The City Council of Ypsilanti is having a public hearing on the EMU-city government plan to close College Place (the street in front of Pease auditorium), this Wednesday night, at 7:30. The hearing is in the City Council chambers of City hall, at One South Huron Street, just south of Michigan Ave.
Come one and come all! This is a chance that’s never existed before – for the public to comment on this plan to spend $1.3 million of public money (mostly Eastern’s, very little Ypsilanti’s) to tear up a street, replace it with grass, and create a new pedestrian mall between EMU’s Pease parking lot and the nearly always empty pedestrian mall that exists to the west of College Place.
As I have stated here before, this plan will effectively reduce the ease of access to campus, and from campus to town. It’s a bad plan, one rooted in 1970s campus master plans drawn up before planners knew the limits of pedestrian malls, yet relentlessly pursued by the EMU Business and Finance Division, with no campus input. It’s the kind of thing management teams put on their “to do list” and get brownie points for accomplishing, regardless of whether it serves the university’s real interests.
The plan has been endorsed by various public bodies but has not been discussed in any meaningfully open public forums. Some city officials have told me that the 2002 Cross Street improvement plan was widely discussed, and since that wide ranging 2002 plan alludes to an earlier version of the College Place closure plan, that suffices for public comment. (Others have told me tales of how EMU officials have twisted arms to get the city to sign off on this deal…a poor way to make real friends.)
Part of this rather poor design for the College Place/Pease corner of the EMU campus calls for a little park to be created behind Pease, and to put a stage there…this stage is perhaps for all the musical and theatrical performers who like performing near loud and busy streets, rather than on a stage where the audience can reliably hear the performers. Performers who prefer competing with the noise of traffic might form a large but previously unknown slice of the performing arts community, but will local audiences also enjoy the noise of traffic?
The plan will probably result in a rarely used outdoor stage on campus, next to Cross Street. Who would want to see the same $ spent on improving existing stages in Riverside Park, or building a decent stage on campus at a good location? Well, probably the performing arts community, but who’s asking them anyway? Are there any artists on this campus or in this town whose opinions should be heard? (And why wasn’t the Gallery in the new Student Center properly designed? Look for systemic causes, and you’ll trace them, I bet, to the same sources that thought up this outdoor stage next to Cross Street.)
The plan will also eliminate approximately 60-70 on street parking spots, on College Place and Perrin. This will add to the problems of access between town and campus. Little ol’ Perrin Street will become two way, and, since it’s so nicely hidden from campus by its location behind Pease Auditorium, it is to become one of the major entrances to campus! A major entrance with frequent but needless traffic jams.
If implemented, the College Place plan will make it harder for Cross Street to evolve into what EMU and the town need it to become: A cool college student oriented urban district.
College Place needs improvement. That could be cheaply done, without reducing access.
Come to the hearing. Listen. Have your say. Ask questions. It’s your campus, and your town. 7:30 Wednesday at City Hall.
Remember that a hearing is just that. The Council will “hear” what you have to say. They don’t have to respond to questions or arguments. Just hear you.
So, how did the hearing go, anyway?
Council members tonight seemed very impressed by the arguments made by a half dozen or more Ypsi residents who spoke out aganst the College Place closure plan. Indeed, Council voted to table the motion. Most members of Council, once the hearing on the matter ended and Council took up possible action on the exchange of leases, specifically cited the many problems pointed out by members of the public.
No one spoke in favor of the leases. A representative of student government spoke out against this extravangant expense, in very strong terms, as did several of the most prominent residents of Ypsilanti.
My bet is that the plan will be killed thru the political process. Time will tell. The Ypsilanti-EMU Alliance is growing fast, and we’ll keep on the case.
By the way, tonight was the last Council meeting for outgoing Mayor Cheryl Farmer and for long term Council member Barry LaRue. Many thanks to each of them for their years of service!