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Sustainable Ann Arbor Forum | Adapting to a Changing Climate
The City of Ann Arbor is already experiencing impacts from climate change. More severe storms, increased precipitation, rising temperatures and extended heat waves all pose challenges to how we live, work, and play in our community. Join a conversation on how the Ann Arbor community is taking steps to address climate impacts and what more we could be doing at the city, neighborhood and individual level. Climate adaptation experts will share the soup to nuts on climate change for Ann Arbor and what we can do to thrive in a changing future.
Beth Gibbons - Beth Gibbons is the Executive Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP). In this role, she is responsible for strengthening ASAP as an emerging nonprofit organization, managing relationships with its members, board and donors, and bringing adaptation best practices into the broader conversation. Previously, Beth was Director of the University of Michigan Climate Center and managed NOAA’s Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center. She also worked for the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute as a research specialist, helping develop and implement the Great Lakes Adaptation Assessment for Cities. Previously, Beth worked for the International Forestry and Research Institute and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs supporting organization operations and communications. She served in the Peace Corps in Agodopke, Togo. Beth earned her undergraduate degree in Comparative Politics from the Catholic University of America and holds a Master of Urban Planning and a Masters Certificate in African Studies from the University of Michigan. Beth is based in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Jennifer Lawson, Water Quality Manager, City of Ann Arbor - Jennifer Lawson started her career as a Civil Engineer’s daughter and at the age of 7, started working at her Dad’s office, running bluelines, holding a survey rod and coloring mylars. Jen is currently the Water Quality Manager for the City of Ann Arbor. She has a Bachelor of Science in Resource Development from MSU and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from U of M focusing on Landscape as Infrastructure (How the ecology of the landscape can provide a service). With 18 years of experience in both private consulting and municipal engineering, she has a unique balance and understanding of water infrastructure regulations and management needs.
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Speak Truth To Power
Join the Michigan Daily for the first in a series of panel discussions. In part one, "Speak Truth To Power: The Role of Journalism," panelists examine concerns of transparency and accountability in local institutions, with a particular focus on the role played by journalists and local news organizations.
A panel of esteemed, professional local journalists discuss these topics:
David Jesse, the higher education reporter for the Detroit Free Press, has covered the state’s two-year and four-year colleges and universities for a decade. His work has focused on higher education finances, access and accessibility and sexual assault on campus. In the past year , he has broken major stories on the cover-up at Michigan State University following the Larry Nassar scandal. He, along with a reporting partner, have spent more than two years penetrating the secrecy around the University of Michigan’s $12 billion endowment. He has won dozens of national and state awards for his work. Prior to joining the Free Press, he worked for papers around the state of Michigan, including the Ann Arbor News.
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Debate on Proposal A—the “Library Lot"
The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area hosted a panel discussion on Proposal A, the "Library Lot."
Representatives from groups that support or oppose Proposal A presented their views and answered audience questions. Speakers include:
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A2Energy Power Hour
This fun and informative event explains how your house can be made more energy efficient and whether solar power might be an option.
Presenters include:
-MI Saves: to explain their contractor network and financing options.
-DTE
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Donald Hall Reads "Eating the Pig," 1978
Listen to 2006 Poet Laureate of the United States, Donald Hall, read his poem "Eating the Pig" in 1978.
Audio file courtesy of the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University.
You can read "Eating the Pig" here or visit Eating the Pig: A Dinner Party in Poetry, Photography & Painting for more information about the Ann Arbor dinner party that inspired the poem.
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Water 101 | City of Ann Arbor 2018 Sustainable Ann Arbor Forum
This forum is about the lifecycle of water in Ann Arbor. There is a video about extreme storms in Ann Arbor, presentations from some experts in the field, even a trivia game!
Sustainable Ann Arbor is an annual series presented by the City of Ann Arbor and hosted by the Ann Arbor District Library. The series includes four events held monthly through April, each with a focus on a different element of sustainability from Ann Arbor’s Sustainability Framework. This event is cosponsored by the City of Ann Arbor and details of the series will be posted online on The City of Ann Arbor's Sustainability site. For information and videos from current and past Sustainable Ann Arbor Forums, please visit the City’s Sustainability website.
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#47 Ann Arbor Stories: The Billboard Bandits
The shrill, biting, staccato whine of a chainsaw pierces the cold, night air. Thud. Another billboard falls to the ground along a highway in southern Michigan.
An estimated 167 billboards in all—cut, chopped, and chainsawed—along highways throughout Michigan, mostly in the vicinity of Ann Arbor. The papers called this group The Billboard Bandits. But they weren't the only ones terrorizing good old fashioned marketers in town.
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Civic Life in Ann Arbor | City of Ann Arbor 2018 Sustainable Ann Arbor Forum
This panel examines the health of our civic life in Ann Arbor. Mary Morgan, Founder of CivCity, moderates a panel about what it means to be an engaged citizen in a sustainable community, the importance of effecting change by focusing on the local level, and envisioning what civic life can mean in the age of social media.
- Moderator Mary Morgan, Executive Director of CivCity
- Neel Hajra, President and CEO of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
- Ashley Blake, Community Building Team Lead at Avalon Housing
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Socially Responsible Businesses – How Tea, Ice Cream, and Vegetables Do Good
Local business owners talk about how socially conscious business practices – from environmental sustainability to hiring practices to community partnerships – are part of their business identity and their bottom line.
The panel includes Rob Hess from Go! Ice Cream, Phillis Engelbert from The Lunch Room and Detroit Street Filling Station, and Aubrey Lopatin from Arbor Teas. This discussion is be moderated by Rishi Moudgil, Executive Director of GreenLight Fund Detroit and Founder of the Center for Social Impact at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
More about the panelists:
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#46 Ann Arbor Stories: The Battle of Ann Arbor
Four nights of rioting, dozens of injuries to cops and citizens, and more than 70 arrests—it was an event The Detroit Free Press dubbed “The Battle of Ann Arbor”. What sparked this violence and how did the insane scene play out in the summer of 1969?
Music by FAWNN & ZShipps