Yesterday, someone on Twitter called me out for being silent on the subject of International Village, the $350+ million dollar retail and housing development being proposed for Ypsilanti’s 36-acre Water Street property. According to this person, who was posting under a pseudonym, my silence on the matter was “deafening.” It’s something I’ve heard several times […]
Tag Archives: Water Street Sculpture Park
My thoughts on International Village
Posted in Ann Arbor, Architecture, Corporate Crime, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti Also tagged affordable housing, Amanda Edmonds, Beijing, Brian Robb, brownfield, Brownfield Redevelopment Tax Credits, China, Chinese investment, condominiums, corruption, County Farm Park, Dan Vogt, Eastside Recreation Center, EB-5, economic development, economic segregation, environmental injustice, gentrification, International Village, luxury housing, money laundering, native plants, public health air quality, real estate, remediation, respirators, seed bombing, SHIFT, silence, student housing, tax credits, Troy, Veridian, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation, Water Street, Water Street Commons, Water Street debt reduction millage, xenophobia, Ypsilanti City Council, Ypsilanti real estate 62 Comments
Why are we just now finding out the extent of the contamination on Water Street?
Over the past several weeks, it’s come to light that Water Street, the 38-acre parcel of downtown, riverfront property that the City of Ypsilanti has been trying to develop for the past 16 years, may be significantly more toxic than we’d previously been led to believe. What follows is the first of what I’m hoping […]
Posted in Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti Also tagged arsenic, Baseline Environmental Assessment, Beth Ernat, Biltmore, Border to Border Trail, brownfield, Brownfield plan, chemicals, Cheryl Farmer, DDCC, development, Document of Due Care and Compliance, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Farm Bureau, lead, MEDQ, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, MSHDA, native prairie, oxic Control Substances Act of 1976, PCBs, pollution, toxic environment, VOCs, Water Street, Water Street debt reduction millage, Water Street Flats, West Forest 31 Comments
The Year the Suburbs Tried to Kill Me… Monkey Power Trio 20
The weekend before last marked the 20th meeting of my one-day-a-year audio art collaborative, the Monkey Power Trio. For those of you who might not be familiar with our origin story, it all began back in 1995 with a promise between old friends one hot, summer afternoon in Brooklyn. On the spur of the moment, […]
Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Monkey Power Trio, Other, Uncategorized Also tagged bad luck, blue green algae, Brooklyn, brushes with death, bulldoze the suburbs, Chemlawn, Cupcake Fistfight, Fireball Whiskey, fringe suburbs, good luck, lakes, songs, suburbs 18 Comments