Ann Arbor City Council met
Monday evening to discuss
topics
including
pedestrian
safety and crosswalk policies, a
millage to fund the Washtenaw
County Mental Health and
Sheriff
departments,
and
suicide prevention in the city’s
parking structures.
Discussion
on
pedestrian
safety began during the public
commentary
period
at
the
beginning
of
the
meeting.
Several local residents brought
up concerns about crosswalk
safety in Ann Arbor.
Ann
Arbor
resident
Stephanie Preston, leader of
local
organization
A2
Safe
Transport, stressed the need
for a new crosswalk near
Community High School at
the corner of North 5th and
Detroit streets. All crosswalks
normally
utilized
in
the
immediate area are unusable
due to construction.
“We’ve been working with the
city and with Community High
School to figure out a solution,”
Preston
said.
“Currently
there’s a DDA (Downtown
Development
Authority)
project in Kerrytown, adjacent
to Community … this will
promise to be a great project;
however, it will take all year.
In the meantime, there is no
safe way for these students
to get to school. … It’s a very
tricky intersection, we get that.
There’s only one location where
they could get across safely
and we know that the city can
prioritize having some safe
options.”
Citizens also raised general
concerns
about
crosswalks.
Jared Hoffert, current Ward 2
City Council candidate, voiced
his worries that a review of
the city’s current pedestrian
crossing policies would lead to
its abolishment.
“I would like to express my
sincere desire that any review
of this law is with an eye
toward further education of its
specifics to the residents of Ann
Arbor, both pedestrians and
motorists alike,” Hoffert said.
“Ann Arbor has always been
a city that values pedestrian
safety and our laws need to
reflect this value.”
Later in the meeting during
an additional public comment
session Soraya Streeter, Ann
Arbor resident and Skyline
High School student, and her
friend turned attention back to
the need for a crosswalk near
Community High School.
“We
both
have
friends
and my little sister goes to
Community,”
Streeter
said.
“We’re
concerned
because
they seem to be the type that
wear all black. … My sister has
The University of Michigan
is used to winning competitions
in
various
schools
and
departments, but the one it’s
entering now isn’t exactly about
academics.
Instead, University President
Mark Schlissel is calling upon
students to take part in a Big
Ten Conference competition
to help increase voter turnout
rates.
“I invite you to take part
and help the University of
Michigan – and our society
– win,” Schlissel wrote in an
email circulated to the entire
University community Sunday
morning,
focusing
on
the
importance of voter turnout.
This comes as no surprise as
the state is approaching the
2018 midterm election cycle
next academic year.
Over
the
course
of
the
next year, the Big Ten Voting
Challenge will take place across
all 14 universities within the
Big Ten Conference, ending
with the results of turnout rates
among students for the 2018
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 92
©2016 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CROS SWO R D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See COMPETITION, Page 3
University
joins Big
Ten voting
challenge
CITY COUNCIL
Schlissel encourages ‘U’
participation in contest
for increased voter turnout
DYLAN LACROIX
Daily Staff Reporter
ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily
Ann Arbor residents present their concerns to Mayor Chris Taylor and City Council at the Ann Arbor City Council
meeting at Larsom City Hall on Monday.
Ann Arbor City Council considers
improvements for city crosswalk safety
The council also met to talk about increased mental health resources in the city
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See CITY, Page 3
In
response
to
several
recent incidents of racism on
the University of Michigan
campus and throughout Ann
Arbor, students and faculty
hung up posters with phrases
of solidarity and support for
targeted groups Monday night.
“You are loved, valued, and
important. Hatred has no place
here. The Michigan community
stands with you,” a poster read.
Sunday
morning,
three
Black students in the Michigan
Community Scholars Program
discovered
racial
slurs,
including
“n-----”
written
on their dorm room doors.
The same day, Ann Arbor
community
members
found
the same word painted onto
a building near campus, on
Liberty Street and State Street,
along with “Free Dylann Roof.”
Students also tweeted flyers
See POSTERS, Page 3
Students
gather, put
up positive
messages
CAMPUS LIFE
Organizations take stand
against hateful writing by
posting welcoming posters
RIYAH BASHA,
SOPHIE SHERRY &
ALEXA ST. JOHN
Daily News Editors and
Managing News Editor
This
summer,
South
University
Avenue
was
characterized as a frenzy
of
construction.
Several
different projects, including
the building of new sidewalks
and new apartment buildings,
have still been in the works
since classes let out last April.
LSA
sophomore
Josie
Junkin, a University Towers
resident,
was
especially
bothered by the construction
while moving in this August.
“Moving in, it was pretty
hard to find parking spots,”
Junkin said. “And walking
to class, we’ve had to walk
in the street which is pretty
inconvenient.”
The sidewalk restructuring
project,
which
is
a
collaboration
between
the city of Ann Arbor and
the Ann Arbor Downtown
Development
Authority,
was the first of the projects
to start, and will be the
first to wrap up. Because
of the construction, South
University Avenue was closed
to
two-way
traffic
from
East University Avenue to
Washtenaw Avenue.
The
roads
were
slated
to reopen last Friday, but
at the time of publication
South University Avenue is
still blocked off from East
University Avenue to Church
Street.
According to Amber Miller,
a planner from the Ann Arbor
DDA, the sidewalk repairs
were much needed. The last
time they had been updated
was in the 1980s, and Miller
said it was starting to show.
“The sidewalk was in really
bad shape, the trees were
dying, so that was our first
priority,” Miller said. “But
we’ve also been able to put in a
rain garden to deal with some
standing water issues, we’re
able to expand the sidewalk to
reduce the crossing distance.
There’s more space on the
sidewalk for cafes and seating,
South U Ave.
construction
inconvenient
for campus
Student-parents nationwide face
a cut in resources under Trump
See CONSTRUCTION, Page 2
AVA WEINER/Daily
ANN ARBOR
Students, locals complain about noise,
timespan and consequences of building
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Proposed 2018 fiscal budget will decrease access to funds, necessary child care
For
the
vast
majority
of
undergraduate students at the
University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor
campus, the prospect of raising a
family is remote –– something they
do not imagine doing for another
several years, or at least until
they graduate. According to Amy
Szczepanski, campus child care
homes network manager for Work
Life Resource Center, there are only
57 undergraduates receiving a child
care subsidy through the Office of
Financial Aid — though the total
number of undergraduate parents is
likely slightly higher.
For more than 4.8 million
college students across the country,
however, leading a double life as
a student-parent — or, factoring
in work, a triple life — is their
reality. The time they spend on
child care makes them less likely to
graduate on time or at all, and their
responsibilities as a student force
them to sacrifice time with their
children.
And neither child care nor
higher education are uncostly. With
what little time they have between
the two commitments, student-
parents often must work just to
keep themselves afloat; according
to reports from Young Invincibles,
25 percent of student-parents live
below the federal poverty line,
and according to the Institute
for
Women’s
Policy
Research,
88 percent of student-parents at
community colleges live below 200
percent of that.
Child Care Access Means Parents
in School
One
of
the
few
programs
working to address the urgency of
student-parent needs is Child Care
Access Means Parents in School, a
federal competitive grant program
managed by the Department of
Education that awards grants to
colleges and universities intended
to support or establish campus-
based child care programs for low-
income student-parents.
Funded at about $15 million per
year, the program is small compared
to the size of the Department of
Education’s budget, and, serving
approximately 5,000 students, the
ANDREW HIYAMA
Daily Staff Reporter
See PARENTS, Page 3