Ypsi: Pot, Pornography And The Briarwood Funnel

Ypsilant's political situation for the upcoming year promises to continue the enigma that last year produced a five dollar pot law and an anti-pornography ordinance within weeks of each other.

It will be the same old story of West side affluence and control versus East side resentment of that affluence and control. Student ward radicalism versus student ward liberalism. And a solid black populated South side, ignored until their votes are needed, courted until those votes are won, then once again forgotten.

A newer element entering the situation is the theory that Ypsilanti's business community is dying. It is common now for stores to have close-out sales and quietly move. Out on the horizon is the major cause: the Briarwood shopping center.

Unwilling to accept this, the Chamber of Commerce and the remaining downtown merchants fight on, and if they can swing it, with the taxpayer's money.

Just last spring, a $161,000 Washington Street "promenade" intended to draw the masses downtown was approved by council. Among the few dissenters were Human Rights Party members Eric Jackson and Harold Baize, both from the student wards.

Now that "promenade," according to the company in charge, is going to cost another 560,000. It seems the engineer's report failed to take into account the crown of the road. For an extra $50,000, they say, the widened streets can be extended and made level.

The Chamber of Commerce, consisting for the most part of West Side Republicans, argues that a."revitalized" downtown area will "revitalize" the tax base of the city and increase incoming revenues.

"That's their rap," agreed Jackson. "But I don't believe we're going to recover our investment."

Jackson counter-argues that it is impossible for Ypsilanti merchants to compete with Briarwood. Instead, he suggests, more human services facilities should be placed downtown, with the added purpose of drawing more people to that area. Baize goes a step further. He half-jokes that the entire district should be leveled and made into a park.

Neither of these attitudes is fully shared by other council members. Speaking for the majority, Councilmember Bob Cherris, self-described as an "independent," admits to suffering from "New York City Paranoia." The student ward democrat feels that setting up a variety of human services without working on the tax base will only serve to shrink, and eventually diminish, the general fund.

Cherris contends the major confrontation at council will concern the city's recent Public Administration Service Study. This study was performed by a private firm, at the city's request, for $15,000. It suggests several streamlining measures for the city's rather awkward bureaucracy, proposes that budget hearings include quality ratings of departments which in the past were provided with funds, and in a section that promises to make the biggest stir of all, innocently states that the city's 11-member council is "unusual" considering Ypsilanti's size.

Council and city conservatives immediately interpreted that section as debunking the 1972 installed ward system, which divided the city into five districts and ruled that each district could elect two representatives to council.

Elated, they now envision a return to the former seven member council, elected at large and totally dominated by themselves. Although the four student ward representatives would be against it and Jackson reports that there's "not the votes on council to push that through," it still seems inevitable that the conservatives will attempt such a move.

Other upcoming issues are:

*an ordinance restricting the use of lie detectors as a prerequisite for employment.

*a law requiring unit pricing (cost per ounce) in city stores.

*improvements in local parks.

*an ordinance abolishing the insurance requirement for the Free Concert Series, now badly in debt.

*an updated, more progressive housing code.

*a stringent campaign spending law, set to appear on the February primary ballot.

*a rent control ordinance, now slated for the April general election.