A lively group of Rotarians gathered on the Zoom call between noon and 12:30PM to check in and socialize. At 12:27, Lori Walters provided the “Zoom Etiquette” for members. At 12:30, President Joanne rang the bell to start the official meeting and introduced Tom Strode on the piano with our National Anthem. Barbara Eichmuller provided the Inspirational message reminding us to go back to basics. She read from the Children’s Book, “The ABC’s of Kindness.” Remember that one kind word can change someone’s entire day. Downs Herold chose “These are the Ones” for our music selection, which highlighted a number of Rotarians singing over Zoom and included a slide show of Rotary International activities and accomplishments.

President Joanne welcomed the members in attendance (more than 100 people) and wished everyone a Happy New Year with a toast and a popper! She then welcomed our guests and thanked our set up team consisting of Lori Walters, Sara Maddock and Leo Shedden; our photographer, Fred Beutler; Reporter, Kathy Waugh and attendance taker, Christina Ferris. Happy birthday to all the January babies!

New Member Induction – Joanne Pierson

We welcomed three new members to our club today! They will be in ClubRunner soon so look them up when you get a chance.

• Heather Eckner, sponsored by Joanne Pierson and Norman Herbert
• Julie Picknell, sponsored by Mary Avrakotos and Norma Sarkar
• Kate VanHorn, sponsored by Jason Whipple and Agnes Reading

Announcements from the President

• Community Service Assessments are now overdue!

Speaker for Today, Christopher Taylor, Ann Arbor Mayor

Dr. Yolanda Whiten graciously introduced her friend and our mayor, Christopher Taylor.

He came to our meeting today to talk about what is going on in our City based on what he thinks we might find interesting. He encouraged everyone to submit specific questions via chat so he could discuss what we found interesting. Highlights of his discussion included the pandemic, the Granger Street roadway construction, the new Police Oversight Committee, carbon neutrality, urban park space and affordable housing.

He felt that the city’s response to COVID-19 ended up going pretty well. The city was able to decentralize and provide the basic services that Ann Arbor required without interruption. The absence of economic activity didn’t hit the city too hard since most of the city’s income comes from Property Taxes. However, parking revenue did take a big hit.

The difficulty on small businesses has been the most heart-breaking story for our community. The city does not have the resources for a grant program but they do have control of the right-of-way and the parking/sidewalks. They have been working to utilize that real estate for the benefit of everyone. They are working all of the time with the DDA to encourage everyone to come downtown safety (wearing a mask).

The A2ZERO plan is community wide carbon neutrality by the year 2030. Incredibly ambitious but a moral imperative. The past year they have established a goal and their developing staff to meet that goal. The city is working closely with DTE Energy to develop a solar field. Also working with the University to keep our carbon neutral goals aligned. The city will have a need for extra funding for new staff and extra programs to make this happen. For more information, check the city’s website: https://www.a2gov.org/departments/sustainability/Carbon-Neutrality/Pages/A2ZERO-Plan.aspx

Central Park on the Library Lot.  Ann Arbor has a lot of parks and there’s a desire to have a park downtown. The city has invested the Library Lot to prepare that particular lot for more intense development.  The Mayor’s view is that a park at this location is destined to fail; however, Proposal A for this park recently passed. In any event, there is a center of city council that will be looking at funding for  this project.

The recently passed Proposal C’s millage will be used by the city to construct affordable housing. We need approximately 2800 units built in Ann Arbor in order to avoid economic segregation from being a permanent thing in our city by 2030. The city has parcels of land available to move this project forward. This will mean that people who work in Ann Arbor will be able to also live in Ann Arbor.

Ann Arbor lags behind in diversity equity and inclusion efforts and is currently undergoing plans to change that. The mayor bravely expressed his disappointment that the city has not yet done enough but hopes this recent resolution will create a more effective plan in this regard.

There was an enthusiastic amount of questions so the mayor stayed online after the meeting ended.

Next Week’s Speaker

Next Week’s Speaker: Dr. David M. Uhlmann – “Back to the Future: Creating a Bipartisan Environmental Movement for the 21st Century.

***

President Joanne closed today’s meeting with a two quotes. One from Proverbs 28:18 “Where this is no vision, the people perish.” And a second quote by Harry S. Truman: “Men (and women) make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

The bell rang at 1:30.

Notes by Kathy Waugh

Photographer Fred Beutler