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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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