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The Birmingham Buzz # 9
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March 2, 2002

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Birmingham Buzz. If you missed our first eight editions, check out our archives at http://www.bhambuzz.org/archives.htm.

Our mission: To inform and involve all Birmingham citizens.

Visit us at http://www.bhambuzz.org.

In this edition:

1) Birmingham rebounds: Movie houses, events attract new shops downtown
2) Quarton Lake dredging update
3) City seeks Celebration parade chairperson
4) Building Guide posted
5) City report on Booth Park Workshop # 2
6) Your City Employees at Work Dept.
7) Letter to Eccentric: Commission needs to deal with more important issues
8) The Buzz is a 'hit'; visits top 100/day
9) Editorial: Vinewood case could be costly
10) Editorial: Racky shows intellect, independence
11) Jean Holland appointed to Planning Board
12) Commission shuts down report on crackdown
13) Letter to Buzz: Million-dollar condos don't sell
14) 2d Buzz forum is scheduled
15) To be removed

1) Birmingham rebounds: Movie houses, events attract new shops downtown

From the Detroit News

March 1, 2002

When the expanded Somerset Collection opened in Troy in 1996, it led to considerable vacancies in this city's downtown district as well-heeled shoppers favored the new mall's upscale selections and services.

But downtown Birmingham has slowly reversed its fortunes due in part to the opening of two movie houses, which have helped draw merchants and restaurants back into the city, as well as new civic events, advertising campaigns and marketing programs.

"We just started tracking the occupancy level, but our most recent study shows just over 95 percent," said John Heiney, executive director of the Downtown Birmingham Principle Shopping District, the promotion arm for more than 700 businesses.

While retail sales nationally grew 3.4 percent last year, that was down considerably from a 7.6-percent hike in 2000, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. In turn, retail sales were downdown by 3.4 percent last November and 0.3 percent last December.

Nevertheless, merchants have shown confidence of late in downtown Birmingham by opening new stores or expanding current operations.

Upcoming entries include Tower Records, Ronin Sushi Bar, The Corner, a new eatery at the Townsend Hotel, the Kettle and Crepe restaurant, and a handful of new stores, including Bruce White Gallery, Ambienti di vita, an Italian furniture outlet, and Ecco Shoes.

For 36 years, The Claymore Shop, an upscale men's clothing store, has operated in various locations in downtown Birmingham, and despite a lull in sales following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the store just reported its best-ever holiday season.

"Since we moved to our current location (on Adams Road) two years ago, our business has been steadily growing," said Al Skiba, vice-president of The Claymore Shop. "We have seen more promotions of late, and I think that's helped."

Skiba said the store plans to expand its space shortly to offer clothing for boys as well as custom suits for women.

Heiney and his staff have, in recent months, produced a quarterly magazine spotlighting downtown merchants. The color publication is mailed free to 36,000 households. The group also produced a downtown map, recruitment package for prospective businesses and helped coordinate the Woodward Dream Cruise, art fairs and fashion shows.

Jim Weiner, president of Related Retail Corp. in Birmingham, which is developing two downtown projects -- a $40-million entertainment center called the Palladium, and The Willits, a six-story residential and retail structure offering 58 condominiums priced from $500,000 to $3 million -- said the city has been on a roll.

"Things were pretty slow here after the Somerset Collection opened, but we've seen that entertainment can bring merchants and restaurants into a downtown district," Weiner said. "When the Birmingham Theatre was converted into eight movie screens (in 1996), consumers slowly started using downtown more often."

Many restaurant owners said dinner traffic increased before and after evening shows at the Uptown Birmingham 8, which is operated by David and Carole Ilitch Trepeck. When the couple opened Uptown Palladium 12 two blocks away last November, the combined 20 screens proved to be a hit.

"We were concerned Uptown Birmingham 8 would slow down when the 12 new screens came on line," said David Trepeck, co-owner of Uptown Entertainment Inc. in Birmingham. "But our business there went up 10 percent overall for the eight screens, even as we showed mostly art films."

Click on the following link to see a map and list of future retail development in Birmingham: http://www.bhambuzz.org/images/news_retail_m


2) Quarton Lake dredging update

March 1, 2002

By Jared Rundell
Mill Pond Neighborhood representative
Quarton Lake Improvement Commmittee

Sediment from Quarton Lake, which has been sampled and tested by consultants from Hubbell, Roth & Clark, is safe enough for use in developement of the park, the Quarton Lake Improvement Committee was told at its second meeting Tuesday night.

This was welcome news as it could reduce the amount of truck trips to the landfill, project cost and neighborhood inconvenience. Current water E. coli levels were shown to be unsuitable for swimming, but within safe partial body contact levels. Water bacteria levels and visibility are expected to improve after dredging.

The committee and residents discussed pros and cons of different dredging techniques, sediment de-watering techniques and locations, truck routes from lake to main roads, shoreline stabilization, carp eradication and ways to discourage loitering waterfowl, which contribute to E. coli levels. HRC will incorporate this information into a specific proposal to be evaluated at the next meeting.

It was agreed that when the dredging begins at first frost in late 2002, the contractors be given incentives to work as quickly as possible to reduce the length of inconvenience to surrounding neighborhoods. Measurements show roughly 40,000 cubic yards of deposited sediment to be removed, or about half the amount removed in 1972.

Using input from the first meeting, Wade-Trim created a recreation improvement goal statement that met with unanimous committee and resident approval:

"To provide passive, resource-based recreation to people of all ages that offers a peaceful, serene setting while encouraging interaction with the natural environment. Involve the public in the programming and design of recreational elements to ensure the park becomes a reflection of the community, and residents hold enthusiasm, pride and responsibility for the park."

A suggested park planting list was also presented. Several Birmingham experts will review the list to ensure plants meet desired indigenous suitability.

Specific recreational enhancements will be discussed in depth at the next meeting on March 26, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Department of Public Services, 851 S. Eton St. Interested residents are encouraged to attend.


3) City seeks Celebration parade chairperson

March 1, 2002

The City of Birmingham is seeking a successor to the current chairperson of the Celebration Birmingham parade. "Laura Yauck has done a tremendous job for the last four or five years," says City Clerk Nancy Weiss. "However, she has indicated this will be her last year."

The popular Celebration Birmingham Parade is held every year on the third Sunday in May. The Parade Committee needs a chairperson for the 2003 parade.

The committee meets monthly until close to the parade date, after which it meets more often. The chairperson works with sponsors and parade participants with the help of the other committee members. On the day of the parade, the chairperson coordinates the participants and volunteers. Next year's chairperson would not need to participate in this year's parade, although it would be helpful. Anyone interested should contact Laura Broski at (248) 644-1800, ext. 282, or email lbroski@ci.birmingham.mi.us
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4) Building Guide posted

Click on the following link, or visit the Birmingham Buzz website, to see the city's Building Guide, which includes the Neighborhood Bill of Rights: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/buildingbook.pdf.


5) City report on Booth Park Workshop # 2

February 28, 2002

Click on the following link to see the city's official report on Booth Park Workshop #2: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/BoothWorkshop2.pdf.

The three preliminary designs presented by Wade-Trim can be viewed by clicking on the following links:

Design #1: http://www.bhambuzz.org/images/alternative1big.jpg
Design #2: http://www.bhambuzz.org/images/alternative2big.jpg
Design #3: http://www.bhambuzz.org/images/alternative3big.jpg


6) Your City Employees at Work Dept.

Click on the following link: http://www.bhambuzz.org/images/ticket.jpg


7) Letter to Eccentric: Commission needs to deal with more important issues

February 28, 2002

With regard to your lead article in the Sunday, Feb. 17, edition, "Plan seeks tree protection": I must state that city commissioners have again missed the boat. It seems as though the liberal thinking Mr. Chafetz and Mr. Dixon are proving that they are out of touch with those people and causes that interest the majority of thinkers in the city of Birmingham.

Being a lifelong resident of Birmingham and the father of two children in the Birmingham public school system, I am now fed up with people elected by the public who are supposed to represent the welfare of all the citizens of this city, but who are bent on merely picking up pet projects -- the type of projects that will only benefit individuals within their respective influential pockets of constituents, while ignoring issues that will plague us all until each is addressed with forethought by a logically based city commission.

It is time for us clear-thinking persons to again emphasize that elected officials, city staffers, and other city employees are paid by the citizens of Birmingham. That means all of us citizens.

The pathetic loss of one individual's 75-year-old tree does not make new home building or renovating bad. Contractors are hired agents working on behalf of the citizens by whom they are hired. It is our will that employs these people, not some big, bad, anti-environment, right-wing group. This is freedom of choice, and if someone is injured by the act of others, I am willing to guarantee that remedies are already in place to repair these conflicts. As stated by our city manager, he will enforce existing ordinances. Enough said.

The challenges that face our great city involve bigger issues, and tying portions of the planning board down with such bold-faced, liberally targeted tribulations, misuses not only their time, but ours as well.

Let us move along to fixing, not discussing, more relevant subjects. For example, the parking problems as presented by retail tenants in downtown Birmingham. Recommend other ways shoppers and entertainment seekers can help us raise revenue in our city, instead of driving them away by way of parking tickets. This, in itself, will help us retain retailers, while landlords may be more willing to work out leases with tenants who are pleased with the traffic they are seeing in their restaurants, stores and galleries.

Convenience and good service are what keep people returning to a venue. Our city is anti-convenience and anti-shopper. This is a flawed system that will not only fail, but without innovation will mean the end of our downtown-shopping district.

In summary, it is more than overwhelming to hear that new tree protection laws may actually come sooner than solutions to common sense issues that have beleaguered us for years. Elected officials must approach their positions as important enough to think outside of their small, but forceful, single-focused, constituencies.

Jonathan M. Sherer, Birmingham


8) The Buzz is a 'hit'; visits top 100/day

February 27, 2002

The Birmingham Buzz home page racked up more than 100 hits per day on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the popularity of its online discussion forum grew.

The Buzz has installed new software for its discussion forum, significantly adding to its features and usability. New features include the ability to sort messages, subscribe to topics to receive notifications by email, conduct polls and communicate directly with other members. Click on Discuss, or the link at left to visit the forum.

Counting website hits can be inexact if the mechanism used is unsophisticated. The Buzz employs a free and relatively unsophisticated service called ExtremeTracking. Visitors to the website can view tracking information by scrolling down the home page and clicking on the Extreme logo (a space-age globe). In our case, every time a visitor clicks onto the home page, he or she is counted, even if the visitor temporarily left the site and returned. Visitors who go directly to another page on our site are not counted. Visitors can be identified only by their IP addresses. (The Buzz does not employ cookies in its tracking.)

More sophisticated (and costly) tracking services can nail down exact browsing patterns, eliminate duplicate counts, and provide extremely reliable information about how many browsers visit a site, and how they navigate through it.

The City Commission on Monday night declined to authorize additional funds for development of the Principal Shopping District website in part because the PSD could not provide reliable tracking information. Commissioner Dante Lanzetta criticized the science of web tracking. In fact, it can be quite exact if the system is sophisticated enough; it is the interpretation of the tracking data that is open to manipulation and question.

The Buzz currently has roughly 300 subscribers to its free email newsletter. Stay tuned, and watch us grow!


9) Editorial: Vinewood could be costly

February 26, 2002

The City Commission is cruising for an expensive bruising in its case against the owner of 743 Vinewood. That's the property just off N. Old Woodward in the Holy Name area that the Commission has declared a historic district over the objections of the property owner.

Whatever the historic merits of the property (and it appears to have some), and whatever the intentions of the property owner (he planned to demolish the existing home and replace it), it appears possible, even likely, that a court will find in favor of the property owner. The chain of events and their timing suggest that the Commission's actions were motivated more by a desire to thwart development than by a desire to preserve history.

Mediators have already suggested the city pay the property owner $500,000 and be done with it. The Commission, recklessly we think, rejected the suggestion. We wonder what the Commission's legal counsel advised; we'll bet anybody in town $5 they were advised to take the deal. Of course, the Commission isn't going to account for its actions; that would be commenting on a matter under litigation.

The property owner has a good case. He claims the Commission is unlawfully and unfairly depriving him of the use of his property. (He's also challenging the so-called Bigfoot Ordinance that changed the rules about what you can and can't build on a residential lot.) The judge has set a June trial date, and discovery continues, a process that allows the plaintiff to depose a slew of city officials -- elected, appointed or hired -- and ask them virtually anything about anything. (If that alone isn't a reason to settle...)

If several months ago a mediator said the property owner's claim was worth $500,000, what's it going to be worth by the time this thing is finally settled? The city is insured, but not if the court finds the Commission's action to be a "taking," or an assumption of ownership by eminent domain.

If that happens, guess who pays?

The City Commission needs to wise up. Sticking to its dubious philosophical guns in the face of almost certain defeat is just plain dumb. It could end up costing the taxpayers of Birmingham millions, and it could end up costing our morally righteous (but ultimately political) Commissioners their jobs.


10) Editorial: Racky shows intellect, independence

Frankly, we didn't know what to make of Rackeline Hoff when she was elected to the Birmingham City Commission last November. She seemed qualified, and in campaign appearances came off as intelligent and thoughtful. But then again, she was running informally beside Donald Carney and Gordon Thorsby, two leaders of the arch-conservative movement to change the course of development in town.

During her first few appearances on the Commission, Hoff didn't show many signs of independence. She voted quietly right along with Carney, Thorsby and the rest on such important matters as the recent appointments to the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Board.

But Monday night she showed some real chutzpah. Breaking ranks on several votes, she distinguished herself by nominating and supporting the highly qualified Mark Nickita to the Planning Board. We wish she would have spoken out in favor of Nickita's appointment. After all, the level of professional expertise on the Planning Board is getting critically low, and appointments like this are an opportunity to debate the direction in which the Commission is taking our city.

The jury is still out on how well, if at all, Hoff can articulate a vision for the city. But early indications are that she has the potential to be an intelligent leader and a powerful voice of reason on a Commission where intelligence, leadership and reason are in woefully short supply.


11) Jean Holland appointed to Planning Board

Jean Holland, a 14-year Birmingham resident, part-time dermatologist, mother of five, member of the city's Parking Advisory Board and a director of the Quarton Lake Neighborhood Association, was appointed Monday night to the Planning Board.

The City Commission voted 5-2 in favor of Holland from a field of five candidates that included two architects. Commissioners Rackeline Hoff and Russell Dixon supported architect and former Planning Board Chairman Mark Nickita, a 13-year resident.

The Commission appeared to be continuing its campaign to reject experienced professionals and opt instead to appoint laypeople to the Planning Board. Holland's appointment was supported by Commissioner Don Carney, a Quarton Lake neighbor who said Holland would bring a "feminine perspective" to the Board.

In brief comments to the Commission, Holland said she wanted the position because of her love for the city and her desire to "protect it."

Nickita, whose presentation included a rundown on his professional qualifications and his experience on the Planning Board, said: "We are in a very pivotal time regarding the future of the city and its long-term viability and health. Being on the Planning Board is a very important job that contributes that potential health. It is not a job to be taken lightly, and it's not a job that anyone can do. Experience is important, especially at this time."

Click on the following link to read the Holland and Nickita applications for the Planning Board: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/holland_nickita.pdf.


12) Commission shuts down report on crackdown

A lot of Birmingham residents were scratching their heads Monday night after the City Commission shut down a presentation by city Building Official Mary Ferrario on building ordinance enforcement.

Ferrario's presentation, which was on the agenda for the Commission meeting, followed up on a two-week crackdown by city staff and police that occurred after Commissioner Gordon Thorsby complained about alleged violations of the ordinances at the Commission's Jan. 28 meeting. At least half a dozen members of the city's Community Development staff were on hand for the presentation.

Police Chief Richard Patterson told the Birmingham Eccentric last week that the crackdown resulted in few violations, and cost the city more than $6,000 in overtime.

Just several slides into her presentation, Ferrario was cut off by Thorsby, who bristled at the presentation, calling it "inappropriate." He questioned whether it could expose the city to legal "liability" (City Attorney Tim Currier had no comment at the meeting), and complained that the full presentation was not included in the packet of information provided in advance to the Commission.

Thorsby's presentation, which accompanied his complaints and initiated the crackdown, coincidentally was not included in the Commission's Jan. 28 packet.

In a Jan. 15 letter to City Manager Tom Markus, an attorney for Ferrario alleged that Thorsby, along with Commissioners Don Carney and Dante Lanzetta, "demanded that Ms. Ferrario be fired, bought out or dismissed on some pretext."

Thorsby urged that the presentation be delayed until it could be provided in advance to the Commission. The Commission then tabled the presentation until their next meeting on March 18 -- a meeting that Thorsby plans to miss.

The Buzz is seeking comment from Thorsby, and has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for an electronic copy of Ferrario's aborted presentation.


13) Letter to Buzz: Million-dollar condos don't sell

February 26, 2002

Re: Buzz #8:

Actually, if you build million dollar condos, you don't necessarily get millionaires. Sometimes, you get empty buildings. 400 Hamilton is finished; the Pierce condos were completed three years ago, and both are dark. I won't include the Southfield Road condos. It will be interesting to see how many of the Willits units are in fact occupied when it is done. Talk all you want about what ought to happen, but all that matters is what really happens. Right now, reality is that high end real estate is not selling. And even three years ago, when the economy was booming, million dollar condos in Birmingham's downtown didn't sell.

Jean Holland, Birmingham

Editor's note: Jean Holland was appointed to the Planning Board at the City Commission's Feb. 25 meeting.


14) 2d Buzz forum is scheduled

The second Birmingham Buzz community forum will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26. Mark your calendar, and watch the Buzz for the location and topic.

The first Buzz forum in January drew more than 30 Birmingham residents for a presentation by Geoff Hockman on the Principal Shopping District.


15) To be removed, send a request to info@bhambuzz.org
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