Promoting intelligence and reason in city government.
Our mission: to inform and involve ALL Birmingham citizens.
Our mission: to inform and involve ALL Birmingham citizens.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Excitement builds in Triangle District
A Birmingham Eccentric report quotes residents, business owners and developers.Thursday, November 29, 2007
Chen Chow Brasserie opens
Chen Chow Brasserie -- featuring Eurasian cuisine, a sushi bar and a small dance floor -- has opened in the space formerly occupied by Pampas Churrascaria at 260 N. Old Woodward. We hear good things, but haven't yet visited. Anybody been there? How is it?Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Markus changes mind, rescinds retirement plans
From: Tom MarkusSubject: Retirement notice (withdrawal)
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:16:27 -0500
Subsequent to my notice to retire I have had a chance to further examine my future plans and have decided that my retirement notice was premature. There are a number of concerns that I have thought through in the process of rescinding my retirement notice not the least of which are my recent personal health issues. Therefore I am withdrawing the notice to retire on November 1, 2008. As I further refine my retirement plans and make a final decision I will reissue an appropriate notice in order to provide the City Commission with a sufficient amount of time to secure my replacement. Should the commission wish to further discuss this matter either individually or collectively at a future commission meeting I will make myself available. I appreciate your consideration and support in this matter and apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused. I will continue to serve at the highest level to ensure our community is provided with a level of service worthy of our community's reputation.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Bistros sail through commission
Two new bistro license applications breezed through the City Commission Monday night, winning unanimous approval despite anticipated opposition. Noted chef Brian Polcyn and Papa Joe's won approval for their licenses after more than a dozen citizens spoke in favor of them. Opposition from new Commissioner George Dilgard, who had voted against Polcyn when he was on the Planning Board, evaporated as Dilgard reversed his position."Once the bus left (in favor of the thing) nobody wanted to step in front of it," said Buzz contributing editor Chris Longe, who attended the hearing.
Longe said developers had met with neighborhood residents since the Planning Board hearing in September, and apparently had responded adequately to concerns about traffic, parking and noise. Only one resident, who lives on Adams, spoke against the proposal.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Plotnik: Support bistro, 'amazing opportunity'
Our friend, Julie Plotnik, writes:Brian will be before the City Commission at City Hall this Monday, Nov. 19, to bring a proposed bistro style restaurant to Birmingham. He plans to locate it in the new building behind AAA on the corner of Forest and Elm. I hope you will attend (discussion will begin sometime after 8 p.m.) to express your support for this amazing opportunity. Please help get the word out by forwarding this email or by bringing a friend to the meeting.
From the Five Lakes Grill website:
Award-winning chef Brian Polcyn is nationally recognized for his creativity and culinary talents, and as the visionary behind some of Detroit's most acclaimed restaurants.
Polcyn's road to Five Lakes Grill has spanned several decades of devotion to culinary excellence. While still in his 20s, Polcyn honed his skills at two of Michigan's most prestigious restaurants, the Golden Mushroom and the Lark.
He created three of Michigan's most notable restaurants before opening Five Lakes Grill, nearly a decade ago. In 1987, he debuted Pike Street Restaurant in Pontiac, Michigan. Within weeks, food critics were heaping kudos on Chef Brian and his staff. In 1990, he premiered Chimayo, Michigan's first restaurant featuring authentic Southwestern cuisine. Three years later, he created Acadia, an area trendsetter specializing in foods cooked over various hard woods.
Polcyn's national reputation as a chef and restaurateur continued to grow, and so did his family. Now a father of five, he decided to move his family out to the quieter countryside and devote his time to a single restaurant endeavor where he could create and serve the kind of food other chefs can only dream about. To do so, he created, trains and personally supervises a peerless team of chefs, wine experts and service professionals. Chef Brian is so "hands-on" that you'll find him cooking in the kitchen almost every night. His vision for Five Lakes Grill has made it one of the country's most beloved restaurants.
Chef Brian has been featured in local and national publications, including The New York Times, The Detroit News, Atlantic Monthly, Gourmet, Bon Appetite, Playboy, Detroit Hour Magazine, The Detroit Free Press and Wine Spectator.
His numerous awards include three gold medals and a silver medal from The American Culinary Federation. The Hiram Walker Corp. recognized him as a "Rising Star in American Cuisine." In 1990, he was first runner-up in the semi-annual American Culinary Gold Cup Bocuse d' Or, a competition seeking America's top native-born chefs. He has cooked several times at the James Beard House in NYC and was prominently featured in Michael Ruhlman's widely read book, The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection.
Besides operating his own restaurant, Chef Brian teaches charcuterie at Schoolcraft College. He has authored a book on the subject scheduled for publication in 2005. Metro Detroit viewers tune into Channel 7 to watch his weekly cooking show, and catch frequent sightings of Chef Brian working for many local charities, including Michigan Chefs Against Hunger and Share Our Strength
Polcyn's new bistro needs your support
Brian Polcyn wants to open a classy bistro in Birmingham, but new City Commissioner George Dilgard has "issues" with it, and voted against it when he was on the Planning Board.Polcyn's application for a bistro license goes before the City Commission Monday night, and he needs your support.
Polcyn owns Five Lakes Grill in Milford, and used to own Pike Street Restaurant in Pontiac. He is widely known and highly regarded. He wants to put a bistro in the new building at Forest and Elm, behind the new AAA building. It would be the first such establishment in the new Triangle District, and it would give a huge boost to the district. His plan, presented by Birmingham architect Victor Saroki, was supported by five of seven Planning Board members (it passed on a 4-2 vote with supporter Gillian Lazar absent) and the city's Planning Division. But it was opposed by Dilgard and Planning Board member Brian Blaesing.
Dilgard, often a man of few words, did not elaborate on his "issues" with the bistro when the Planning Board considered it in September. He expressed a concern about noise from entertainment, but Saroki said the sound of entertainment would be contained within the building.
Blaesing opposed Polcyn's plan because he thinks bistros should be confined to the downtown, despite the city's adoption of the Triangle District Master Plan, which envisions such uses within the Triangle. He called the neighborhood adjacent to the bistro "fragile" and suggested the bistro would "attack" it.
Neither Dilgard nor Blaesing expressed rational reasons to oppose the bistro, and if Dilgard's opposition carries onto the commission, he should be pressed to elaborate.
Polcyn's plan makes sense for the Triangle District, and it makes sense for the city. It will enhance, not threaten, adjacent properties.
The best way to support the bistro is to show up and speak in support of it Monday night.
If you can't make it to Monday's meeting (7:30 p.m. at City Hall) call or email City Commissioners telling them you support the plan. Click here for their numbers and email addresses.
Also up Monday night is the application for a bistro license from Papa Joe's. Dilgard supported the Joe's application on the Planning Board, and it is less likely to meet opposition.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Barnum meeting schedule is revised
Subject : Barnum Community ForumsDate : Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:14:00 -0500
From : "Lauren Wood"
Attached you will find the revised announcement for the upcoming Community Forums. Dates and times have changed as a result of the first meeting on 11-7-07.
Also, note the Visioning Workshop will be held on Tuesday, November 27, 2007, at 7 p.m. in Classroom 1 at Barnum, rather than the discussed date. Today's email is limited in circulation, so please let your friends and neighbors know of the changes.
Watch the city's website for further updates!
Thank you for your participation!
Lauren
Thursday, November 08, 2007
What we could've had, and what we got
As George Dilgard puts his left hand on the Bible and takes the oath of office next Monday, he should be thanking the Good Lord for the cold November drizzle that helped keep 19 voters from the polls Tuesday, and kept Shelli Weisberg from claiming his spot on the City Commission.The differences between Dilgard and Weisberg are striking, and the effect on the commission of having Dilgard seated, and not Weisberg, will be significant.
Had Weisberg gained a seat, she would have likely contributed to a reasonably consistent majority voting bloc with Tom McDaniel, Scott Moore and Gordon Rinschler. This group probably would have advanced such worthwhile initiatives as the Bates Street extension, and welcomed the kind of public/private partnerships that such a project would have entailed.
Their leadership woulda, coulda been something exciting.
Dilgard, on the other hand, joins only Don Carney in a small voting bloc that is likely to be against any kind of creative development ideas. As the standard-bearers of the Anti movement, they will be vying with McDaniel, Moore and Rinschler for the swing votes of Rackeline Hoff and Stuart Sherman.
Hoff and Sherman are unpredictable. Dilgard is not. As a Planning Board member, he was frequently the "1" in 6-1 and 5-1 votes, and rarely gave up even after losing his cases so miserably. That's because he knew when the Planning Board ceded the last word to the commission, and when it did, he invariably took his cases, privately, to Carney, who would continue to advance them, often with success, on the commission.
Dilgard's disregard for the opinions of staff and a majority of Planning Board members, along with his propensity for behind-the-scenes dealing, is likely to carry over to his work on the commission. The former will be on display for all to see (expect him to disregard not only the planning people, but other advisory boards and staff members as well); the latter will, as always, be hidden from public view.
We sometimes ridicule Hoff and Sherman for waffling. But often, it arises from genuine and noble desires to deliberate in public with open minds. In contrast, Dilgard and Carney deliberate in private and come to the table with anything but open minds. As not a few students of government will assert, that's no way to run a democracy.
For her part, Weisberg, a veteran of many boards, wanted desperately to bring discipline to the commission, a desire shared by Rinschler. Together, they might have had a shot at getting the commission to act like something other than a bunch of amateurs. Alone, Rinschler will have a tough time of it. So if you watch commission meetings and were hoping you could soon stop banging your head against the wall, prepare yourself for more than a few more headaches.
The best outcome of the election, of course, was the drubbing of Seth Chafetz. Be thankful that his bizarre smile and non sequiturs won't be part of the political landscape for some time.
It's too bad, though, that voters decided to trade two women -- Julie Plotnik and Dianne McKeon, who chose not to seek re-election-- for two more men. The upside: with all those women and Chafetz out of the way, it should be fun watching the testosterone fly.
Five thoughts on hearing the news
1. Which of you were among the 19 voters who could have made a difference and gotten Shelli Weisberg elected?2. Three out of four ain't bad.
3. Maybe if certain folks had been more supportive, she would have won. She had a lot to overcome -- a Democrat who works for the ACLU in a conservative Republican district -- and could have been successful with just a few nudges from some important people.
4. As usual, we'll publish the list of voters, so by the process of elimination anyone who cares will be able to figure out who was among the 19 voters who could have made a difference.
5. Five gray-haired white guys, one tax specialist, and one woman will be running our city for the next two years. How many of those 19 non-voters do you suppose were women?
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Dilgard edges Weisberg by 18 votes; Rinschler, McDaniel, Moore win other seats
George Dilgard edged out Shelli Weisberg by 18 votes to win election to the Birmingham City Commission Tuesday. Gordon Rinschler was elected to his first term on the commission, and incumbents Tom McDaniel and Scott Moore easily won re-election.Official results of the voting can be downloaded from the city's website here.
Chris Conti and Robert Lawrence were elected to the school board, and Ann Conigliaro, David Underdown and Michael Earl were elected to the Library Board.
Seth Chafetz lost his bid for commission, and his fellow Library Board member, Joan Heinicke, lost her bid for re-election to the Library Board.
Voter turnout was 25.74 percent, with 3,911 of 15,196 registered voters casting ballots.
The next City Commission, to be seated at the commission's next meeting later this month, will have just one woman, Rackeline Hoff. Commissioners Julie Plotnik and Dianne McKeon did not seek re-election.
Weisberg, who gave up her seat on the Birmingham school board to run for commission, was the Democratic candidate for state representative in 2003 and is employed as legislative director for the Michigan ACLU. Dilgard, a financial analyst, is in his second term on the Birmingham Planning Board.
Vote totals for City Commission were as follows:
McDaniel: 2669
Moore: 2663
Rinschler: 2025
Dilgard: 1929
Weisberg: 1911
Chafetz: 1723
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Anonymous party at hidden location
You are invited to join the "anonymous" leader of the PAC, Chris Longe, and other unknowns at Dick O'Dow's, to await election returns tonight anytime after 7. A purple thumb will be required for admission.Monday, November 05, 2007
Don't let anything keep you from the polls
For Election Day tomorrow, Weather.com says we have a 50% chance of precipitation, which could include rain or snow showers.It's really important that you vote, folks, no matter what the weather.
Four years ago, voter turnout inspired by anger at the anti-development policies of Dante Lanzetta, Seth Chafetz and Gary Kulak spelled disaster for those officials and the policies for which they stood.
Tomorrow, fear for a return to those policies should drive voter turnout. Seth Chafetz is seeking to be reinstated, and George Dilgard, who worked for Lanzetta and sat on the Kulak Planning Board, wants a seat on the commission.
You may not be as angry as you were four years ago, but know this: Your vote tomorrow is as important now as it was then.
Don't let anything keep you from the polls.
If 'anonymous' means 'in plain sight,' we're guilty as charged
We've gotten a few chuckles out of the Letters column in the Eccentric lately. Thanks to Lex Kuhne for mentioning some of them in his guest column below.As always, Dante Lanzetta, Birmingham's own Dick Nixon, played fast and loose with the truth on Sunday as he tried to garner sympathy for himself. His letter needed only a photo of him with his wife and dog. Lanzetta joined the chorus of people calling us "anonymous" even as we sign our editorials and file legal disclosures with the state, as we always have. If we are anonymous, how is Lanzetta able to name us? Hmmm. Four years out of power, and he's lost his linguistic edge.
Lanzetta urged someone -- anyone -- to expose our "various personal and financial motives," when he could easily do it himself, since we've always been up front about our motives. I am a pro-development resident and business owner who values his property rights, wants to shore up the value of his property and see more of the tax burden picked up by businesses; Chris Longe is an architect whose livelihood depends on that development, and whose high-quality residential and commercial projects are on display all over town.
Lanzetta claims not to have had a political organization, nor known George Dilgard, six years ago. Maybe that's because he wasn't running for office six years ago. But he sure had an organization, and knew Dilgard, four years ago when Dilgard helped run Lanzetta's last commission campaign.
Mary Ryan Taras, a former government teacher at Seaholm, continued the silliness about anonymity on Sunday. She had Chris Longe's name and business address and knows how much money the political action committee he leads spent during the campaign. So much for anonymity. Much has changed, apparently, since Taras' retirement. PACs are legal, so-called negative campaigning (wherein unfortunate truth is told about an opponent) is part of the political process, and information about PACs is freely available on the Internet.
Which brings us to that unfortunate truth. Somehow, to some, pointing out that Seth Chafetz and George Dilgard have repeatedly and recklessly disregarded residents' rights and tax bills amounts to making "personal attacks."
Let's start with Chafetz' sponsorship of the tree ordinance. It was his baby, plain and simple. He wanted to restrict your right to trim trees on your own property. When public outcry against those provisions grew deafening, Chafetz dropped his support for those provisions, yet continued to insist, as mayor, that city staff obtain commission approval for any cutting on city-owed property. You wisely voted him out of office.
Personal attack, or unfortunate truth?
Now George Dilgard's lighting ordinance. It has been tabled by the City Commission, in part because it is virtually incomprehensible and in part because it would regulate the emission of light from private property.
Personal attack, or unfortunate truth?
Now your tax bills. Who here thinks his or her tax bill is reasonable?
Nobody? Why? Could it be because Birmingham, at the hands of Lanzetta, Chafetz and Dilgard (with not a little help from Gary Kulak and others), changed downtown zoning laws to make it impossible to build an economically viable building, thus chasing away millions of dollars in investment (during an economic boom, when there was plenty of dough to go around) that would have attracted businesses that would now be bearing a larger share of the tax burden?
Personal attack, or unfortunate truth?
Lex Kuhne says it as well as it can be said. Chafetz and Dilgard had their chance. They blew it, and that's why your tax bills are through the roof. That's not a personal attack on Chafetz and Dilgard, it's the unfortunate truth.
The guys you elected four years ago -- Tom McDaniel and Scott Moore -- are finally cleaning up the mess, and along with Shelli Weisberg and Gordon Rinschler, will continue to make Birmingham a better, more attractive community.
Site is back; emailer still down
The Buzz website was down temporarily this morning, but is back now. The outage was related to a technical issue with our hosting provider, not, as was suggested by several readers, to a vendetta by Paul Reagan. Our emailer is still down; if it's back in time, we'll send a couple more dispatches.Short memories, not negativity, plague campaign
Our friend, Lex Kuhne, writes:Dear Clinton,
With all the hoo-ha that's been flying around this last week of the commission campaign, I keep coming back to a quote we all know: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --George Santayana. Yes, some could regard the Residents for Birmingham PAC's positions as harsh, but it's only because the PAC has been trying to jam four years of discourse into two months of campaigning.
The forgetting has been annoyingly rampant:
* The Eccentric decries negative campaigning, yet forgets where this tone started, perhaps from lack of institutional memory. I've been around here long enough to remember when the Antis coined the phrase "bigfoot" as a pejorative for what the city's residential market was (and is) demanding, but which has since become synonymous at the Eccentric for larger new homes. This nasty tone first started with the anonymous fliers in the early '90s predicting Birmingham's death from Bigfoots, and became entrenched with the bogus (anonymous) allegation of an open meeting violation at Dick O'Dow's, which put civic volunteers under criminal investigation, probably as payback for their political positions. It got worse when Birmingham threw in with Bloomfield Township on the 425 plan to keep Pontiac from developing Bloomfield Park, and venom was directed at those who opposed Birmingham getting involved in property five miles from its borders. (Gee, didn't that turn out well for Birmingham?!?!) Good people like Mike Wooley and Archie Damman and Coco Siewart and Bob DeLaura got off the commission after the smearings of those early Antis.
* Speaking of so-called "anonymous" mailings, I find it interesting that the same people who are calling the PAC's mailings "anonymous" have somehow figured out that Chris Longe is behind them and know exactly how much money the PAC is spending. I wonder how? Is it maybe because Residents for Birmingham is fully registered with the county and has filed all the necessary paperwork, and so is anything but anonymous? These people forget campaigns past where Antis sent out truly anonymous -- and illegal -- mailings tinged with racism.
* Dorothy Conrad forgets her bouts with Antis in the 1970's when her vision for Birmingham included reasonably priced housing, and it got her driven out of office. I'm sure she felt her position constituted progress for Birmingham, but she now questions any and all progress or change in the city.
* David Bloom forgets to mention that he's Seth Chafetz' campaign manager in his letter to the Eccentric (and the Eccentric forgets to correct it). He also forgets that Seth had his time to get the city moving post-2016 Plan, and consistently obstructed development, both residential (hello, tree ordinance!) and commercial.
* Mr. Lanzetta is correct in his letter to the Eccentric that he has graciously stayed away from city politics for four years, and I'm sure you will join me in thanking him for doing so. However, he forgets that while he was schmoozing his way up the ladder at SEMCOG and scoring a fellowship (both of which are greatly admirable, but neither of which he was elected to do), he arguably took his eye off the ball in tending to the business of his hometown. As they say, "Familiarity breeds contempt," which I imagine goes both ways after 18 years. His one line that I remember is, "If you don't build it, they won't come," which is as good an explanation as any why Birmingham's now in the crosshairs of Bloomfield Park and the Pavilions of Troy. Just because you're gone, Mr. Lanzetta, your actions on the commission haven't been -- can't be -- forgotten.
* Whiny types who bemoan the Buzz and the Residents for Birmingham PAC as "negative" forget what negative campaigning entails. I haven't seen any personal attacks toward anyone on either the site or the mailers -- no name-calling or questioning of patriotism or lifestyle. Nope, just questioning and opinions on policy positions and behavior and conclusions drawn therefrom. It's negative only to those who disagree with the conclusions. I quote Harry Truman: "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they feel like they're in Hell."
The bottom line is that Tom McDaniel and Scott Moore are good people who have done good work and deserve re-election.
I enjoy my encounters with both George Dilgard and Seth Chafetz and respect some of their work, but I can't give them my vote. I can't vote for Seth because he had four years on the commission to press for the things that have happened the last four, and he didn't, plus he has contributed nothing to the Library Board. And, though I was on the same side as George on the Shain Park bond vote, I can't vote for him because of the way he has damaged the city's advisory board process by regularly end-running the Planning Board majority (which he's usually not in) to lobby the commission (e.g. Don Carney) directly, creating the illogical new ordinance on detached garages literally on the fly, as well as fostering chaos that threatens the city's operations.
To vote for Shelli Weisberg and Gordon Rinschler for the last two seats is pretty obvious to me. Shelli has been a dedicated civic volunteer for forever, and will bring all sorts of governing and budgetary experience from her time on the Birmingham School Board. Gordon, too, has a connection to the School Board through his wife, but has done steady, creative, bridge-building work on the Historic District Commission and Design Review Board and has a ton of new ideas for how the commission can operate. They're great people, and will bring a new level of creativity and civil discourse to the peoples' business.
If you like most of what has happened in Birmingham since 2003, you should vote for McDaniel, Moore, Weisberg and Rinschler. I do, and I will.
See you tomorrow.
