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July 18, 1972 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1972-07-18

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ZZ I e tx drian Bally
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552
Clear he streets
F YOU HAVE never spent a summer in Ann Arbor,
you're in for a pleasant surprise tomorrow, with the
opening of the Ann Arbor Art Fair.
Aside from the obviously appealing works of art, per-
haps the nicest aspect of the fair is that it allows for the
conversion of city streets into shopping plazas and malls.
All auto traffic will'be barred on several campus area
streets, and for the only time all year, a person will be
able to walk in the streets without dodging herds of
honking cars.
Of course, the lack of automobiles on these streets will
be more than compensated for by the masses of the straw
hat-bermuda shorts crowd that mobs the fair each year.
But if you're a lazy summer dreamer (and who isn't), you
might wonder why campus area streets can't be turned
into a mall all year round.
THE IDEA IS not a new one. The city fathers and Uni-
versity officials have been kicking around plans for
several years. But no positive action toward creating a
mall has ever been taken.
For example, several years ago, University officials
were convinced of the feasibility of turning East Univer-
sity St. into a mall between South University and North
University Sts.
The city agreed to go along with the project, "vacat-
ed" the street as a public right of way, and gave the
University the OK to begin planning and construction of
the mall.
At that time, the University was prepared to launch
a well-thought plan of construction and traffic engi-
neering to make the mall more than just a deserted street.
But funds for the projects, which the University ex-
pected to get from the State Legislature, never came.
So the mall plans sit, while the only evidence of the whole
project is one initial construction job that was completed
while the mall plans were just beginning - a curb that
blocks access to East University St. from North University
St.
MEANWHILE, THE CITY has let its plans for malls sit
on the shelf.
Cries from merchants, who claim their stores will lose
business, along with the objections of city traffic engi-
neers, have pressured City Hall into abandoning the pro-
ject.
Added to that, is anger among city officials over the
University's failure to make good on its plans to construct
the East University St. mall. So it is unlikely that the city
would be willing to vacate lother streets until the East
University project is begun. .
WHAT EXISTS, is that all-too-familiar entanglement of
red tape. The city is waiting for action by the Uni-
versity, which is waiting for funds from the Legislature,
which is in summer recess and probably doesn't give a
damn about the project anyway.
So the next time you get tired of breathing exhaust
on State St., or when some motorist in a hurry knocks you
off your bicycle, you might try writing a letter in favor of
pedestrian malls.
But be sure to write it in triplicate.
-ALAN LENHOFF

Greedy meters'll get you

By RALPH VARTABEDIAN
OVER 12,000 students are out on
the streets, cruising around.
They're using every sneaky tech-
nique r they can to beat t h e
system. Their goal can hardly be
termed revolutionary or even mo-
derately liberal. All they want is
a place to park their cars.
As the University grows and
students become more affluent,
cars will doubtlessly continue to
flood the already congested city
streets. Admittedly cars make for
bad ecology. Besides being small
and noisy, they are big, obnox-
ious, trouiblesome and hazardous
to the pedestrians who own this
city.
But people will still own cars
and the city hasn't done too much
to ease the situation.
RATHER, THEY have decided
to play the role of the greedy en-
trepreneur, erecting wind-up ban-
dits at every conceivable curb site
on campus or in the downtown
reaa. The investmenthhas paid off
big, as the city makes a whopping
five and one-half per cent of total
revenues off parking fines alone.
Ann Arbor police maintain 11
full time, weekday police officers
whose job is to make sure nobody
gets away with free parking. They
issue on the average of 1,000 tick-
ets a day. The city's ambition
doesn't stop there, however.
Parking violations are written
on computer punch cards. Each
day the violations are fed into a
computer for future reference. Af-
ter three weeks the computer
burps out a notice to be mailed
to the owner of the car that was
parked illegally saying that they
had better pay their fine, plus an
additional four dollars because
they weren't quick enough about
it the first time.
Two weeks after this another
notice goes out; with another
three dollars tacked onto the first
surchange.
IF THE CITY still -aceives no
money a warrant officer may serve

a court warrant on a person who
simply didn't have a nickel the
last time he ran into the drug
store, and never received t he
mailed notices.
In addition to the money Ann
Arbor receives from violations,
lucrativerrevenues areiderived
from the people who decided to
pay for their parking and not risk
being caught.
Over one million dollars in re-
venue to the Parking Fund w as
accumulated in the '70-'71 fiscal
year from parking meters and
carports.
In short, Ann Arbor is make a
haul. The citizens and students,
however, are suffering from a mis-
erable lack of services. The need
for student parking is evident to
anyone; for a student owning a
car the need is -overwhelming.
OTHER STATE universities have

different attitudes. At Michigan
State University each student is
entitled to at least one parking
space on campus. MSU also has a
large scale busing sysem to help
get studento around m campus;
at the University marginal busing
is provided only to distant points
such as North Campus. Northern
Michigan University} in Marquette
also provides students with park-
ing as does Wayne State Univer-
sity tat low cost).
The city should hardly encour-
a/ge students to drive frot Angell
Hall to the Frieze Building to
make their one o'clocks.
Each student however, should at
least have one parking spot rea-
sonably near campus at very low
cost or at no cost. University Fa-
culty are offered parking for two
dollars a month through Univer-
sity Paid Parking Permits. Yet,
students are still out oi the
streets.

Letters:* Public salaries

To The Daily:
YOU MAY KNOW by this time
that Saginaw Valley College is
appealing the circuit court ruling
in The Bay City Times' right-to.
know case. We're confident, how-
ever, it will be upheld. I would
assume Dr. Fleming will fall back
on the continuing litigation as an
excuse not toopen the payroll
information toyou.
We're more convinced than ever
after early revelations that there's
more boondogging, more carousing
with public money in educational
administration thanthere is, or
instance, in stste government .
and that's saying something.
School administration, particul-
arly at the college level, is a
multi-headed monster that won't
be satisfied until it devours the
last dollars taxpayers have. Bur-
eaucracy is as rampant on college
campuses as anywhere in Amer-
ican life today. The whole situa-
tion desperately needs thorough
exposure.
The Daily's enlistment in the ef-
fort to make educators account-
able is in the best traditions of
our work. More power to you . . .
and don't ever be discouraged.
-Tom Fallon
Editor, Bay City Times
July 13
Public vs. Private
To The Daily:
IN ALAN LENHOFF'S July 13
column " 'U' salary lists should be
public" and his July 11 letter to
the President of the University, he
argues in favor of making public
ithe salaries of University em-

ployes. He cites some instances of
voluntary and court-directed dis-
closure elsewhere and says he is
prepared to undertake legal action
to cause disclosure here.
The key argument in favor of
disclosure of salaries of those em-
ployed by public institutions is
that they are paid with "public"
money. Thus, the public has the
right to know.
If this argument is valid, then
it follows, I suppose, that t h o s e
salaries or portions of individuals'
salaries not financed by "public"
money need not be disclosed. As
you probably are aware, The Uun-
versity's total operating budget of
fiscal 1971-72 was comprised of
less than 30 per cent state appro-
priations. Add federal support and
the "public" portion of the total
budget still was less than half.
That's a complication.
Carrying this logic further, if it
is proper to disclose salaries fin-
anced with "public" dollars, and
not proper to disclose salaries fin-
anced with "non-public" dollars,
then it would seem that there
should be disclosure of the salaries
or portions of salaries of employ-
es of private as well as public or-
ganizations which are government
contractors - whether they make
airplanes, bridges or biscuits.
If that logic holds, then there
also should be disclosure of that
portion of salaries of newspapers
and magazine employes subsidized
by special mailing rates. Farm
operators, ship builders, t r u c k
transportation . . . all should dis-
close that portion of their income
subsidized by "public" dollars.

The logic becomes absurd.
I think the fundamental problem
is tha t we have{ in this country, a
peculiar and- perhaps anachronis-
tic notion of public asd private.
For instance, isn't it peculiar that
one hears of objections to spend-
ing "public" money for attractive
school buildings, yet we don't
seem to have the same concern
about "private"idollars spent to
build an attractive bank or hotel?
In a time when one may have
been able to more precisely sep-
arate "public" and "private" dol-
lars, perhaps it may have been
reasonable to call for full disclo-
sure of public spend and to ignore
private spending, to treat those
employed by public institutions in
one way and those employed by
private institutions in another.
I'm not sure that time ever
existed. But certained today it is
not reasonable, for example, to
treat differently two, persons who
do the same thing for the same
purpose, one of whom happens to
work for a public university and
the other happens to work for a
private university.
If such a precedent of two-class
citiznship holds on public disclos-
ure of salaries, does it hold, too,
on public disclosure of qualifica-
tions to hold the position, or organ-
ization affiliations, or social
values and political preferences?
Should all records of public insti-
tutions, supported by public dol-
lars, be made public - including
the records of students whose edu-
cation is subsidized?
I find the matter not as clear-
cut as you present it.
-Jack Hamilton
Director of 'U' Relations
July 14

Like I've been saying, McGovern can't win

Today's Staff ...
'News: Alan Lenhoff, Marilyn Riley, Paul Travis.
'Editorial Page: Carla Rapoport
'Photo Technician: Denny Gainer

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