rage inree
Thursday, September 5, 1974
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Farmer's Market-a
community affair
By SARA RIMER
There is no better place to eat breakfast
on a Wednesday or Saturday morning than
< the Farmer's Market..A jug of tangy cider,
as loaf of homemade raisin bread, and a.
crisp apple make the typical Residence Hall
fare of dishwatery coffee and soggy French
toast unpalatable.
Breakfast is a community affair with
the people as mixed as the cornucopia of
.fruits, vegetables, and flowers that fill the
stalls of the market located at the corner
of Fifth St. and Catherine.
WANDERING LEISURELY down the
aisles, shoppers gulp down home grown
and home baked goodies with an appetite
sharpened by the post-dawn chill.
As early as four in the morning, the
farmers'back their trucks into the, booths
. that some of them have rented for over
30 years. and begin setting out the fine
produce that draws the city's most dis-
cerning, marketers.
:At 8:30 shoppers - ranging from tweedy
professor types to wizened old women who
o remember when "eggs were only 30 cents
a dozen" - arrive armed with baskets, net
bags, and just about any other kind of re-
spectable receptacle.
WEEL-HEELED WOMEN dressed smart-
ly for the day's marketing in stockings,
skirts and styled hair, exchange recipes,
good mornings, and admiring comments
with students clad in faded jeans and brand-
new Earth Shoes.
The students' overalls and bandanas
.parody the authentically dirtied pants and
checked scarves the farmers have been
wearing to market for years.
VfltatVdAl.. EM s' ..t.....*g ~rr.......sfti
Escalating food prices are ignored as
shoppers pile their arms high with rhu-
barb, carrots, apples, flowers, homemade
bread, lettuce, and zucchini whose perfec-
tion makes standard grocery items resem-
ble plastic imitations.
THE FARMERS who are not busy clink-
ing change into tin cans, weighing produce,
advising buyers on exactly how much to
water their new geraniums, or how to ex-
pertly fry parsnips, stand watching the
streaming crowd."
The Market is an ideal spot for people-
watching, whichever side of the table one
happens to be on. Cameras click frequent-
ly as local photogs catch the rainbow of
colors and the busy mood of people point-
ing, smiling, smelling, tasting, milling,
and jostling.
During the past year, however, the mar-
ket has become more and more craft-orient-
ed as ceramic bowls, delicately crafted sil-
ver jewelry, hand-tooled belts, and cro
cheted shawls slowly take their place be-
sides rows of onions, eggs and flowers.
Of 135 stalls rented on an annual basis,
only seven are permanent craft stalls. Most
of the hand-made wares are sold by tran-
sients who sell just for the day.>
SPRINGTIME AT the Farmer's Market
is a garden of earthly delights-of Wander-
ing Jew, baby's breath, phlox, berries, ap-
ples, turnips, parsley, sage, rosemary and
thyme. But as Market Master Rita says
wistfully, "It's the fall that I love the most
-when the bittersweet comes out. And the
pumpkins, gourds, squash and Indian
corn..."
4 :
FF
ong.
RPP HAS permanently aban-
doned the HRP, and of late is
trying to work on the periphery
of the Democratic Party, much
to the chagrin of the traditional
SDemocrats.
! Throughout these internal
wranglings, HRP was compe-
tently served by its two Coun-
ci membersW JesryrDe rck
from the First and Second Ward
respectively.
DnleGrieck a former Democrat
and SudentGovenmentCoun
cii icepresden in he aei
By JUDY RUSKIN
Shiny, new chome and plastic plated, the
Briarwood shoping mall is a consumer's dream
- or perhaps nightmare.
Briarwood is Ann Arbor's first, and so far
only, completely enclosed shopping center. Lo-
cated on a 155 acre site off State Rd. and I-94,
a few miles away from campus, the mall offic-
ially opened its doors last November.
APPROXIMATELY 121 stores and services
will eventually grace the 933,457 square feet
that is Briarwood proper. However, it is esti-
mated that only 85 stores are currently open.
The exact number of stores now in business is a
company secret.
It is also company policy not to release fig-
ures on the cost of constructing Briarwood,,
referring to the mall as a "multi-million dol-
lar" project.
The project caused much controversy when
the Taubman Co., which constructed the main-
moth mall, first brought the proposal before
the city council in 1971. Environmentalists and
the no-growth advocates argued such a massive
complex was merely an extension of urban
sprawl into Ann Arbor.
THE SHOPPING CENTER and the crush of
traffic it would generate would have a disas-
trous effect on the area's ecological balance,
they argued, and would further cut back the
already shrinking "green space" between Ann
Arbor and Detroit.
The environmentalists lost, however, and con-
struction began.
The mall has caused traffic problems. The
6,872 space parking lot empties directly onto
two-lane State Rd. In an effort to handle the
New, mammoth mall draws
droves .of eager shoppers
increased traffic flow, the city has attempted
to widen the road. The construction, however,
has been slow, hindered by, among other things,
a strike by highway repairmen.
DESPITE ITS FLAWS, Briarwood does offer
a wide variety of stores and shops. Sears and
JC Penny's have both opened large department
stores in the mall. Hudson's will open a branch
at Briarwood sometime this summer.
In addition to the department stores, there
are currently or will be in the future, twelve
women's clothing stores, 9 men's stores, and
ten shoe stores.
There are ten restaurants and food specialists
at the mall, ranging from Big Boy's hamburger
emporium to a Chinese restaurant and old
fashioned ice cream parlour.
THERE ARE FOUR movie theatres under
one roof at Briarwood plus innumerable spec-
ialties stores. These include book stores, camera
shops, sporting good stores, jewelry and fab-
ric stores, and many others.
The stores, long and narrow in shape, open
into spacious covered walkways - all of which
meet at a central point: the grand court.
A maze of low walls, cushioned seats and
brick staircases lead to the court and its tre-
mendous gushing fountain.
THE STORE FRONTS are designed to be
inoffensive. Chrome, plastic and occasionally
neon decorate the walls and windows. Nothing
is garish, just appropriately mod without being
extreme.
Individual store fronts are as memorable as a
University classroom.
HRI
By GORDON ATCHESON
During the past two and a
half years, the Human Rights
Party (HRP) has led a roller-
coaster existence filled with ups
and downs, turns that seemed
to spell certain death, and an
uncanny ability to keep on mov-
ing when the going gets tough.
As Ann Arbor's alternative to
the traditional two party sys-
tem, the radical, student-domi-;
nated HRP has wrought a re-
markable change in the local
balance of political power.
HRP'S PRESENCE has forc-
ed the Democratic Party to
actively vie for the student
votes and thus adopt stands
somewhat to the left of those
the Dems previously held on
many issues including mari-
juana use, child and health
care, and gay rights.
At the same time the Repub-
licans have been able to pick
up moderate support among
keeps
rolllng
ai
those abandoned by the liberal-1
ization of the Democrats.
Similarly, the GOP has bene-
fited from vote splitting in the
liberal - radical community
since HRP burst on the scene.
A ear ago last April that di-
visiveness proved an important:
factor, when the Republicans!
took undisputed control of lo-
cal- government for the first
time in half a decade.
Prior to the Republicans' re-
turn to power, however, HRP
held a unique and extremely in-
fluential position on the political
scene, despite its lack of a
broad - based constituency on a
city-wide basis.y
FOLLOWING THE general'
elections in April 1972, HRP
had control of two seats on City
Council. The GOP held five
and the Democrats the remain-
ing four. Thus, the fledgling par-
ty had garnered the swing votes
which the two "established"
parties would have to woo to dello, it was never quite the
pass most legislation. same afterwards.
HRP no longer enjoys such HRP has never duplicated the
a dominant role in council's de- enthusiasm of that first elec-
cision making. When the dust tion. Ideological splits began to
settled after last April's mu: surface as never before. And
nicipal election, the radicals there was a two-year dry spell
were able to retain only one before the party could win
seat on a council with the Re- again - then only in a do-or-die
publican Party holding a ma- situation.
jority for the second consecu-
tive year. IN THAT TIME, HRP, short
HRP's glory days are over. on money, failed to win any
Ironically, the party probably race in the November 1972 elec-
With the 1972 electio
jvirginity and like the yc
covers the lusty pleasures
a drunken night in a bo
quite the same afterward
peaked with its birth and the tio
two 1972 victories that nobody ne
-not even the most idealist loo
HRP members - predicted or:
believed after first hearing the era
election returns. con
log
THEY WON THOSE council pro
seats on pure human energy, a -b
lot of hard work, and more than be
a few tears. Their organization at
was shakey but the party drew C
enough volunteers that the lack Ra
of political savvy was easily ov- -i
ercome. wh
With that election, the party on
lost its virginity and like the' m
young man who discovers the ele
lusty pleasures of the flesh dur- po
ing a drunken night in a bor-
;r r:fr" y :$:::r:'s:*x:* r cil vice president in the late
60's when that group took an
n, the party lost its active role in radical politics,
oung man who dis- proved the driving force in'H-
RP. Blending political astute-
S of the flesh during ness with blistering attacks lev-
rdello, it was never eled at the opposition sitting
around the council table, De-
Is. Grieck became the party's un-
official leader.
n and the city elections the SHUTOUT IN 1973, HRP en-
xt spring. The party's future tered last April's city election
ked precarious. with both its seats at stake and
The group had developed sev- the party insiders knew if they
al factions all jockeying for were lost the organization
ntrol. The hard-core ideo- would be mortally wounded.
gues - opposed to any com- Neither DeGrieck nor Wech-
omise with the other parties sler sought re-election, making
battled more pragmatic mem- vintory that much more diffi-
rs who loosely organized in cult to obtain. Nonetheless;
defensive move. 'backs to the wall, the HRP
On the sidelines stood the members geared up their po-
ainbow People's party (RPP) litidal machine and pulled out
ntermittent HRP supporters a razor-thin 40-vote-win in the
hose political philosophy was Second Ward.
ce summed up in the state- HRP Candidate Kathy Koza-
ent: "the invention of the chenko, who openly campaign-
ectric guitar was the turning ed as a lesbian, probably won
dnt in western civilization." I as much because of her oppo-
See RADICAL, Page 4
N
GOP controls city as leftists bicker
By GORDON ATCHESON
Mayor James Stephenson has his silver-grey
hair neatly styled to fall just above his shirt
collar. Wearing gold wire-rimmed glasses and
two-inch cuffs on his pants, he looks like a
middle-aged moderate.
He ain't.
"GENTLEMAN JIM" holds no love for the
marijuana tokers and only slightly more com-
passion for college students - who he argues
have no permanent stake in the community.
This man aypifies the Republican Party.
To many he is the local GOP. And like the
party, he owes his position of control to the
disorganization and internal wringling that
has beset the city's liberal-radical constitu-_
ency.
Gavel in hand, Stephenson often leans back
in his padded leather chair at the head of the
City Council table and smiles at the Demo-
cratic and Human Rights Party (HRP) coun-
cil members at the votes on an important or-
dinance are tallied up.
Stephenson smiles because he knows that
the votes that are needed to pass just about
any measure are in his pocket.
UNDERNEATH IT ALL, he may even be
an appointment to get into the third-floor City
Hall office.
THAT STEPHENSON - smirk, gavel,, and
two-inch cuffs - should be the highest elected
official in Ann Arbor, a town appropriately
nicknamed "the dope capital of the midwest,"
is a graphic display of the paradoxical politi-
cal situation here.
In the central city, surrounding the Univer-
sity like the white of an egg, the liberals and
radical generally live. Everything is geared
toward the student and street freak.
The shops specialize in blue jeans, subma-
rine sandwiches, roach clips, and hash pipes.
All the book stores stock Anthro. 101 texts and
blue examination booklets in mind-boggling
quantities.
MOyING AWAY from Ann Arbor's hub, the
town begins to change. The farther out to-
wards the suburbs, the more traditional the
city looks. And the politics of the residents
tend to get more conservative.
Somewhere in that transition is a line of
demarcation, an invisible meridian across
which the Republicans live. Mostly they are
established residents with "roots" - jobs out-
side the University, two cars and PTO mem-
BUT COMPARED TO the mobile, mercurial
college town dwellers, the Stephenson house-
hold and the family down the block or the next
street over are birds of a feather.
Some of them are Republicans because they
have no where else to fall on the political,
spectrum simply by process of elimination."
They don't agree with the Democrats-many
of whom are also "established" citizens but
adopt positions that are just too liberal to be
given genuine consideration.
Of course to the left o fthe Democrats, is the
Human Rights Party, a rag-tag band of dissi-
dent college students supporting legalization
of marijuana, community control of the police,
and Gay Pride Week.
AND BENEATH THAT threatening HRP
exterior, the party -members admit -, no pro-
claim - they want to socialize and communize
the system. They would decapitate capitalism.
The Democrats have no pretetse of advo-
cating such profound surgical alterations in
a system that has served them pretty well for
quite awhile. But the liberals and the radicals
still compete for the same votes in this town.
While the parties in the past have teamed
up on some items, they always run head-to-
head in the elections. That carves up the elec-
toratal majority into two distinct camps,
are plums that should belong to the liberal-
radical voters who on paper out-number the
Republicans.
STUDENTS HOWEVER, have a, propensity
for - not casting ballots, falling victim .to
apathy, spring fever, and final exam panic.
That hurts. Without a strong student turnout,
the GOP looks a lot more imposing. on elec-
tion night.
Then with two parties squabbling over votes,
the effectiveness of each one is cut. The two
groups, moreover, have nevexr been able to
compromise on candidates.
The HRP members find the idea philisiphic-
ally repugnant' and some of them claim they
would rather have a Stephenson in office than
"liberal" Democrats.
THE DEMS, likewise, refuse to compro-
mise because it would be a blow to their
pride. Besides they supposedly detect an odor
of slow decay surrounding HRP. Only a mat-
ter of time, they say, until the third party
is as dead as the Know-Nothings of a hun-
dred years ago.
Meantime the council score card reads: Re-
publicans - six seats, Democrats - four, and
HRP - one.
Somehow those numbers don't seem fair,