Mark Maynard | 2016 | April

Talking about the blues with Bruce Conforth, discovering found film with Frank Uhle, and allowing Jim Cherewick just be himself …on this weekend’s Saturday Six Pack

By Mark | April 15, 2016

I don’t know how we do it, but, for a little AM radio show in Ypsilanti, we continue to book incredible shows. Saturday evening, starting at 6:00, we’ll be joined in the studio by musicologist Bruce Conforth. Perhaps best known as the founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Dr. Conforth, an accomplished musician in his own right, is both a noted blues historian and award-winning American Studies professor. Among other things, I imagine that we’ll discuss his recent book, African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics: The Lawrence Gellert Story and his ongoing research into the life and work of Robert Johnson. [Conforth currently sits on the Executive Board of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, in addition to being the Director of the Blues Heritage Foundation.] I also suspect that, somewhere along the line, we’ll discuss his early years in the New York folk scene and the politics surrounding the launch of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh, and I’m told he’ll be bringing his guitar with him, so I imagine we might also hear a song or two, and perhaps a live demonstration of regional blues variants.

Then, after Conforth, we’ll be joined in the studio by Frank Uhle, the man behind Sunday’s Festival of Found Films from the Vault, which is scheduled to run from 2:00 to 5:00 PM at Bona Sera. Here, with more on the event, is a clip from a recent article that ran in the Ann Arbor District Library’s online arts and culture magazine Pulp.

In the summer of 2015, the University of Michigan sold more than 7,000 instructional films owned by the Askwith Media Library to the public. The films had been used in campus classrooms from the 1940s to the 1970s and represented a variety of forgotten media formats – including 16mm and VHS. The collection was unique in its subject matter and scale, but having digitized the titles, U-M sold the films to gain shelf space.

Local film lovers, collectors, and treasure-hunters flocked to the sale, seizing the opportunity to own these rare films. Some shoppers lamented the loss of such a sizable collection; the films would now be spread among many owners and would not be preserved as a group. But no one could deny the price tag, as film prices started at just $1. So, film cans and VHS tapes were carried home by the armful and the collection was dismantled.

And that was it – until now.

A local Ann Arborite, Frank Uhle, has coordinated an amazing opportunity to see the films from this collection reunited on screen. The Festival of Found Films from the Vault will be a celebration of 16mm films purchased at the U-M sale. Uhle is calling out to all those who shopped the sale, and asking them to bring their best purchases to be screened together…

And that’s what will be happening on Sunday at Bona Sera, where Frank will be projecting 16mm films like 1951’s Improve Your Personality [embedded below] and the completely bewildering My Snowman’s Burning Down to an all-ages crowd.

And, after our discussion of found films, we’ll be joined by our old friend Jim Cherewick. We haven’t been all that nice to Jim lately, and I intend to make it up to him by allowing him to do whatever he wants for a entire segment. [The last time Jim joined us was the night that The Patti Smith Group’s Ivan Kral was on, and I didn’t let him say a single word. And, the time before that, we forced him against his will to perform the Ted Nugent song Fred Bear.] I’m told that, among other things, Jim will be performing two brand new tracks, and attempting to sell me a piece of artwork for the lobby of 209 Pearl Street.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER TUNED IN TO THE SIX PACK BEFORE, HERE ARE THE DETAILS ON HOW TO LISTEN:

Unless you live inside the AM 1700 studio, chances are you won’t be able to pick the show up on your radio. As that’s the case, I’d recommend streaming the show online, which you can do either on the AM1700 website or by way of TuneIn.com.

And for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the show, and need to get caught up, you can listen to the entire archive on iTunes.

One last thing… If you’d like to tell your friends and neighbors about the program, feel free to share the Facebook event listing.

And, here, thanks to AM 1700 senior graphic designer Kate de Fuccio, is this week’s poster, in case any of you want to print copies and leave them at one of your favorite highway rest areas.

And do call us if you have a chance. We love phone calls. So please copy down this number and slide it into your sock – 734.217.8624 – and call us between 6:00 and 8:00 this Saturday evening. The show is nothing without you.

The end of the Water Street Commons native flower prairie… at least for now

By Mark | April 14, 2016

Someone came to the door this afternoon with an official letter, which they told Linette she had to sign for. I was at work when she called me, and she was understandably concerned. We didn’t discuss it, but I suspect she thought that we were being sued or something, probably for something that I’d written on the site. Fearing the worst, she opened the letter and read it to me over the phone. It turns out that it was an official “Notice to Quit,” informing me that the agreement I had with the city to adopt an acre of Water Street for the purposes of planting native plants had officially been terminated. “Pursuant to this notice,” the letter said, “please take all necessary steps to vacate the premises immediately or the City with will an action in District Court to evict you pursuant to MCL 600.5714(1)(f).” And it was signed by the John Barr, the city’s attorney… Here, if you’re interested, is the letter.

A week or so ago, when I first saw that the Border-to-Border trial through Water Street had been closed, I knew that our days were numbered. I knew that, in time, I’d hear from folks at the city, telling me that, due to recent concerns about PCBs on the site, we’d no longer be able to walk through the native plant prairie we’d come to know as Water Street Commons, or hang out at the sculpture garden that eventually took root just over the hill behind it. I just wasn’t expecting that a courier would arrive at my door with a formal eviction notice. I suppose, however, it makes sense from a legal point of view, given that I’m on record as the person who formally adopted the parcel from the city. The city, I’m sure, is concerned about potential claims that might be made, and they want to be sure that there’s a paper trail showing that, once it became public that there might be a health risk, they made efforts to keep people, like myself, off the site. I can appreciate that.

For what it’s worth, we always knew there were areas of contamination of Water Street. We just didn’t know, as it appears now, that the toxicity might have extended to the site we’d selected for the Water Street Commons native plant prairie. Here, to give you an idea of what we were thinking at the time, is a clip from something I posted almost exactly three years ago, announcing our plans for the acre along Michigan Avenue.

On Thursday evening, the Ypsilanti Parks and Recreation Commission met, and considered our proposal to adopt an acre of Water Street right alongside Michigan Avenue, just west of South River Street. I don’t think it will be official until Monday, but the members present agreed unanimously with the project as I explained it. So, it looks like we, the people of Ypsilanti, now own an acre of the former brownfield at the heart of our city, at least until such time that a developer comes forward to purchase the site. Here, if you haven’t seen it yet, is a map showing the area in question… which, as you can see, is relatively far away from the remaining areas of contamination…

And here’s the image that accompanied what I’d written. To the best of my knowledge at the time, it accurately showed the areas of Water Street that still needed to be remediated.

Now, though, it’s looking like the map we were given at the time may not have been completely correct. Either that, or the toxic chemicals somehow migrated with the wind since the point when that map was made. Forever the optimist, I’d like to think that the areas we were working in weren’t really all that bad, and that the city is just being extra cautious now that tests are apparently coming back showing some signs of PCBs and the like across the site, but I suppose the day could come when I regret all those hours of digging holes, pulling weeds, and just hanging out there with Linette and our young kids.

[For what it’s worth, I submitted a list of preliminary questions to the city last Friday, in hopes of better understanding the current situation relative to the contamination of Water Street, but, as of right now, they still haven’t responded, although they have told me that they intend to. My hope is to eventually post their responses here.]

So it looks as though, at least for the time being, our little experiment in bringing life, beauty and vitality to Water Street is over. The flowers, of course, will still come up [assuming we’re not ordered to remove them], but, at least for now, there won’t be events and the like, and no one will be pulling the spotted knapweed… But we’ll always have the memories.

Here, for those of you who weren’t there, are a few photos taken on May 1, 2013, the day that dozens of Ypsi folks came out to help us throw nearly 3,000 seed balls (containing 8 species of native grasses and 27 species of flowering plants) onto what was then just a vacant acre of downtown Ypsilanti, along with the words I wrote that night upon returning home.

[All photos, except for the last one, which I took, came courtesy of our friend, the world-famous Doug Coombe.]

And here’s what I wrote that evening.

I’m sunburnt and in much need of sleep, so this won’t be as exhaustive of a post as perhaps it should be. I did, however, want to say, before passing out, just how happy I am about the way things went today. What I saw unfold this afternoon on Water Street, I’m certain, will keep me inspired well into the fall.

Thank you to each and every one of you who played a part; Jeff Clark, Jason Tallant, Linette Lao, all the children and adults who came out in the snow a few days ago to help prepare the site, the kids of Summers-Knoll and Yspi Middle School who really took ownership of the project and helped immeasurably, everyone who contributed toward the making of the 2,745 seed bombs that were produced over the past two weeks, all my neighbors who came to the site this evening with delicious food to share, the 27 individuals who pledged money toward making the whole thing happen, the incredibly motivated men and women of the Ypsi Free Skool, and everyone who stood happily packed together on the sidewalk, hurling seed bombs onto our burgeoning native meadow this evening.

We live in an awesome little community, and our possibilities are endless. When we work together, as we demonstrated today, we can really make things happen… beautiful things. And, if you don’t believe me, just keep an eye on this little piece of property along Michigan Avenue, as the native plants come back to life, and people begin to spend more time there.

My sense is that a true community commons is evolving.

And, for what it’w worth, I still feel that way. Regardless of whether or not Water Street Commons is sealed off, this community will still keep growing and doing great things. What has started in Ypsi will continue to evolve, grow, and branch out in new, exciting, and completely unpredictable ways. There’s no stopping it. There are just too many good, passionate people who call this place home.

One last thing… Here, for those of you amateur historians out there who want to know more about how the native prairie came to be, are links to a few of my favorite stories from over the past three years. I hope you enjoy them.

The initial idea
People coming together to make it happen
Making seed bombs with local kids
Making seed bombs with local adults
The successful seed bombing
Finding historical precedent for a commons on Water Street
The day the official sign went up
The sprouts started coming up
The prairie first came to life

Posted in Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Border to Border Trail, brownfield, contamination, flowers, John Barr, legal trouble, native plants, neurotoxic, PCBs, pollution, seed bombing, soil contamination, Water Street, Water Street Commons, Water Street Sculpture Park, Water Street Trail, wildflowers | 35 Comments

The Olmsted Brothers’ 1913 plan for Ypsi’s stretch of the Huron River

By Mark | April 13, 2016

Way back in 2007, after learning that my friend Nat Edmunds was in possession of an original copy of the 1913 Huron River Improvement Plan drafted by influential landscape architects John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., I made a promise on this site that I’d figure out a way to get it scanned and share it here on the site. Well, I’d forgotten about it until today, when someone asked me whether or not I ever intended to actually follow through… Clearly, the answer was no… Fortunately, though, my inability to follow though didn’t really matter in this case, as someone at City Hall apparently went ahead and scanned it for us back in 2012, as part of the Parks and Recreation master plan update. So, here it is, about a decade after I promised to share it with you.

[Much appreciation to City Planner Bonnie Wessler for sending me the file earlier this evening.]

And, here, by way of context, is a little something from that old 2007 post of mine, when I thought that the plan had been drafted by the father of the Olmsted brothers, the designer of New York City’s Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted, followed by the update I added later that same day.

…I suspect that Olmsted’s plans weren’t followed exactly and I’m curious to know what was, and what was not, done to his specifications. As we start discussing the new master plan for our City parks, I think it’s absolutely imperative that we go back to the original plans and see if there are perhaps elements that we might still want to incorporate. As I think we’d all agree, our parks are among our community’s most distinctive assets, and, if this tie to Olmsted does in fact exist, I think we’d be well served to exploit it.

And here’s the update I posted later that same day, after talking with someone who had seen the plan.

OK, so the “Olmsted brothers” who drafted the plan turn out to have been the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, who took over the family business after the death of their father. (The plans for Ypsi’s parks were drawn up a few years after the death of the elder Olmsted.) I’ve still to see the plans, but, from what I’ve been told, they’re fairly high level, and don’t include much detail. A friend who has seen the plans tells me that all they call for is green space along the river (done), a park entrance off of Michigan Avenue (done), another entrance off North Huron at about where the Riverside Arts Center is (done), and pathways along the perimeter of the green space (done). Being a bit of a wise-ass, this friend then went on to say that if we really wanted to stay true to the Olmsted vision, the only thing we’d change is that we’d “tear out the tridge.” So, it would seem that I was wrong when I suggested that there might be elements within the original plans that would help guide us today as we reconsider our parks and what we want for them to look like in the future.

Here’s what the whole Olmsted brothers’ plan looks like. As you’ll notice, their vision extended well beyond just Riverside Park, starting at Highland Cemetery and going all the way to the far edge of the city, in the direction of what is now Ford Lake.

[A larger version of the plan can be seen here.]

And here’s the official write-up that accompanies the copy of the map in the city’s archive: “The Olmsted map was a hand-colored, fabric-backed original. It dates from the 1913 Olmsted Brothers master plan for Ypsilanti, and was the impetus for the Riverside (originally Quirk) and Frog Island parks, and its legacy lives on in the efforts to develop Peninsular, Waterworks (formerly Tourist), and River’s Edge parks.” [It should be noted that the Olmsted brothers created a plan for the entire city, and that this Huron River Improvement Plan was just part of that larger project.]

But wait, there’s more…

As luck would have it, Janice Anschuetz just happened to write about this map in the Spring 2016 edition of the Ypsilanti Historical Society’s quarterly journal, Ypsilanti Gleanings. Here, adding quite a bit more color to the story behind how the Olmsteds came to be involved, is a clip from her article.

…By 1823, the river, and the water power it offered, was quickly bought up by nineteenth century industrialists such as Norris, Harwood, Hardy and Reading, who all built dams for harvesting the river power. When the railroad was built in Ypsilanti in 1838, stockyards holding sheep, pigs and cattle lined the river bank. Far from the clear waters we see today and could imagine when the trading post flourished, looking down from Heritage Bridge we would have seen waste – both human and animal – and garbage of all descriptions – flowing in the river, certainly no place for a tranquil park.

The Godfroy family sold their land on the river to some of the wealthy industrialists who had taken advantage of the river power, before the age of electricity. Soon elegant and picturesque mansions lined the high banks of the Huron River, many with ornate terraced gardens which lined the sides of the cliff. Because the river often flooded, the lower part of their property could not be built on, and without stable banks would be considered boggy and marshy – what today we know as wetlands and were then called “flats.”

It could be that the first recreational use of this land occurred in 1886 when the Ypsilanti Toboggan Slide Company was formed by four young men. A 200-foot wooden slide was constructed starting at the second story window of an existing barn on Huron Street (about where Riverside Arts Center now exists) and in trestle like fashion with a drop of 50 feet. The wooden structure was packed firm with ice from the river. Thrill seeking Victorians could provide their own sleds or rent one for a modest fee. It seems that this was a spectator sport as much as one for participation, as an audience could watch women and girls in long dresses and men and boys screaming past them as they made the chilling descent from a second story window high above the river.

By 1892 the city formed an official Ypsilanti park system when a group of women determined to transform public land into a park where a cemetery existed at Cross and Prospect Street. The original bodies had already been moved to Highland Cemetery. The land was soon transformed into a pleasant place to walk with flowered paths and even a pond and fountain known as Luna Lake. Visitors were said to arrive by train from Detroit and Ann Arbor to enjoy this tranquil space.

The following account could have been the inspiration of the beginning of a park on the river. About 1908 the Quirk family donated their large Victorian mansion to the city of Ypsilanti for use as a town hall, replacing the small town hall/jail located on the north east side of Cross and Huron Streets. Not only were the residents of Ypsilanti given a stately building, but it came complete with terraced gardens and riverside land. A “Landscape Design for Development for Quirk Park” was done by the Monroe, Michigan firm of J. Joseph Poleo and shows a meandering series of garden paths between the mansion on the bluff and the river. Harvey C. Colburn indicated in his book, The Story of Ypsilanti, that the flats behind the city hall were used for “pageants” and athletic events for the nearby high school. The rest of the area, which is now Riverside Park, was held in private hands with the “ribbon lots”, extending in the French way from Huron Street to the river.

In 1913, the Olmsted Brothers were commissioned by the small town of Ypsilanti, whose population was then about 6000, to give advice on how to help the town grow in such a way as to not only attract business and industry, but to provide a healthy living environment for its citizens. As far as the Huron River was concerned, the Olmsted Brothers were frank in their criticism of its neglected and defiled state saying in their report: “The Huron River with its large natural reservoirs and its steep channel, was long ago claimed for economic uses, by water power development in a small unsystematic way. Many mills were built but most of them have since fallen into disuse and decay, and the river is now largely in a picturesque state of neglect. Its shores now overgrown in many places, pools and rapids break into monotomy (sic), while railways and public roads cross and recross it in many places.”

The report went on to chastise the city for neglecting the riverfront, which at that time was often used as a garbage dump with raw sewage, waste products, and chemicals flowing into it daily. The report continued: “The river, with its many advantages as a naturally beautiful feature of the city, is now almost wholly ignored, or worse, it is defiled and treated as a menace to adjacent property.” The Olmsted Brothers suggested that the flood plain between Michigan Avenue and Cross Street, unsuitable for building, could be used as a public park. The firm also provided a drawing of a string of parks throughout the city on the Huron River, which included what would become Frog Island and Riverside Park. In a more detailed drawing of Riverside Park there is an access bridge from Michigan Avenue in the vicinity of where the 2015 Heritage Bridge is newly located!

Perhaps with the need for employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the possibility of municipal projects funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration, Olmstead’s ideas began to take shape. During this time, the city was able to collect the deeds to the many parcels of land that now make up the 14 acres of what we now know as Riverside Park. Some were purchased and some were donated. We read in an Ypsilanti Press article in 1932 that the Detroit Edison Company not only donated the hill and land to the river behind their property, but paid for the land to be landscaped to conform to the adjacent slope and land of the park. The city purchased the old Greek Revival home at 126 North Huron Street and demolished it in order to provide an entrance to the park between St. Luke’s Church and the Ladies Library. We read descriptions of this entrance to the park, which sound charming, involved rock gardens along the slope on the way to the park, and remnants of them can still be seen…

Am I the only one who finds it both funny and depressing that, after 103 years, we’re still essentially saying the same thing: “The river, with its many advantages as a naturally beautiful feature of the city, is now almost wholly ignored”? [For context, see our recent conversations with the Huron River Watershed Council’s Laura Rubin and Elizabeth Riggs, both of whom are fighting to increase the role the river plays in our community.]

Posted in Architecture, History, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged Bonnie Wessler, Elizabeth Riggs, Frederick Law Olmsted, Huron River, Huron River Watershed Council, Janice Anschuetz, landscape architecture, Laura Rubin, Luna Lake, maps, Natalie Edmunds, Olmsted, Olmsted Brothers, Quirk Park, Riverside Park, tridge, Ypsilanti Gleanings, Ypsilanti Historical Society, Ypsilanti Toboggan Slide Company | 13 Comments

Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interview: Kayla Mishler

By Mark | April 12, 2016

I got word a few days ago through my network of informants that a young woman by the name of Kayla Mishler might be planning to pack up and leave Ypsilanti, so I headed out to find her. Here’s her official exit interview. I hope you enjoy it.

MARK: So I’ve heard a rumor that you intend to leave Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: Yep!

MARK: How long have you been here?

KAYLA: I was born in Ypsilanti. My mother moved to Ann Arbor when I was seven years old. My father stayed here.

MARK: What kind of kid were you?

KAYLA: Quiet.

MARK: Is that still the case? And, if not, when did you stop being quiet?

KAYLA: It’s not completely different. I do speak up when it comes to things that I care about, or when I feel like I can either contribute or learn something.

MARK: And what is it that you care about?

KAYLA: Babies. Brains. Behavior. Social work stuff.

MARK: How’d you get interested in social work?

KAYLA: I don’t know. It’s just always been something that I’ve wanted to do.

MARK: So there wasn’t a meaningful interaction with a social worker at some point along the line?

KAYLA: No, I never had any interaction with a social worker until I was in undergrad studying to be one. I just knew that I wanted to work in this space, and that being a psychologist would be too limiting, in that it wouldn’t allow me to meet people where they’re at. They (not all but most, don’t jump on my back) tend to limit their interactions to inside the office, between the hours of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM. I like the idea of meeting clients where they’re at, the social and environmental systems they live in, and creating treatments from there.

MARK: How are you most like your dad?

KAYLA: My father liked to ask a lot of questions, see the world from multiple viewpoints, and make decisions based on logic. I think I’m like that to a certain extent, although I’m still growing.

MARK: How are you least like your mom?

KAYLA: My Mother is creative and artsy. I can barely color inside the lines.

MARK: And where is it that you’ll be moving to?

KAYLA: Chicago.

MARK: Can I ask why?

KAYLA: I’ve been accepted to the University of Chicago.

MARK: To do what?

KAYLA: I’ll be in the Social Service Administration graduate program.

MARK: I know, based on earlier conversations, that you’ve been in Michigan your entire adult life, but has all of that been in Ypsi, or have you moved around?

KAYLA: As an adult, I’ve bounced between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor for housing. It seems like, for every two years I’d live in Ypsilanti, I’d move to Ann Arbor for one. Then I’d make my pilgrimage back home. Last year I lived in Kerrytown and loved every moment of it, but I still had to come back. It’s like a right or return, right?

MARK: What, if anything, do you anticipate that you’ll miss about Ypsilanti when you’re in Chicago?

KAYLA: My social network. I’ll miss living on Washington Street. It’s the prettiest little street. I’ll miss the brick sidewalk, and the fact that I was landlocked by three churches whenever I walked outside of my front door. And Beezy’s coffee is my blood. I also love the professional network I’ve built for myself, and the education I’ve received. Oh, and Dalat, Thai Thai, and Macheko.

MARK: What is it that you’ve been doing for a living here?

KAYLA: All social work stuff, with unfortunate bouts of waiting tables. Most recently, I worked at a substance use disorder clinic. I quit when I found out I’d be moving. Prior to that, I was a Behavior Specialist and Crisis Interventionist at Lincoln schools. That was by far the most challenging and amazing job I’ve ever had.

MARK: Why amazing?

KAYLA: Elementary school kids! They have so much humor and kindness in them. It makes the uneasy parts of their lives more easy to endure.

MARK: Tell us about the humor.

KAYLA: Well, when you’re working with a kid who is having an emotional melt down over the shapes of the chicken nuggets, you have to remind yourself, “Good lord, this is over chicken nuggets.” That’s funny, right?

MARK: And what won’t you miss about Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: My social network… Not really, but I am excited to live in a new state, where I don’t really know anyone. It’ll make it easier to focus on my master’s, and my PhD, which I hope to have by 2020. And I want to see if I can be as successful as a mental health worker in a larger city. Have you ever tried to get work done at the Ugly Mug? When you know everyone and can’t catch a moment to yourself. You’re happy because you love everyone, but you really can’t get anything done. I was accepted at the University of Michigan and Boston University, but I chose the University of Chicago in part for that reason. It’s close enough to come home, but far enough away to focus… I also struggle to understand the Boston accent.

MARK: How has Ypsilanti changed over the time that you’ve been here?

KAYLA: That’s a great question. I should preface my answer by saying that I’m still in my 20’s, so it’s likely that views aren’t yet fully developed… With that said, I think there’s more of an appetite for community involvement on the part of students at EMU. Maybe there’s more of a willingness on the part of students today to connect, or maybe it’s always existed and I just haven’t noticed it. It seems like it’s more sustainable now, though. In the past, programs would start, but they would inherently lack stamina because the founders would graduate in four or five years and things would wither… Oh, and the food is getting better. Man, I like food.

MARK: So your sense is that the sense of community is growing?

KAYLA: I do believe that to be true. I think that the independent groups that have been started by young folks have led to an increase in public awareness. They’re asking people to be a part of their community, to take responsibility for making positive change themselves. People seem to know that they have the capacity within themselves to make an impact, if that’s what they want.

MARK: What’s your first memory of Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: My first memory would be getting really sick in what used to be the Farmer Jack grocery store near Maus and Grove.

MARK: Did they let you use the bathroom?

KAYLA: No, I barfed all over the avocados. My dad had to buy a handful… I also remember getting food at Hawkins Place, which is either gone now, or has new ownership.

MARK: The soul food place? What do you remember about it?

KAYLA: I remember you walked into a thin, narrow lobby and ordered food through a red wood window. My Father would let me give the order even though I couldn’t see beyond the low window sill. I don’t remember the food in particular, but I do remember not liking catfish… And I remember going to games and events at Candy Cane Park.

MARK: What kinds of games and events at Candy Cane Park?

KAYLA: Little league games. My brother was on a team.

MARK: Did your brother leave Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: Yes, he actually lives in Chicago too!

MARK: What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen in Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: A person taking a shit in a KFC bucket at the bus stop. I wish this was a lie.

MARK: You mentioned earlier that you don’t have any artistic aptitude, but would you like to try drawing this for us… unless, of course, you have a photo…

KAYLA: I am sure we can try to get some security footage. Unfortunately Go Pro’s weren’t a thing back then, so we missed that boat.

MARK: And what’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen here?

KAYLA: Aesthetically? I think that Washington Street is really beautiful. The same goes for some of the areas down by the river that are somewhat more remote. It’s a small city with beautiful urban and natural bits and pieces… Oh, and I like the dog park that’s near Platt and Eisenhower, even though I do not have a dog. I really like that we have one nearby.

MARK: When you eventually meet people in Chicago, and they ask where you’re from, how will you describe Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: I’d describe Ypsi as a small, diverse city. I’d say that I appreciate that it’s not swimming with chain restaurants or attractions. I’d say that I appreciate that it’s surrounded by other cities that are completely different.

MARK: OK, you told us how you Ypsi has changed. How about Ann Arbor?

KAYLA: The price has gone up, and the charm has gone down. I still like some of their places for food though.

MARK: Do you intend to ever come back and visit, or are you leaving with the intention of never turning back? Are you completely closing this chapter of your life?

KAYLA: I do plan on coming back during my academic run. My significant other lives in Ypsilanti, my friends are still here, my stepfather. So I’ll be back during academic breaks. And I’m sure I’ll come back for the lavender trees and Beer Fest. And I may return once I have my degree. I’ll apply for employment in both Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor and Chicago and see which one is a better bite.

MARK: When I was first introduced to you online, your name was Kayla Johnson. Is that an alias?

KAYLA: Yes, my last name is Mishler. I changed my social media last name to Johnson in 2012 or 2013. I’ve worked clients that struggle to know boundaries. I’m not trying to live a double life. I’m actually not that interesting. And I correct people if they ask. I’m also fully aware that it’s 2016, and if someone wants to find me on the internet, my god, they have the means.

MARK: You wrote to me once about heroin, right?

KAYLA: I did. I suggested that you might want to devote a radio segment to it. I spoke too soon, though. I hadn’t yet gotten permission from my supervisors, and they weren’t enthusiastic about it. (I can’t wait to be my own boss.) My idea was to have myself, or someone who works at the clinic, and a person who is currently in recovery discuss stigma, lack of resources, federal limitations, the idealized guaranteed of never relapsing, and how family members can feel the weight of addiction. While I don’t think that most of your listeners have addiction issues, we all know someone who is facing addiction. The idea died internally when I mentioned that the program was called the “Saturday Six Pack.” One of my co-workers didn’t think that aligned well with the subject of recovery. I disagreed, but the idea died. I think it would be great to have that conversation on-air. If it were to happen, though, it would have to be an independent, non-affiliated discussion.

MARK: Well, if you have people that you’d suggest I talk with, just let me know. It’s a subject that I’d like to invest some time in.

KAYLA: I am sure I could pull some people together.

MARK: Any parting words for those of us who will remain here in Ypsi? Any words of wisdom?

KAYLA: Wisdom to share? I am thankful for all the wisdom that Ypsilanti has shared with me.

MARK: What’s the most important thing you learned from Ypsilanti?

KAYLA: It’s my favorite little microcosm. Ypsilanti is where, as a young kid and a growing adult, I shaped my views on diversity, poverty, humility, humor, and whatever modeling you can think of. Ypsilanti is where I learned about positive change.

[Curious as to why people are leaving this place we call home? Check out the Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interview archive.]

Posted in Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged addiction, Chicago, exit interviews, heroin, social work, Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interviews | 12 Comments

Discussing the future of libraries with the AADL’s Josie Parker, the scoop on the Depot Town train stop, and plans for Ypsi’s Little Bird cafe… on episode 42 of the Saturday Six Pack

By Mark | April 11, 2016

I’m still playing catch-up, trying to get the most recent episodes of the Saturday Six Pack posted here. I’m sorry that it’s been taking me so long, but life keeps getting in the way. The episode I’m posting here tonight was our 42nd, and, if you’re the kind of person who likes hearing people talk passionately about libraries, trains and coffee, I suspect you’ll really enjoy it… If you get a chance, check it out. Here, in the meantime, are my rough notes.

The changing role of the library…

During our first segment, after a wonderful opening theme song written by our friend Jim Cherewick, we jumped right into a conversation on the changing role of the public library in contemporary America with Josie Parker, the director of the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL). [I’d originally intended to also have on Lisa Hoenig, the director of the Ypsilanti District Library, but she had to cancel due to having the flu.] Among other things, we discussing the library’s role in disseminating information to the community, the AALD’s move into what you might call non-traditional collections, their recent foray into arts and culture journalism with the launch of the online magazine Pulp, and the position the library holds as a common space in a community where such places are becoming increasingly more difficult to find.

My favorite part of the conversation revolved around how leadership within the AADL decides when to embark on a new initiative. After noting how Pulp launched just as the MLive laid-off their arts and culture reporter in Ann Arbor, I asked Parker if she could foresee a time when the library might make a broader push into journalism, filling the gap left by our ever shrinking local press. Parker said that it’s not something that people have been pushing for, but conceding that doing so would technically be within the mission of the library. [note: This is a conversation I intend to pursue.]

After talking about the number of wide ranging initiatives the AADL currently has underway, I asked Parker where, in her opinion, the line should be drawn. In response, Parker said that it’s not the role of the library to care for the physical well being of those in the community. She did, however, say that they play a role, as one of the few spaces that is welcoming to all people.

And we talked about threats to public libraries, both here in the United States, and abroad. We discussed the ramifications of austerity measures in England, and efforts on the part of the Koch brothers’ front group Americans for Prosperity to stop a library millage in Plainfield, Illinois. And, of course, we talked about efforts to combat the legislation that Rick Snyder just recently signed that would bar library employees from communicating about similar millages here in Michigan within 60 days of an election. When asked why it was that anti-tax conservatives had set their sites on libraries, Parker said, “They think (libraries) are low hanging fruit.” Because most of us now have the internet, she said, they think cutting libraries is an easy thing to do. Of course, she adds, they don’t think about the people who depend on the library for the internet connectivity they need to apply for jobs and the like. And they don’t think about everything else that a library does for its community. And, with that in mind, we discussed the longterm costs that ripple through society when libraries are closed.

And we talked about everything the AADL, one of the most respected libraries of its size in the world, had been doing this past year to stay relevant… from digitizing 20 years of articles about the Gelman dioxane plume, to launching a digital press to assist community members interested in publishing their own work online. We also talked about their work with CivCity to increase civic engagement, and their recent push into podcasts.

Here’s Parker talking about how libraries have always been about more than books. The earliest Carnegie libraries, she tells us, were intended to be community centers, including theaters, event spaces, and even bowling alleys.

[If you would like to listen to episode 42 of The Saturday Six Pack, you can either download it from iTunes or scroll the bottom of the page, where you’ll find the Soundcloud file embedded.]

The campaign to open Ypsi’s Little Bird Cafe…

Then, at the 48-minute mark, after listening to the most recent song by our friend in Kenya, Dr. Peter Larson, we began talking about plans to convert the little red brick building at 908 North Congress Street into a cafe called Little Bird.

While Beth Kwiatkowski, the owner of the building, couldn’t be with us in the studio, as she had to be at a beer fest in Florida, we were joined by two of her friends, Amy and Melissa, who filled us in on the backstory of Little Bird before we got Kwiatkowski on the line. Here they are, telling us about how driven Kwiatkowski is to turn this dream of hers into a reality.

And, when we got through to Kwiatkowski, we got into the details. We discussed how she’d come to appreciate coffee as an employee of Whole Foods, the feedback she’d been receiving from people in the neighborhood who keep stopping by to check on her progress as she attempts to bring the long-neglected building back to life, and why she wanted to open her coffee shop here in Ypsilanti, instead of closer to her home in Milan. (“All of my friends live in Ypsi,” she said.) And, of course, we talked about what she had in mind for the space (soups, sandwiches, coffee, ice cream, milk, butter, veggies, pastries, etc.).

Here, if you aren’t familiar with the building, is an old photo that Kwiatkowski found while removing old flooring not too long ago.

Oh, and thank you to those of you who called in and made donations to the Little Bird Patronicity campaign while we were on the air. It was cool to see the numbers going up during the show and know that people were actually listening.

Getting the train to stop in Ypsi…

And, during our third segment, starting at the 1:16-mark, we welcomed Beth Ernat, Ypsilanti’s director of economic development, into the studio to talk with us about the announcement, made just the day before, that the Amtrak Wolverine line would eventually be stopping in Depot Town. [The line hasn’t added stops in over 10 years, and this is great news for those of us who have been wanting the train to stop here for years.] As Ernat reminded us, this likely won’t happen for approximately two years, but the fact that both Amtrak and MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) want this to happen is a huge step in the right direction.

According to Ernat, the city had asked Amtrak and MDOT some time ago to reconsider the possibility of a stop on the line, which passes through Ypsilanti three times a day in the direction of Detroit, and three times in the direction of Chicago, and they just recently got back the positive reply. Amtrak said that, according to their calculations, they’d need 9,000 riders to get on at the Ypsilanti stop per year to make economic sense, and they thought, given our demographics, that this wouldn’t be a problem. [The Ann Arbor stop gets 144,000 riders a year.]

There are, as Ernat said, a number of hurdles that still need to be overcome in order to see this happen. We would need to build a platform, increase parking, and close a few streets, but all of that, she seems to think, are doable. [A few streets crossing the track need to be closed so that the train can pick up speed faster upon leaving the city, allowing it to make up the time lost by stopping here to take on and let off passengers.]

As Ernat pointed out, the important thing at this point is just to get a platform built that will satisfy the needs of all the various stakeholders. We shouldn’t, she said, be trying to create a long term solution, as we don’t yet know what will happen in Depot Town relative to rail traffic. If we get commuter rail to Detroit, in addition to stop on the Wolverine line, there will be a great many more factors that need to be taken into consideration. So, whatever we do, it’s likely going to have to be tweaked in the future. Right now, we just want to get the Wolverine to stop, and demonstrate that Ypsi has the capacity to be a good train city.

I especially liked the part of the interview where we discussed the possibility of a live Saturday Six Pack broadcast from the bar car of the first train to stop here.

And, if you stick around until the end, you’ll hear our friend Chris Sandon come in to share a train story involving what sounded like a gypsy version of the Partridge Family. And, then, for some reason, things kind of went off the tracks, as people began talking about which presidential candidates would likely be the most gentle lovers… You just have to listen… Here’s Chris.

Thanks, as always, to AM 1700 for hosting the show, Kate de Fuccio for documenting everything with her camera, and Brian Robb for running the board, making sure the bills paid, and insuring that the toilet paper and bleach stays stocked. [All photos above come courtesy of Kate.]

If you like this episode, check out our archive of past shows at iTunes. And do please leave a review if you have the time, OK? It’s nice to know that people are listening, and, unless you call in, that’s pretty much the only way we know.

Now, if you haven’t already, please listen for yourself, and experience the magic firsthand.