The debate is over. In the eyes of Ypsilanti Mayoral Debate Committee, the Ypsilanti Mayoral Debate is a success.
- Read the article in today’s Ann Arbor News.
- Audio from the debate is now available in high and low bit-rate mp3 form and also as a multi-part suitable for burning to an audio cd. Find it at Sam’s Thoughts.
YMDC wants people to know that it will continue to post questions received via email. The primary is fast approaching, and there are many questions that the candidates need to read and think about their answers and solutions to.
We’ve posted the questions that YMDC asked during the first part of last night’s debate. Notice, as well, that there are several questions we wanted to ask, but given our 60-minute time limit for the first part, we were unable to get to these.
Also posted on the blog are most of the questions submitted by audience members at the debate. Questions written by audience members and asked of the mayoral candidates are categorized separately from those questions we simply didn’t have time to get to, but both are included in the blog.
We knew Ypsi was packed with concerned citizens, but we on YMDC found ourselves commenting often on the concern, insight, and passion contained within the submitted questions, as well as in the comments. There is no apathy in Ypsi. We learned much over the past month as we prepared for the debate, but if we learned one thing above all else, it is that the city of Ypsilanti is even more than we believed (no small feat, given how many of us believed in Ypsilanti quite a bit before the YMDC began meeting).
As you may have noticed, www.ypsivotes.com is not “ypsivotes2006″ dot com. It is, rather, a site that will stick around, although its future utilization–as well as its actual domain name–is uncertain at this point. The community gathered much positive momentum from last night’s debate. It already had momentum, but when over 275 citizens pack a ballroom because they are concerned about their city, the message to the mayoral candidates needs to be clear: Candidates Take Note: the questions asked, the concerns raised, and the voices that you’ve heard will not go away once you take office.
Thank you,
YMDC
July 29, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Thanks to Mark, Linette, Rachel, Linda, Murph, Amanda … everyone who worked on the committee. What a great evnt! Thanks, too, to EMU for their cooperation and the candidates, as well, for their participation. Proud to be a citizen here in Ypsilanti.
July 30, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Let’s not forget Eric, Kathryn, Barry, Sam and the other of the two Marks… It really did take all of us to pull it off.
And thanks especially to all of those, like you, Ed, who came out and joined in the conversation. I don’t think that I’m overstating the debate’s importance when I say that it marked a positive change in local politics.
July 31, 2006 at 12:06 pm
A small technical question.
Now that this blog has what appears to be five hundred different questions posted, would it be possible for you to adjust the wordpress template code so as to display perhaps the last 30 or more recent comments on the right sidebar, as opposed to the five appearing currently?
I’m not sure how many responses have been left, but it’s a little tedious to have to scroll through the posts and click comments, then go back to the main page, etc, trying to figure it out.
March 9, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Nice design, good graphical content. I think I’ll come back later again;)