• 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

Are you all aware of the fact that our property taxes are at a milage rate MUCH, MUCH greater than our surrounding neighbors?
Are you aware that our property values are significantly LOWER than our surrounding neighbors.
Are you aware of  how many rotting, decaying, vacant properties there are in this community.
Are you also aware of all the vacant property parcels there are – the remains after the decay is over, demolished and cleared away.
Are you aware, that with the current tax rates, there is little or NO incentive for property rehabilitation, or restoration.

Are you also aware of the tremendous reductions is sales prices property owners are suffering in order to sell their properties? HUGE reductions.

Why are all of you AVOIDING THE ELEPHANT in the livingroom.
When are you going to address the issue of OUTRAGEOUS property tax rates.

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO ATTRACT NEW FAMILIES, NEW BUSINESSES, PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO HAVE THE MONEY,TIME AND ENERGY TO ANIMATE THIS CITY…restore some of the glorious old homes, have their kids play and go to school here, when the Love Boutique is just around the corner, there is a liquor store at every bend, cars have been broken into more than once, vandalized, ONE HAS TO STORE ONES BICYCLES IN THE LIVINGROOM!!!
And for all this…you get to pay almost double the tax rate of other areas.

C’mon guys…will someone GET REAL and tell us HOW all this is going to change? and when?

Thanks in advance for your response

Police = stays the same

Fire = stays the same

DPW = Eliminate the pension and offer a 5% contribution to their
individual 401k each year

Clerks / Secretaries = Eliminate the pension and offer a 5%
contribution to their individual 401k each year

Department Heads = Establish a vesting period which reflects their
tenure as department head

Tell us very specificallly, what is not broken, and name two things that are right about Ypsilanti.