Community Engagement

Former Juvenile Center site is rehabbed into a community garden

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May 16, 2012

A prime plot of Ann Arbor land is no longer lying fallow. The former Washtenaw County Juvenile Center has donated a new parcel to Project Grow, a community gardening and educational non-profit. The site is being converted into 20 full-sized 25-foot by 30-foot garden plots, measuring about 750 square feet apiece. The plots should be available for rent within the next couple of weeks, according to Nicole Premo, a board member of the non-profit. A couple of Project Grow board members spearheaded the acquisition of the juvenile center site at 2270 Platt Road, which is adjacent to another community garden at the County Farm Park. "Every year we see that this beautiful piece of land has gone pretty much untouched since the juvenile facility closed," says Premo. "It has a big open space, not very many trees in that space, so it seems like a perfect garden site." Project Grow is managing 15 sites around Ann Arbor, comprising about 350 individual gardens. A full-sized plot rents for $130 per season, a half-sized for $85. Site preparation and water are included in the cost. Many gardeners return each season. This year, 380 applications were received, of which 230 were renewals. "I would imagine that we have at least 700 people gardening as a result of our plots," Premo says. Source: Nicole Premo, Project Grow board member Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Latest in Community Engagement

The Conversation: Should We Make Civic Participation More Fun?

By Jeff Meyers

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General

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May 9, 2012

Let's face it, most people show up at city council and town hall meetings to complain. But what if there was a game that encouraged civic creativity and participation by awarding points? Would involvement increase? Would it attract new ideas and new voices?

Tree nursery gets rooted to Ypsilanti’s Water Street parcel

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Community Development

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May 9, 2012

A gust of fresh air has come, literally, to downtown Ypsilanti. City personnel and a cadre of volunteers, some from the Michigan Works young adult training program, have just finished planting the first installment of a tree nursery on the Water Street parcel. The 2-4 acre nursery, situated on the Huron River in the old Gilbert Park, now contains 350 new young trees. Another planting will be done this fall to bring the total to about 600-800 trees by the end of the year, says Ypsilanti City Planner Teresa Gillotti. The trees are planted in fabric grow bags so they can be moved to other areas of the city as and when development occurs on the site, Gillotti says. About half of the specimens in Ypsilanti's public tree stock are middle-aged and older, according to a recently completed tree inventory. "So the idea is that we're growing new stock sort of cheaply that will eventually get of size and then they'll be transplanted as part of the street tree network or as parks trees," she explains. No new maples are planned as they already comprise over half of the city's canopy. Instead, the new stock is a mix of shagbark hickory, hackberry, red oak, white oak, tulip tree, scarlet oak, white pine, blue spruce, and white spruce varieties. "Lots of folks are interested in volunteering, including a bunch of EMU students, residents, and neighborhood people," Gillotti says of the effort. "So we're really excited that it's kind of a neat combination of folks in the community that are coming out to help us establish the nursery, and ultimately I think we're going to have a group of volunteers that help to maintain and keep an eye on it as well." Source: Teresa Gillotti, Ypsilanti city planner Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Polly’s Paper Studio pushes paper arts in Dexter

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Arts & Culture

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April 25, 2012

A tangible counter to the spread of digital art and e-cards, Polly's Paper Studio has opened at 3238 Broad St. in downtown Dexter. The boutique offers a selection of paper for scrapbooking, card making, and other paper crafting supplies, including flowers, stickers, ribbons, and other bling. Attracted by Dexter's artsy vibe and convenient, walkable location, owner Ginny Nemchak relocated her store to Dexter after 1½ years in Pinckney. "We felt like this would be a good fit for what we do because we're very visual and it's nice for people to come in and see things and handle them and do that kind of thing," she says. The store, open Tuesday through Sunday, will also be offering classes in paper crafts. A schedule will be posted on the store's blog soon, Nemchak says. Source: Ginny Nemchak, owner, Polly's Paper Studio Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Lucky Penny Mosaics opens studio for classes in Dexter

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Arts & Culture

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April 25, 2012

It's much more fun than assemble-it-yourself furniture and infinitely less frustrating than puzzles. The newly opened Lucky Penny Mosaics studio offers classes in mosaic art at 3205 Broad St. in downtown Dexter. Owner Lisa Wandres also co-owns the Artistica Gallery, which carries the creations of about 30 local artists, as well as completed mosaic works. "It's a little concentrated village here," Wandres says of both of her Dexter locations. Students at all levels are welcome for multi-week classes. "It's kind of a get-together and we are having a lot of fun just meeting together and doing mosaics as a group," Wandres says. "It's like a little therapy, and it's way cheaper than therapy," she adds. Examples of mosaic artwork will be on view at Artistica's monthly Fourth Friday event this Friday, April 27 from 5 to 8 p.m. Source: Lisa Wandres, owner, Lucky Penny Mosaics Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Video Creating Great Downtown Public Spaces

By Roger Rayle

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Community Development

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April 25, 2012

Missed last week's speaker presentation by Bob Gregory, who oversees the development , management and programming of Detroit's $20 million Campus Martius Park? No worries, we've got you covered. Watch a video of the event here.

A Bicycle Built For Seven

By Tanya Muzumdar

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General

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April 18, 2012

It's a bike. It's art. It's two great tastes in one. Concentrate's Tanya Muzumdar pedals around town on the seven-seater Conference Bike, and learns why Ann Arbor is a a great place to ride (and Mackinac Island is verboten).

Washtenaw Food Hub to open for CSA distribution

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Community Development

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April 18, 2012

Good farmers make good neighbors. And coming in May, the public will have new ways to interact with them at the Washtenaw Food Hub, a distribution and gathering facility for community farmers housed on a 16-acre plot on Whitmore Lake Road in Ann Arbor. The food hub is renovating a former feed store into a space for community-supported agriculture (CSA) distribution from multiple farmers. The new space should be ready by mid-to-late May. "We're making it a place where people can come and network and share the food distribution there from the CSAs and share some food recipes," says Richard Andres, co-founder and co-owner of Washtenaw Food Hub. He and his partner, Deb Lentz, also own Tantré Farm, an organic farm with its own CSA. Andres calls it an "enhanced distribution site for community farm shares". There will be a meat freezer, along with eggs and vegetables. Gardening supplies, including organic minerals and fertilizers, will also be for sale. Starting in early May, customers will be able to order from Lunasa, an online farmers market, and make pickups twice a week, Andres says. Three employees are working on the installation of a half-acre vegetable garden, an herb garden, and a quarter-acre blackberry patch. And the chickens aren't far behind. On April 24 from 4-6 p.m. the food hub will be hosting a dinner with Joel Salatin, who was featured in The Omnivore's Dilemma. An author of eight books, Salatin has been called the most influential farmer in America. He'll be speaking at the Michigan Theatre afterwards at 7 p.m. Other potluck dinners will be held throughout the season as well. The food hub, Andres says, is "trying to put things in more of a human and communal scale rather than the large industrial scale that things are on at that site right now." Source: Richard Andres, co-founder and co-owner of Washtenaw Food Hub Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Encouraged to Think, Create, Write

By Melinda Clynes

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Community Development

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March 28, 2012

826michigan is well known for its Robot Repair Store and writing center in downtown Ann Arbor (not to mention its fun, offbeat events). But did you also know they tutor and host workshops in Ypsilanti? From fiction to stage plays to poetry, volunteers at their Drop-In Teen Writing Workshop inspire kids to find expression through words.

New path opens in Dexter for Border-to-Border Trail

By Tanya Muzumdar

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Community Development

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March 28, 2012

With 80-degree spring days feeling like summer, a new Border-to-Border Trail segment is becoming a well-worn path already, and other segments are following. Even prior to last weekend's ribbon-cutting ceremony, the freshly completed West Side Connector running from downtown Dexter to Warrior Creek Park was getting a lot of traffic. "Every time I'm out there, there are families using it," notes Coy Vaughn, deputy director of the Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Commission. "Especially from the [West Ridge] subdivision, because they were basically, from a pedestrian standpoint, cut off from the village." Another section currently under construction that will run from Dexter-Huron Metropark to the village of Dexter should be done by June, Vaughn says. A bridge over the Huron River and a quarter-mile path is being laid in the first phase, followed by a link-up to downtown. And since the bridge-crossing over Mill Creek that connects to the West Ridge subdivision and the border of Hudson Mills Park is done, the next phase commences in August. A 2.9-mile stretch will begin at the park border and follow the Huron River valley, adjacent to the Huron River. "That will provide direct access to residents of Dexter all the way through to the Hudson Mills trail system," Vaughn says. The majority of that project should be done by winter, with wrap-up next spring. Source: Coy Vaughn, deputy director of the Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Commission Writer: Tanya Muzumdar