Jamie Innis from the Dexter 4-H on raising chickens, for all you Ann Arbor city kids whose parents think it might be a good idea for you to have a project.
Story at the Ann Arbor News by Judy McGovern.
If your neighbor erects a giant sign on their lawn, or on the side of their house, what is your recourse?
UPDATE: In Ann Arbor the simple and direct way to deal with this is to call the city's Community Standards department at 734-994-1613. A neighbor who has been through this before says that they deal with sign problems promptly.
The appropriate part of the city code reads as follows. NOTE: This is not the official city code site! Find it and read it before complaining.
- PDF from the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors:
5:504. Residence signs.
(1) Single and 2-family houses. Townhouses and detached single-family and duplex
houses are permitted signs having a total area of 3 square feet indicating the address and
names of the occupants.
(2) Multiple family residences. Apartment houses, fraternity houses, sorority houses,
cooperative houses, retirement homes, tourist homes and religious institutions are
permitted signs having a total area of 12 square feet indicating only the address, the
names of the occupants and the name of the building or organization.
(3) Subdivisions. Subdivisions of single and 2-family homes and housing complexes of
more than 1 apartment or town house building are permitted signs identifying the
subdivisions or housing complex. Such signs shall have an area of not more than 50
square feet and a height of not more than 8 feet. A subdivision or housing complex shall
not have a total of more than 2 such signs nor more than 1 per entrance.
(Ord. No. 55-74, 6-9-75; Ord. No. 33-82, 8-2-82)
5:505 Temporary signs.
Unilluminated on-premises temporary exterior signs may be erected in accordance with
the regulations of this section.
(1) Single and Two-Family Real Estate--For Sale Signs.
(a) A single sign with a maximum height of 48 inches and a maximum width of 36
inches, including the support structure and all riders, and with the bottom of the sign a
minimum of 6 inches from the ground, advertising the sale of a single or two-family
house or variant property adjacent to such a house is permitted.
(b) Such a sign shall be set back at least 15 feet from the street and at least 5 feet from
the inside edge of the sidewalk, or in accordance with Table 5:505 when conditions do
not permit such placement. Provided, that if a legally existing obstruction on the property
prevents the sign from being seen from the street when the sign is placed in accordance
with the foregoing placement requirements, then the sign may be affixed to or placed
immediately in front of such obstruction, so long as the display face of the sign is parallel
to the right-of-way line, and so long as the sign is not placed within the public right-of-
way.
(c) A sign advertising the sale of a property must be removed within 48 hours after the
closing on the sale.
(2) Single and Two-Family Real Estate--Rental Signs.
(a) A single sign with a maximum height of 48 inches and a maximum width of 36
inches, including the support structure and all riders, and with the bottom of the sign a
minimum of 6 inches from the ground, advertising the rental of a single or two-family
house or variant property adjacent to such a house is permitted.
(b) Such sign shall be set back at least 15 feet from the street and at least 5 feet from
the inside edge of the sidewalk, or in accordance with Table 5:505 when conditions do
not permit such placement. Provided, that if a legally existing obstruction on the property
prevents the sign from being seen from the street when the sign is placed in accordance
with the foregoing placement requirements, then the sign may be affixed to or placed
immediately in front of such obstruction, so long as the display face of the sign is parallel
to the right-of-way line, and so long as the sign is not placed within the public right-of-
way.
(c) A sign advertising the rental of a property must be removed within 48 hours after
the property is no longer available for rent.
(3) Real Estate. A sign with a total area not in excess of 12 square feet advertising the
sale or rental of real estate other than single or two-family houses is permitted pursuant to
a permit having a maximum duration of 120 days. It shall have a maximum height of 10
feet and shall be set back 25 feet unless attached to a permanent building.
The sign board of appeals home page:
Brenda Acquaviva, Appeal Board Administrative Support Specialist
(734) 994-2696 - Bacquaviva@a2gov.org
there's lots of broken links on that page.
Technorati Tags: annarbor, good-signs-make-good-neighbors, semiotics, sign
It's January, which means no farmer's market basil until July or August. Not too early to start thinking about it, though, especially thinking about how to grow your own - perhaps using a hoop house to speed the process along. Here's some preliminary research to share.
http://mdmintake.blogspot.com/2006/08/basil-anyone.html
Brooke and I had a great time at the farm this afternoon. And by great, I mean I now know why Tricia is always wearing carhartts, a straw hat, gloves and boots. The weeds on the farm? Not so much like the weeds in our garden.
http://deberosahomestead.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/portable-hoop-house-construction/
This year we built a portable hoop house on Deberosa for tomatoes and basil. It was fairly successful but as you can see from the storm post, it didn’t survive an extremely bad wind. I think it would have survived it the rain did not make the ground so soft that the rebar simply pulled out of the mud. Oh well, we’ll rebuild for next year - it will just be a little shorter and perhaps oriented lengthwise to the prevailing wind.
http://quetzalfarm.com/tour.htm
Early in the spring we plant basil and cucumbers in our hoop house. It is significantly warmer than outside, allowing us to harvest much earlier. The basil will grow into fall.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/beginning_farmers/0603/greens2.shtml
Basil’s really the only herb to which we give much attention, and it responds well. It flourishes in the heat of the hoop. Keep cutting back the terminal buds and it’ll bush out. Give it an occasional shot of fish and it may produce for months.
http://www.vpi.org/urban_farm.html
ReVision Urban Farm is an organic micro-farm whose guiding vision is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable urban agriculture. The farm grows a wide variety of food crops on three reclaimed urban lots totaling one-acre of growing space. The farm enhances the delivery of nutrition services throughout our community and increases local awareness of the social, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable urban agriculture.
from UPI in their "quirks" section:
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Officials in Ann Arbor, Mich., are working on a plan to allow residents of the college town to set up their own chicken coops.
City Councilman Stephen Kunselman told his colleagues during the weekend there is support among residents who like the idea of having access to "farm fresh" eggs, which some foodies consider to be tastier and healthier than the store-bought variety.
To the reader: a challenge to update the chicken coops page on Arborwiki, noting the urban history of residential avian husbandry, and to document in particular the tipping point at which eggs from your back yard went from being a sign of prosperity to something else.
This video is making the email rounds in town; if you're not part of that world, you'll find this amusing. "Join the thousands of people racing from the suburbs to purchase a Mondo Concreto condo." Says one viewer: "lmao". Another: "really, really bad".
Technorati Tags: 2007, 48104, mondo, concreto, condo, development, annarbor, video
Spencer noted that a developer is proposing new downtown apartments. I put together this map to show where it would be.
NOT FIELD CHECKED so some of the details might be wrong, please comment and I'll fix.
Ann Arbor News story: "Workforce apartments proposed near downtown", August 21 2007
Arborwiki: City Place
Arbor Update: Mid-range housing "City Place" proposed for South Fifth Ave.
Ann Arbor is Overrated: Why Tear Down Letter for Too-Easy Post?
Ann Arbor News letter to the editor: Why tear down homes for ugly building?, Joanne R. Marbut, Ann Arbor
Technorati Tags: 48104, annarbor, arborwiki, cityplace, development, housing, michigan
Alicia Rockmore, co-founder of Ann Arbor based Buttoned Up, was recently interviewed by the the All Financial Matters blog. 10 questions in the interview, some highlights:
How long did it take you to get your company’s products in Target stores?
2 years from when we started Buttoned Up.
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Do not give up. People will tell you what is wrong with your idea, why its already been done (there are no new ideas), etc… If you believe in what you are doing, keep at it and you will find success.
What motivates you?
I love the challenge of making products that will help women get organized and that will really mean something to them. There is no greater high than when people write or call and say they love our products.
Thanks to John Hritz for passing along this week's Needle Lane Farms CSA box contents. We picked up ours yesterday and packed away all the goodies.
* Snow Peas
* Green Garlic
* Garlic Scapes (aka garlic tops)
* Bok Choy
* Garlic Chives
* Swiss Chard
* Lettuces
* Italian Parsley
I'll share the Swiss chard recipe we end up with.
UPDATE: Ribollita soup recipe from Dave Barnhart posted for the Swiss chard.
Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW) - Seminar Announcement
Steve Sawyer
Associate Professor, Information Sciences & Technology
COMPUTERIZATION AND THE SOCIAL NATURE OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY: EVIDENCE AND THEORIZING FROM THE U.S. RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Noon (promptly) - 1:30 p.m.
SI North 3rd Floor Conference Room & West Hall Shirley Culliton Connector Room
Abstract --
In this talk I focus on both understanding and theorizing on the uses, and roles, of information and communication technologies in supporting information-intensive work. To do this I draw on nine years of studying computerization in the United States residential real estate industry: a living laboratory for insights into possible future forms of information-intensive economic activity. Evidence indicates that while the take-up and uses of computing are helping reshape the transacting of real estate (e.g., buyers have begun searching for possible homes via internet-accessible databases), these changes do not diminish the social activities through which real estate is transacted. These social activities include helping to make sense of all the information now available, guiding buyers/sellers through the purchase/sales process, and resolving unexpected contingencies. Data show information and communication technologies are used in ways that reinforce and support the social conduct of economic activities. We theorize that computerization should be seen as both supporting access to, and gaining value from, the social ties of agents. For example, agents are valued for their ability to use their network of social ties to form the temporary web of participants involved in buying and selling a house. Seen this way, agent’s uses of information and communication technologies are more complex than simply providing alternative data conduits to replace human effort.
This work done with: Kevin Crowston, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University and
Rolf Wigand, Departments of Information Science and Management, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Bio --
Steve Sawyer is a founding member of the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. Steve does social and organizational informatics research with a particular focus on people working together using information and communication technologies.
http://www.ist.psu.edu/faculty_pages/sawyer/
Affiliate appointments with:
Department of Labor Studies & Employer Relations,
Department of Management & Organization,
Science Technology & Society Program.
The Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW) is composed of students and faculty who are interested in the novel ways of working made possible by new information technologies. Once a month, CREW hosts a public seminar. All are welcome. For more information about CREW and its seminar series, please visit our web page at http://www.crew.umich.edu.
Technorati Tags: annarbor, crew, 48109, real-estate
We get a delivery of milk every week from Calder Dairy. The truck comes in on Tuesdays, they put glass bottles of milk into a cooler and pick up the empties, and we get a bill once a month (with a "Moosletter" with farm news on the back). The farm is in Carleton, which makes a nice trip for ice cream and to see the happy cows; the dairy in Lincoln Park also has an ice cream parlor (haven't been there yet).
The milk is really good, the ice cream is fabulous, and the cream (wow, farm cream).
Other people in the Ann Arbor area who have written about them include Trusty Getto (Ypsilanti), carfree ann arbor, Arbor Update, the U of M Resident Spouses Association, and Chow.
They deliver to routes in the following cities (from their web site)
* Ann Arbor * Saline * Chelsea * Dexter * Allen Park * Lincoln Park * Dearborn * Dearborn Heights * Grosse Isle * Flat Rock * Monroe * Carleton * Newport * Taylor * South Lyon * Livonia * Wyandotte * Ecorse * Southgate * Willis * Maybee * South Rockwood * Garden City * Westland * River Rouge * Trenton * Romulus * New Boston * Belleville * Melvindale * Ypsilanti * Canton * Plymouth
and you can pick up Calder milk locally from stores including the People's Food Coop.
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