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December 10, 2004 - Image 5

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The Michigan Daily, 2004-12-10

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NEWS

The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 10, 2004 - 5

Powell irked at NATO for not training Iraqi troops
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - U.S. Secretary ibility and cohesion" of NATO's international sent him a case of beer. "I enjoyed it very trans-Atlantic area and taken the offensive NATO-led operations into western Afghanistan.
of State Colin Powell expressed irritation yester- staff organization. much," Powell said, drawing laughter when against terrorism. As part of the talks, Russian Foreign Min-
day with six NATO members that have barred German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer he said that he turned "All of these achieve- ister Sergei Lavrov represented his country
their military officers from an alliance-approved said his country has made it known all along over the empty contain- ments confirm my opti- in a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council. In
program to train Iraqi forces, its policy, ers to Fischer in recogni- W e cannot mism about the future a joint statement, the council appealed to all
While NATO has recruited trainers from "There has been no change of mind. We will tion of his membership in of our alliance and our parties in Ukraine "to continue to avoid the
the alliance's Integrated Military Command, send no troops to Iraq," Fischer said. Germany's Green Party. assume that our trans-Atlantic relation- use or instigation of violence, to refrain from
firmly opposed to the plan are France, Germa- NATO approved the training program last Powell's colleagues gave ship," Powell said. "But intimidation of voters, and to work to ensure
ny, Belgium, Spain, Greece and Luxembourg. June. About 60 NATO personnel are assigned to him two ovations, honoring shared values will we cannot rest on our a free, fair electoral process that reflects the
Their defiance involves only a small number of Iraq and that total is expected to rise to 300. In him for an association with overcome all of our accomplishments. will of the Ukrainian people."
officers. But their stand shows that hard feelings addition, NATO is committed to the setting up NATO that goes back 40 "We cannot take our Powell said he was pleased that NATO and
about the war persist within the alliance almost of a military academy near Baghdad for training years. disagreements." cooperation for granted. Russia had found common ground on Ukraine.
two years after the U.S.-led invasion, purposes. "We have taken NATO We cannot assume that our The alliance's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop
Powell, in Belgium for a NATO foreign min- Iraq has been a sore point between the into a new era," Powell shared values will over- Scheffer, said he was surprised by Russia's will-
isters conference, discussed the issue with col- United States and Germany, but the personal said, according to a tran- - Colin Powell come all of our disagree- ingness to sign such a statement, given Russian
leagues yesterday. relationship between Powell and Fischer has script provided by the State U.S. Secretary of State ments." claims of the West's interference in Ukraine's
Ata news conference, Powell said the six gov- remained strong. Department. Powell said that during election process.
ernments had created a situation that was "quite As a retirement gift, Fischer presented He noted the alliance has yesterday's discussions, Referring to the statement, Sheffer said, "I can
awkward," holding back officers assigned to the Powell with a keg and two cases of beer. embarked on its greatest enlargement, become NATO committed itself to support Afghanistan's honestly say what I have in front of me I did not
NATO staff. He said such actions "hurt the cred- Powell recalled that Fischer had once before involved in operations far removed from the spring parliamentary elections and to expand expect last night."

HOUSING
Continued from page 1
people beginning a career as a teacher can't live here, a per-
son beginning a career in law enforcement can't live here."
Instituting affordability
A variety of efforts are being made by different groups to
bring more affordable housing to Ann Arbor.
The city has developed several requirements for con-
tractors who want to build housing. For example, con-
tractors requesting to build in Ann Arbor's downtown
must meet an "affordable housing quotient" - meaning
that 15 percent of the units in their building must meet
affordable housing criteria. In Ann Arbor this means
that for housing to be considered affordable, the cost per
month cannot exceed $989.
If a builder cannot meet that criteria, he is required to
contribute $60,000 per unit to the city's Affordable Housing
Trust Fund. Money in the fund is used to finance other low-
income housing projects throughout the city.
A clash of housing views
While many neighborhood organizations in Ann Arbor
acknowledge the need for affordable housing, they often
disagree with the city government on what types of hous-
ing should be built and where these new structures should be
located. Several homeowner associations say the Ann Arbor
City Council has not always been adequately responsive to
their concerns.
"We beat on the city's doors for a number of years before
they actually listened to us," said Stephen Rapundalo, president
of the Orchard Hills/Maplewood Homeowners Association in
Ann Arbor.
Judith Marks, president of the West Liberty Homeowners
Association, said she has become so disillusioned with the
council that she believes talking to it about her concerns is

not worthwhile.
"As far as affordable housing is concerned, I personally
don't think there's any point in protesting because I think the
city council has an agenda, and they're not going to listen to
what we say," Marks said.
The mayor said he always tries to take the neighborhood's
concerns into consideration.
"I've never been an advocate of stuffing anything
down a neighborhood's throat and saying 'You're going
to accept this, darn it.' I don't think
we'll ever do that. I think we con-
tinue to listen throughout the whole "We beat o
process, and we'll always continue
to listen to the neighborhood's con- City's door
cerns," Hieftje said.
Marks said another problem is number of
that when affordable housing goes
into a neighborhood it brings the before the
values of all properties down. She listened to
added that when another developer
is looking to build affordable hous-
ing, they choose the same location - Step
where the property values are lower. president
As a result, one area ends up getting
a majority of affordable housing.;Hi
"What happens is that more and Homeown
more affordable housing keeps com-
ing, and the risk is that you could
just create a ghetto of some sort," Marks said.
Jean Carlberg, a member of the City Council and
its planning commission, said the mentality that add-
ing affordable housing to a neighborhood will decrease
property value is unfounded because Ann Arbor is such
a desirable place to live.
"It's almost impossible to build anything that will lower the
value of property in Ann Arbor," Carlberg said.

):
r'
f
,
l
t
it
n

According to the National Review of Real Estate Markets
online report, the average house in the United States sold for
$179,500 in 2001 . The 2001 average selling price in Ann
Arbor was between $200,000 and $250,000.
Marks said while it's not a problem for her, some of the
people in her neighborhood are concerned about the prob-
lems they believe are associated with people of lower eco-
nomic status who often move into affordable housing.
"They're all afraid of crime, butI don't know if that's a real-
ity," Marks said. "It's a different lifestyle
- really poor people live differently than
n the professors do. They have a lot of differ-
ent stresses. It might be a culture gap that
's for a people are afraid of."
While Marks acknowledges there
years is a need for more affordable hous-
actuall ing in Ann Arbor, she believes that
y a y it should be balanced throughout the
S" community.
us. "We're not saying 'Not in our back-
yard,' but we're saying let's share it.
hen Rapundalo In Burns Park the property values are
of the Orchard quite high, so those people may be a
little more snooty, and I think they
lls/Maplewood should also share the burden. I think
ers Association some affordable housing should be
mixed into that area," Marks said.
Rapundalo doesn't agree. He pro-
tested against the city's efforts to allow people in his
neighborhood to add accessory dwelling units to their
homes. An accessory dwelling unit is a room in a house
that is set aside for the purpose of renting it to interested
individuals.
"Everyone who bought a house here in the neighbor-
hood bought it with the knowledge that this was zoned
for single family dwellings," Rapundalo said. "That's

the kind of neighborhood environment we wanted to
live in, and if the city was going to allow anybody and
everybody to erect accessory-dwelling units, that would
not only change the character of the neighborhood, but
also it would violate the zoning we bought into."
Grinding through the solutions
Rapundalo said his solution to the problem is to stop
trying to put more affordable housing in the neighbor-
hoods and to focus mostly on creating more housing and
more density in Ann Arbor's downtown.
"(TheCityCouncil) needstofollowthroughontheircommit-
ment to increase the density downtown. I think that's probably
an easier option than trying to put large numbers of affordable
housing units into neighborhoods," Rapundalo said.
The council actually is trying to put more afford-
able housing downtown, but has also faced opposition
to these efforts.
Part of the city's plan to increase residential density in
the downtown area is to increase the height of new build-
ings. Douglas Kelbaugh, dean of the University's Taubman
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, said several
different groups have raised concerns that taller buildings
will not fit in with the character of the downtown and may
cast undesirable shadows on other buildings.
Kelbaugh was a member of the Downtown Residential
Task Force that made recommendations to the council
on how to create more affordable housing downtown.
Hieftje said he believes the best way to solve the prob-
lems between the neighborhood organizations and the
City Council is to communicate more.
"You have to work through each of the issues, and
what we try to do is satisfy each of the concerns. In
modern planning, a development shouldn't just be
pushed into someone's neighborhood. You should work
with that neighborhood to make the development the
best it can be," Hieftje said.

MILITARY
Continued from page 1
bisexual and transgender law students
at the University.
The military recruits law school
students primarily for positions with
the Judge Advocate General Corps, or
JAG, which provides legal and policy
advice to the Secretary of the Navy.
Lt Gen. Joe Richard, a Department
of Defense spokesman, said mili-
tary recruiters should have access to
schools that receive federal funds. ,
Richard said he disagreed with
the ruling overturning the Solomon
Amendment, adding that the amend-
ment was put in place to allow equal
access for recruiters. "(The ruling)
flies in the face of general fairness,
especially in this time of war," he
added.
The ruling was a victory for the
plaintiffs, collectively called the
Forum for Academic and Institutional
Rights and made up of 25 constitu-
ents, including a number of prominent
law schools such as those of Harvard
University and New York University.
FAIR brought the lawsuit against U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rums-
feld and the Department of Defense in
opposition to the Solomon Amendment,
which was enacted in 1994.
The American Association of Law
Schools, which filed a brief on the
plaintiff's behalf, has long stood in
Just Cut It
3041/2 State
Sy Appointment
660-9329
www.da colabarbers.com

opposition to the Solomon Amend-
ment, said Carl Monk, the associ-
ation's executive director. "We're
certainly pleased with the ruling,"
Monk added.
But more needs to be done to level
the playing field,
Monk said. "The
real victory would "(The rulin
be for the armed
services of the the face of
United States to fair
accept the offers fairness, e
of people to serve in this tim
their country
without regard to
sexual orienta-.
tion," he added. Departi
"We believe that
the military is
losing some very
talented law stu-
dents."
So far, Harvard is the only law
school to have reinstated its ban on
military recruiters, Monk said.
Schools have various options with
regard to how to approach the recent

A
f
s
n

ruling, Monk said. "One option that
schools have is to join the group FAIR
... in the litigation. Another option
that schools have is to file suit on their
own," he said.
The University's Law School has
so far refrained
from joining
ig) flies in FAIR. "It's clear
at this point that
f general the Solomon
s .eciall Amendment is
e y binding law,
e of war" and until some-
-w thing changes,
that there isn't
-Joe Richard any room for a
ment of Defense conversation,"
Caminker said.
spokesman Major Miles
Davis, scholar-
ships and admis-
sions officer for the University's
ROTC, declined to comment on the
ruling. "The Department of Defense is
still studying the opinion of the court,
and we'll be consulting the Depart-
ment of Justice," he said.

LIBERAL
Continued from page 1
reports that members of the University
community ranked 20th on a list of the
largest financial contributors nationwide
to Kerry. The University of California
and Harvard University were the top
two contributors to Kerry.
In a similar list of the top 20 Bush
contributors, no universities were present
amidst the many large corporations.
Monika Chaudhry, an LSA fresh-
man from Ohio, describes herself as
very conservative. Even though she is
taking English literature classes, she
said most of her professors have liberal
political views.
"I came to Michigan knowing that
it was a very liberal school, so I was
prepared to not take offense," said

Chaudhry.
But she said what tipped her off to the
liberal bias was when her professors, who
had been vocal about the presidential
election all year, suddenly lost their voice
when President Bush won last month's
election.
"This silence," she said, "revealed a
lot about their political views."
John Campbell, a professor of politi-
cal science with avowedly liberal views,
said the liberal tilt in the social science
faculty is only natural.
Those people attracted to teaching
are usually those who are interested in
current events, he said. And those who
keep up with current events by reading
the newspaper and watching the news
are more likely than not going to be left-
leaning, he added. "The liberal position
just makes more sense."

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