reflections on AA city council NoMo Plan hearing

Tonight's Ann Arbor City Council meeting included a public hearing on the finalized Non-Motorized Transportation Plan (get it here in all of it's 200-page glory. yes, it's long, but if you're at all even recreationally curious about things like urban traffic planning, for peds/cyclists/motorists or otherwise, it's got lots of detail, but reads quickly). A couple of observations/comments:
- It seems like city council members like to tout their cyclist cred by making sure they mention that they're cyclists at some point when they're speaking. Gotta wonder what percentage of their daily transportation is bike/walk and what percentage is drive. And if, say, sailing or animals were the topic of the evening, would they suddenly discover their nautical heritage or pull out pictures of family pets for display?
- After the public comments section, many of the public in attendance got up and left (after they had said their bit). I realize that not everyone has love for the minutia of city council meetings, but the mass exodus brought one thought quickly to mind: Do the people speaking actually care about what goes on in the city council meeting? Or are they there just because they want to rant? (I have my doubts about whether they had some excuse like having to catch the last bus or get home to let the dog out... and that as responsible citizens are going to catch the re-broadcast on CTN.) To one who sees this "speechify and bail" technique, I can tell you this - If you can't even sit through the rest of the meeting, how much credit do you think people give to what you said when they watch you bail? (it's not like you have to stand during the whole meeting) If you can't respect the forum with your presence, how much respect do you think the forum has for you? I say this about both the Non-Motorized part as well as the podium-ey rants about Israel/Palestine that seem to take place every meeting. The funny thing about it is that after the public comments section, there was some more talk about the NoMo plan. Nothing the public could comment on, but the folks that left missed it.
- It was pretty clear that, regardless of progress in making AA a more bikeable/walkable city, there's an excessive amount of animosity between cyclists and motorists. You only need to see the flame wars on craigslist (rants and raves section) or encounter sometimes-raging-asshole/sometimes-peacemaker people like me to get a sample of it. Apparently, motorists don't go to city council meetings, since almost all of the folks that spoke were pro-Non-Motorized. Two of the people that got up to speak (Doug and Marianne? afterward they seemed to be a couple) made their points, and presented them well. Marianne: she has lived here 5 months and been pushed to the curb on her bike once, threatened by a motorist, and almost run over while on foot at crosswalk where she had the green light, and that she doesn't really feel safe riding OR walking in Ann Arbor. Out in the hallway, she suggested that she very well may be moving out of the city for this reason. Doug: Palo Alto, CA has just as many, if not more, cars on the road, but not nearly as much conflict with pedestrians/cyclists. He also made a good point about Palo Alto's success in increasing pedestrian/cyclist awareness by having plainclothes officers/sting operations handing out tickets to motorists when they fail to yield to pedestrains or other "light" offenses that are nevertheless a danger to anyone on the street that's not in a car.
- The City of Ann Arbor is apparently just GUSHING over the Google thing. Really, just falling all over themselves, as if they asked the head cheerleader to the prom and "she said yes! SHE REALLY REALLY SAID YES! And later, at the after-party... she's gonna let us sniff her panties! OMG, that is, like, sooooo kewl...." I know that there's a tradition of conflict over downtown parking availability, but the amount of time spent thrashing over the city giving Google "up to" 400 free parking spaces as part of the deal to move in downtown... I mean really. If the $150 million in tax revenue is so important that the city/state gives them $38M in tax credits, then the least we can do is just build Google a stupid parking garage.