4 4A - Thursday, September 29, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A - Thursday, September 29, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com BRUNO STORTINI E-MAIL, BRUNO Xr BRUNORS( ,bUMICH.EDU I STEPHANIE STEINBERG . EDITOR IN CHIEF MICHELLE DEWITT and EMILY ORLEY -DITORIAL PAGE EDITORS NICK SPAR MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Problematic panhandling City officials must help alleviate safety concerns In the wake of a worrying series of crime alerts the past few months, students returned to campus this fall with a differ- ent mindset than in years past. The comfortable atmosphere in Ann Arbor has been compromised as a result of an increase in reported sexual assaults - one occurring in the Liberty Street park- ing structure near many downtown businesses - and noticeably aggressive panhandling. These changes to the character of down- town Ann Arbor have many local business owners concerned, and they fear that safety concerns throughout the Ann Arbor area are driving away business. The city needs to allocate funds to address the problem of Ann Arbor safety concerns and support local busi- nesses and residents. According to a Daily article from July 31, ans, it shouldn't be the department's sole pri- amendments dealing with panhandling in Ann ority. Police should be patrolling downtown Arbor have been ineffective. A Sept. 25 AnnAr- Ann Arbor and enforcing panhandling policies bor.com article details how this problem has in order to protect businesses and encourage only gotten worse in the eyes of those who commerce. It's contradictory that resources frequent the downtown area. Business owners are allocated to revenue-earning endeavors say aggressive panhandling is driving costum- when there is a clear need for on-the-ground ers away from their stores. Some shoppers and police presence throughout the city. employees don't feel safe, especially at night. However, city officials should work with Housing in the Liberty Street area is some of social service institutions to ensure enforce- the most expensive in downtown, and business ment isn't simply a war on people facing dire owners say the concentration of panhandlers poverty. The Ann Arbor City Council should on the street, along with other crime-related focus on social services to fight homelessness factors, is hurting their businesses - poten- and help get people off the street. The task tially leading some of them to close their doors. force was originally intended to be an out- Last year, a city task force attempted to reach program, and it shouldn't focus solely on address this issue. Panhandling became pro- enforcement. Resources should be in place to hibited in more areas, including public buses, help, rather than punish, homeless people. areas near parking garages and within 12 feet In addition to the necessary increased of Nichols Arcade. The task force called for police activity, individuals need to educate stricter enforcement by police. Unfortunately, themselves on how to stay safe. Students and with the police force already spread thin as a consumers should travel in groups, especially result of budget cuts, removing panhandlers at night. Businesses should also continue to from prohibited areas isn't a top priority for report incidents so that the' city takes this law enforcement in the city. matter seriously. Instead, the Ann Arbor Police Department We must not be naive in thinking Ann recently decided to crack down on motor- Arbor is recession-proof and idyllic. Residents ists who.fail to stop for pedestrians by fining should encourage city officials to curb actions them up to $100 for an offense. While this is it has already deemed illegal to keep the city important for the safety of campus pedestri- thriving. ANDREW WEINER Streaming success story K. An lie roofe. on & ,- K~onleeees {r re) Relapse or recovery? J n the cover art for his album days, Republicans are mopping up "I'm going to propose ways to "Recovery," Eminem sits on a the unions' remnants, fiscal inequal- put America back to work," Obama couch in the middle of Detroit's ity in the United States is at record announced, "that both parties can Hart Plaza, placidly reading as levels and many Democrats are still agree to." the towers of working out whether they want to do Groans rose from the audience. A GM's Renais- anything about it. woman standing next to me in the sance Center Despite all that and the worst crowd turned and said, "Here we go loom behind economic crisis since the Great again." him. It turns out Depression, Obama did have some- The speech carried on, and "Four Detroit's break- thing to celebrate on this occa- more years!" came back, but there through white sion. Thanks to the U.S. bailout, you had it. The people who had been rapper isn't the the American automobile industry Obama's champions no longer trust- only embattled hasn't crumbled to the ground. ed that he'd be theirs. dude with a taste JOEL This was the victory that the Ren- for symbolism BATTERAN Cen setting aimed to recall, despite involving this the fact that the RenCen is not an giant plate-glass auto plant, as The Washington Post Obama needs to castle. This Labor Day, I watched reported, but an office, hotel and as the RenCen played backdrop for shopping complex. The crowd of 'break the first- another jumper of racial lines,Presi- mostly union members assembled dent Barack Obama, who kicked off for Obama's speech interjected term slum p. his election counteroffensive after "Four more years!" more than once. a rough year in Washington and Yet the enthusiasm seemed tem- around the nation. pered by a nagging sense that in the The event should have been a struggle to rebuild the U.S. econ- Turns out Eminem originally kind of homecoming. Detroit gave omy Obama had won a few battles planned to release an album titled birth to the modern American labor but might be losing the war and the "Relapse 2" ("Re-Relapse"? "Three- movement, which in turn shaped sense that the fight might just be lapse"?), instead of "Recovery." the 20th-century Democratic Party. going out of the guy. Then he changed his mind. It's not Former Presidents Harry Tru- Teamsters president James P. so clear whether we can count on man, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Hoffa practically begged for some Obama to overcome his own lapses, Johnson launched their presiden- action. "The one thingabout working even if he wins another term. That tial drives in Detroit. Think about people is we like a good fight," Hoffa doesn't mean giving up on him, but that. Each Democratic president in told the crowd. He himself is facing a it does mean looking beyond the the 20 years that marked the high- challenge from Teamsters - a one of moment to the long run and building water mark of American liberalism the largest labor unions in the world new movements, which show that and the decades that witnessed the - who say he's in love with manage- people matter more than money. On biggest middle class in human his- ment, so he didn't stop there trying my way to the rally, I passed a house tory, the civil rights movement and to cover his flanks with the martial on Detroit's Clairmount Street with manned space travel, all started in rhetoric. "President Obama, this is thistles rising high in the front yard Detroit. your army." and a faded "HOPE" poster in a win- That era didn't last, of course. But the commander in chief dow. We've been sticking with a los- Black freedom didn't sit well with a wasn't biting. After walking onstage ing game for a long time now. And as lot of whites in the North and South, and going down the list ofhis accom- one of the unionists who spoke that leading them away from the Demo- plishments - health care, auto bail- day said, sometimes hanging on ain't crats, who also proved too willing out, middle-class tax cuts - Obama enough. to acquiesce as the economy was launched into the plan of action re-engineered to benefit the rich that ought to have rallied the troops -Joel Batterman can be at everyone else's expense. These around his standard. reached at jomba@mich.edu. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida Ali, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Patrick Maillet, Erika Mayer, Harsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner DAVID SCHWARTZ| The beginning of a green era 4 4 4 I 4 I can't remember what my life was like before I had my driver's license. The ineffi- ciencies of "Michael's mom can drive us there if we see the 8 o'clock, but my dad can't come get us until 11..." astound me. Why didn't I just get in the car and start driving? It's not that hard. Gas on the left, brakes on the right, fun all around! In the same vein, I have no recollection of my life before Netflix revolutionized it. No, my memory loss wasn't caused by my exces- sive methamphetamine usage (though that does explain my teeth falling out). I must have blocked the memories of having to get up and change out the "Golden Girls" disc in the DVD player for the next one. All that physical movement - what were we thinking? It should come as no surprise that we live in an increasingly digital world. Physical books are being replaced with e-readers. Money is no longer paper currency, it's numbers on a computer screen. Our e-mail inboxes are by far more useful than our physical mailboxes. And though Netflix started as a DVD-by-mail service, its online streaming capabilities have clearly become the main draw for consum- ers. With hundreds of thousands of titles to peruse and watch instantly, DVDs or Blu-ray discs are simply unnecessary. Netflix pioneered online streaming and remains the clear leader in the market. Its profits continue to rise as competitors dwin- dle. According to some estimates, 20 percent of peak-hours Internet traffic is Netflix users. Still, recent controversial business decisions leave room for speculation if Netflix can retain its crown. Netflix stock reached an impressive $300 in July. Then, in a surprise announcement, monthly subscription prices were significant- lyraised. The movegarnered noticeable media attention, along with Starz and Sony drop- ping content from Netflix's streaming library. Perhaps as a result of the hype surroundingit, rather than the price change itself, Netflix's stock price plummeted - currently valued at $127 - and approximately 1 million out of 25 million customers canceled their subscrip- tions. The mass exodus of customers and dra- matic stock price drop prompted Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to apologize to consumers. An apology, but no price reduction. Last week, in a substantially less publi- cized move, Netflix announced in a short post in their blog that the company would be split in two. Netflix will continue operating as an online streaming service, and the DVD-by- mail service will spin off into a new company: Qwikster. So, if you want to continue getting movies in the mail and streaming online, you now have to deal with two websites, twq com- panies and two prices. Customers were upset, and stock prices continued to drop. Despite the obvious backlash against the two-compa- ny confusion, it's obvious why Netflix made this decision. DVDs, Blu-rays and any physical media are going by the wayside. They're not gone yet, but looking at the music industry as an exam- ple, it's easy to see a not-too-distant future when all of our media is web-based. Netflix knows this. It knows that the DVD side of its business isn't viable in the long run. And with the rapidly changing technology market, "the long run" could be less than three years away. Hastings and Co. didn't want the shrinking DVD market to kill their streaming empire by bringing the whole company down. The stock price drop and customer loss were a large price to pay, but they probably saved the business. With an innocuous name like Qwikster, Hastings seemed to be prepar- ing for the inevitable failure of the spin-off brand. When the DVD market dies for good in three, five, or even 10 years, Netflix can quietly kill Qwikster without dramatically upsetting Netflix investors. Despite ups and downs, it appears Netflix has the brains to evolve with the market. And thank goodness, because a life without Netf- lix hardly seems worth living. Andrew Weiner is a senior editorial page editor. He is an LSA sophomore. For those who attended University President Mary Sue Coleman's sustainability speech on Tuesday, many things were made clear. For one, I was finally convinced of her existence, and the audience was con- vinced of the University's strong and growing commit- ment to sustainability. "Sustainability" gets thrown around quite a bit, especially in an eco-conscious town like Ann Arbor; its overuse often leads to a softening of its meaning. However, Coleman made it abundantly clear to all those in attendance that sustainability isn't a mere buzz word but a deep, underlying theme that's to guide this University into the future. "I want this message to be clear," Coleman asserted, "Sustainability drives the University of Michigan. Combine maize and blue, and you get green." The goals the University has set are commendable, highly attainable and are large enough in scope to truly make an impact. Among the goals Coleman enu- merated were a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 40 percent reduction of waste sent to landfills, the use of 40 percent fewer chemicals to treat grass and trees around campus and the transformation of the University bus fleet to hybrid vehicles. All these changes are scheduled to be fully imple- mented by 2025, and judging by Coleman's Hoke-like resolve and steel-like gaze, I have no doubt she meant every single word she said. However, the eventual success or failure of these ambitious plans lies not in firmly pressed pantsuits or paraphrasing ubiquitous Hoke-isms but squarely in the laps of all Michigan students, regardless of year or con- centration. In order for sustainability to truly take hold at the University, it must become a part of campus life, not just a message preached to us by the administra- tion. As current students, we all have a deep obligation to begin to alter the way the student body thinks and acts in relation to the natural world. Just like Denard Robinson's dreads are the source of his speed, the stu- dent body is the source of the University's vitality. Col- lectively, we have the power to take the University in any direction we choose. All we need to do is "plant (the) seeds of ideas" and "forge new trails." The continued development and expansionof student groups committed to various areas of campus and global , sustainability is a sign that students are beginning to realize their enormous potential to bring about change on campus and in the community we love. In addition to the numerous student organizations' that already exist, Coleman announced the formation of a $50,000 annual "Planet Blue student fund," which will be used to support the best and most innovative student-devel- oped campus sustainability ideas. We not only have the dreams and the plans, but we now have the money to make it happen. Anyone who thinks they don't have ample opportunities to become involved with sustain- ability on this campus and to truly make a difference is as blind as the Ohio State NCAA compliance office. It's imperative that students seek out the opportu- nities that exist all around them. Even the smallest change for good, when done on a scale as large as the University of Michigan, has enormous potential to bring about real, tangible results. So, fellow students, I implore you all to seriously consider your everyday actions and reflect on the ramifications these actions have on the local and global environment. We sit here today with the tremendous opportunity to direct our University in a direction few, if any, other universities across the country, or across the globe for that matter, can achieve. We have a duty to ourselves, to future gen- erations, and as Wolverines, to seize this opportunity and bring our University into a new era. David Schwartz is an LSA junior. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. We do not print anonymous letters. Send letters to tothedaily@michigandaily.com 4