As Republicans
“stray” from platform,
Colbeck runs on
promise of “principled
solutions”
By JENNIFER MEER
Summer Managing News Editor
On Saturday afternoon, over 200
Michigan residents gathered out-
side the Yankee Air Museum in Bel-
leville to support State Sen. Patrick
Colbeck (R) at his official campaign-
launch for the 2018 gubernatorial
race.
Colbeck graduated from the Uni-
versity of Michigan with a degree in
Aerospace Engineering in 1987; he
received his masters degree from
the University in 1988. He gradu-
ated from the Life Sciences Depart-
ment of the International Space
University in France and worked on
systems for the International Space
Station. In 2010, Colbeck entered
the Michigan Senate, representing
the state’s 7th district. He filed the
paperwork to run for governor on
May 31.
Over 50 volunteers helped orga-
nize and execute the event. Central
to their agenda was an effort to get
signatures; candidates need 15,000
signatures in order to get their name
on the ballot for the 2018 election.
AnneMarie Schieber Dykstra,
the communications director for
Colbeck’s campaign, noted Col-
beck’s pitch is to stick to a set of
principles.
“Republicans have a set platform
and there’s been a lot of criticism
that they’ve strayed from that,” she
said. “Once they get into office, they
end up serving the interest of the
powerful few and that’s not what
he’s about.”
Running on a platform of “prin-
cipled solutions,” Colbeck puts
forth guiding principles to solve
the problems facing the state.
Central to his platform are efforts
to build better roads, provide
cheaper health plans with bet-
ter quality care and hold the state
government accountable for its use
of money.
Additionally, Dykstra said Col-
beck wants “government to work
for the people.” She said oftentimes
politicians who enter office put
forth corporate welfare programs
to create jobs, such as the Good Jobs
For Michigan, which gave big com-
panies an opportunity to capture
income taxes from residents.
In his address, Colbeck high-
lighted his years prior to his work
in politics. He said as an engineer,
he never discussed politics.
“The first 44 years of my life,
(my family and I) were sitting on
the sidelines assuming that the
people we elected to serve us, in
office, were serving our best inter-
est, not their own self-interest,”
he said. “While there are some
very, very notable exceptions, I’m
finding that all too often that that
type of service is the exception,
not the rule. That’s what we need
to turn around in our state … This
is time for some principled ser-
vice.”
3
Thursday, July 27, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
Republican State Senator Patrick Colbeck
holds launch for gubernatorial campaign
nister said it was the single issue
that encouraged her to run.
“Running
for
council
was
not something that was on my
radar until about three months
ago, when City Council voted
to sell the public Library Lot
to Chicago developers to build
the 17-story tall building and
lease the majority of the parking
places for 50 years,” she said. “I
would not have supported this
project, because I believe council
must listen to the many voices of
residents and local business who
have actively been opposing this
project.”
A primary motivation City
Council members have cited
for selling the lot has been the
creation of affordable housing,
though it is not yet certain how
much of the Core Spaces develop-
ment will be designated for that
purpose. In an interview earlier
this month, Frenzel defended his
vote to sell the lot, saying that
housing price pressures were
driving people out of the city.
“The thing that’s lost in that
conversation, though, that’s real-
ly important to me, is not only are
we looking at changing the way
the city looks, but we are also
substantively changing the peo-
ple that can live here,” he said.
“When housing costs go up, dis-
proportionately certain groups
of people can no longer afford
to be in our town: young profes-
sionals, older people and many
times people of color. Allowing
those housing pressures to push
people out of our community is
completely inappropriate in my
book.”
Kunselman
rejected
that
notion, however, saying Ann
Arbor’s status as a university
town meant getting developers
to create affordable housing was
not a realistic goal.
“When
it
comes
to
Ann
Arbor gentrification, we have to
remember that we are a global
city. There’s a number of stu-
dents that come from around the
world that will pay top dollar to
live in Ann Arbor while they go
to the University (of Michigan),”
he said. “We are a company town,
and the idea that we’re going to
be able to build our way out by
just having more housing and
bigger buildings is a mistake. It’s
not going to happen that way.”
Responding
to
Kunselman,
though, Ackerman pointed out
that as a council member, there
were actions he could take
toward the end of affordable
housing.
“Talking about trying to influ-
ence developers in a positive
direction is not a scare tactic,”
he said. “We actually have a fair
amount of control, and it’s called
zoning policy. We dictate what
can be built where, what it’s
gonna look like and how it can be
used.”
Saying he would have voted
against the sale of the Library
Lot, Silkworth said he thought
zoning decisions should be put
on the ballot.
“I would like to see our down-
town zoning be something our
residents actually have a voice
in deciding,” he said. “This is
something that affects every
single one of us. So I think we
should put it on the ballot, so our
residents are actually allowed to
vote and decide what our zoning
should be, what the long-term
planning of our city will take. I
don’t believe what we’re doing
right now is what a lot of folks
want.”
But his opponent, Chip Smith,
said in the almost 20 years he’s
worked as an urban planner,
he has never seen a community
that put their zoning out for
public vote, as it would “make it
impossible” to make changes and
increase development.
On climate change, Magiera
said he spent his life living out
his values, minimizing his car-
bon emissions wherever possible.
CITY COUNCIL
From Page 1
FILE PHOTO/DAILY
A supporter of Senator Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton) showcases his car outside
the Yankee Air Museum on Saturday.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
from State Street in Ann Arbor to
12th Street, now known as Rosa
Parks Boulevard, in downtown
Detroit — a riot was taking place: the
culmination of years of racial tension
and inequalities.
Under the rule of then-Mayor
Jerome Cavanagh and a primar-
ily white police force, the city was
plagued with segregation catalyzed
by tensions among different groups
in the city.
These tensions came to a head
that Sun. July 23, when looting and
flames diffused throughout the 12th
and Clairmount area — in less than
a week, 43 people died, 1,189 were
injured and more than 7,200 were
arrested as fires ravaged over 2,000
buildings. Residents throughout the
city felt fear.
This was a pivotal point in
Detroit’s history — a city without
which the University, established
there 200 years ago, would not exist.
Background
A police raid at an underground
bar, known in that time as a blind
pig, served as the catalyst for the
riots, the spark that lit the fuse of
civil unrest.
Looting spread out from the
epicenter of the bar after officers
arrested about 80 people there in the
early morning hours — Black resi-
dents said to have been celebrating
the return of Vietnam War veterans.
This quickly escalated throughout
nearby streets, creating panic.
Tues. July 25, 1967 — halfway
through the five-day period of con-
tention — the Daily published photos
under the headline “Detroit: In the
Middle of an Inferno.”
Splashed across the page are
images of police patting down resi-
dents as business owners assess
the damage of the previous days
of violence and fires blaze strong-
ly behind troopers holding their
weapons. The situation in Detroit
was grim.
Relations between police and
citizens strained. Controlling the
mob that had aggregated over the
preceding few days was impossible
without reinforcements: supple-
menting the Detroit Police and Fire
Departments were the Michigan
State Police, the Wayne County
Sheriff’s Department and the Mich-
igan Army National Guard, along
with the 82nd and 101st Airborne
Divisions.
DETROIT
From Page 1