4 OPINION Poge 4 Thursday, January 23, 1986 The Michigan Daily 0 te n tna n Michig an Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Directors pave Vol. XCVI, No. 8o 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Encouraging news TWO SEEMINGLY unimportant negotiation. The decision is depen- diplomatic events took place dent upon the return of Egypt's last week. The Israeli Knesset ambassador to Tel Aviv. While voted to submit the Sinai border Egypt has yet to comply, both sides dispute with Egypt to ar- appeared satisfied with the other's bitration, and Israel and Spain reaction late last week. established diplomatic relations At the Hague on Wednesday, for the first time. These events, Peres and Prime Minister Felipe while overshadowed in the news Gonzales of Spain established media by reports on more violent diplomatic ties between the two happenings-the continuing saga of countries. In signing the Muammar Quadaffi's hold on the agreement Spain becomes the last Western World and the Marxist Western European country to put coup in South Yemen - offer glim- its ambassador in Tel Aviv. In or- mer of hope for the world's future der to maintain its support for a both in Israel's internal Palestinian homeland, Spain, like machinations and her dealings many other countries, including with other nations. the United States, will place its On Monday, Prime Minister ambassador in Tel Aviv and not in Shimon Peres' inner cabinet made the disputed capital of Jerusalem. the decision on the border dispute Coming on the heels of mutual over a seven hundred foot strip of recognition between Israel and the beach called Taba, which connects Ivory Coast last month, the extreme southern Israel to the Nor- agreement only brings benefits to them Sinai. This strip, currently both Israel and Spain. part of Israel, contains a resort In a world dominated by bad! hotel and beach. It has been a sour- news, it is encouraging to see coun- ce of dispute between Israel and tries settling disputes peacefully Egypt for a number of years, each and patching up strained relations. side claiming the territory based Although the easing of tensions on British censuses taken in the between Israel and Egypt and early part of the century. Spain's recognition of Israel are The Cabinet's decision puts the small events in thenselves, they dispute to a process of conciliation, provide the world with a dose of arbitration, and then finally badly needed hope. By Ken Garber The building frenzy now taking place in downtown Ann Arbor is only the beginning. Ground has been broken for One North Main, eleven stories of offices and con- dominiums where Joe's used to be, and three more high-rises are on the way to possible approval. Taken together, the current and planned projects will decisively change the character of our city. Ann Arbor will look different, feel different - and probably cost more - once the current building boom subsides. Many of us who have a long-term commitment to the city feel left out of the whole process; and because of events surrounding the biggest project of all, the proposed Huron Plaza convention center, we've lost all faith in the ability or willingness of our city planners to responsibly manage Ann Arbor's growth. That growth is deceptive. A building boom means we have a healthy, growing, vibrant economy here, right? Not necessarily. This "boom" is largely ar- tificial; few if any of these projects would now be under way without the tax changes of 1981. These drastically shortened the depreciation period for new buildings, sud- denly making high-rise projects (which maximize square feet and minimize expen- sive land costs) attractive tax shelters for wealthy investors. Whether there is a demand for these buildings is almost besides the point; only a fraction of Ann Ar- bor's new office space has so far been ren- ted, and competition for tenants will be in- tense in the face of the current nationwide glut of office space. Ann Arbor has 3 million square feet of of- fice space now, with a twenty percent vacancy rate. The new projects add 1.5 million square feet, so when it all comes on Garber is a member of the Near West Side Neighborhood Association. line, the vacancy rate could rise to near for- ty percent (the national office vacancy rate is about sixteen percent). Nor will high-tech save the day. An Ann Arbor News study last spring showed that high-tech employment in Washtenaw Coun- ty actually dropped between 1982 and 1985 (Ann Arbor is not Silicon Valley; it is primarily a university town with a con- tinued dependence on the prosperity of Detroit). The new projects can change the skyline but they can't alter economic realities. It looks like there's going to be a lot of half-empty office buildings around. Apparently having realized enough is enough, investors have stopped flooding city hall with office building proposals and are now pushing high-rise apartment buildings and the massive Huron Plaza hotel/conven- tion center. Costing $45 million, Huron Plaza will have 400 guest rooms, rise 14 stories and occupy virtually the entire city block across from the Whiffletree Restaurant. Experts have raised doubts about the economic viability of a convention center here; neighbors are concerned about the new traffic it will generate in the residential areas it abuts; and downtown merchants are worried there will be no parking spaces left for their customers. These concerns have either been ignored by the city Planning Department or brushed aside with misleading statistical infor- mation. More alarming, however, is the eagerness with which city planning direc- tor Martin Overhiser tried to bend the law to suit developer Richard Berger. Overhiser has done all he can to see that Huron Plaza is approved, even though the site plan exceeds city building mass limits by 30 percent. When Berger was denied a zoning variance in June, Overhiser tried to change the zoning ordinance that was holding Berger up. City Council rejected the change after an uproarious public hearing on October 14. Overhiser then announced that Berger's underground parking didn't count in the floor space calculations as long as ceilings were less than seven and a half feet hie way high. This clumsy manuever was aban- doned when the city attorney declared it illegal. Now Overhiser has fashioned a plan so obscure (featuring a high-rise parking structure on adjacent city land) that he must be hoping that City Council will change.- the original ordinance holding up Berger's project. At no point has Berger offered to shrink his building plans to conform to current city zoning law. In fact, Berger three times has submitted site plans with his underground parking removed in an effort to blackmail the city into approving the larger version. So far City Council hasn't backed down; it will vote again in February. The Huron Plaza farce is not an isolated' event. For the last decade, encouraged by' former mayor Lou Belcher, Overhiser and his staff have mainly served to smooth the way for developers here (Belcher himself is a partner in the Downtown Club office building and "Belcher's Building" going up on Liberty and Fifth). With the conversion of the Downtown Club and Braun Court from. cheap housing to upper-scale offices and restaurants, Ann Arbor continues to be transformed into a place where only the. elite can afford to live. With few exceptions, our city planners are more concerned with nurturing development proposals than with protecting existing neighborhoods, especially those with affordable housing. Bigger is always better when it comes to tax shelters, but where does that leave most people? It's hard to see how downtown congestion, a cluttered skyline, and a bunch of half-vacnt office buildings are going to make Ann Arbor a better or more equitable place to live. The remaining open space downtown should be developed, in ways that address our needs and enhance down- town's atmosphere, not overwhelm it. But Richard Berger - and apparently our city' planners - have other ideas. "We haven't even dented the surface yet," states Berger in an Ann Arbor News interview, adding that "this area will eventually rival South- field or Troy". Is this what we want? Bering 4 A lb ..MM I"mwwa..- ANY CAMPUAn3 ORE U JRrYFrprG APAR-frin / i MItJ&A. E AID /ET S- 5cKE-T 5AIL-Y4OR ! WA 57- p Spring in January Al IP? I'n G REY SKIES blend well with cement sidewalks this January in Ann Arbor. Semi-sunny days are warm sweater mild, easing the transition from holiday laziness to a busy semester. Slip- ping from class to class, waiting in movie lines, and bypassing Barnes and Noble to support U. Cellar can be positive experiences when the temperature is well above freezing. It's not the kind of weather for reading outside or writing letters in the diag. Hands still need mit- tens and wind reddened faces are bordered with loosely tied scarves. But hatless heads abound, unbowed and shoes flirt with asphalt in the absence of snow. Backpacks rest comfortably on less bulky coats, layers are lighter and muddy grass oozes with running shoe imprints from afternoon football and frisbee games. There's a healthy surge of ac- tivism rising with the temperature. Reminiscent of spring fervor, students have organized outdoor events to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and the thirteenth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Student activity should continue indoors when the wind starts biting again. Beware that cold comes to Ann Arbor without warning. This un- seasonable warmth has been a tease, a delightful diversion. Later, when you awake to a sub-zero morning remember the sweetness of spring in January. f 11C N, ' A Ly t . ,' r R fn '1, q , _ j l l n n afti I{i i! i F z I'J i, ti, {r :q tr : % , t ' t { l 1 /1FWAN 'RoT//-X5 AW4 c - "D oz (2-5, 3oAV (pJ G OF IM1pkCEN1 ~-FA,5,4IV 75 ."o ciAc ? 5lTRAlc C G\C/9 ~~l 1- ) c t i I 0 I i , 1 of SPA ) L AP K CL? . cL CA C44)p mm.ww _--_.... ..__ rA 1 /-m AJo MvORE; Alp I~ t C tC' :~, HcANAGUA( 7"o -r-/qrECojvrA RR0) 1/Tp ~~c ,q! 0'CCO) A P < , i 1J. 5. 8QF~oRT /o o/t11 Fbo T R 1 OOPf 12 5M1' ' ' aka 1-00, Il.U+ A L#N I, - I fl f (O 507-VP~Y - TOis Gl-r-rIAG ,. f ! f f J,/f; a ;f !rf ,' ; I LETTERS: ,4/ 1' Arab leaders don't help Palestinians ,'i : /. r"' ! i . , jjf ,,, i /II" i 1 yni. /, l1:. '1 Ni ,,,, To the Daily: In the past number of weeks, we have carefully read the rhetorical exchanges from mem- bers of the Ann Arbor community concerning the issue of Zionism and racism. It is interesting to note how these accusations and / responses have closely resem- bled the rhetoric that has flown so freely in the United Nations over the last 40 years regarding the problems in the Middle East which has failed to bring about any peaceful solutions in the region. There have also been the deterioration of the Middle East and Palestinian peoples. From Nasser to Khaddafy who vowed to bring together all Arabs in efforts to regain the land of Palestine for their Palestinian brothers, to Yasser Arafat who armed his refugee children with Khalashnikov rifles and the romantic hope of destroying Israel - the continued promise of a "never-ending Armed Struggle" has only compounded the misery of the Palestinians and Arabs living on Israel's bor- ders. whereas Israel donates more than a number of Arab countries. Why have these facts been omit- ted from the debate on the fate of the Palestinian people? Today the opportunity of peace lies at Yasser Arafat's door as the nations involved are working desperately to establish some form of international conference to solve the Palestinian problem. But Arafat and other Palestinian terror groups seem content with bombings and killings, . and people continue to die and Palestinians continue to suffer. that Arab and Jew can in fact live in peace. Let someone convince the PLO and the Arab leaders of today that their past policies have and only will lead to war. Fawaz Turki, a Palestinian author wrote: "We performed badly at the test of history. We can do it again. Or we can face up to the challenge and transcend its boundaries." Armed struggle is the real problem of the Palestinian people. - Sandy Hauser, - J. M. Hansen, r NOT ~M&MV i