequate service by
the city's landlords are pressing ills De-
Grieck has pledged to combat. "An elect-
ed, tenant - controlled policy board," he
says, "must be established to enforce a
strict housing code and rent controls."
DeGrieck also calls for increased com-
munity control and citizen participation in
overseeing the police, city services and city
policy making. And the structure of his
party - which calls for open meetings to
set policy - is a first step toward fulfilling
these pledges.
Second Ward
NANCY WECHSLER (HRP) - Wech-
sler is by far the best choice for City
for
a
radical
change
HRP CANDIDATES (left to right) Nancy I echsler, Jerry DeGrieck, Genie Plamondon, David Black and Nancy Romer Burghardt.
Council in the Second Ward. Through her
statements and her actions, she has dem-
onstrated both a fine understanding of
the problems facing the city and a staunch
determination to get things done.
While she supports the efforts of suchc
"counter-institutions" as the Ann Arbor
Free Health Clinic, she sees it as a model
for future city-subsidized, community-t
controlled services. Among these servicesl
would be a low-cost, non-profit grocery c
store in the central city.
Wechsler would be a most articulate3
As a member of the Rainbow People's
Party, Plamondon has worked on grass
roots community services ranging from
summer rock concerts and a food cooper-
ative to the organization of Tribal Coun-
cil, a coalition of youth and community
oriented groups.
Bound by HRP rules to vote according
to the directives of open party meetings,
Plamondon offers Third Ward voters a
chance to promote diversity and inclu-
siveness on council - which, in the past,
has been dominated by a privileged few.
VOTE
MON.DA Y.!
education programs should be initiated
in the schools and the rest of the com-
munity."
An important part of Black's candidacy
has been a lawsuit brought by HRP on his
behalf, which challenged a city law re-
quiring candidates to have been registered
to vote in the pity one year prior to run-
ning for city office.
As a result of Black's suit, that law
was ruled unconstitutional in a federal
court. We agree with Black when he called
the successful challenge, a victory "for
all the people in Ann Arbor."
Fifth Ward
NANCY ROMER BURGHARDT (HRP)
- Burghardt is an extremely well quali-
fied candidate for City Council. A former
Harlem school teacher and Peace Corps
volunteer, Burghardt has long been active
locally in the Ann Arbor Tenants Union,
the Women's Liberation Child Care Ac-
tion Group and as a coordinator of the
Human Rights Party. Her dedication to
these pursuits is indicative of the energy
and social consciousness she would bring
to City Council.
Her strong pro-labor stance is also im-
pressive. In the past, she hasrbeen active
in strike support activity for AFSCME,
United Auto Workers (Buhr Co.), the
County Professional Hospital Association
and the Ann Arbor Educationg Association.
We are convinced that through her af-
filiation with HRP, Burghardt would do
much to increase the "community con-
trol" of municipal programs, and would
subsequently become a representative of
women, blacks, chicanos, students and
other groups which are not currently rep-
resented on City Council.
4
*
representative of the city's women; her
rapport with the women's movement in
Ann Arbor is excellent.
In addition, Wechsler promises to open
up the activities of City Council .to the
citizens of Ann Arbor by making public
the information that goes into City Coun-
cil decisions.
Third Ward
GENIE PLAMONDON (HRP) - The
candidate from the Rainbow People's
Party, Genie Plamondon, would bring to
City Council imagination and impetus
from a segment of the community that
has had little representation in the city
government.
Fourth Ward
DAVID BLACK tHRP) - Black is in
the unenviable position of running on a
strong, progressive platform in one of the
most overwhelmingly conservative areas
of the city.
In his campaign In the Fourth Ward,
Black has emphasized eliminating police
harassment of blacks, young people, and
homosexuals and reform of existing drug
laws.
"The problem of drug abuse will never
be solved through police crackdowns," he
says. "Marijuana should be legalized. The
city should fund treatment and mainten-
ance programs for addicts, and honest drug
$I
'U' election interference
YESTERDAY, University officials met
with representatives of the Rainbow
People's Party (RPP) to give a belated
explanation of why they denied use of
University facilities to RPP for a "Get
Out the Vote" concert-rally tomorrow
night.
Their reasoning was obscure and their
tactics of questionable honesty. And, by
refusing to discuss the issue other than
by means of President Fleming's terse
statement of the day before, the Univer-
sity increased the impression that it is
trying to hide something - that some-
thing being a blatant attempt to intimi-
date RPP and minimize its effectiveness
in Monday's City Council election.
RPP was making a decidedly non-par-
tisan effort. They simply wanted to "Get
Out the Vote" and had invited all candi-
dates to appear and pass out literature.
They went through all the channels, re-
serving Hill Auditorium a week ago. No
one told them then of any objection.
Thus, the notion that ' Fleming and
other administrators are politically mo-
tivated in refusing permission for this
rally gained credence from the legal ar-
gument Fleming tried to make on
' t*xr Utzi
Editorial Staff
ALAN LENHOFF
Editor
SARA FITZGERALD..............Managing Editor
TAMMY JACOBS ................. Editorial Director
CARLA 'RAPOPORT . .........Executive Editor
ROBERT SCHREINER................ News Editor
ROSE SUE BERSTEIN .,.............. Feature Editor
PAT BAUER.............Associate Managing Editor
LINDSAY CHANEY............Editorial Page Editor
MARK DILLE$N. .........Editorial Page Editor
ARTHUR LERNER..............Editorial Page Editor
PAUL TRAVIS ............... .......... Arts Editor
GLORIA JANE SMITH.........Associate Arts Editor
JONATHAN MILLER......... Special Features Editor
TERRY McCARTHY............Photography Editor
ROBERT CONROW ....................Books Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, Chris Parks, Gene
Robinson, Zachary Schiller.
COPY EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Jan Benedetti, John
Mitchell, Tony Schwartz, Charles Stein, Ted Stein.
DAY EDITORS: Dave Burhenn, Daniel Jacobs, Mary
Kramer, Judy Ruskin, Sue Stephenson, Karen Tink-
lenberg, Rebecca Warner, MarciakZoslaw.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS. Mark Allshouse, Susan
Wednesday. "Massive violations of the
law, particularly with regard to the use
of marijuana," at the RPP's Dec. 10 Free
John concert, says Fleming, puts the Uni-
versity in the bad position of letting
something illegal go on.
AS A LAWYER, Fleming should really
know better. In the first place, there
is no proof, legal or otherwise, that such
massive violations actually occurred. No
arrests were made, no warrants issued,
no convictions obtained. And, as Fleming
well knows, the burden of proof rests
with the accuser - in this case Fleming
and the University itself.
In fact, if Fleming is worried that the
University may be "condoning illegal
acts," he has a lot more to worry about
than people smoking dope in Hill Audi-
torium or Crisler Arena. All along he
should have been worrying about the
way the University looks the other way
when-kids smoke dope in dormitories and
all over University property-including
the football games that our highly gen-
erous and influential alumni come to.
In practice, while the University claims
not to "condone" any illegality on cam-
pus, it in fact does - among those the
ridiculous laws against cohabitation -
conveniently ignored by the University
whenever possible and when not, hushed
up.
THIS IS in fact what the University
tried to do with the Rainbow Peo-
ple's Party. They waited until 72 hours
before the concert-rally -- after hun-
dreds of people-hours and thousands of
dollars of expense for RPP - to let the
news out. With little time to protest and
get the decision changed or find another
location for the concert, the apparent re-
sult is that the RPP will have neither
use of University facilities nor any other
place around town.
Actually, the University's whole rea-
soning is subjective in the extreme, for
the refusal of University facilities to a
bona-fide paying student organization on
Ashley-First: A
roa tonowere
VOTERS SHOULD reject the proposed Ashley-First bypass in Mon-
day's election. The project, formerly known as "Packard-Beakes,"
would expand Beakes St. into a major thoroughfare linking the down-
town area to the north side of the city.
When the proposal was originally made, the bypass was lauded
as a panacea to revitalize the central business district by easing auto-
mobile access to the area.
The main flow of traffic on the proposed bypass, however, would
be through the north-central area of the city, comprised mostly of' low
income and black residents. According to recent estimates of the
city's Traffic Engineering and Transportation Department, Beakes
would carry over 44,000 cars a day.
Model Cities authorities and other community leaders have con-
demned the plan, asserting it will disrupt and isolate the black com-
munity by creating two residential triangles, divided by Beakes. The
completion of the bypass, they say, could also encourage the city
to re-zone the area from residential to commercial or multi-unit
apartment land usage-with a resultant displacement of low income
blacks.
BACKERS OF the plan claim that Beakes would carry the same
amount of traffic whether or not the realignment is completed and
therefore would not place an increased traffic burden on the north
side community.
But their reasoning is faulty. If, as they claim, the project would
not generate any significant amount of new traffic through the area,
it could not possibly be such a bonanza for downtown business.
In a similar manner, those in favor of the proposal have built up
their positions through fallacious financial arguments.
The bypass supporters contend that the only construction the
project requires is a series of street realignments and extensions
that would cost the city no more than $1 million - in addition to
another $1 million that has already been spent buying properties along
the proposed route.
But what they fail to mention is that the Broadway Bridge -
which must be used by southbound traffic to reach Beakes St. -
will not be capable of handling the projected traffic flow of the by-
pass system. The result will be that a costly re-construction of the
bridge will be necessary within a few years.
THE TRUE motivation of the bypass supporters has not been very
well camouflaged. The same Republican councilmen who, say that
the sorry plight of the central business district makes the project
desirable, six months ago gave their approval to the construction of
the mammoth Briarwood Shopping Center - which itself may have
been the death warrant for the downtown area.
City Council: You can change all this
Letters to The Daily
Burnham
To The Daily:
ROGER WILNER recently at-
tacked Tom Burnham in this col-
umn as a "fraud." What could be
a greater violation of Wilner's own
principle of campaign honesty than
this unfounded slanderous attack
on a candidate's integrity? Ths
is an obvious attempt to buy off
votes for Tom's political oppon-
ents.
I know Tom personally and am
doubtless better .ualified to speak
of his character than Mr. Wilner.
It is Tom's type of sincereity
which is needed to bring honest
government back to city haP and
insinuations to the contrary are at-
tT.mnts to deciveu ithe voting- nub-
that any "expertise" he has in
landlord-tenant relations would
most certainly be based on his
background as a landlord agent.
On matters that directly affect
students: damage deposit protec-
tion, eight month leases without
the unfair '25 per cent increase.
rent control,2strict housing code
enforcement, and legislation pro-,
tecting the rights of tenants to
bargain collectively, Mr. Burn-
ham, a staunch conservative on
housing, has chosen to remain si-
lent and hope nobody notices. Can
Burnham represent tenants, on
one hand. and Peter Fink (own-
er of 1320 . University, Park
PlazaApartments, for whomn
Burnham works as a landlord
Wechsle r
To The Daily:
I WOULD LIKE to urge second
ward residents, and especially fel-
low Democrats, to vote for Nancy
Wechsler for City Council on Mon-
day, April 3.
The Humap Rights Party has
been less than accurate in equat-
ing the national and state Demo-
cra tic parties with the Ann Arbor
City Democratic Party and in con-
cluding that all Democrats are
bad.
The Ann Arbor Democratic Par-
ty has consistently adopted party
platforms equally as human as
that of the HRP.
Further, our Democratic mayor,
0