The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - 3A
BANKRUPTCY
From Page 1A
The plan will determine the
terms for the partial repayment
of the city's $18 billion debt. The
city will negotiate an agreement
with its creditors - including
unions and retirement associa-
tions whose members hold city
pensions - to decide how much
of the debt needs to be repaid.
The remaining debt will be can-
celed after creditors and the
judge approve the final plan.
Pottow said bankruptcy is gen-
erally a positive development for
cities and their residents, except
for the creditors who may lose
out on the full repayment of the
city's debts, including pensions
for city workers.
He added that the city's bank-
ruptcy would have effects on the
metro Detroit region, including
Ann Arbor.
"There's spillover effect," Pot-
tow said. "If you have a blighted
city, it's not like that blight stops
at the municipal border. It's like
if the house down the street is in
foreclosure, my property value
goes down, too."
BUSINESS
From Page 1A
taurants.
Over the past several decades,
businesses such as Good Time
Charley's bar and restaurant,
the Middle Earth gift shop, and
Pinball Pete's arcade - all estab-
lished in the late '70s to early
'80s - have seen plenty of estab-
lishments come and go, while
changing themselves to meet the
demands of each generation.
Charley's is one of the places
that has changed the most over
its tenure on South University. A
gas station occupied the location
until 1979, and at certain points
of the building's history it was a
pizza parlor, a bar and an arcade.
"During the '80s it was one of
the most popular places on cam-
pus, and so they expanded in
the '90s next door where Under-
ground Printing is right now, so
that was also Good Time Char-
ley's," Adam Lowenstein, the
current owner of Charley's, said.
The pizza parlor later elimi-
nated, the kitchen was moved
back and the arcade was removed,
with the original owners choos-
ing to concentrate on the bar and
restaurant aspects of the opera-
tion.
Lowenstein and his business
partner Justin Herrick, who
acquired Charley's in April 2007,
have expanded on that focus.
He said their goal for Charley's
is to maintain food sales while
expanding bar revenue.
"Having a bar/restaurant here
we always felt was a prime loca-
tion, especially on the corner of
South University Avenue and
Church Street." Lowenstein said.
"It's really where we feel the
heart of student life is."
Middle Earth owner Cynthia
Shevel said she hasn't seen her
business model change much
during her time on South Uni-
versity Avenue, but has observed
a lot of change on the street since
her store moved in there during
the mid-1970s.
"There was a far more diverse
retail environment at that point
- there was a very high-end
houseware store called the Arti-
san Shop, there were several
women's clothing stores, there
were at least two or three shoe
stores, not so many restaurants,
there was a movie theater
CSG
From Page 1A
Transportation Authority stops.
If the new late-night bus route
is able to use the Blue Buses
with student drivers, the cost to
CSG and IFC will be less than
$30,000. However, Parking and
Transportation Services has had
enough trouble staffing its exist-
ing routes with drivers.
PTS hoping to hire temporary
drivers for next semester, who
would be trained over winter
break. If enough drivers can be
hired, Blue Buses will be used for
the new late night route.
"Ideally we get to use the
Michigan buses," CSG President
Michael Proppe said. "First, it is
cheaper, but then also it is Michi-
gan branded. We think that that
Pottow also noted that metro
Detroit residents could lose out
if an institution like the Detroit
Institute of Arts were to close
to assist in the repayment of the
city's debts.
In a statement delivered after
the ruling, Detroit Mayor Dave
Bing said there would be a host
of difficult negotiations to follow
the decision.
"We are now starting from
square one," Bing said. "There's
going to be pain for a lot of differ-
ent people, but in the long run I
think the future of the city will be
bright."
The city's biggest creditors,
such as unions and retiree asso-
ciations, argued against a Detroit
municipal bankruptcy, fearful
pensions and other debts owed to
their members by the city will not
be honored.
"I do think it's a tough day for
all of us here in Detroit," Bing
said. "I believe since I came to
office the crisis that we had -
this was inevitable. I don't think
anyone necessarily wanted to go
in this direction, but now that
we're here, it's more important
that we work together as opposed
to continuing to fight each other."
across the street," Shevel said.
"And by the late '80s, almost all of
that was gone. "
Shevel added that, for Middle
Earth, which early on moved
between several different areas
of downtown, South University
Avenue has worked out well.
"We cater largely to students
and University people; we get a
lot of foot traffic," she said. "It
depends on what you sell, but for
what we sell, it is agood location."
For Pinball Pete's, founded in
1983, the story is a little different.
It started off with three different
locations around Ann Arbor, but
by 1996 was consolidated under
one roof on South University
Avenue.
The property - originally an
old Victorian house - had to be
almost entirely remodeled.
"One of the obstacles I remem-
ber is that it had five chimneys
in it that we had to remove," said
Ted Arnold, one of two co-own-
ers. "So that was quite a process."
A decade later, in 2006, Pinball
Pete's moved across the street to
its current location.
"We'd never done anything
quite like this," said co-owner
Mike Reynolds. "We'd done a
basement before, but this was
pretty big. It was a lot for two
guys to try to take on. And obvi-
ously the rest is kind of history.
We're still here."
Arnold added that for Pinball
Pete's, the area has been benefi-
cial mostly because of the large
amount of foot traffic.
"We've kind of got to be right
in the heart of it, because we're
not something that people search
out anymore." Arnold said. "We
like to consider ourselves one of
the landmarks on the street - us,
the Brown Jug. We've seen a lot
of things come and go."
As the executive director of
the South University Area Asso-
ciation and a former business
owner, Maggie Ladd has spent
more than20 years on South Uni-
versity Avenue.
For her, the years have been
marked by a decline in retail,
an increase in an ever-shifting
gamut of restaurants - the street
once held a McDonald's, a Burger
King and a Taco Bell, but is now
trending more toward Asian res-
taurants - and reforms in the
zoning code.
South U goes vertical
A 2006 change to the city code
Emergency Manager Kevyn
Orr applauded Rhodes' decision
and said his team looks forward
to working with creditors on an
agreeable restructuring plan.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
- who appointed Detroit's con-
troversial emergency manager -
said authorizing the decision for
the city to seek bankruptcy was a
difficult decision, but was the last
viable option to restore the ser-
vices Detroiters need.
"Today, the federal court
allowed Detroit to stay on the
path toward a brighter future,"
Snyder wrote. "A future where
streetlights work and ambu-
lances respond quickly. A future
where crime and blight shrink,
and where jobs and investments
surge."
Gubernatorial candidate Mark
Schauer, the apparent Democrat-
ic nominee, has frequently voiced
his opposition to the appoint-
ment of an unelected emergency
manager. In a statement, Schauer
encouraged Snyder to allow May-
or-elect Mike Duggan to lead the
city's restructuring efforts.
"It's time to rebuild the great
city of Detroit," Schauer said.
"How we got here isn't as impor-
aligned South University's zoning
regulations more with the rest of
downtown, allowing buildingsup
to 150 feet tall in a bid to increase
high-density commercial and
residential building development.
"Nobody wanted to develop in
the area because the zoning was
so restrictive," Ladd said. "As
soon as that changed, we imme-
diately saw that people were
interested."
Within months of the zoning
change, the Zaragon Place apart-
ment complex, which opened in
2009, was approved by the city.
It was followed by the Land-
mark apartment complex, which
opened in 2012.
"We're kind of on the cusp of a
change in the area, because of the
new buildings that have gone up,
the Zaragon building and Land-
mark," Ladd said. "It's always
difficult to say which comes first,
the chicken or the egg, but I think
we're on the cusp of change."
And that's not the end: there
are plans to open an additional
high-rise above Pizza House on
Church Street.
Thus far, both restaurants and
retail industries alike have seen
new businesses join the street.
Merritt, a self-described "cause-
based fashion brand" opened up
on South University Avenue in
November.
"This is the heart of campus,"
founder Dave Merritt said. "It's
a great street for building aware-
ness as a new storefront. When
you're talking about starting
from scratch, not a lot of people
knowing you, it's really impor-
tant to be in front of people."
Mike Gradillas, general man-
ager of The Blue Leprechaun,
echoed the sentiment. The bar
was formerly Touchdown Cafe,
and reopened in 2008 under the
new name.
"South University is a great
place to run a business," he said.
"I mean, you have an endless sup-
ply of kids, a pool of people."
Gradillas, who has been work-
ing on the street on and off since
1999, added that among all the
changes, there are still constants.
"A lot of things have changed,
a lot of businesses have come
and gone, but the general feel
has been the same - the sense
of community, the sense of coop-
eration between the people that
work in the businesses, that's
stayed."
HOSPITAL
From Page 1A
contribute to this sum through
increased efficiency and strategic
capital moves.
The acquisition of Allegiance
will add 430 physicians to
UMHS' current 2700. Addition-
ally, average annual outpatient
visits will increase by 48,000,
on top of UMHS' current annual
average of 1.94 million visits.
The partnership also doubles the
number of hospital care facilities.
Georgia Fojtasek, president
and CEO of Allegiance Health,
said during the conference call
that Allegiance has had a steady
relationship with the Univer-
sity leading up to the decision,
including collaboration between
the oncology and cardiovascular
departments.
"We have a long history with
the University of Michigan that
the community may not be aware
of due to its geographical prox-
imity and clinical resources,"
Foitasek said. "This will give
us the foundation to leverage
in the new era of health care
because we both have formida-
ble resources."
Fojtaskek clarified that there
are no plans to alter Allegiance's
leadership or staff at this time,
saying there's been a "commit-
ment to stay" during this time
of transition. She added that the
feedback from her staff has been
largely positive.
"People have a respect for the
University of Michigan and the
high-quality work that they do
with sophisticated and high lev-
els of care," she said. "This will be
a good thing for the community
as a whole."
Fojtaskek said financial dis-
tress "was not a guiding prin-
ciple" in the decision.
Though this is the first
time UMHS will absorb another
health system, the University has
partnered with other hospitals in
the past, includingtheTrinityand
MidMichigan Health systems.
In regards to training future
physicians, both CEOs expressed
confidence in the validity of Alle-
giance's intern program and want
to work to continue to grow its
graduate medical and residency
programs as well.
Though UMHS and Allegiance
will eventually comprise one for-
mal health system, there is no
decision yet as to what it will be
called.
"We've embarked on numerous
partnerships in the past, though
this is the first of this nature,"
Pescovitz said. "Since it's fully
integrated, it was not taken light-
ly. But we felt most aligned with
the values that Allegiance has, as
well as their mission vision and
our relationship and strong refer-
ral base."
AEROSPACE
From Page 1A
students were around."
To improve the success for
the second campaign, Longmi-
er, along with James Cutler, his
partner on the project, enlisted
the help of Simon Halpern, a
second year MBA student in
the Ross School of Business, to
"help make it a little more pub-
licly digestible," he said.
Halpern said he is really
excited to be working on the
project and thinks the key to
the campaign's success has
been reaching out to people
who wouldn't traditionally be
interested in space travel.
"There's still a small crowd of
aerospace people who love this
stuff and the rest of the world is
like 'whatever,' " Halpern said.
"But when you start to see what
the possibilities of a successful
project could be, like, you know,
better weather prediction, or
lower cost of access to space,
that's huge."
Halpern's responsibilities
have included developing the
group's marketing plan, an out-
reach plan and managing the
social media for the project,
which is titled GoBluePlasma.
He has also reached out to
important alumni such as Uni-
versity alum Dhani Jones, a
former NFL star, to help raise
awareness for the project.
Jones expressed his interest in
space travel and his excitement at
helping to work on the design and
marketing strategy used for Kick-
starter. He said this is his first
time being involved in a space-
related project and doesn't think
it will be his last.
"If you think about the verge
of the next level of explora-
tion, I think space travel is
going to be important and that
this is part of that understand-
ing of what's in the distant and
beyond," Jones said.
This isn't Jones' first invest-
ment in a campus startup. In
September, it was announced
that he would fund the estab-
lishment of a co-op community
geared towards entrepreneur-
ship-minded students.
Halpern said he is thrilled
and can't believe how quickly
CAT reached its goal. He hopes
to continue with the momen-
tum the fundraising has been
gaining thus far.
"We would be besides our-
selves if we could get to some of
our stretch goals to enable us to
continue some more advanced
scientific research and contin-
ue developing the CAT engine
at a faster pace with some more
exciting options," Halpern said.
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is going to act as a deterrent for
some of the crime that you see."
If Parking and Transporta
tion Services is not able to hire
additional drivers in time, CSG
will contract a third-party com-
pany, Trinity Bus Services, to
run the route. With the addi-
tional bus company and its
drivers, the cost would rise to
$49,932.
If Trinity is used, $40,000 of
the program will be funded by
the Interfraternity Council and
the CSG Executive Branch. The
additional $9,932 will be paid
from the legislative branch's
discretionary account.
"I think the bus route is a
great idea. I am in full support
of it," LSA senior Pratik Gosh,
an LSA assembly representa-
tive and the chair of finance
committee, said. "I have been
asking people for the last five
weeks if they had any problems,
but nobody really had any prob-
lems."
Proppe said the only obstacle
that could stand in the way of
the late-night bus route would
be if somebody from the CSG
executive branch, the Interfra-
ternity Council or the assembly
did not wish to use a third-par-
ty service for the route. If Blue
Buses are not available, CSG
may consider delaying the route
one more semester - which
would mean the pilot route
would commence next fall.
"We haven't had that conver-
sation yet. We are going to cross
that bridge when we come to
it," Proppe said. "I am holding
out hope we are going to be able
to use the Michigan buses next
semester."
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