ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Friday, February 26, 2016
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Mcity and startups to partner in new effort MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
University alum Donavan McKinney, community engagement associate at Community Development Advocates of Detroit, speaks during a panel on the topic of Muslim solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement at Rackham Auditorium on Thursday.
Panel explores solidarity in Muslim, Black communities Student association hosts series of events to promote discussion By SOPHIE SHERRY Daily Staff Reporter
The Muslim Students’ Association hosted an event Thursday aimed at demonstrating solidarity with Black Lives Matter, an activist movement advocating for the
freedom and liberty of people in the Black community. LSA senior Sarah Khan, a panelist and MSA’s social justice and activism director, said the goal of the event was to combat instances of racism that are found in a variety of communities and expressed by a wide range of identities. Khan is a managing editor for The Michigan Daily’s Michigan In Color section. “As a non-Black person of color, my hope for this event is to combat
the anti-Black racism that is present in my own community,” Khan said. “I hope that this event will give us the foundation to understand why the Muslim community must stand in solidarity with the Black community. This is the MSA beginning to take accountability.” Panelist Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, began the discussion by asking the audience to take a different approach to
identity. “The term ‘solidarity’ is to me trying to find the common points and stand with someone who is maybe outside of yourself,” Walid said. “I’d like for us to try and reframe this and look at this as us actually being integrally connected and part of each other.” LSA senior Arnold Reed, an adviser to the Black Student Union, was also on the panel. Reed said BSU was the first place See PANEL, Page 3
Techlab to allow outside researchers to contribute to driverless car tech. By ALLANA AKHTAR Daily News Editor
The University of Michigan launched the pilot of TechLab at Mcity, a program for transportation startups to partner with researchers at the automated vehicle testing site, Thursday. TechLab is meant to bring driverless innovation closer to consumer markets by providing companies working with transportation technology with access to Mcity’s nationally recognized research facilities, according to a press release. “By creating a structure that allows startup companies from around the globe to access topflight talent and resources that would otherwise be unavailable to them, we believe we have
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OPINION
Multiple challengers emerge for open seats on Council
A Connector a practical option for campus, city 2
From T HE M ICHIGAN DAILY Anyone who has taken a Blue Bus can attest to its tendency to be inefficient and consistently overcrowded. These issues serve to create a sizable gap between Central and North Campus: Students who live on Central are disincentivized from enjoying the natural beauty and arts on North, while students who must travel from North to Central are alienated from much of University life. Intercampus transportation is very clearly an issue that needs to be solved. Fortunately, the University of Michigan and the city of Ann Arbor have begun moving forward with plans to build a light rail, named the Ann Arbor Connector. The first part of the project that would ultimately run throughout the city of Ann Arbor is the branch of the train that would unite North and Central Campus. Paid for by the University, the city of Ann Arbor, and most likely with funding from federal, state and public and private partnerships, the light rail would be expensive in the short run, but beneficial to students in the long run. This light rail system would improve student life in myriad ways, providing a quicker, safer, more accessible way to move between our campuses. A light rail system would be more reliable than the current busing system because it would move at the same rate no
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matter the level of car traffic. What’s more, students could get down to Central Campus faster during game days and event days when the roads are teeming with pedestrians and parents. Additionally, because light rails are automated, they could run later and longer than the buses we have now. This project would not only benefit students in their everyday lives, but it would also prove advantageous for the University and the city of Ann Arbor. It would reduce the number of cars on the road, alleviating the extremely heavy traffic Ann Arbor faces on a daily basis. Light rail has also been proven safer than cars. The city of Ann Arbor would also benefit because this project would reduce the city’s carbon footprint. More than 46,000 people commute to the city each day, and with a light rail, commuters would be able to park their cars near a train stop and then take the monorail to their workplace, leveraging the fact that rail systems are four times more efficient than cars. This would take cars off the road — making them safer — and save time for commuters and students who need to drive or take the bus. The light rail is planned to be powered entirely by renewable resources, which would further reduce our emissions. In the long run, the light rail would save the UniverSee OPINION, Page 3
hit upon a model that will create a winning opportunity for all involved,” Thomas Frank, executive director of the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship, said in a press release. Frank was not immediately available for comment Thursday evening. Mcity launched in July 2015 as the world’s first controlled vehicle test site for researching automated vehicle technology and developing driverless cars ready for the mass market. Housed on North Campus, it was created by the University’s Mobility Transformation Center and the State of Michigan Department of Transportation. Zendrive, created by former employees at Google and Facebook, is the first startup participating in TechLab. Zendrive uses mobile sensor technology to measure driver safety in actions like acceleration, breaking, swerving and phone use. “Collaborating with U-M See MCITY, Page 3
Eight individuals have officially declared their intentions to run
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
Stephen Dolen, executive director of Parking and Transportation Services at the University, explains the rationale for choosing a site for the new bus depot at the North Campus Research Complex on Thursday.
New transportation center on North Campus debated Residents concerned about potential pollution from new structure By LYDIA BARRY Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan officials and Ann Arbor residents met Thursday evening to discuss the University’s proposed Transportation Operations and Maintenance Center, slated to be built on Green Road between Hubbard Road and Baxter Road. The meeting yielded a large turnout of residents hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the potential issues with the new center, which will serve as a bus depot where North Campus buses will be stored and receive maintenance. At the meeting, residents expressed several main areas of
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concern, including environmental impact on the surrounding area and potential traffic issues. The local neighborhood association has created a site with information on the proposed facility. Ann Arbor resident Dan Beard told officials that he thought the University hadn’t not fully consider the consequences of its actions. “It’s really disturbing that the University is consolidating its pollution output so close to lowincome housing,” Beard said. University Planner Susan Gott said the center’s location was determined to be the most logical proposal because of an increased number of people riding University buses and subsequent need for a larger vehicle storage facility. “The existing facility … is not meeting the current operational needs and therefore a new facility will incorporate space that better incorporates better buses than could fit into the original
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facility,” Gott said. “The reason this location is selected is to try to bring the beginning trips to where the early morning and evening demand is. There is an efficiency for relocating onto North Campus.” During the meeting, City Councilmember Jane Lumm (D-Ward 2) also spoke out against the proposal. She said she thought there was another option the University could utilize to increase bus count without affecting neighborhoods — the city’s Wheeler Center, a garage which she said is currently under capacity. “We have a state-of-the-art garage facility, the Wheeler Center,” Lumm said. “What the city could do for the University is to offer an incredible collaboration opportunity. All of our vehicles are maintained at the Wheeler Center. It sounds like an excellent collaboration opportunity.” In response to concerns, UniSee CENTER, Page 3
Vol. CXXv, No. 82 ©2016 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
By JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily News Editor
As the deadline for filing petitions approaches, eight contenders have officially stepped forward in the 2016 election for Ann Arbor City Council. Five out of the 10 seats on Council are open in November’s election, along with the position of mayor. Five of the six current office holders — Kirk Westphal (D–Ward 2), Julie Grand (D–Ward 3), ChuckWarpehoski (D–Ward 5), Graydon Krapohl (D–Ward 4) and Mayor Christopher Taylor — are running for reelection thus far. To vote in the upcoming City Council elections, individuals must be both a registered voter in Ann Arbor as well as a resident of the candidate’s ward. In the past, students have noted it is difficult for them to coalesce around one candidate because of the way the wards are drawn. “So where the campus is located touches all five wards. Every address in the city including the dormitories is assigned — they’re on the map See COUNCIL, Page 3
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