After 
a 
discussion 
about 
potential water erosion from the 
creek nearby, traffic analysis, 
concerns 
about 
mushy 
land 
and fire safety hazards, the 
commission amended two aspects 
of the motion by changing the 
bike parking location and adding 
traffic 
calming 
mechanisms, 
and then approved the motion to 
council.
The commission then moved 
on to discuss two new companion 
projects: 
a 
multi-family 
residential six-story building next 
to the Michigan Theatre and a 
19-story high rise next door on 
East Washington that will feature 
240 residential units. 
Ann Arbor resident Ethel Potts 
attended the meeting and spoke 
out against the projects due to 
the fact they won’t have parking. 
Potts said she already struggles 
to find parking in the State Street 
area, and adding large housing 
complexes will only make it more 
difficult. 
“We have before us all the 
State Street character overlay 
zoning district with a 6-story 
building and no parking,” Potts 
said. “Major problems will result 
since the adjacent public parking 
structure is full with very limited 
hours open to the public. I try to 
use it regularly and can’t.”
However, seven community 
members spoke in favor of the 
State 
Street 
building. 
Doug 
Kelbaugh, 
professor 
at 
the 
Taubman College of Architecture 
and Urban Planning, addressed 
the environmental benefits of Ann 
Arbor residents living further 
downtown.
“The more people that live 
downtown, the more that walk 
and bike, and the less that 
commute by car,” Kelbaugh said. 
“They also live in smaller spaces 
which take less energy to heat and 
to cool, and there are just lots of 
advantages for urban living.”
According to the presenters, 

the East Washington high rise 
requires the demolition of five 
current buildings, it will meet 
LEED silver standards and it will 
have onsite parking. 
Commission members voiced 
concerns regarding room for 
Amazon deliveries, rideshares 
and 
food 
delivery 
services, 
solar energy and the amount of 
affordable housing, but ultimately 
the commission voted to approve 
both buildings.
The last item of business on 
the agenda was an amendment to 
create a new zoning designation 
called a T1 Transit Support 
district. The designation will 
allow 
for 
more 
mixed-use 
development further outside of 
downtown Ann Arbor, creating 
space for a transit corridor. 
City planner Alexis DiLeo said 
the T1 district will be the first 
Ann Arbor district to require both 
residential and commercial areas. 
It is designed to lower energy 
costs and needs for residents. 
She said there is a mixed-use 
requirement, and half of the 
floor area in all buildings, but no 
more than 66 percent of it must 
be used for household living. 
DiLeo added the current target 
area for the district is between 
Washtenaw Avenue, South State 
Street and East/West Eisenhower 
Boulevard. 
Meeting 
attendee 
Joan 
Lowenstein spoke for the board of 
the Washtenaw Housing Alliance. 
She said she is strongly in favor 
of the T1 district because it could 
help the environment and, in turn, 
create affordable housing options.
“I think we have two primary 
crises that are going on right now 
that affect local government: 
the first is climate change and 
the other is affordable housing,” 
Lowenstein said. “If we can 
reduce the need to use cars, that 
will go a long way towards helping 
us with climate change… I think 
this T1 district has great potential 
to increase affordability, not the 
least of which is making sure 
someone doesn’t need to have a 
car.”

Community 
member 

Adam 
Goodman 
said 
he 
“enthusiastically supports” the 
new zoning district. He echoed 
what 
Lowenstein 
said 
and 
discussed how allowing people 
to live close to where they work 
eliminates the need for driving 
everywhere .
“Simply put, we have to find 
ways to get people to be able to 
live closer to where they work, 
where they go to school and 
so on,” Goodman said. “What 
I see here is the beginning of 
a recognition that we need to 
work on housing for people and 
not for cars. This has more of 
an effect than you might think 
because if you remove the 
requirement for developers to 
build space for cars, that makes 
their costs go down, which 
means that the cost of the 
housing also goes down.”
Audience member Julie Ritter 
was not as enthusiastic about 
the T1 district. Ritter is on the 
committee for the Master Plan 
project, which sets Ann Arbor’s 
long term goals for growth and 
development, and has consulted 
nationally recognized groups for 
this work. She said if a T1 zone 
was a good idea, these groups 
would have suggested it. 
“Every 
single 
consultant 
group that we have interviewed 
has 
been 
a 
nationally 
recognized 
group,” 
Ritter 
said.“They are professionals, 
they have wide experience. Do 
you think they have not heard 
of T1 transit support districts? 
Do you think they would not 
recommend them? My other 
concern is the transit piece. 
Ann Arbor has no transit. We 
have a bus system that struggles 
mightily to provide service… 
to get into Ann Arbor you have 
to drive a car. Where are those 
cars going to go? The University 
is proposing a new hospital and 
a college of pharmacy with no 
new parking spaces. Where are 
these cars going to go? Until we 
get transit, why have a transit 
corridor?”

Weinstein shared how his 
first-hand experiences with 
Midwesterners helped him 
structure his stories.
“There is kind of that 
part of the safety that the 
way that people are very 
friendly in the Midwest, but 
also very distant internally,” 
Weinstein said. “And that 
creates 
this 
wonderful 
irony.”
Since 
Roth 
writes 
for 
an 
audience 
of 
primarilyteenagers 
and 
young adults, she has often 
been asked if she feels like 
she’s trying to teach a lesson 
through her readers. Roth 
said she doesn’t feel like 
her writing is supposed to 
teach — it’s meant to be an 
escape from the real world. 

Ultimately, Roth wants her 
writing to be a safe haven 
for young people. 
“I think that it’s pretty 
clear now that the youths 
don’t really need me to 
teach them things.” Roth 
said. “They have access to a 
lot more information than I 
ever did. They are way more 
aware of the world. They’re 
starting climate strikes and 
marching for our lives and 
I think what they need is 
a safe place to go and I can 
create that and a quiet place 
to think, then that’s all I can 
do.”
When asked about her 
process of writing dystopian 
novels, 
Roth 
mentioned 
she is usually a pessimistic 
person, but that changes 
when she starts writing. 
“I have a lot of pessimistic 
impulses, but when I write, 
I tend to challenge my own 

thoughts about the world 
and about people,” Roth 
said. “I’m a little pessimistic 
about people too, but when 
I write I find myself by 
having hope instead and … 
that’s why I do it.”
LSA 
freshman 
Molly 
Duplaga attended the event 
and was excited to hear 
from a successful female 
author. She thought both 
Roth and Weinstein had a 
lot of valuable information 
to share about writing and 
their own life experiences.
“I really enjoyed listening 
to Roth and Weinstein speak 
and hearing both of their 
thoughts on the process 
of writing,” Duplaga said. 
“They were fun to listen to 
and relatable. I liked how 
they both appreciated the 
Midwest and were able to 
put into words what it’s like 
to live here.”

LSA junior Alyssa Cutter is 
from Battle Creek, where two 
wolves were infected with 
EEE. Cutter said she wonders 
if the emergence of EEE is a 
result of climate change. 
“It will be interesting to 
see if this is something that 
emerges again next year and 
the year after that as we see 
the environment for mosquitos 
shifting with climate change,” 
Cutter said.
In 
addition, 
Cutter 
explained she has noticed 
the effects of EEE in her 
hometown, as Battle Creek 
has announced new safety 
measures. The measures have 

received 
some 
pushback, 
though, Cutter said. 
“Public 
health 
officials 
have put out information in 
the last few days that they’ll 
be doing aerial sprays with 
organic pesticide, and there’s 
actually been a lot of push 
back from those counties to 
get aerial spray taken off the 
agenda,” Cutter said. “People 
are worried about what it will 
do to their pets, inhaling the 
residue and the effects it will 
have on pollinators.”
According to their website 
as of Sept. 26, Washtenaw 
County Health Department 
will also participate in the 
aerial spraying of a small 
portion of Washtenaw County 
to combat the spread of the 
virus. It notes residents can 

opt out via email, but affirms 
aerial 
spraying 
does 
not 
carry any significant risks 
to human health, pets or the 
environment.
Since 
climate 
generally 
refers to a long period of time 
and this has been the only 
large 
occurrence 
of 
EEE, 
Spindler suspects weather is 
the source of the spread and 
reaffirms the importance of 
staying informed.
“People can always inform 
themselves by going to the CDC 
site, and there’s a really nice 
EEE virus page that has things 
about prevention, symptoms, 
transmission, statistics, links 
and references,” Spindler said. 
“For any infectious disease 
that you hear about, go to 
some reputable source.

Dingell’s 
late 
husband, 
former 
U.S. 
Rep. 
John 
Dingell, D-Mich., also used 
opioids to treat his pain 
from cancer. Dingell said it’s 
important not to stigmatize 
people with real pain and 
emphasized the need for 
alternative pain medication.
“We 
have 
to 
develop 
alternative pain pills, so that 
people get pain relief without 
becoming addicted, and we 
need to not stigmatize those 
who have real pain, or not 
give them the pills that they 
need, while at the same time, 
keeping our kids, keeping our 
neighbors, our families, from 
ever starting them,” Dingell 
said.
According 
to 
keynote 
speaker Adreanne Waller, an 
epidemiologist and author 
of the Washtenaw County 
Opioid 
Report, 
the 
first 
five months of 2019 have 
shown a decrease in opioid 
prescription and emergency 
overdose visits. 
Waller 
detailed 
a 
number 
of 
factors 
that 
contributed to the epidemic, 
including 
untreated 
mental 
health, 
corporate 
greed, unemployment and 
disabilities.
“There’s a number of — 
and I keep adding to this 
list — big issues that have 
become much more crystal 
clear over the years within 
this 
epidemic,” 
Waller 
said. “The historic, unjust 
responses to the crack and 
cocaine epidemic and how 
that 
injured 
generations 
of families. We’ve learned 
so 
much 
about 
other 
substance abuse disorders… 
the incredible, high profit 
margins 
of 
marketing 
addictive 
substances, 

untreated 
mental 
health, 
mental 
illness 
affects 
changes 
in 
healthcare 
delivery, deepen social ties, 
employment and disability 
challenges, as well as linked 
with 
lacking 
economic 
opportunity. This list gets 
longer and longer.”
Waller also said 2,100 
of 
300,000 
emergency 
department 
visits 
from 
January 2011 to May 2019 
in Washtenaw County were 
related to opioid poisoning, 
and those with Medicaid 
seem to exhibit higher rates 
of visits to the ER concerning 
repeat opioid overdoses.
Waller, along with others 
at the summit, said she 
believes treating childhood 
trauma 
may 
be 
key 
to 
preventing opioid addiction.
“I 
really 
feel 
that 
understanding more about 
the link between trauma 
and opiate overdoses might 
enable us to identify trauma 
as almost the preventative 
test 
— 
mammography, 
if you will — that will 
prevent ultimately an opiate 
overdose,” 
Waller 
said. 
“It helps us to see things 
much earlier than we would 
otherwise. And if that pain, 
that that person has, is 
covered up with a chemical 
euphoria, like opioids, it can 
delay treatment until the 
cancer has spread.”
Adverse 
Childhood 
Experiences, or ACEs, is the 
terminology for measuring 
childhood 
trauma. 
According 
to 
the 
World 
Health Organization, ACEs 
is the most important health 
discovery of the century. 
Zaire 
Totty, 
project 
coordinator for the System 
for 
Opioid 
Overdose 
Surveillance at the University 
of 
Michigan 
Injury 
Prevention Center, said this 
event is a good opportunity 

to bring together people 
from different fields.
“I 
think 
it’s 
a 
good 
opportunity for a lot of the 
different stakeholders to get 
together as well, especially 
because this is an epidemic 
that comes from so many 
different 
parts 
of 
public 
health,” Totty said. “With 
prescribers and recreational 
use, I really think it’s a good 
time to get individuals from 
different disciplines that are 
working on this topic.”
Amy 
Rucker, 
project 
coordinator 
for 
the 
University 
of 
Michigan’s 
Injury Prevention Center, 
acknowledged 
the 
importance 
of 
bringing 
together the community to 
discuss the issue.
“I 
think 
it’s 
really 
important to bring different 
stakeholders and providers 
from 
across 
Washtenaw 
County and across the state 
… to an event to talk about 
something 
so 
important,” 
Rucker 
said. 
“Yet 
even 
within 
organizations 
within the University of 
Michigan, we have a lot of 
different projects and and a 
lot of different centers and 
institutes working on the 
opioid epidemic … So just 
bringing everyone together 
in one space, we get to learn 
what 
everyone’s 
doing. 
We can collaborate, make 
meaningful connections.”
Sarah 
Khan, 
a 
student 
studying 
social 
work 
at 
Eastern Michigan University, 
emphasized the importance of 
the opioid crisis in relation to her 
career path.
“As 
somebody 
who’s 
majoring in social work, I think 
it’s really important to know 
different things that affect 
your community,” Khan said. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 — 3A

Johnson 
said 
the 
ban 
ignores the true reason kids 
vape. 
“What we found out is that 
kids aren’t really attracted 
to the flavors, they’re not 
opposed,” Johnson said. “But 
what they’re attracted to is 
the buzz that they’re gonna 
get 
from 
these 
nicotine 
products, 
and 
they 
are 
usually buying the highest 
nicotine level out there — 
usually around five to seven 
percent.”
After speaking with small 
shop vape owners, Johnson 
said the largest sales come 
from those trying to quit 
smoking, 
who 
typically 
buy products that contain 
nicotine levels at 2 percent 
or lower. 
“If you allow for the low-
level nicotine products that 
are flavored for e-cigarettes, 
the kids aren’t going to be 
gravitating 
towards 
them 
because they don’t get that 
same buzz,” Johnson said.
“The fact of the matter is 
that 65 percent of the kids 
are using mint-flavor vaping 
products,” 
Johnson 
said. 
“The reason they’re using 
mint is because that’s what 
the common flavor for is for 
those 
high-nicotine-level 
products.” 
Rep. 
Beau 
LaFave, 
R-District 
108, 
also 
introduced a bill that would 

overturn the ban. He spoke 
to The Daily about what 
his bill would do, primarily 
restricting 
Whitmer’s 
abilities to declare this as a 
health emergency.
“House Bill 4996 removes 
the governor’s ability to ban 
e-flavored nicotine products 
for adults in the state of 
Michigan and would remove 
her ability (to do so) under 
the emergency health crisis 
act,” LaFave said. 
He said the emergency 
health crisis act was meant 
to address highly contagious 
illnesses. 
“When 
we 
drafted 
the 
statute that gave the governor 
the ability to declare a state of 
emergency for emerging health 
crises, we were thinking about 
things such as bird flu or HIV 
or any other communicable 
disease that could theoretically 
spread as an epidemic,” LaFave 
said. “What (it’s) not designed 
for is things that the governor 
doesn’t like.” 
LaFave said the ban does not 
even address the actual issues, 
which he says are marijuana 
vaping products that contain 
vitamin E. 
“The governor’s ban does 
not affect the actual substances 
that are causing these illnesses,” 
LaFave said. “A study out of 
one of our sister states found 
that over 85 percent of those 
who reported illnesses using 
vaping products were using 
black market marijuana vaping 
products.” 
LaFave told The Daily about 

a vape shop owner in Hope, 
Michigan, who has an 87-year-
old customer who quit smoking 
cigarettes by vaping. He said her 
favorite flavor is Fruity Pebbles 
and believes she is an example 
of how flavored products are not 
geared toward children. 
“That’s what got her to quit 
after 50 years of smoking,” 
LaFave said. 
LSA junior Caroline Nelson 
said she supports Whitmer’s 
ban because she feels it is clearly 
aimed toward protecting the 
younger generations. 
“I agree with it,” Nelson said. 
“I don’t think people should be 
selling things or smoking that 
are so fruity. It’s clearly targeted 
towards younger kids.” 
Nelson said she used to 
vape, but after recent reports of 
vaping-related illnesses, she 
has tried to stop using the 
product. 
“I started Juuling probably 
two years ago and I’m now 
starting to wean off,” Nelson 
said. “It’s so bad for you and 
all these articles are coming 
out and people are having 
seizures, it’s really scary.”
Nelson does not think 
Whitmer’s ban should be 
undercut in any way. 
“It 
makes 
me 
think, 
‘Who do these e-cigarette 
companies and Juul have 
in 
Congress 
that 
they’re 
paying 
to 
overturn 
(this 
ban)?’” Nelson said. “There’s 
no reason people should be 
pushing to allow people to 
smoke.”

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AUTHOR
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SUMMIT
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The University of Michigan 
Sustainable 
Food 
Systems 
Initiative held its 6th annual 
Fast Food For Thought event 
Tuesday night. Nine speakers 
presented on a range of topics 
surrounding sustainable food 
to over 200 students. 
The speakers each had five 
minutes to present their topic, 
creating a fast-paced series 
of lectures. Topics ranged 
from 
childhood 
obesity, 
presented 
by 
Assistant 
Professor Katherine Bauer, to 
Professor John Vandermeer’s 
discussion of sustainability 
in Puerto Rico during the 
current political climate. 
Students 
in 
attendance 
appreciated the short format 
of the talks. LSA junior Mark 
Castaneda said he felt the 
talk was easier to absorb than 
other longer, more research-
heavy events. 
“When you’re talking about 
research, it gets really hard 
to keep people’s attention 
for a long time, so having 
[the presentations] be five 

minutes is really effective,” 
Castaneda said.
Some 
other 
topics 
covered 
included 
analysis 
of whether meal kit services 
can 
be 
environmentally 
friendly. 
Program 
in 
the 
Environment 
director 
Shelie Miller discussed her 
research surrounding meal 
kit services, and whether the 
excess packaging prevents 
sustainability. Miller found 
that, though grocery stores 
have less packaging, using 
meal kits is actually more 
sustainable than shopping at 
the grocery store due to the 
amount of waste emitted in 
each scenario. 
Ultimately, 
Miller 
concluded 
the 
packaging 
wasn’t the deciding factor. 
Instead, it was what was 
in the package that made 
something sustainable or not. 
“It doesn’t matter how you 
get your food,” Miller said. “It 
matters what the protein is.” 
Other speakers, such as 
School 
for 
Environment 
and Sustainability research 
fellow Martin Heller and 
School 
of 
Public 
Health 
research 
fellow 
Katerina 

Stylianou, also focused on 
the issue of protein. They said 
beef was a huge outlier when 
it came to food consumption’s 
effect on the environment. 
Stylianou 
attempted 
to 
answer the question “should 
we all become vegan?” and 
found replacing beef and 
processed meats with more 
sustainable foods such as 
nuts and fruits could lead 
to a 40-percent reduction 
in our carbon footprint, and 
add 50 minutes per day to 
that 
person’s 
life. 
Heller 
stressed the importance of 
institutional change when 
looking 
at 
food 
system’s 
effects on the environment, 
pointing out altering what 
kind of foods universities and 
other large institutions serve 
could have a huge impact on 
the way food consumption 
affects the environment. 
LSA senior Caroline Hall 
told The Daily she thought 
the event was a great way to 
be introduced to numerous 
topics 
surrounding 
food 
systems.

MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter

The initiative held its 6th annual forum for over 200 students

Fast Food for Thought event 
looks at sustainability, meal kits

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

