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Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

important. It’s supposed to be 
very hot during Art Fair this 
year,” she added. “And people 
should take caution with their 
pets too.”

Councilmember Jane Lumm 

(I–Ward 2), who served as a board 
member for the Ann Arbor Street 
Art Fair for nearly a decade, said 
the fair has grown considerably 
into a large-scale, significant 
cultural event for the city.

“I would call it an iconic event 

for our community,” Lumm said. 
“It attracts thousands and thou-
sands of visitors and hundreds of 
artists. It brings in a lot of peo-
ple, which is of course great for 
business.”

However, this year’s Art Fair 

is unlike any other before it. 
Instead of running in the tradi-
tional slot of Wednesday through 
Saturday, it instead begins on 
Thursday and concludes on Sun-
day.

“(City Council) supported that 

move,” she said. “I know this is 
something the Art Fair directors 
have been working on for a num-
ber of years … In order for this to 
occur on Sunday it was critical 
to address the concerns for the 
churches. Congregations have 
access to churches.”

In addition to addressing the 

needs of Ann Arbor citizens, the 
switch was made to further stim-
ulate business in the downtown 
where Art Fair occurs.

“I think everyone felt that 

this way it would be more cus-
tomer friendly. It’s a good move,” 
Lumm said.

While the schedule shift away 

from Art Fair’s traditional slot 

may help encourage business 
activity, Maureen Riley, execu-
tive director of the Ann Arbor 
Street Art Fair, said the change 
was a long process to implement.

“Changing the Art Fair days 

was a little bit like turning the 
Titanic — it doesn’t happen over-
night,” Riley said. “It took a lot 
of time and preparation, and we 
started that process a couple of 
years ago.”

According to Riley, the transi-

tion was a tactical move to keep 
the Art Fair accessible to people 
in modern society.

“It was a result of evaluating 

the Art Fair and it’s future and 
how to keep it sustainable and 
healthy,” she said. “One of the 
major components to that we felt 
was being open on the weekend. 
People don’t live the same life-
style they did in 1960, when we 
first opened. Stores weren’t open 
in those days on Sunday … But 
that was 57 years ago and life is a 
lot different now.”

Another large reason for the 

updated schedule was to make 
the fair more appealing to young 
people and young artists. While 
artists who’ve come to Art Fair 
to show their work are always 
encouraged to come each year, 
event organizers noticed that 
many long-time artists were 
beginning to retire and not come 
back.

“The baby boom generation is 

starting to retire, which is allow-
ing for a whole lot of new artists 
to come into this business,” Riley 
said. “We’ve been seeing that for 
the last few years and I’m sure 
that will continue. The work — 
the aesthetic in the Art Fair in 
my opinion — is appealing more 
to a younger profile than it did 
ten years ago.”

signatures were initially submit-
ted, by the group’s estimate.

The petitioners have until 

August 2 to collect additional sig-
natures, though the city’s legal 
team is unsure whether supple-
mental petitions are allowed 
under the Home Rule City Act, 
which regulates how petitions 
are filed.

Alan Haber, the leader of the 

petition, said there are several 
routes he can go if the city attor-
ney instructs the clerk to not 
accept additional signatures.

The first is to discuss and nego-

tiate with the city to validate the 
petition. In the event that fails, 
Haber said, he will appeal to the 
22nd Circuit Court and seek an 
injunction to halt any city action 
on the parking lot until the court 
rules. If the court recognizes the 
validity of the petition, the ques-
tion will most likely be put on the 
spring 2017 regular election bal-
lot.

Another strategy is to ask City 

Council to recognize the petition 
on its own initiative before the 
November 8 election. Haber said 
that City Councilmember Jack 
Eaton (D–Ward 4) is ready to 
introduce a resolution to do that 
at the August 4 meeting, which 
Eaton confirmed to the Daily in a 
phone interview.

Haber said he can also chal-

lenge some of the disqualified 
signatures to ascertain that a sig-
nature is from a registered voter 
from Ann Arbor.

Frank Wilhelme, a member 

of Haber’s group, showed opti-
mism in this strategy succeed-
ing, pointing out a discrepancy 
between state and city petition 
practices.

“A day or two ago, I saw some 

e-mail conversation about how 
state law allows one valid signa-
ture but Ann Arbor practice is to 
rule invalid the initial signature 
and any duplicates,” he said. “If 
we can prevail on this question, 
we would pick up 233 or so signa-
tures.”

In a Facebook post on Tuesday 

for the Ann Arbor Committee for 
the Community Commons, Haber 

emphasized the library lot peti-
tion is of paramount importance 
for democracy in Ann Arbor.

“Many people have cooperated 

in moving forward this effort to 
do democracy in Ann Arbor,” 
Haber wrote. “Be part of the ‘we’ 
who are trying to in-source sov-
ereignty — its (sic) ours, the pub-
lic’s — We have the right to vote 
on keeping it for a public purpose, 
or selling it.”

Haber has previously criti-

cized City Council’s perceived 
inclination for increased devel-
opment, calling it corrupt for 
ignoring residents’ voices. His 
tone was still acerbic on Tuesday.

“Sometimes 
it 
seems 
they 

would sell their mother if the 
price was right, and not even 
notice they were doing it, and 
they are trying to do that right 
now, not noticing what never-
to-be center of community they 
are selling away,…” he wrote in 
his Facebook post. “This citizen 
initiative is the alternative to 17 
floor luxury hotel/condo devel-
opment, Chicago style, or its suc-
cessor waiting to buy it out from 
under us.” (sic)

the “Never Trump” movement 
who tried to force a roll call vote. 
The motion ultimately failed by a 
controversial decision by deputy 
chair Steve Womack, who was 
presiding over the voice vote.

Michigan delegate Debra Man-

tey said she believes the “Never 
Trump” movement is composed 
of a set of delegates who are not 
loyal to their voters.

“I don’t think much of it, obvi-

ously,” she said. “I think it was 
more of a media distraction. 
There wasn’t enough of a faction 
of them to really do anything, 
and I think it’s pretty sad, really. 
These are delegates who have 

been entrusted by the people who 
have put them here to follow the 
will of the people.”

Michigan 
delegates 
also 

seemed confident in Trump’s 
ability to convert the tradition-
ally blue state into a red one come 
November.

John Haggard, Michigan del-

egate in the first district, said 
support for Trump will spread 
throughout the state so that 
Michigan votes Republican in 
November.

“Michigan will be red in the 

fall,” he said. “Donald Trump is 
going to turn the state of Michi-
gan red, and it’s going to start 
from us in the Upper Peninsula 
all the way down. It’s going to be 
like cancer, and we are going to 
spread it fast.”

proposed train station develop-
ment. Giannola wants to place City 
Council priority on the develop-
ment of the library lane lot.

While these two candidates 

have outlined specific goals that 
they want accomplished if they are 
elected, there has been open com-
ments on the fact that there has 
been a lack of any specific issues 
that 
immediately 
concern 
the 

majority of their constituents.

“On some years there are issues 

that tears the community apart,” 

Giannola said. “But this year, I don’t 
see any issues that will get people 
out to the polls, and it’s a bit worri-
some. There is not a local issue that 
matters so much to the fourth ward 
people.”

Krapohl argued that a City 

Council member driven by per-
sonal issues rather than popular 
consensus could detract from his 
or her ability to make the best deci-
sion based on facts, noting that a 
lack of support for issues driving 
candidates could lead to problems 
once they are in office.

“If you are unable to gain sup-

port for that issue, then you are 
dead in the water,” he said. “If you 

are only focused on your issues, I 
think it can cloud your judgement 
and your perspective when you 
need to get things done. It is impor-
tant to get council as a whole to 
make decisions.”

Giannola summed up what she 

found to be the fundamental differ-
ences in approach to issues.

“Graydon is making decisions 

based on what is presented to him,” 
she said. “I want to get the infor-
mation before the decision-making 
process, so it’s just a different way 
that we go after the job. Eric comes 
at it from an ‘anti’ point of view, 
he approaches issues as the devil’s 
advocate.”

SUNDAY
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PETITION
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CITY COUNCIL
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TRUMP
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