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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, September 18,2014
michigandaily.com
BUSINESS
A housing
sees uptick
in luxury,
high costs
Expensive ings, the research found, were
subpar.
apartment buildings "we felt that Ann Arbor wasn't
ALLISON FARRAND/Dally
LEFT Booths at EarthFest handed out apples to students and staff, RIGHT: LSA sophomore Kaitie Benedek pledges to visit the campus farm more often and
poses for a picture.
arthFest uniotes students
in environmental efforts
can charge up to
$2,000 per month
By HILLARY CRAWFORD
Daily StaffReporter
Traditional college housing
- the rickety, aging homes and
rarely renovated apartments that
smell like Ramen noodles - has
had competitors from new luxury
apartment buildings near cam-
pus.
Landmark Apartments, Ster-
ling 411 Lofts, Zaragon Place and
Zaragon West have all opened in
the past five years, and several
new luxury apartment complexes
are on the rise.
Maggie Ladd, executive direc-
tor of the South University Area
Association, said prior to 2006,
the association researched retail
business and housing that was
offered to students at different
universities. Ann Arbor's offer-
filling the demand,"Ladd said,
Landmark is one complex
erected to meet some of those
demands. Its amenities are abun-
dant; a hot tub, sauna, free bagel
breakfasts, a built-in fitness cen-
ter, granite kitchen countertops
and more.
The catch: monthly rent in
some units can exceed $2,000 per
person.
"We have a very sophisticated
student body," Ladd said. "They
are looking for state-of-the-art
places to live as opposed to sin-
gle-family places that have been
turned into student apartments."
Other universities seem to be
attracting this "sophisticated"
populace as well. Newspapers
nationwide are commenting on
the new amenities colleges and
their surrounding towns are
offering, matching their higher-
income student body.
Rick Perlman, founder and
president of Zaragon, Inc., said
See RENT, Page 2A
Green groups
congregate to
display their work
By ARIANA ASSAF
Daily StaffReporter
Celebrating and protecting
the planet has been promoted
by the University for years, but
Wednesday, Planet Blue injected
new energy into the spirit of sus-
tainabilitywith its annual Earth-
Fest - a "Party for the Planet"
that included food samples, live
entertainment and the chance to
win an iPad.
Music could be heard from
beyond the Diag, where about 60
booths weresetuptoeducatepass-
ersby about topics ranging from
how to make environmentally
friendly food purchases to guide-
lines for proper drug disposal.
To meet sustainability goals,
the University promotes creating
healthy environment, climate
action, community awareness
and waste prevention. Barbara
Hagan, a sustainability repre-
sentative with the Office of Cam-
pus Sustainability, said student
groups, individual University
units and outside nonprofit orga-
nizations had all come together
for the sake of sustainability and
to raise awareness at EarthFest.
"The University has goals to
reduce our waste, to increase
our sustainable food purchases,
to reduce the chemicals that we
put on the lawns," Hagan said.
"So all this is to bring awareness
to that initiative as well as all the
cool things we have on campus
that are working towards those
goals."
Like Festifall and Northfest,
students had the opportunity
See EARTHFEST, Page 2A
DETROIT
Pilot program
uses texting for
data collection
Researchers
survey Detroiters
through real-time
communication
By NEALA BERKOWSKI
Daily StaffReporter
Though texting is generally
used as a casual form of com-
munication, University research-
ers are exploring the medium as
a new means of collecting data
and interacting with communi-
ties. Their pilot participants: low-
income Detroit residents.
Dr. Tammy Chang, assistant
professor of family medicine at
the Medical School, and mem-
ber of the Institute for Health-
care Policy and Innovation, is
leading a team of researchers for
the pilot. The goal is to collect
data on subjects' medical knowl-
edge, literacy and numeracy. The
study focuses on the residents of
the Villages at Parkside, a low-
income predominantly African-
American community in Detroit,
Chang said texting is differ-
ent from other forms of collect-
ing information, such as online
or physical surveys and phone
interviews, because it allows
researchers to receive real-time
information from the group they
are trying to learn more about.
She also said cell phone owner-
ship and use has been found to be
particularly high within African-
American communities, making
it easy to focus the sampling to
that demographic.
"You're not necessarily going
to go to a community meeting
after working two jobs," Chang
said. "You're not necessarily
going to feel like filling out a five-
page survey and when somebody
calls you on the phone, you may
not necessarily feel like talking
to them about your opinion about
x, y, z things. What's awesome
about text messaging for this
group is that it's allowing them
to speak to us in a language, in
a modality that they're used to.
They can do it on their time when
they feel like it."
Zachary Rowe, executive direc-
tor of Friends of Parkside, a Detroit
nonprofit that focuses on the well-
See TEXTING, Page 2A
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Adam Liptak, a U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, speaks about the Roberts court and
constitutional law at South Hall Wednesday.
NYT reporter provides
Constitutional anayi
FORD SCHOOL TALKS -
Colombian
prof.talks
country's
struggles
Speaker discusses
violence and new
peace initiatives
By EMMAKERR
Daily StaffReporter
Wednesday evening, attendees
at the Ford School of Public Policy
got an expert's take on violence
in Colombia and its government's
inability to keep the peace.
Alejandro Castillejo-Cuellar,
associate professor and chair of
the Department of Anthropology
at the Universidad de los Andes in
Colombia, stressed the need for
leadership and new government
strategies for understanding the
country's political conflict and its
effect on Colombian communi-
ties.
Castillejo-Cuellar emphasized
both the potential and shortcom-
ings of Colombia's controver-
sial 2005 Justice and Peace Law,
which provides a path for former
paramilitary antigovernment
fighters to reintegrate into main-
stream society.
Right wing paramilitary
See POLICY, Page 2A
Document's
birthday marked
with discussion of
longevity, progress
By TAYLOR WIZNER
Daily StaffReporter
To honor the 227th anniver-
sary of the U.S. Constitution's
signing, Adam Liptak, U.S.
Supreme Court correspondent
for The New York Times, spoke
Wednesday afternoon about
the Roberts court and the Con-
stitution's role in public policy
today.
In front of a crowd of about
100 people, consisting mostly
of students and Ann Arbor
residents, Liptak discussed
some of the unique aspects of
the Constitution, focusing on
its longevity - since the aver-
age constitution lasts 19 years
- and the short length of the
document, which leaves room
for ambiguity.
One of the more interesting
aspects of the Constitution is
the Bill of Rights, Liptak said,
because of the argument for-
warded by many of the feder-
alist Founding Fathers that it
is unnecessary and danger-
ous. Some argue its existence
proves that a few select rights
need to be protected, without
detailing how they should be
enforced and excluding other
considered rights.
"It's the Bill of Rights rather
than the Constitution's struc-
tural provisions that really cap-
ture your imagination," Liptak
said.
Liptak said a strong focus of
See REPORTER, Page 2A
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