About 
20 
Ann 
Arbor 
residents 
attended 
an 
affordable 
housing 
workshop in the Ann Arbor 
Downtown 
Development 
Authority 
building 
on 
Thursday night. As the 
first of a five-step series of 
workshops, the city of Ann 
Arbor 
and 
SmithGroup, 
an 
urban 
design 
firm, 
gauged the interest of Ann 
Arbor residents in a new 
affordable 
housing 
plan 
the group is developing. 
Affordable 
housing 
is 
defined 
as 
costing 
30 percent or less of a 
household’s gross annual 

income. 
To 
spread 
the 
word 
about 
workshops, 
representatives 
of 
SmithGroup visited various 
University 
of 
Michigan 
classes on real estate. The 
city of Ann Arbor wanted 
to give as many people as 
possible the opportunity 
to participate.
Michael 
Johnson, 
leader of the urban design 
practice 
at 
SmithGroup, 
has taken the lead on 
this project and hopes to 
complete the program with 
the help of the Ann Arbor 
community.
“Our firm is architects, 
engineers, 
landscape 
architects 
and 
urban 
designers, 
and 
we 
get 

to 
work 
all 
over 
the 
country,” 
Johnson 
said. 
“Both 
doing 
design 
exercises 
and 
running 
public 
engagement 
exercises 
and 
working 
with 
neighborhoods, 
communities and cities to 
re-envision what our cities 
might be in the future.”
The workshop consisted 
of three different stations 
in which members used 
virtual reality to visualize 
what the buildings would 
look 
like 
in 
different 
locations. 
The 
location 
options were the former 
Y-lot 
and 
415 
West 
Washington. At another 
station, participants used 
Legos to build potential 
options 
for 
affordable 

housing locations.
Taubman 
graduate 
student Jiawen Qiao is 
taking a class on real estate 
development. She chose to 
attend this event to give 
her a real-life example 
of what she’s trying to 
accomplish in class. 
“We 
are 
actually 
bringing 
about 
some 
apartments,” 
Qiao 
said. 
“And we’re also thinking 
about 
adding 
some 
affordable units into it. So, 
our 
professor 
suggested 
we come to some of the 
committee meetings about 
affordable housing to learn 
more.”

Members of the Climate 
Action Movement and the 
One 
University 
Coalition 
from all three U-M campuses 
joined 
forces 
to 
protest 
before and after the Board of 
Regents meeting on Thursday, 
ultimately 
blockading 
the 
exits following the meeting in 
response to the University’s 
lack of action regarding their 
demands. 
U-M Flint senior Lucine 
Jarrah, a member of One 

University, 
addressed 
the 
crowd 
at 
the 
pre-meeting 
protest. She began by saying 
the University has not listened 
to these student activists and 
has instead actively pushed 
them aside. 
“Over the last year, our 
movements 
have 
been 
actively 
demonstrating 
the 
urgency 
and 
addressing 
the 
drastic 
inequities 
in 
Flint and Dearborn, as well 
as 
establishing 
a 
carbon 
neutrality agreement at the 
University 
of 
Michigan,” 
Jarrah 
said. 
“Instead, 
for months we have been 
consistently sidelined by the 

Board of Regents who have 
been 
dismissive 
in 
every 
opportunity to communicate 
our mission.”
Jarrah said no progress 
has been made in the One 
University 
Campaign, 
and 
while the University says they 
support their cause, no action 
has been taken. 
“Time and time again we 
are seeing the University of 
Michigan deny and reject the 
inequitable conditions on the 
Flint and Dearborn campuses,” 
Jarrah said. “This denial 
has only managed to fuel 
the instability and mistrust 
between our campuses and, 

in the end, students are the 
ones getting left behind. The 
One 
University 
Campaign 
was formed in January of last 
year. It is now almost a year 
later, and we have yet to see 
the results we need ... words 
of solidarity are no longer 
enough. We need action and 
we need it now.”
LSA 
junior 
Solomon 
Medintz, who writes for The 
Daily’s opinion section, was 
the last speaker before the 
board 
meeting. 
He 
noted 
while the big picture goals 
and demands are important, 
the point of the protests at the 
meeting are to get the bare 

minimum of action needed to 
keep the University on track. 
“This is a critical moment, 
and 
we 
haven’t 
gotten 
anything, and we need to 
know that we’re going to 
have a chance of getting our 
big picture goals,” Medintz 
said. “We’re not asking for 
everything 
today; 
we’re 
asking for what is absolutely 
necessary.” 
Medintz then expressed his 
frustrations surrounding the 
University’s decision not to 
take action. He said despite the 
administration voicing their 
support for the movements, 
nothing has happened. 

“Both our movements have 
met with the administration 
and regents dozens of times, 
and although officials have 
said they support our goals, 
they do nothing,” Medintz 
said. 
“They 
do 
absolutely 
nothing. So, we are here to 
say that we are not going to 
be silenced or pushed aside 
anymore.”
LSA junior Amytess Girgis 
told The Daily the University 
is mistreating people of color, 
not only on campus, but around 
the world, because climate 
change 
disproportionately 
impacts minority populations. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, December 6, 2019

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Vol. CXXIX, No. 42
©2019 The Michigan Daily

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O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit
Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
@michigandaily

Protestors call for equity, climate 
action at final Regents meeting of year

Climate Action Movement, One University demand ‘U’ withdraw fossil fuel investments, provide equitable funding

LIAT WEINSTEIN 
& EMMA STEIN
Daily Staff Reporters 

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Protesters from the University of Michigan’s three campuses demonstrated outside of a Board of Regents meeting in Ann Arbor on Thursday.

See REGENTS, Page 3

Michigan’s largest marijuana 
company recently opened on 
Nov. 15 at 1958 S. Industrial 
Highway in Ann Arbor, about 
a seven-minute drive from the 
University of Michigan’s central 
campus. With the addition of this 
new location, there are now 12 
marijuana dispensaries in Ann 
Arbor. 
Skymint, part of Green Peak 
Innovations company, now has 
four stores in Michigan. The Ann 
Arbor location is housed in a 2,500 
square foot space, and is open from 
11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. 
The 
Michigan 
Marijuana 
Regulatory recently announced 
that, 
beginning 
on 
Dec. 
1, 
residents will legally be able to 
purchase marijuana from stores, 
after its legalization in Michigan 
last year.
The 
store 
was 
approved 
for a recreational marijuana 
license 
last 
week. 
Summer 
Ransom, president of retail for 
Skymint, said the legalization of 
recreational marijuana creates 
a safer and more regulated 
environment for users, who now 
will not have to rely on the illicit 
market for product.

U.S. 
Rep. 
Debbie 
Dingell, 
D-Mich., joined a bicameral 
delegation to the Madrid Climate 
Convention 2019 on Dec. 2. 
The conference is the 25th 
session of the Conference of the 
Parties. Along with Speaker of 
the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., 
and other key Democrats, Dingell 
joined other international leaders 
for a weeklong convention to 
discuss steps forward with the 
Paris Climate Agreement of 2016. 
This was the first time Dingell 
traveled to a Conference of the 
Parties. 
The Paris Climate Agreement’s 
central aim is to “strengthen 
the global response to the threat 
of climate change by keeping 
a global temperature rise this 
century well below 2 degrees 
Celsius 
above 
pre-industrial 
levels.” The treaty was signed on 
April 22, 2016 by 196 state parties. 
Dingell noted the importance 
of staying on track with the 
Paris Climate Agreement, even 
if the Trump administration 
is 
planning 
on 
formally 
withdrawing from the Paris 
Climate Agreement within the 
next year. 

Dingell in 
Madrid to 
attend UN 
 
 
gathering

GOVERNMENT 

JULIA FANZERES 
Daily Staff Reporter 

Workshop gauges interest from 
community on new housing plan
SmithGroup and city of Ann Arbor host event to discuss affordability

BUSINESS

Michigan representative 
joins delegation with 
other Dems for global 
convention on climate

Largest company in 
state launches local 
dispensary, bringing 
total sellers in city to 12

ANGELINA BREDE 
Daily Staff Reporter

See DINGELL, Page 3
See MARIJUANA, Page 3 

Skymint 
opens A2 
marijuana 
business

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Ann Arbor residents take part in an affordable housing workshop in the Ann Arbor Downtown Development building Thursday.

See HOUSING, Page 3

BRAYDEN HIRSCH
For the Daily