I was just making my way through the discussion on the Arbor Update site following their post on the possible elimination of Ypsilanti bus routes and came across the following comment left by someone named Karen Luck. I thought that I’d share it and see if perhaps any of you had thoughts.

No way! People don’t move to Ypsi because of bus service to Ann Arbor. However, Ann Arbor does appreciate the subsidy from the city of Ypsi. The 2 bus lines from Ypsi are about the only buses in the Ann Arbor system that have significant numbers of riders. Most of the other buses in the system ride around empty for most of the day.

Perhaps the most alarming news concerning the city budget problems is that Ypsi city officials think they can get the surrounding townships to bail them out. Any township would have to be crazy to form an economic alliance with the city. They have proven that they can’t manage their affairs, consistantly spend more than they can afford, and think the township will hire their police department to protect them. The Ypsi city spends more to police 3.5 square miles than Ypsi township pays to police about ten times the area. I will work to recall any township official who endangers our finances by linking up with the soon to be bankrupt city. They (the city) need to cut expenses. Maybe they should realize that they can’t afford to pay the city manager 6 figures, or pay part-time council members, or spend a quarter million per year on recycling, or continue to allow the 3 business districts to separate their taxes from the general fund or continue to employ former state representatives as lobbyists.

The city made a huge mistake when it entered the speculative real estate market with the Waters Street project. They have encumbered future tax revenue for a residential project that needs to be considerably cut back due to the environmental contamination at the site. And where’s the accountability. They blame the State and Prop A even though their revenues have always risen faster than inflation.

I don’t have a lot of time to put it in context, but I wanted to at least pass along the link to today’s Ann Arbor News article on the current state of Ypsialnti’s Planning and Development Office. Here’s how it begins (cue sad music):

On March 3, the city of Ypsilanti’s planning and development department will drop to a single staff member, down from four just a couple of months ago, because staffers are leaving the city to take jobs elsewhere.
Two of the three jobs will be replaced, but the city has decided to drop the department from four to three positions because of city financial problems. Even the temporary cutback is casting a shadow over a city banking on development projects as a path to future revenues.

“We will not be able to respond to development projects as quickly,” said Nathan Voght, a planner who will be the only employee left in the department. “It may mean loss of (development) opportunities for the city.”

Planning and Development Director Megan Gibb left Feb. 13 to take a job in Portland, Ore. Brett Lenart, the city’s redevelopment coordinator, left Jan. 9 to work for Washtenaw County. Karen Weaver, also a planner, is leaving March 3 to take a job with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments in Detroit and said part of the reason for her decision is the city’s financial uncertainty.

Struggling with diminishing revenues from the state and industry losses, the city has cut spending annually for the past five years to balance the budget. The latest round of cuts, approved by the City Council on Thursday, includes dropping the size of the planning department from four employees to three for next year…

I don’t really know enough about the Planning and Development Office to say one way or the other whether they have been doing a good job for Ypsilanti. I haven’t checked out the other local blogs yet today, but I’m sure that you can find quite a few people out there leaving comments and taking pot shots at the crew that’s leaving (and speculating as to why it is that Nathan Voght hasn’t been able to find a job elsewhere). The comments might very well might be deserved. I can’t say. Not knowing any of them or what they did, all I have judge them by are the two big economic development failures that have made the papers – the mess that is/was the Water Street Development (PDF) and the fact that the Visteon plant closed — and it’s unclear to me how much blame these four individuals really deserve for those (especially the Visteon closing). I’m sure they’ve had successes over the past few years too, but, unfortunately, they don’t come to mind as readily as the failures.

The only thing that I have to contribute to the dialog is this one thought:

I’m wondering how much redundancy there would be between our Planning and Development Office (when fully staffed again) and Ann Arbor Spark, the new economic development organization being built-up from what was once the Washtenaw Development Council? I’m not suggesting that we dismantle whatever operation we still have, and put our destiny in the hands of a group situated in Ann Arbor, however, it occurs to me that there might be some synergies and an opportunity for cost savings if we join forces. Like I said, however, I’m not really up to speed on how such things work. It just seems to me that if we’ve got a large operation in Ann Arbor working to attract business, grow companies, and attract/retain talent, that it might be easier to have a dedicated Ypsi person or two on their staff rather than have three or four sitting in offices here, waiting for people to respond to our “Hipsilanti” ad campaigns. (Sorry, that was a cheap shot.) My guess, and I could be wrong about this, is that we’d be privy to more development deals if we were there, leveraging the Ann Arbor brand for all that it’s worth. (I’m not suggesting that we in any way defer to Ann Arbor. I just think that we need to recognize that when it comes to business, Ann Arbor is the primary regional attractor. And we should use that as much as we possibly can.) Anyway, I think it’s worth considering.