Ypsilanti in the News

Ypsilanti biz helps IdeaPaint become reality
9 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
When only family and friends believed in IdeaPaint, a promising Massachussetts-based start-up, Ypsilanti's CAS-MI Laboratories gave them a shot at the big time.

Excerpt:

The young entrepreneurs refused to believe it. "Our joke was, if we could put a man on the moon, we can make dry-erase paint," says Newman, 25.

Then they found CAS-MI Laboratories in Ypsilanti, Mich., where the scientists were willing to give their plan a shot and even cover some of the development costs.

With the help of $1 million from family, friends and a few angel investors, the group spent the next four years fine-tuning their recipe.

Read the rest of the story here.

Pure Fantasy In Ypsilanti
9 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
More than just a place to buy Halloween costumes, Fantasy Attic offers an epic selection of dress-up options year round. It's also an indelible part of Ann Arbor's past, and now Ypsilanti's future. Learn what the coolest shop in Depot Town does the other eleven months of the year.

Ypsilanti's What is That? building preps for new facade
9 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
The Maurer family has a some noticeable plans for the building that houses the Mix and What is That? art gallery in downtown Ypsilanti.

The Ypsilanti-based developers bought the structure at 128-130 W Michigan Ave. in 2007. Then it was a vacant foreclosure with a lot of problems, ranging from a leaky roof to condemned apartments.

"There were a few challenges," says Eric Maurer, who co-owns and develops a number of rental properties in Ypsilanti with his wife Karen.

They rehabbed the 2-story building into six lofts and some ground floor retail space that filled up relatively quickly. However, the rusted and weather-worn steel paneling and other façade improvements of yore remained unaddressed, until this year.

The Maurers plan to spend $123,500 to repair the brick façade of the early 20th Century building and add some fresh paint. They also plan to replacing the windows with Low-E glass. The end result should be a refreshed Art Deco look that will look completely different.

"I really want to make it a show stopper," Maurer says. "It's a pretty important corner to downtown."

The Maurers are applying for matching façade-improvement funds from state of Michigan. Construction is expected to begin this spring or summer and wrap up before next winter sets in.

Source: Eric Maurer, co-owner of 128-130 W Michigan Ave
Writer: Jon Zemke

AATA earns $2.3M in stimulus cash for transit center
9 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
More mass transit funding is making its way into Ann Arbor courtesy of the feds.

The U.S. Dept of Transportation has awarded the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority $2.3 million as part of the $34.6 million Michigan received in federal transportation fund last week. The money ($700,000) is primarily geared toward rebuilding U-M's Central Campus Transit Center and improving AATA's bus storage facilities.

Earlier this year, U-M decided to redevelop its transit center along North University Street by the university's Chemistry building. The new bigger and better transit center will have more space for bus loading, storage and be more accessible and user friendly to the primarily student patrons. It will service both U-M and AATA buses.

"It's a key transfer location," says Mary Stasiak, a spokeswoman for AATA.

The $4.5 million project was designed by the U-M Dept of Architecture and Hubbell, Roth & Clark. Construction will begin shortly and finish by this fall.

Another $1 million will go toward improving AATA's bus storage facilities. More money ($220,000) will help improve bus stops and pedestrian safety around them. Some of the money will also be used to help maintain service to the Ypsilanti.

Source: U.S. Dept of Transportation and Mary Stasiak, a spokeswoman for Ann Arbor Transportation Authority
Writer: Jon Zemke

Ypsilanti's Clean Energy Coalition wins $50K energy grant
9 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
The Clean Energy Coalition continues to rake in the government grant money, taking in another six figures to help spread the gospel of energy efficiency.

The Ypsilanti-based non-profit received $58,300 from the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, & Economic Growth to help communities become more energy efficient and utilize more clean energy outlets. The Clean Energy Coalition's money will allow it to do this in 37 small communities (35,000 people or less) in south and south-central Michigan.

"We'll be doing things like helping them with energy audits of their facilities and setting up monitoring systems of their energy systems," says Sean Reed, founder and executive director of the Clean Energy Coalition.

The Clean Energy Coalition has received millions of dollars in state and federal grants over the last year. Most of that money is geared toward pushing for more energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in transportation.

The Michigan Municipal League Foundation, also received a $58,396 state grant. The Ann Arbor-based organization will use it to do the same thing in the southwest, western and northern portion of the state.

The grants are part of a $195,996 grant from the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, & Economic Growth. The funds originally came from the federal stimulus package. That money will help 125 municipalities receive technical assistance on becoming more sustainable from four non-profits. That basically means it will help these communities make their facilities more energy efficient through things like energy audits and harness renewable energy sources.

The other two non-profits to receive funding are the WARM Training Center in Detroit, which will cover southeast Michigan, and the Michigan Energy Options in East Lansing for communities in the state's Upper Peninsula.

Source: Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, & Economic Growth and Sean Reed, founder and executive director of the Clean Energy Coalition
Writer: Jon Zemke

3 Ypsilanti businesses win façade improvement grants
2 March 2010 | 7:00 pm
Three downtown Ypsilanti buildings have been selected to apply for the matching façade improvement grants from the state of Michigan.

These three developers are asking for $92,817 in matching funds from the $400,000 the state sets aside each year to help jump start façade-improvement programs. The program matches up to 50 percent of a project's cost. These projects revolve around improving building exteriors, such as creating bigger windows and restoring brick facades.

The candidates include the Mix and What is That? art gallery at 128-130 W Michigan Ave. in downtown. That $123,500 project calls for replacing the windows with Low-E glass, repairing the brick façade and some fresh paint. A rental property on 601 W Cross St. hopes to replace its front porch and door, replant some trees and add some fresh paint.

The third project includes freshening up the former Silent Cat building at 12-16 N Huron. That project would repair and clean its brick façade, replace its awnings and install some custom lighting fixtures.

The Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority expects to hear from the state by April. Each selected city can take in between $25,000-$100,000 of the $400,000 in state funds.

"I'm pretty sure its all or nothing," says Tracy Lewis, interim director of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority.

Source: Tracy Lewis, interim director of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority
Writer: Jon Zemke

EMU takes over Michigan's Historical Marker program
23 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Eastern Michigan University's revered historic preservation program is extending its reach now that it's taking over Michigan's Historical Marker program.

EMU is working with the Michigan History Foundation and the Michigan Historical Commission to run the program. This means every time you see one of those new historical markers detailing the story behind a building, EMU will have helped make that possible.

"We have a long relationship with Eastern Michigan and we know the students there," says Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing. "They were interested so we thought this would be best for Michigan's historical markers."

The program began in 1955 to ensure that markers tell the important, accurate stories about Michigan's past. There are now about 1,630 markers across the state. An executive order shook up the normal agency that has overseen the program, so handing it over to EMU and its partners was done as a cost-cutting move.

EMU will incorporate the historical markers into its graduate Historic Preservation Program. Selected students will prepare marker texts as the final project for a master's degree and present them to the commission for approval. EMU's Historic Preservation Program is the largest graduate program in historic preservation in the nation, and the only such program in Michigan.

Source: Eastern Michigan University and Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing
Writer: Jon Zemke

New Chinatown developing near Ypsilanti?
16 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Could the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area organically grow its own Chinatown now that Hua Xing is expanding its Asian market business to include an adjacent restaurant? If plans for further expansion come to fruition the answer could be yes.

Xingchou Wang, the owner of Hua Xing Asian Market and his management team have researched and toured many of North America's major metropolitan areas and noticed they all have something that Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti and Metro Detroit doesn't.

"The one thing they all have in common is a Chinatown," says Steve Xiao, the general manager of Hua Xing. "We don't have one."

Hua Xing has invested in excess of $1 million to turn an old Chinese buffet-style eatery into a much bigger sit-down Chinese restaurant. The new facility, next door to Hua Xing on Washtenaw Ave. (by the Ypsi-Arbor Bowl), will seat about 500 people and measures nearly 15,000 square feet. The Asian market remains the same.

Xiao sees Hua Xing growing its presence on that section of Washtenaw in the near future, with even more Chinese and Asian offerings. The idea is to create an Asian retail center for all of Michigan.

Watch Concentrate's video on Hua Xing here.

Source: Steve Xiao, the general manager of Hua Xing
Writer: Jon Zemke

Q&A: Stewart Beal on the future of Ypsilanti's Thompson Block
16 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
The road to redevelopment for the Thompson Block has been both long and winding, to put it nicely. But its developer is willing to shed a little light on what's ahead and why it's worth the journey.

Stewart Beal wants to turn the historic building on the eastern edge of Ypsilanti's Depot Town into a combination of lofts and commercial space. He was well on his way to doing so before the financial crisis and then a fire hit the development. But Beal remains unfazed, and continues working to make the project a reality.

He recently put forward plans to finish stabilizing the building and remove the supports from the sidewalk and street within the next year.

Full disclosure: This writer has argued on MarkMaynard.com to give Beal a fair shot at redeveloping the site after the fire.

Here is Beal's argument for why the Thompson Block project remains viable. He answered the questions via email.

It was pretty difficult making this project work before the fire, please explain why this project is still feasible after the fire?

It was actually very easy to make this project work before the fire. What stopped us in our tracks was the financial crisis, particularly the crisis in commercial real estate lending. The project always worked financially until the fire and we had a good loan offer until Citizens Bank purchased Republic Bank and then closed the Republic Bank real estate lending department. Currently not a single bank in the Midwest, that I am aware of, is providing construction financing of this type.
 
This project will only become feasible with a massive infusion of equity and debt. I am pursuing both.

There are a lot of people who believe the city should just knock down the Thompson Block and move on. You are clearly not one of them. What would it mean for Ypsilanti if this project came to fruition?

Let me be clear: There are not a lot of people who believe the city should just knock down the Thompson Block and move on. The vast majority of the business people, the decision makers in the City of Ypsilanti, and the people who come to the city council meetings to express their views, want to see the building saved. There continues to be a lot of people who are extremely supportive of my efforts to develop the building before and after the fire and I am extremely grateful for that support.
 
I would recommend that you ask others what it would mean for Ypsilanti if this project came to fruition because I wouldn’t like to presume. But I know it would be the greatest accomplishment in my life to date. I live in the area and spend a lot of time in Depot Town so it is important for both personal and business reasons.
 
Most developers would walk away from a project like this after the fire. Why are you determined to move forward?

I finish what I start, no matter how difficult or costly.

If the Thompson Block falls, what are the chances something will be built on the site any time in the next decade? 

The answer to this question depends completely on the Michigan economy, and the health of the Michigan commercial real estate market. I wish I could predict the future and answer this question. In my opinion it will be 7 to 10 years before a new building could be built on the site.

Describe what it's like to get financing for this project?

Obtain financing for this project continues to be a frustrating experience. I work on this on a daily basis.

In a sentence or two, sum up the argument for going forward with this project?

The Thompson Block is one of the most historic buildings in the State of Michigan and is extremely important to Ypsilanti's history. The City of Ypsilanti was founded over 100 years ago and it will be here 100 years from now. I would strongly urge the community to think long term and work to preserve history, on every building in Ypsilanti, no matter how difficult or temporarily inconvenient.

Source: Stewart Beal, developer of the Thompson Block
Writer: Jon Zemke

Ypsilanti pushes façade improvement program
16 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Ypsilanti is making another effort to put a better face on its downtown, but this year local officials are taking that cliché literally. They are rallying local stakeholders to make plans to improve building facades in the city's downtown and Depot Town.

The Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority is hoping to harness part of $400,000 in state money to jump start its façade improvement program. That money could lead to a 50 percent match for stakeholders who make significant improvements to their building's exteriors. Think: bigger windows or restoration of brick façades.

"We have had a few businesses come and make inquiries," says Tracy Lewis, interim director of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority.

If successful, Ypsilanti could rope in between $25,000-$100,000 in state funds. Applications are due later this month and the decision is expected by spring.

Source: Tracy Lewis, interim director of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority
Writer: Jon Zemke

Proof that Ann Arbor still has a viable arts community
9 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Is Forest Juziuk's existence proof of the viability of Ann Arbor's arts community or that Ypsilanti's arts community is not only on the rise but has arrived? Two stories from AnnArbor.com and MarkMaynard.com examine both angles.

Excerpt:

Forest Juziuk is a bit of a Renaissance man. Managing Wazoo Records (336½ South State) by day and upping Ann Arbor’s cultural clout on the side, Juziuk hosts popular experimental film and music events; performs as a DJ, comedian and performance artist; designs posters for the Ann Arbor Soul Club; runs record label Hall of Owls; and has published stories by artist/musician Brent Van Daley.

Juziuk says, “I don’t know exactly what the impetus was” for initially getting involved in the film, performance and music scene. However, he shares a clear vision of what he thinks is lacking from Ann Arbor’s creative scene and how he thinks his events and performances fill a cultural void.

"Ann Arbor is a strange place. It seems like it wants to be a big city, but it really isn’t. We don’t have all of the amenities that they do in a big city,” which include a lot more venues to choose from and more avant garde, experimental happenings. “Part of it is to make Ann Arbor livable for ourselves, by featuring the kinds of acts I want to see and the films I want to see,” he says.

Read the rest of the story here and Mark Maynard's take on it here.

Ypsilanti plans to invest $100K in Harriet Street corridor
9 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Ypsilanti's Harriet Street corridor is about to get a little love. Actually, a lot of love. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of love.

The city is moving forward with utilizing $100,000 in Community Development Block Grants to tackle problematic buildings in the neighborhood (and other areas of the city) and create a long-term plan for the area.

"Harriet Street is a place where we see a need," says Richard Murphy, a city planner with Ypsilanti.

Half of the $100,000 will be used for rehabilitation of homes and structures throughout the city. About $20,000 will be used to develop a long-range plan for the Harriet Street corridor. Another $30,000 is being put aside for dealing with dangerous buildings by either facilitating their development or razing them. Among those problematic buildings is the Parkview Apartments building.

The Harriet Street corridor is the city's southern gateway from I-94. It has been hard hit by foreclosures and business closings recently.

Source: Richard Murphy, a city planner with Ypsilanti
Writer: Jon Zemke

Ypsilanti's Spur Studios full, next version on the way
9 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
James Marks had always heard the rumblings of Ypsilanti becoming the new Bohemia for local artists, but he never really bought into that way of thinking until he opened Spur Studios.

Half a year later the Russell Industrial Center-style artist center on Ypsilanti's east side is hanging up its "no vacancy" sign and operating on cruise control. It became such a quick and impressive success that Marks plans to open another studio soon.

"It obviously occurred to us that this is marketable. It's been a fantastic experience," says Marks, who also serves as the founder and creative director of Ypsilanti-based VGKids. "The community has really turned out. Ypsilanti is getting this reputation as an artistic community and I didn't really believe it because I had been here for 10 years and never really felt it. But there is an artistic community here. We have had an overwhelming response."

Spur Studios transformed vacant office space attached to an old manufacturing facility near Eastern Michigan University, 800 Lowell St., into studio spaces for artists and small businesses. Right now that 10,000 square feet of space is full with artists and entrepreneurs looking for a place that costs a few dollars a month in rent and comes with even fewer rules.

"There are some graphic designers making a living here and some people making art," Marks says. "There are some dedicated hobbyists."

Source: James Marks, founder of Spur Studios
Writer: Jon Zemke

Saline's use of Google apps saving money
9 February 2010 | 7:00 pm
Name the Washtenaw County municipality creating the most efficiencies with Google-based software. Nope, it's not Ann Arbor. It's not Ypsilanti either. Try Saline.

Excerpt:

Still, Google’s momentum within schools seems real. One recent example involves a Michigan school district that claims to have saved an estimated $400,000 by switching an on-premises e-mail solution over to Google Apps Education Edition. The Saline, Michigan, school district may only claim 600 employees, but I think it’s a perfect demonstration to MSPs on the power and potential of software as a service (SaaS) solutions.

Read the rest of the story here.

NIGHT & DAY: A Shadow Art Culture
1 December 2009 | 7:00 pm
This week's FilterD is filled with secrets and shadows and... gasp!... puppets. Editor Jeff Meyers points you toward six cultural events worth checking out and chats with Shadow Art Fair co-founder Mark Maynard about Ypsilanti's fringe arts scene.

Jon Zemke - Dear Mr. Mayor...
29 September 2009 | 8:00 pm

To: John Hieftje, mayor, city of Ann Arbor
From: Jon Zemke, news editor, Concentrate

Dear Mayor Hieftje,

Next May you will appoint two people to the seven-member Ann Arbor Board of Directors. May I suggest a quick viewing before you make your decision - The Opposite episode, Season 5 (episode 22) from Seinfeld. You know, the episode where George Costanza decides that “My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have in every aspect of life, be it something to wear, something to eat... It's often wrong."

I’m not saying your previous appointments have been wrong per se, but they have been unimaginative. Keeping The Opposite episode in mind would allow choices that are more creative, innovative and whatever other flavor-of-the-month buzzword that might save Michigan’s economy to inform your decision. It’s a frame of mind that you, Hizzoner, should embrace to get the area’s transit agency batting on the level of George's beloved Yankees.

AATA’s board is made up with a majority of middle age-to-senior white males whose bank accounts are rivaled only by their degrees. These are the people who have the choice of whether to catch The Ride or cruise off in their own vehicle. It’s safe to say most of this board, at best, only occasionally rides the buses it makes the decisions on, and lives on streets where bus routes probably don’t stop.

That’s not to say this board is completely out of touch. It includes city administrators, big muckity mucks with the Michigan Dept of Transportation and leaders in the local business community. But it lacks diversity. Oh yes, there are the tokens that Ann Arbor loves to point to as proof of its diversity, such as a single woman and an African-American. But the AATA board of directors needs more than that. It needs diversity in its point of view.

“It’s important for somebody to have the understanding of what AATA should look like in the future and have that steeped by their experiences on it,” says Nancy Shore, a former AATA board member who stepped down to take the reins of Ann Arbor’s getDowntown program.

Shore is the type of fresh pair of eyes the AATA board needs. And by fresh I mean young and alternative transit-oriented. A few people with stakes in Ypsilanti’s burgeoning Bohemia. The current AATA board has members in Ann Arbor, the surrounding townships, and even the Lansing area, but not Ypsilanti. It has car drivers but no one who uses the bus as a primary form of transportation. It has a lot of older people, but no one young enough to count the years they have been out of school on their hands.

“It would be nice to have somebody who is slightly younger,” Shore says.

Maybe a younger board member would question why AATA provides express bus service to Chelsea and the Canton area but bus service for the seven miles between Ypsilanti's downtown and Ann Arbor's downtown clocks in at nearly an hour. Maybe that same younger board member would also note that with Ann Arbor's ever-shrinking affordable housing, Ypsi represents the best opportunity for cheap housing that's close to a walkable downtown.

So, I have three specific candidates that would make great AATA board members, and a fourth wild card suggestion. I have no idea whether these people have approached you Mr. Mayor about it or if they are even interested. I do know that they, or someone like them, would offer a point of view that would bring much needed diversity to AATA’s board.

Al McWilliams

You have probably read this name before. The so-called Master of the Universe at downtown Ann Arbor’s Quack!Media is the poster boy for Zipcar use in Ann Arbor. He has been featured in a number of publications (including this one) as someone who couldn’t wait to jump into a Zipcar when downtown Ann Arbor received its first earlier this year.

Two years ago, McWilliams made a decision most people in Ann Arbor, let alone Michigan, wouldn't even consider. He turned in the keys to his car and walked away, literally. The downtown Ann Arbor resident loves living without a car, choosing to get around with a combination of Zipcars, buses, bike, and shoe leather.

This decision makes more sense for those familiar with McWilliams’ eccentricities. The 20-something Eastern Michigan University grad runs a start-up that is creating a multi-media empire with the type of quirk that makes the Google interior decorators jealous. Put simply, McWilliams doesn’t look at things like most people, and that’s a good thing.

Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy’s friends call him Murph, and it makes sense because the 28-year-old urban planner is recently out of the University of Michigan. However, you wouldn’t get that impression after reading his thoughts on funding for AATA in regards to Ypsilanti on Mark Maynard’s blog. Wonky is the nice word used to describe his thorough explanations.

But more important than Murphy's knowledge is where he lives. He is one the numerous young professionals staking a claim in Ypsilanti’s emerging Bohemia, making a home on Cross Street within easy walking distance of downtown, Depot Town, and Eastern Michigan University. He also scored a job as an urban planner for the city of Ypsilanti after working an internship at the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. Murphy knows what makes cities tick, how transit winds that clock, and why connecting Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti is critically important to the region.

Rene Greff

Rene Greff is one of those people with a well-known story. The Ypsilanti resident is an avid bicyclist who regularly rides her bike to and from her job as owner of the Arbor Brewing Company in downtown Ann Arbor and Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti. She's also a former member of Ann Arbor's DDA.

Greff is one of the increasing number of people who has a foot firmly planted in both of Washtenaw County’s major cities. She understands the importance of both urban areas and why they should be more connected. She also has an intricate understanding of the needs of bicyclists at a time when both cities, the surrounding townships, and AATA are ramping up efforts to make the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area friendlier to alternative modes of transportation, like bicycles. And she is a she, which is a quality that is sorely lacking in a board filled with Y chromosomes.

One regular person who rides the bus but doesn’t run in local political circles

All of these suggestions, along with the current board, are educated and at least middle class people. The type of people who have a choice of whether or not to wait for an AATA bus or jump into a nice car and zoom away. Unfortunately, many people who ride the bus are those who don’t have that choice. These are usually the people who don’t run in Washtenaw County’s political circles and often lack a voice in the decisions that affect the service for which they depend.

AATA should find at least one of these people and give them a voice. Spend a little money advertising on buses and at bus stops asking for AATA board applicants. The risk is that the you Mr. Mayor won’t know exactly what your are getting, but perhaps a little shakeup like that is just what George Costanza would order.

Jeff Meyers - What Is Ann Arbor's Artistic Identity?
25 August 2009 | 8:00 pm
It was such a small thing that I didn't notice it at first. On a family vacation to Puerto Vallarta, as we were walking through the downtown my sons began weaving back and forth along the sidewalk. Why? Stamped into the cement was a sine wave, a simple reminder of what mattered most to this small coastal city: The water.

In Vancouver B.C., along Robson Street you'll find something similar. Only instead of a wave, small leaves have been imprinted into the sidewalk of a metropolis that thinks of itself as a leader in sustainable practices. 

In various Seattle neighborhoods it isn't the sidewalk but the bus stands that boast the city's nautical identity. Gorgeously designed shelters are sculpted with iconic salmon, curly-cue waves and winged heron. The bus stands not only improve the surrounding streetscape, they also encourage you to rethink the importance of public transportation. 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for a city whose urban practices are idealized and livability celebrated. Public art inhabits every corner of Seattle. From its pastel-painted transformer stations adorned with ceramic sculptures to the two-story troll that resides under the Fremont Bridge to the Sound Garden (which inspired the rock band's name) that hums and whistles with the winds off Lake Washington to the newly installed Olympic Sculpture Garden near Pike's Place Market, creative expression is the norm. Every neighborhood hides secret sculptures and quirky artifacts, inspiring locals to join the action with impromptu traffic circle displays and lawn art. And coupled with the region's high-tech persona, young creatives and professionals have flocked to the Pacific Northwest.

Back to Puerto Vallarta, where wealth is in the hands of the few. The Malecón is a beachfront, open-air gallery of sculptures, ranging from the refined to the absurd. A sunset walk quickly demonstrates the enthusiasm tourists and locals have for the art (not to mention the children who climb all over them). The city, even with its limited resources and instances of crushing poverty, understands that there is lasting value in developing its artistic identity. When I ask a taxi driver what he thinks of the sculptures he smiles, "The tourists love them. The children love them. Some I don't like but mostly I love them."

So, what is Ann Arbor's artistic identity? What art can local cab drivers proudly proclaim their skeptical love for? The truth, if we are honest with ourselves, is that we don't have an artistic identity. Which is not to say that we don't have wonderful artists or interesting instances of art or dedicated art supporters. But as a community, we have yet to catch up with cities that have taken the long view and seen the cultural, economic, and quality of life advantages of nurturing an indigenous arts identity.

Even Ypsilanti, working with far fewer resources, has begun to stake out an arts identity of its own (see this week's feature article by Terry Parris), producing a do-it-yourself, alternative scene that excites young creatives and encourages artistic participation. If you want a simple but poignant reminder of what a community one-fifth the size of Ann Arbor can achieve, just look to their Riverside Arts Gallery, which has become an arts and culture center of sorts, serving local visual and performing artists. Our city, for all its virtues, has yet to establish anything similar.

The closest thing Ann Arbor has come to establishing its own artistic identity has been the Art Fair (which is more about bringing art here) and the hand full of fairy doors that dot our downtown. We'll return to them later in the column.

City Council member Margie Teall, who sat on an Art Commission task force, shares the belief that Ann Arbor can and should do more. "I look at other cities, like Louisville, Kentucky, or Pittsburgh and I'm amazed by the public art they have and how far behind the eight ball we are," she says.

There are some, like Margaret Parker, who have long recognized the city's shortcomings on this front and have worked hard to change course. As the current chair of the city's Arts Commission, she helped usher in the Percent For The Arts program in 2007, a long overdue first step toward formally engaging the city in developing its arts identity.

"People should remember that Michigan was once on the brink of a statewide Percent For The Arts program but it was killed by the Engler administration," Parker explains. "In a way we're trying to compensate for that loss of commitment."

And though Ann Arbor's current commission, still finding its feet, has taken some critical lumps on its first venture –the Herbert Dreiseitl rain garden that will be part of the new municipal center project— her passion and dedication are obvious.

"We're really new to this type of process and there's still so much to understand," Parker says. "We decided that it would be best to work out how we do this [fund public art projects] by focusing on a single project that was connected to the municipal center improvements."

It's an understandable course of action, one that focuses and compartmentalizes the commission's experience so it can better understand and develop its process.

But the commission need not go it alone, intellectually speaking. And it doesn't have to consult with faraway Seattle or Vancouver to work its approach. An hour away, a city with a long history of arts advocacy and practice nurtures a vibrant creative scene, implementing projects at every funding level and, most importantly, works off thirty-plus years of Percent For The Arts experience.

Though it may come as a surprise to most Ann Arborites, I'm talking about Toledo, Ohio, the first city east of the Mississippi to institute a Percent For The Arts program in 1977. In fact, the entire state of Ohio has a percent for the arts mandate, providing millions of dollars to local municipalities.

Talking with Marc Folk, executive director of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, it's easy to get swept up in his enthusiasm. He rattles off numbers and anecdotes and events and projects with a fervor that makes it clear he loves his job. What's most impressive is the creativity (imagine that, an arts organization that tackles its mission creatively) his organization brings to bear on Toledo's arts identity. The commission has its fingerprints on projects both big and small, nurturing strong artistic loops amidst rustbelt surroundings.

When the I-280 Bridge, the state's most expensive bridge project ever, first began its proposal process, the commission was on hand to influence the design, pulling in feedback from the community. As a result, more attractive stainless steel cables were used, glass panels were inserted into the pylons and L.E.D. lighting elements were incorporated. When a tragic accident took the lives of some of the bridge workers, the commission facilitated the construction of a memorial, drawing huge community support.

On the more modest end of the financial scale, the commission recruited at-risk youth to design benches inspired by masterworks in the Toledo Museum of Art, had a local auto fabricator make the benches, and then used them as a street level connect-the-dots between local galleries and the museum proper. Total cost of the project? $5000 plus staff time.

Somewhere in the economic middle is Toledo's program to put poetry inside and art outside its city buses. Working with TARTA and Bowling Green State University, the commission raised $40,000 to wrap 7-10 buses each year with stunning mobile canvases that bring art to the neighborhoods and poetry to the riders inside.

"Most art commissions get locked into old models, focusing on pieces that creatively engage the community," says Folk. "We try to make art an everyday part of Toledo life."

While Folk can wax poetic about the many projects his commission has been a part of (artistic manhole covers near Mud Hen's Arena), he believes his organization's biggest responsibility is to facilitate connections between the city's various arts groups and the community at large.

When asked about the arguments against public arts, particularly in economically challenging times, Folk points out that the same criticisms are levied in good times or bad. "The thing that I quickly learned is that public art, no matter which side people are on, stimulates public dialogue," he explains. "It pushes it into the public arena, which is a success unto itself."

As egalitarian as that sounds, Folk is quick to point out both the direct and indirect positive impacts of public art: "On a purely economic level, it is consistently cited as a major attractor for ideal professional candidates, i.e., creative thinkers and innovators."

The arguments against public art funding have always intrigued me because no one seems to get up in arms when the city builds a new baseball diamond or tennis court. But spend money on an unconventional statue or mural and watch the fireworks fly. It seems silly that one holds more intrinsic value than another. If anything, I would argue a sports field in one community is no different than a sports field in another. Public art, at least, can be unique and defining. But really, the two investments are equally important, inviting the public to interact --one physically, the other intellectually.

Which brings us back to the Fairy Doors and how Ann Arbor might forge its own artistic identity.

It's baffling to me that these charming little doors --a modest, private effort that attracts local tourists and even landed national press coverage-- receives so little public support, beyond endorsements from the city's Convention And Visitor's Bureau. It's not that the fairy doors are great works of art, it's that they clearly engage the community, making a strong case for why public arts efforts are important.

Were these doors to have 'magically' appeared in my old stomping grounds of Seattle, I can easily imagine the city enthusiastically funding the project to facilitate a greater presence in the community. Local artists would have inevitably responded, some in protest no doubt, creating contrarian goblin doors or even dead fairy art, and the like. The effort would have become a robust artistic dialogue to debate the goals of public art, what is of aesthetic value, what amounts to cheap gimmickry, and all points in between.

Do I think we should build our entire artistic identity around fairy doors? Certainly not. But they could certainly be a part of a wider, richer fabric of artistic engagement. And whether we choose to support efforts like these speaks to how we leverage the creativity that exists in our community, and to what lengths we will nurture its growth. A modest investment might have turned an independent project into a widespread entry point for Ann Arbor's children to engage with public art (not to mention, establish a useful community marketing tool).

As the Ann Arbor Arts Commission looks to its future, I can only hope that it will learn from cities like Toledo and Seattle and even cash-strapped Puerto Vallarta for inspiration, creating programs that are as creative, versatile, and innovative as the works of art they generate.