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NEWS

Thursday, June 22, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

City Council affirms dedication to Paris Accords and
voter registration, urges importance of reduced emissions

Westphal noted true
compliance with the
agreement requires
more than passage
of the resolution

By ANDREW HIYAMA

Summer Daily News Editor

Ann Arbor City Council con-

vened for another biweekly meet-
ing Monday night, passing an
ordinance making it easier for resi-
dents to register to vote as well as
a resolution committing the city
to the goals of the Paris Climate
Accords.

The ordinance, sponsored by

Councilmembers Zachary Acker-
man (D–Ward 3) and Chip Smith

(D–Ward 5), as well as Mayor Chris
Taylor, amended the City’s hous-
ing code to require all landlords
to provide tenants with a booklet
“explaining the rights of tenants
under city and state law” at the
beginning of their leases, accord-
ing to the text of the ordinance.

“No owner of rental property

located in Ann Arbor or agent of
such an owner shall lease or con-
tract to lease such property with-
out furnishing to the tenant, before
the time of leasing or contracting,
a copy of said booklet,” the ordi-
nance reads.

Ackerman noted the ordinance

would affect the majority of the
city’s residents.

“This ordinance would mandate

that landlords, at the beginning of
leases, provide voter registration
forms to their new tenants,” he
said. “This will help keep our voter

rolls updated, but also in a time
when voter access is being threat-
ened in this state, will make access
to the polls a lot easier for the 58
percent of residents in this city
who rent their housing.”

Councilmember Kirk Westphal

(D–Ward 2) said though the idea
had already been pitched in years
past, it was the initiative of the
sponsors that brought it to finally
pass.

“I just want to thank the spon-

sors for pushing this forward,” he
said. “An initiative like this has
been mentioned on and off for
years, but as always, it takes leader-
ship to pick up the flag and carry it
across the finish line, so I’m really
happy that this is coming to a sec-
ond reading.”

The initiative passed unani-

mously with nine votes in favor,
as Councilmembers Jason Frenzel





MAX KUANG/DAILY

West Bloomfield resident Judith Mihalko-Mueller and Michigan United organizer
Melissa Bruzzano march together in the Planned Parenthood March on the Diag
on Wednesday.

(D–Ward 1) and Graydon Krapohl
(D–Ward 4) were absent from the
meeting. The ordinance will go into
effect August 1.

Ann Arbor also added itself to a

growing list of municipalities, states
and corporations that have com-
mitted themselves to upholding the
Paris Climate Accord following Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s decision to
withdraw the United States from the
agreement. The agreement’s main
goal is to hold the average global
temperature to less than 2º C above
the average temperature prior to the
Industrial Revolution.

Smith said the commitment of

smaller jurisdictions to the agree-
ment was more important than the
commitment of the White House.

“One of the most important things

to come out of the Paris climate
agreements is the realization that
cities globally play the biggest role

in reducing carbon emissions,” he
said. “Just because the administra-
tion in Washington is not interested
in meeting the goals set forth in Paris
does not mean the city of Ann Arbor
is interested in also shirking our
responsibility.”

Westphal noted true compliance

with the agreement would require
more than the passage of the resolu-
tion.

“For us to really move the needle,

it’s abundantly clear we have to radi-
cally rethink the things that we do
have control over if we want to stay
consistent with the Paris agreement
when it comes to emissions per capi-
ta,” he said. “A couple I can think of:
housing supply near jobs, heavy rail
transit, rules that mandate parking
spaces. So in short, we’ve got plenty
of resolutions on the books, but we’ll
see if we have the resolve to make it
work.”

Economics Prof. Caroline Hoxby,
who found in 2013 a “vast majority
of low-income, high achievers do
not apply to any selective college”
— even though less competitive
schools might mean higher out-of-
pocket costs.

“Telling students we’ll meet

all demonstrated need … that
language can get complicated,”
Ishop said. “This signals the
element of achievement and
aspiration — if a student wants
a high-quality institution like
ours, they have to aspire and
work hard. But by taking cost off
the table, that allows them to be
in the space of achievement and
aspiration a little bit differently
than if they just decide they can’t
pay for it anyway.”

Robinson spent a year in the

Michigan
College
Advising

Corps mentoring students in that
space, often working to persuade
first-generation and low-income
students they were qualified
enough to apply to schools like
the University.

“These kids, they just don’t

know from the outside looking
in,” he said. “When I went back
to my own high school to advise,
there were all these notions of

me being stuck-up or that they
could never get there. Even
though they had the scores and
GPA, it’s a matter of access. They
just don’t know this information
— and neither did I.”

Misperceptions of financial

aid can often swing the other
way, with many assuming free
tuition for some students means
more cost for others. That tuition
rates for the 2017-18 school year
increased by 2.9 percent for
in-state students and 4.5 percent
for out-of-state students didn’t
help. Last week, the Detroit
News published an editorial
titled “Free not always a great
deal,” blasting the University
for offering the guarantee at
the
expense
of
middle-class

students. The editorial cites
Regent Andrea Fischer Newman
(R), who voted against the tuition
hikes June 15 and said middle-
class families would be “priced
out of the opportunity for the
world-class education available
at the University of Michigan.”

Schlissel fired back with a

letter to the editor Wednesday,
arguing the University has really
“made
college
achievement

easier
for
this
critical
and

financially challenged segment
of the population.”

GO BLUE
From Page 1

part of Trumpcare,” she said.
“Trumpcare is the worst bill for
women’s health in a generation,
and it must be stopped now.”

Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor

noted while the Republican’s
health care bill often carries
President Donald Trump’s name,
it was the responsibility of the
party as a whole.

“When
we
woke
up
on

November
9,
we
anticipated

the dishonor that our nation
would endure, having elected
and entrusted our country to
a people and a party as cruel
and as reckless as the ones we
have now in Washington,” he
said. “But I think few among us
really imagined the breadth and
heartlessness of the assault on
science, on poverty, on climate, on
immigrants, on refugees and the
disfranchised, and now, of course,
the final insult that brings us here
today: the assault of this president
and this party on women and
health care.”

Continuing,
Taylor
said
it

wasn’t for lack of capacity the
United
States
had
so
many

uninsured people.

PROTEST
From Page 1

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