Ann Arbor Center of the City - Council of the Commons 3/2/2023

001so let's uh kick off the meeting here and uh we'll start off by doing a roll call and remind everyone to uh to um say where you are physically at as we are going to be uh virtual this evening um and uh I guess before we do that before I ask Heather to help us do that this is Heather's last meeting so and you know she's going to introduce Chris uh I guess technically this has last meeting unless she really wants to continue participating in which case you could certainly do so um but but uh we wouldn't want to inflict that on her we have an empty seat or two yeah we have a vacancy or two right we do yes that's right that's absolutely right um well let's go ahead and start Heather could

002you help us with the roll please sure well before we get into that let me officially introduce Chris Cespedes who's going to be um your liaison going forward and Chris comes to us from Miami Florida so I was experiencing this wonderful weather um now and um I don't do you want to just say a few words about yourself Chris yeah so um I just wanted to express my overall excitement to be a part of uh of this task force and and join it as its newest staff liaison uh some of my background is in biological sciences and as Heather mentioned I have five years of experience working prior to this with Miami-Dade County so now uh I'm excited to um work with uh all of you to address the challenges that the committee is facing

003thank you welcome thank you for for joining us welcome where exactly are you in the city structure Heather was a community engagement specialist in systems planning yeah are you are you Chris in the same yeah and no I am the management assistant for the engineering department oh and also uh works with systems planning which is the unit that I came from welcome Chris thank you very much for taking over uh we will try and uh not drive you crazy um but uh we do really appreciate you and your work so thank you it'll be we'll be welcome to the team and I would like to say that I I've rarely met such an outstanding administrative expert as Heather and I thank her very much for all the fabulous work technically and diplomatically that she's done

004with us we're not the easiest group thank you all right well let's jump into roll call then council member Briggs here and where are you sir Stephen portstar hi present for Ann Arbor great Jennifer is absent uh Mr dejones absent Alan Haber I'm right here on the old west side Ann Arbor Michigan present Sarah is absent Jeffrey Henney uh Jeff Henny and I'm an Ann Arbor Rita Mitchell I'm here in Ann Arbor Alice Ralph yes here in Ann Arbor great Frank wall home uh here on further out on the west side from Allen uh school area come up and by the way I'm on Stadium Boulevard so right Adam Zemke here in Ann Arbor all right sounds good and uh I uh because I am driving I don't have the agenda pulled up in front

005of me are we on for the the minutes or the agenda next oh sure we are sorry we are I'm sorry just a moment please okay we are um approval of agenda all right so uh everyone has had a chance Heather sent out the agenda a couple of days ago and registrar for a while uh could we have a motion to approve motion oh second all right all in favor of approving the agenda as written say aye be opposed all right motion carries uh then we'll move on to the minutes uh from uh the last meeting I know there was some uh discussion about one of the attachments um is there uh are there any other questions regarding uh the minutes from the meeting in February no all right we have a motion to improve

006move in a second all in favor uh uh approving the minutes is written say aye all right all right motion carries um and then I think we're going to public comments am I right Heather that's correct and we have somebody with a hand up we have many people with hands up so we'll start with a person whose number ends with three two six you should be able to talk now hello this is Jeff Crockett can you hear me perfect okay I live at 506 East Kingsley and I've been a resident of Ann Arbor for over 50 years in 2019 I retired after a 45-year career in special education spent in creating educational communities to help students with disabilities and developing numerous professional development programs I know what it takes to create and support complex projects

007and this explains why I volunteered to help with the development of the conference it is my opportunity to give back to Ann Arbor throughout my career I've seen and carried out many activation plans trust me the Council of the commons activation recommendations presented here tonight is one of the best activation plans I have seen hats off to Adam Zemke Rita Mitchell and Frank Wilhelm due diligence would be the two words I would choose to describe this document this work has been the result of extensive research about the experience of other communities that have developed Urban parks and Commons in truth if you were to calculate the investment time of all those who have worked toward helping to have advocate for the commons over the past year it would be well over two thousand dollars an

008impressive investment in human capital I would like to specifically thank Alan Haber I'm on the bicentennial history subcommittee which is creating a timeline of significant in our event during my research I learned that Alan was the first president of the students for Democratic Society in 1960 which means that he has been fighting for social justice and power for everyday people for over 62 years certainly we have faced many challenges in activating the commons many of them systemic such as the complicated and confusing permit process did you know that an applicant needs to apply three months in advance or that the permit system specifies parts but done Urban Plaza or that it is necessary to get expensive and debt event insurance that lower income folks can't afford or that the application has to be completed offline

009in Penn and that needs to be scanned and attached to a stream template can you believe that the good news though is that I've met with Derek Deli court and he agrees that the application process is flawed I'm going to be creating a frequently asked questions document to help make the process more accessible Derek thank me for the offer and I am pleased to help finally I am happy to report that we are nearing approval from the city for installing murals on two walls near the existing Community Gardens we have secured ten thousand four hundred dollars in donations to fund the working work being done by well-known local artists Mary tiefels one of the donors Larry nisson has generously donated funds to do murals and a variety of downtown locations and Larry recently received a

0102023 initiator award from creative Washington it is envisioned that murals will eventually be in all the walls of the Comet these murals will become a visitor magnet and provide an impelling case for providing tables and chairs for casual use drawing from the experience of other communities is well understood that short-term activation must precede a long-term Vision we need to get the cars off the library lot now thank you for your consideration together Jeff uh what's up next okay Robert black oh I'm sorry I clicked the the other person who had their hands up so speaker with the number ending in five three four you can go ahead thank you this is Tom stahlberg calling from Lower Town in Ann Arbor I've read the activation recommendations and it's an impressive piece of work so I briefly

011like to just say I'm very grateful for your hard work and I'm very enthusiastic about where this will lead us thank you very much all right thank you Mom Robert black can you hear me okay Heather I can yeah yes it works technology Works um thank you all I'm really happy to see you again I'm very sorry I missed your last meeting only the third in the last two years of all of your meetings I've been the only person who has been that dedicated to this work publicly uh on this group and I'm just so happy to see you tonight um first I want to just say I didn't make any formal remarks but I wanted to say thank you to Heather I want to Echo the comments of Mr Henny that Heather has been

012very professional in her diplomacy process and her ability to just handle this organization has been exemplary and I just like to personally say thank you to Heather I did meet with her and Mr Zemke and and Miss Ralph uh some time ago and I was always um pleasantly pleased with the way that she handled herself and the the uh the need to keep the city in the center of this work also I'd like to welcome uh Chris I think it's really neat to see some new blood in here and I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what uh he will bring to this endeavor especially if he's got a biological sciences background that is another dimension to engineering I think I teach at a Waldorf School so um and then um I just uh I'm so

013sorry I missed that last meeting but I'm glad to see this work um I have served lived in Ann Arbor for 30 years and served on many different public and private and University and business related organizations and um what I'm seeing now over the last two years as I've spoken in this group I'm seeing some things come to fruition and many of the comments that I did make previously are now actually moving forward and the first one has to do with alignment and I want to say within alignment within the council the commons is better than it's ever been um certain aspects of it that were divisive have left the scene and now you're working much more uh better together um also within that to know that as you've said it that the initiating committee

014is also aligned with you and there have been some contentious issues but I believe those are largely bridged and resolved now um but the alignment without is important also right now there are contentious forces outside the council The Commons in the center of the city with that would seek to demolish or do ill to this process I think it's imperative that you meet that with some passion and force so that you can move forward I won't say too much more about the RFP in particular I think you're moving in the great Direction with that I've submitted previous things about the specifics of the RFP that I think are important and then also harvesting the gold mine of the task force that lives that you could share more of that specific data with your potential um

015uh bidders that would come in on the request for proposal and then lastly activation I am thrilled I am thrilled by this document that I see here the connection to the parks in Liberty Plaza Jessica black is amazing and what you can do with her the Kemp house connection and this idea of all the things that are coming to bear on the activation for the um the library lot and uh and and uh Library Lane there um the the murals the green team is a is an example of this work and the other thing I will say is that there's an activation event that's being planned through the initiating committee that's getting some real serious momentum Wild Ones has a step forward Robert Gracie is going to be helpful we're working with Missy Stoltz to

016see if she will be a speaker and there's a number of things the theme of this year's uh Earth Day April 22nd is invest in the planet and it's very different than some of the what you might call woo-woo things of the past so I would encourage you all to step forward and help bring this out so that that event will you know bring string lights and you not even a internet portal but in that physical portal to the commons and then lastly this creating Community excitement you're doing it um I love it that you're just cheerleaders for this work let's build it out and bring it out into the community and move with some some Force into Mr hones connections for the bicentennial next year so that that will be a plea a complete

017celebration that will set Ann Arbor on the map once again for one of its other most to me the amazing things so thank you good to see you good luck Heather and have a great meeting tonight thank you thank you Robert any uh any other members of the public Heather that is it excellent okay well I think uh in that case we will move on to the next item of the agenda and I believe that as uh our special guests for this evening uh David Cohen uh who uh David has uh become I think a really uh good friend and uh helpful advisor uh to uh some of us uh I know uh Rita and Alice or Frank may want to speak I was unable to make the physical tour uh that he took some

018folks on uh quite some time ago now but um his uh organization downtown Detroit partnership he is probably one of the coolest job titles that I've heard in a long time but they were recently in the news because of uh their exemplary work at campus marshes being featured as one of the best uh or I think the best Town Square in the United States by USA Today readers so we were very pleased to talk with him uh on an ongoing basis and very pleased to have him here tonight I don't know Rita Frank if you'd like to add anything else to that before we have David on well uh we we had heard about David prior to meeting him and he just blew away our already high expectations uh of what uh his organization what

019he personally is bringing to the downtown Detroit partnership and he's truly an inspiration and I'm looking forward to your comments and uh our continued collaboration as we move forward in Ann Arbor welcome David thank you so much wow it's a it's a pleasure to see all of you again and this feels like a little bit of a Victory lap tour for me after the USA Today announcement so it's always nice to get some some national recognition and uh yeah the the momentum seems to really be picking up which which will be an exciting part of the of the presentation tonight so so thank you so much Rita good to see you and um and with that I will uh I'm gonna share my screen here and I'll get through a brief presentation and I'll leave

020lots of time for dialogue and questions because I think that's important I'm sure uh you all have a lot of specifics to get into after that I read the activation plan well done um and I hope hope that I can shed a little bit of light onto onto that as well so here let me share my screen I'm assuming you can all see that now we're here to watch all right well uh like I said thank you again for having me uh my name is David Cowan I am the chief public spaces officer here at the downtown Detroit partnership and my presentation for you tonight is the story of transformational investments in public spaces and place making in in in downtown Detroit where I am live uh coming to you right now so you can

021record that in the minutes coming to you from downtown Detroit um and I should say the outset too that I'm not naive to the fact that Ann Arbor and Detroit are very different uh communities but what I hope to inspire is that every project that we have undertaken to date while it's different in size and scope has had a beginning very similar to The Commons and Liberty Plaza and has really evolved over time into something really quite impressive and beautiful so a big theme you will soon realize in the presentation is is really what everyone loves and that's a good before and after photo um but I think for a community like Detroit it really helps tell the story of growth which has been particularly dramatic over the past 10 to 15 years so here

022is a uh a photo of a block about a uh about a minute away from my downtown office where I'm at now and on the left side is a blighted streetscape you know completely vacant uh series of storefronts as well as you know some pretty dilapidated uh pedestrian infrastructure and on the right is a clean and vibrant series of storefronts an expanded Cafe space and it's really hard to believe that this is the same set of buildings the same view just 10 years apart and I really love this uh this this before and after because it really demonstrates the incredible commitment and urgency around public space while also showing the magnitude of the effort to change perception of Detroit and our one square mile downtown in just 10 short years and so you know that

023perception is not an easy thing to uh to to change after generations of challenges a major bankruptcy filing uh but obviously can be done and it's it's happening um so I I love this before and after well this is uh this is a Time Time magazine cover uh from 2009 on the left the tragedy of Detroit this was the The Narrative and this uh one on the right Detroit named one of the world's greatest places by the same magazine it called the tragedy uh of the country in 2009 so pretty pretty stark contrast in comparison really and and we're very pleased to see this uh this this cover story from time come out just uh about three months ago a few short months so you know add that to the USA Today bus best Public

024Square add that to the best Riverfront add it to Time Magazine one of the best places in the world and I think the DIA also just got a really good shout out as being a top art museum in the country by the same publication so a really great time a really good period of momentum for I think cities uh in general and and really the pandemic in my opinion has not has not slowed anything down it's just uh allowed us to tweak how we're approach our work so with that the organization I work for is called the downtown Detroit partnership and we are a hundred year old public-private partnership P3 and we're also a place management organization that has really several key focuses uh I won't read all of these but uh you know some

025of the the top focuses are parks and public spaces Urban Innovation and planning Signature Events we hold our business Improvement Zone we have our our Bike Share under our under our wing and we've also got a pretty incredible board uh made up of 60 of my bosses so corporate leaders in in Michigan and in in Detroit so we have quite a wide diversity of work that that that we're constantly um uh tackling so here I am on the left um and our team here at DDP is now approaching 50 full-time folks and over 250 seasonal or contract employees and uh just to give you the State of the State and some context our budget's about 17 million annually from an operating standpoint and I serve a dual role here at DDP I'm on our leadership

026team and I also oversee our parks in public spaces events uh and corporate Partnerships so for the public spaces specifically as part of that that budget we're at approximately 7 million annually with a staff of 16 full-time and our work really spreads across six public spaces uh five of them truly public one of them private but operated just like any other of our public spaces same rules same access um and that was important to us but um but we have just over half a million square feet of space all walkable you can get to every one of our parks within a 10-minute walk and uh you can see a handful of the team posts here on the right uh during our centennial celebration last year uh and so you know my background's really in urban

027planning and arts management so you'll see this approach in the design of the spaces uh as well as the programming which we'll get more into you know shortly but uh but first I wanted to give you some context some lay of the land of the of the area we're talking about so you're looking at uh downtown Detroit one square mile both the 1830s original map from Augustus Woodward on the left as well as the map that we use today so actually much of the original grid from from the Woodward plan is still pretty much intact and right at the center of it is an area called campus marshes which has not always been a park it's it's been a district that actually uh translates the field of Mars it was the location of an old

028Barracks that was uh torn down and became sort of a convergence of Roads uh and you can see that here in this this historic photo from 1922. so campus marshes of course uh is the first Park that DDP ever created um you can see here it's a historic space much like a roundabout you'd see in Paris so it's you know it's not always been the park that it's known for today here it is uh you know it's a convergence of Roads you can see Old City Hall which is actually the the the the location of where I'm physically sitting right now that that was torn down in uh one campus marshes uh is sitting there today um and so this District by the late 90s as you can see it's it's still a convergence of

029roads by and large not a lot of change to that actual physical site and in the in the 90s downtown Detroit was likely one of the most depressed vacant downtowns in the country I mean it was it was a pretty bleak time even the picture and the coloration here kind of looks bleak and you can see just a sea of Roads nobody walking around um I I grew up in Detroit so I remember coming down here and it was literally just tumbleweeds there was physical tumbleweeds blowing around and it's hard to believe that just a few short years later the creation of Campus Martius across the street started to take hold around Detroit's 300th birthday and was really spurred on by the momentum of of acquiring uh Super Bowl XL um which you know Got

030You Gotta Love America we love a good sports event to push us you know to get something done really fast so um between Detroit's 300th birthday uh which was a wonderful kickoff and celebration Stevie Wonder headline for it I mean it was an incredible incredible event it really catalyzed the the development of Campus Martius Park and here you can see you can see a rare photo which honestly not a lot of people have seen this but it's a it's a picture of mid-construction in 2002. so it was really meant to be a legacy gift to Detroit um and obviously now in 2022 it's the award-winning space that um that everybody sort of recognizes very heavily programmed on purpose because you have to think of the the late 90s picture I just showed there was nothing

031to do down here no there was no reason for anyone to come to this site and now that we've got a space we we started off by having tons of events which attracted energy and vitality to the area and then look you know people started popping up small businesses around it people started uh moving in next door so truthfully public space can catalyze and really sustain a neighborhood so like I said we get 4.2 million visitors annually here now uh over 20 years it's our 20th year with campus Marxist Park and um and here's a look at the tree lighting uh ceremony from this past year so we had uh about a hundred thousand people show up in the in the cold just a few weeks ago um well just just it feels like a

032few weeks ago just a few months ago so again an incredible um series of before and afters and I just want to underscore you know why investments in public space matter and they do have a return both the financial return a community return um a a Civic uh return there's Pride there's marketing uh positive image so they've got tremendous value and of course you know we'll we'll just keep putting that in during the presentation just to remind everybody that we are the number one Publix quick um so now we'll jump over to Capitol Park and uh this is just to block North of Campus Martius one of one of six uh spaces that we manage and this park is this was the site of Michigan's first state capital which surprisingly not many folks know um

033it was here in Detroit before moved to Lansing and that's because uh uh um detroiters at the time were worried about an aquatic Invasion from Canada which is hysterical to think about in uh today but there you have it and what you're looking at on the screen on the left is the first state capitol building uh which which was at the site of Capital Park and like a lot of buildings in the 1800s it burned down and then it was rebuilt on the right bigger and better and it's still burned down so no more no more Capital at Capital Park and they learned the second time um but the but the legacy is Rich and incredible and uh and I know this isn't a history presentation so I won't spend a lot of time here

034but um but I mean just you know a few of the a few of the amazing sites at Capital Park Finney Barn which was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad in your upper left uh on your bottom right the Michigan plane dealer which was the first african-american-owned um newspaper so uh incredible incredible history Stevens T Mason the first governor up there he's uh he's buried at Capitol Park so really really an incredible space and uh and it's worth telling that story so after the capital burned down it left uh a void there and as Detroit became you know it started to develop pretty intensely at the early turn of the century they created a beautiful space a really nice Parisian Green Park with a water feature benches places to gather they had

035events um and then like like a lot of parks over time and after the the uh the Great Depression um and as Detroit you know picked up more steam around the 50s uh they turned it into a bus depot because they needed to get people circulating so this entire park was raised it was raised completely there was a bus terminal now in the 50s and you know like like Campus Martius until the 90s Capitol Park remained in a similar State and here it is in 2008 um Capital Park was completely empty it was it was vacant it was abandoned there was uh you can still see some of the bus infrastructure there actually on the left it was overgrown it was unsafe safe and this is 2008 this is not that long ago you know

036to to to to remember that it was just pigeons that were there and uh and then there were some interim improvements made by by the city uh this lovely concrete um Oasis here in 2011. um and then DDP took over management um of it in 2015 and it's been fundraising and working to renovate it and of course now it's closer to what it looked like in 1922 a beautiful green uh uh space so really getting the the creation of the park correct has always been has always been important so um oh and I should say we uh we built a dog park as well in 2022 there that's not historic but after everyone got a puppy during covet we we thought we should build that and uh in 2000 uh more pet friendly units uh

037started cropping up so we needed it also but that's uh Capital Park Cadillac Square I think you'll all be keenly interested in because of the food program in the market program that you that you that you're creating and uh this is a look again at it where again DDP is 100 years old so I like to put it in that context but but a big wide open Promenade in 1900 um prior to that uh however it was Detroit Central Marketplace uh which was the Open Air Market priority Eastern Market existing and this Pavilion actually is still it's it's still around and it's been preserved at the Henry Ford Greenfield Village fun fact so so running a market at this site is something that's been going on for for over 100 years and it's something that

038we continue to to um be inspired by today like like Capitol Park apparently every public space in Detroit was raised at one point to make it a bus stop or a trolley stop and uh and here you can see that and then um you know fast forward to to 2011. uh this was really The Humble beginning of of activation in this space this space by DDP so they're only like a handful of food tracks in existence at the time uh the pretty lighter quicker cheaper amenities here you just see some umbrellas some colorful movable Furniture uh we drew some basketball courts and in paint on the roadway to make that accessible and we later called it the Sports Zone but really this space has taken off and evolved over time and uh it's become it's

039become an incredible space for markets on Fridays food truck rallies daily we have the largest Food Truck Rally in Michigan on a daily basis over 75 food trucks on our repertoire and of course those move around to different Parks but um but built that from two trucks back in 2011 so just takes time for some of this stuff and then of course Cadillac Square now known for the the winter programming the Cadillac Lodge the uh downtown Detroit markets so this this is a pretty easy one um our other Park Beacon Park it was just a dirt lot in 2016. so so no no major history to rehab or recover here but um yeah we took that dirt lot in partnership with DTE and uh created Beacon Park so really connecting a constellation walkable Urban parts

040and we created a whole programming plan specific to this site so that it didn't feel like a copy paste to the others and it's just turned out to be to be a beautiful space beautiful community space with its own unique identity so I share all of these before and afters with you in just a little bit of our journey just to illustrate what makes a great public space and and and how you know from the beginning nobody gets it right but it kind of gels after a while and and I hope that that that that helps you all frame this project so um what what I think makes a great public space is that it has to be safe cleaning and inviting uh safe clean inviting and inclusive uh it has to have comfortable movable

041and colorful furniture and umbrellas it's Gotta Have Lush Gardens and Greenery people love a water feature too but they're expensive so just just a warning there uh they love Dynamic and interesting lighting for visual interest for programming and safety uh you gotta have high quality food and beverage because that's really what's gonna gonna add that that amenity that keeps people there for longer than five ten minute you know stints at a time when you don't have events uh our average dwell time by the way in the Parks is 90 minutes and a lot of that is to the to the activity we have but also because people want to have a coffee or a cocktail and and food of all different types casual uh fine dining and and grab and go all of those I

042think that space for unprogrammed unprogrammatic and spontaneous use is also important so if I just want to read a book or have a have a chat or a work meeting with my friends that's important too I think flexible design is important and um just knowing that the space you design today is not going to maybe be used the same way five or ten years from now um so so building it flexibly so that you can you know you you know you can evolve with with the programming and then technology like point of sale fiber lines for the cafe or your mobile bar Wi-Fi cameras enough power Gaslight that's that's all detail stuff but incredibly important if if you're going to use the the space to its highest capacity and then of course a great and

043diverse repertoire of year-round programming and a place management organization or team that makes it happen so that's all of you and um I think that once you've done that not only are people going to start using the space it starts to become busy even when there's not an event Campus Martius you had a program to hack out of it to get people there now we can't even keep up with the amount of crowds we get so that's an evolution of of success and once you've done all of the Hallmarks of making a great public space the media just starts to show up randomly and highlight the growth and then new and interesting small businesses start popping up and residential capacity starts being maxed out and the the property owners start using your pictures in their

044marketing materials saying wouldn't you love to live right next to campus Marcus Parker but you can park and then corporations and Commercial tenants start to be influenced by this because their employees want to live work in an exciting place and usually that's in within 0.25 miles of gray Park and then after that people are getting engaged at the park you know they want to have their wedding there which is a bad idea but at least that's a compliment and then uh the park becomes a Gathering Place that's not manufactured or forced but inclusive and takes on a life of its own and then vendors start reaching out they want to get involved and then the the beautiful thing at that point is you start getting a new wave of inbound calls from corporate Partners corporate

045sponsors or donors that want to give back and and also want to reach the number of people using the space to further their their brand so those are all outcomes of a great public space there's so much value in that uh it you know it's easy to think about oh it's parks are such a a nice place to have a coffee sit on a bench and enjoy the day they are that but they're also these these forces for for greater change in development in urban landscapes um so our operating funding model is about one-third uh earned Revenue uh one-third contributed and um and we've got an endowment and some other mechanisms as well but um but really corporate Partnerships a third foundations and grants a third and then earned Revenue a third is really the

046breakout of that and like I said our our budget's about seven million but that that covers all six of the parks so um and um in some of the parks you know we're actively fundraising for New Capital initiatives at and constantly thinking about how we're going to transform and evolve as well so we're we're not done even though I showed you the after pictures for 2022 we still have a lot of work to do on our end so a little bit about the earned revenue and here you can see our food programs we've got rentals I call them side hustles for our for our earned Revenue we have uh we have rentals we have food trucks we have markets we have an ice rink we have public art royalties from work that we export across

047the country that folks rent from us we got a lot of side hustles but it really all matters it contributes to the funding mix if you've got a great restaurant and Cafe that can generate rent or or some kind of concession relationship that helps sustain that and gives you great food and beverage you can see Park up in the left and looming down in the right um so that's been really key because again it brings people to the space year round it adds that level of amenity and um and you know people love love food trucks they love um they love sitting down at a restaurant and people will you know the more options you have for people the more people you're gonna get so so competition between isn't something we've ever we've ever experienced

048because the more people are bringing down everybody's you know the tide is rising for everybody so and then a little of our programming strategy so I always try to make a cameo in here but um but we we have 2000 events a year and they really uh span across like tree lighting is our biggest at 100 000 at campus marshes but we've got events that happen weekly that are 50 to 200 people and those those add up those make a big difference whether it's Fitness um and then we've also got movie Nights you can see that in the bottom center there um we we do community partner programs that's the Detroit youth choir up up in the middle middle Center we celebrated their their big their big uh um appearance on America's Got Talent and

049then um you know our rink we get over 100 000 skaters a year so just just the more the more activity you can you can bring in the more uh stable I think the park will be long term and doing unique and interesting things too so everybody's got the movies everybody's got the yoga but there are there are ways to enhance it and offer something different that I think are are unique up on the left is an urban Beach we created with a uh a shipping container restaurant it's uh it's going it's going on it's I think 13th year and we we try and reinvent this thing every year but people will not let us they love it they love it to death and then you can see Beacon Park has giant Fitness classes um

050um but I think I think having something for everyone every time is not the way to go about it but having a repertoire of programming throughout the year that appeals to a wide range of folks is is the way to go um and then you're just seeing intergenerational folks people come together you're seeing um you're seeing a collision of of of your community which I think is really special so with that that's that's the presentation I wanted to leave lots of time for questions and um I could figure out how to x out of here I will be back on on your screen thank you so much and I've left my email here too if you want to reach out and talk about anything specifically thank you so much David we really cannot say enough

051how much we appreciate you spending your evening with us um and congratulate you on uh the latest recognition for the DDP and for Campus Martius um are there questions specifically uh for David at all about uh yeah Rita go ahead I have a question here but I just want to say that in of the visit that that we had to uh with David the I think that I remember the most was the quality of interaction um with you and your staff and how warm and fun it was to see you all interact and I think that that feeds what you have generated here and so I just want to applaud you on on what I saw and also this particular outcome is really great thank you so much yeah I mean you know places are

052just places like what makes them what makes them is there are people so um yeah we we try to never let our focus on a geographic location uh distract us from the fact that you know you're designing it for somebody to use and and if you don't demonstrate that with your own you know team then it translates to the public um to the public experience so yeah that that's both intentional and uh and keeps us sane given the amount of work we have so it's it's self-serving in that in that uh front as well but thank you Rita for that it was a real it's a real team that's what that's what it is uh Alan you're up yeah thank you thank you uh David is a Ann Arbor visitor to Detroit and all those

053spots over more years and you have it's nice to see it come to uh these spots come to real life I knew them when they were alive but I had uh I had two questions in these 2000 some events you have how much of that is initiated out of a programming team that is within sort of your umbrella and how much is it that how to spontaneous from who knows where coming out of the community because it's easy to for people to imagine and initiate the use yeah so that that's one question that very much of interest to us how to get the participation in the actual program and the other is you say you have a skating space is that year round or do you started when the winners comes is it artificializes it

054realize how does it how does it work we tried the idea in our Commons to have a skating space and it kind of didn't get far enough to be uh tried out but it seems like yeah winter even though they sort of Disappearing there's a time for skating and a big attraction so how do you find that skating and is it all the year round or what's the story there also yeah sure thank you so much Alan for your comments as well um I'll start with your your last question about skating so uh the the rink at Campus Martius Park is going on its 20th year as well so that was an original amenity put in with the park and in the Park was designed to have a big expansive lawn in the summer and

055then transition to an ice rink in the winter so it literally sits on top you know with glycol lines and foam boards on top of our grass from the prior year and then when spring comes around pretty shortly we're going to be rolling out new sod which a fun fact you know in Michigan it's not ready yet so we have to go a little South to Kentucky to bring the grass up but we we won't tell anybody else that so the the rink is a good Revenue driver for us too as well as an amenity that people love uh we we own the rink we build the rink we have a management company uh run it for us so it's not our core team but the manager who who runs it it lives in Detroit

056uh and he might as well be I mean we've got so many people who are Contracting the way they're structured but they feel like any any member of our team and we treat them we treat them that way as well and that kind of goes to your your first question about the structure of our events um yeah we we produce a pheromone ourselves we uh what I call a cop remote where we team up with somebody and we jointly produce something we look for programming Partners in the community that do what they do best and host them um sometimes they just start looking for space other times we seek them out to fill a gap so it's really intentional there's not a lot of spontaneous um programming that happens without our team and in the

057the proactivity of our team to get the thing uh uh operating in in a world-class way and you know we really try to vet programming Partners carefully just because we've we prioritize the visitor experience um um there there are some um there are a lot of parks that sort of take the uh the kind of laissez-faire approach where you know show up in the space and kind of you can you know do whatever at any point and feel it out but with a with a space like campus marshes or Beacon Park if we did that there would be Collision of the craziest stuff at all times you know and nobody would want to be in the park because uh there's just so much noise going on you wouldn't be able to read a book or

058whatever so we try to balance the access with the curated you know nature of the park and it's something we're always trying to trying to improve on thank you thanks seems like you're very intentional with all of your efforts David um yeah uh Frank and Heather and then council member Briggs yes David uh I recall on our visit we uh we talked about food trucks and uh uh that's an issue and part of the study that we're undertaking for uh activation um could you talk a little bit about how uh food trucks excuse me food trucks and and uh fixed location businesses work in the same location is there is there a sense of competition or is there a way to kind of manage uh the food trucks so that they don't um so they

059worked sort of in concert with the fixed locations yeah yeah great question it's all about being complimentary so you know when we're when we're placing food trucks and scheduling trucks we're not putting somebody with the same type of food right next to a brick and mortar that has the same kind of food you know we're we're adding to the to the mix restaurant mix and filling a gap in what Cuisine people are looking for also you know um I don't know about Ann Arbor but we've got quite a few places that aren't even open for lunch and there's there is a a returning Workforce and some percentage on some days that um nobody can wrap their minds around because I think it's still evolving but um but there there is there is a need for

060grab-and-go options that are not sit down in in many cases so um again I think the success of Campus martians and the programming that drives people to gives them a reason to come down um that only benefits the district as a whole because if I come down for a game at Little Caesars Arena and I I'm like I don't want to eat at the stadium I'm going to find a restaurant I stumble upon that or you know uh you know there's there's all this organic Discovery happening when you bring people down for a specific purpose when we have an event in the park they might realize oh wow there's I didn't know that that new restaurant was next to the Campus Martius I should check it out you know so people want what they want

061they want grab and go they want um casual um service they want bar service and they want fine dining and I think having a mix of that is is key to a vibrant City thank you uh Heather and Erica else thank you for indulging me Adam it's not really my role to jump in and ask questions but I can't help myself um your presentation David I do want to comment that it's really inspirational it seems like you're living the urban planner's dream I mean that just seems like such fun exciting work to be doing um but I have two questions one's a quirky question which is did you say that Stephen's T Mason's body is buried next to a stat or under a statue is that yeah correct yeah without being too uh too Grim

062uh for for everybody but Stevens T Mason is actually interned in the sculpture of of that mix him at Capital Park so uh yeah he's obviously quite old now so there's there's fantastic there's not a lot there um but he he is covered in an American flag actually in turn inside of the base of that sculpture at Capitol Park so lots of um lots of of unique history in all these spaces but you know then supposedly to Beacon Park where there's you know you're holding it from scratch and it's brand new so we've got these historic spaces that we've had to kind of retrofit you know like like by a historic home and there's like two outlets and you're like oh my God I need to figure this out that's the same thing we did

063with a lot of these historic spaces and continue to do so um but not at Beacon Park because we built that to be um to cover all of our needs so we do a lot of a lot of lighting uh um activations over there and especially given our our sponsor um at that park it makes sense so thank you heather yeah thank you that's really fascinating um my second question is to I'm wondering if you can highlight what makes your relationship with the city successful I imagine you know you have to work pretty closely with the city and we here in Ann Arbor don't have too many examples of public-private Partnerships um so uh I'd just like to hear a little bit more about that I'm sure there's a lot of detail to cover but

064if you have a summary that you can go that would be great we have a great um uh management and operating agreement that was actually modeled after Central Parks um and we stayed in touch with Central Park Conservancy you know pretty regularly in our daily work so that that's helpful is getting everybody on board from the beginning about how this this partnership works and then honestly um everybody's really busy in Detroit because the need is so massive so you know it's kind of like you know all hands on deck um at some point and you kind of divide and conquer you know which is why I'm thankful the riverfront Conservancy is kind of like doing that and you know the city's got the neighborhood parks rocking and figuring out you know and we're we've got

065our downtown district and midtown's got their momentum going so it really is a team effort even if we're we're um sort of uh um you know our own separate organizations um so the city's been great partners and honestly there's there's not a whole lot I mean we yes we do have to get things permitted but we've through our agreement we've been able to streamline that as best we can there's still some things that you know you got to do but yeah it's been it's been positive yeah thank you and just a couple of notes here before I turn it over to Erica uh fun fact for any of you history Buffs out there because I know there are several of us on the bicentennial commission uh Steven C Mason's body actually moved when which uh

066they they uh it's still there but they had to locate it um when uh when they redeveloped one of the one of the times so there's a like it's shifted out of its original place and yeah 20 feet shifted under this under the ground yeah they've moved the poor guy around around a few times actually when we were renovating Capitol Park there was a coalition of folks who showed up to a community meeting and said do not move him again just let him be you know so I understood so and and uh David so you know too we actually uh have had a Converse some of us at least have had a conversation with the Central Park Conservancy as well Heather program that we're very interested in uh that they offered up to us as

067well so um oh good very good to hear yeah um Erica yeah thanks um and uh once again thanks for being here tonight and um sharing the excitement and what you're doing there in Detroit um for us to be able to learn from a little bit um so in my question was very much kind of aligned with what um Heather's last question was was essentially kind of a little bit more um kind of around your relationship with the city in terms of that that public private partnership obviously DDP is a non-profit and it sounds like the fund rate the funding is coming from um sort of the earned revenue and then private donations um in terms of your relationship I guess I if there's anything more that you wanted to add around that relationship with

068um with Parks or um with the city of Detroit in terms of um kind of that relationship yeah every everything we um do is privately fundraised so so no no public dollars from the city directly uh they have supported uh in a huge way on utilities and some other great things so so there is there's a great relationship and there is support um uh we have uh we recently got a grant from the state which is exciting because um you know there's some um American Rescue plan dollars that I think are starting to you know figure out how to flow and we I think we were one of the early Grant recipients for the revitalization and place making um um project for uh for the medc the state of Michigan so that was exciting that'll

069allow us to to make some some pretty key uh um uh changes to some of the parks but but yeah Public Funding historically has not been our been our Sweet Spot we're trying to improve that because there's there's going to be more needs coming on um but yeah it's really been corporate focused it's been individual donors and kind of Legacy uh I'm focused and then earned revenue and you gotta love Urban Revenue because you know if the if the economy you know God forbid whatever happens like you still can kind of you know um you can you can you can float that without worrying about somebody else's business you just kind of have to worry about your own with that so yeah it's been it's been positive so hopefully that helps answer your question on

070the on the agreement piece yeah yeah I think so and so in terms of all of sort of the marketing all that piece that's all being taken off within the non-profit yeah yeah it's pretty TurnKey um and Campus Martius you know it's Unique because we built it and um it was given as a gift to the city of Detroit but we managed that Park through this degree agreement you know what I mean so so it it it's it it yes it's a great collaboration with the city but it it um um yeah it just feels complementary and it's inspired us uh and others to seek us out to consult and do things like for Beacon Park that was a fun project you know to work on that space and um and others have started to

071reach out around the country too to um you know uh just sort of bring some bring some best practices or just project manage and do some other stuff so yeah it's been it's been great wonderful thanks so much thanks uh Alan and then Alice yeah another little quick uh question when you have a food truck how do they what what's the space cost is it a flat rate 20 bucks and you get a parking space or 40 bucks or a percent of their income they were an artist is there is it a flat rate for a space to set up your little pop-up or is it a share of what they uh five percent of what they make or something or do you work both ways or how how is that yeah yeah so for

072our permanent restaurants and cafes we have both the base around as well as a percentage of rent or a percentage of sales rather in addition to the rent so that that's how that works for food trucks we we just do a flat fee per day um for for participation we we could do percentage of sales but to make that truly work we would have to issue a point of sale system to each truck and be able to more easily audit their their sales and and it just it seems a little and music festivals have started doing this so it's not unprecedented it just for us we we kind of want that business just to you know handle their own thing and you know pay us a rent and then we asked them um of course

073they don't have to share share details but we asked them how many tickets did you do so we have some data to track their sales and then honestly if they tell you the ticket number the average entree is like between 10 and 15 bucks for a food trucks so you can I mean you can add up how much they're making um so yeah it's uh it varies and then for our Market it's the same it's a paper per occurrence type of thing um and there's different Market programs that have different fee structures so the Cadillac Square winter markets that last for six weeks is a different fee than are just Friday thanks a lot so for a day what's the chart cost right now is 125. for a problem into three I think is our

074hours um it's 150 but um but yeah somewhere in there thank you thinking about a retirement gig their own I have a Peddler's card for knife sharpening that's so sure that would be uh restructure all right Alice and then Rita thanks so I I don't want to get too deep into the weeds but I recall that when the three or four of us went to visit your old system with you leading the way um we landed on off the bus at Grand circus and um isn't that right near the stadium and all that stuff um and it has underground parking yeah and I was fascinated by this story that it's been rebuilt twice and still accommodates the both the park and the underground parking yeah yeah there was a couple of of the other Parks

075we managed I didn't I didn't cover quite as in depth um just just for time but um but Grand circus Park is uh is one of the historic ones uh um it's actually a twin park that's divided by Woodward so it's it's uh symmetrical on both sides and underneath it is a parking garage and um and the the park was actually you know demolished um the historic pieces of it were taken off um and then the garage was built in and then the historic pieces were just put back um and then the park was pretty much designed to be sort of a replica with maybe some a few enhancements and this this is by the way in the 50s 60s like this was not DDP recently um and so so Grand circus Park um actually

076we've got a plan to renovate it again but not not dig it all up this time so um but yeah working with the reality of a parking deck underneath is is is not been as big of an issue as we we maybe thought it would from like a root system because we've got pretty old trees up there and other weights on it and it's it's fine it just has to be um re-engineered or engineered correctly thanks yeah and last one up is Rita you are muted Rita I remember seeing those beautiful trees there at Grand circus um I was really interested in the statistic that you talked about with dwell time as a measurable can you explain how you do that yeah yeah that's a great question so data's gotten important um obviously technology is

077key to how data has evolved for us and uh I think the old way of of getting getting counts uh from people coming into the park was with a clicker and um a hand clicker and kind of just hiring people or taking your staff and just old good old-fashioned Stakeout observation writing notes and now we're able to do it on sort of a larger scale with with technology so we have um we have a system called springboard which uh which can sort of track the movement of objects that it recognizes as people there's no detail to that it just is sort of a kind of algorithm that tracks that so so we we know um through those both the number of people coming into the space as well as you know sort of when they

078exit the perimeter there's also more invasive data ways you could go about it through cell phone location service and all that and I guess you know over time the illusion of sort of privacy on your phone and online is sort of kind of a myth at this point but you know but we don't we you know we we haven't we haven't gone totally um as high tech as maybe some of our our corporate uh friends like like that have big box stores that sort of can track your eyeball movement or whatever you know so but we but we've gotten a little more we've gotten a little smarter about how we're tracking thank you very cool well David uh thank you so much uh for uh being here tonight and taking an hour out of your

079evening uh and it looks like you're still in your office so uh we really I don't live far so right up the road thank you thank you all so much a pleasure and you know follow up with me I hope I answered any questions you had and that this was uh helpful for you all and uh we'll talk to you again soon thank you again congratulations thank you thank you right um well uh in that case we're going to move into the next item on the agenda which is the updates on our work streams uh as everyone knows here we've had the two work streams going uh and uh you know varying uh updates over the last few months um and so we've got uh you saw in uh the agenda attached the agenda a

080rather lengthy uh series of activation recommendations we're gonna just bring that up to put a pin in it we I created a slide deck that Rita and I can walk you through that just touch on the top lines on that piece but before we do that we're going to talk a little bit about the first one which is the long-term planning work stream and uh we have uh some some updates tonight that I think are going to be pretty noteworthy and I'll like to turn over to Frank uh to kick those updates off thanks Adam and uh boy what a what a backdrop uh with uh David's presentation to to show us uh what's possible uh it won't happen overnight it didn't happen overnight in Detroit but uh my goodness uh when a community can

081rally around opportunities like that so I as the representatives of Library green on the Council of the commons uh Rita and I would like to share some uh I think some some really good news uh at the library greens board meeting last Friday the 24th we voted unanimously to increase our financial commitment to the center of the city design and development study which has stood at twenty thousand dollars for quite some time we are now committing up to seventy thousand dollars to the study and we did that particular number because it's our understanding that with combined with the city's forty thousand dollars which then bring us to a hundred and ten thousand dollars we are we're meeting a threshold uh that will allow us to begin to develop and and issue a request for proposals

082for the for the study of this site um you know we're very pleased to make this announcement uh it's it's really made possible through the generosity of many many people and and some prominent organizations in the community have stepped forward over over the last few months um to to make this possible um in addition to the many individual donors I want to highlight and make special mention of uh three or organizations in town two foundations in a corporate supporter the Harry S and Margaret D Housley Foundation has provided major support on the Mosaic Foundation of Rita and Peter Hayden have been supportive over the years with several gifts as well and Zingerman's community of businesses for their generous support um going forward and this is what was so inspirational about David's presentation um you know

083with an example like Detroit and other communities like Royal Oak and Plymouth you know Library green is eager to build and strengthen its public-private partnership with the city in our community between our city and the community and what greater moment uh similar to a Detroit celebrating its 300th anniversary we're on the the cusp of Ann Arbor's 200th anniversary so we're excited to launch this study develop this park which we feel would be a treasured asset for Ann Arbor's third century so with that I hope we can move forward quickly with the city and and uh get the RFP uh written and issued and really be Off to the Races here so we're pleased to provide that announcement and new support council member breaks okay that's exciting and um thank you to the library green Conservancy

084for doing this work I think it's it's a you know great announcement following especially the presentation that we just had around sort of the real need for um work like this to be led by a non-profit and you know and built off of public-private Partnerships so um this is exciting an exciting step forward and uh I would like to say as well Frank uh Rita and everybody from the library green Conservancy uh who is on the board and also who made the financial contributions especially the increased momentum over the last few months that has been really exciting to see um and uh you certainly earn a healthy congratulations uh for all the increase work so thank you I might I might add in in the fundraising business it's always great to have deadlines and uh

085the last five thousand dollars came together uh over lunch on Tuesday so and the individual knew we we wanted to announce this uh on Thursday so well I think it's uh it's very exciting and uh you know we had a conversation uh with the parks department who's going to be issuing the RFP on behalf of uh this process and and writing all the standardized portions and that they had previously indicated after the prose plan was complete they would have some time to work on it we're at that point now um and so we are excited to get back in touch with them and um and begin that process and so this was a catalyzing moment we're not out of the woods yet but uh certainly a big step forward so congrats to everybody certainly an

086exciting piece um so with that um we'll uh go into the next work stream if that's okay with folks and that is an update around uh activation and so uh Rita I don't know if you'd like to say anything before I uh pull up uh some of these uh slides that summarize the document they're not any different they're just the top top lines because that document is quite long um so Rita um I don't have anything planned to say but I would say that my idea of this is that it is a demonstration of an urban park that is very different from the kinds of parks that Ann Arbor is used to thinking of and I think it's a great opportunity and I I think the combination of of David Cowan's presentation tonight is is

087really helpful to moving that concept forward and I think it can make Ann Arbor really fun that's what I'm looking forward to would agree with that sentiment and I will I will say uh hats off to Rita she really spearheaded all of the research on this and brought in people different folks as needed and engaged us all and uh striked us on to conference calls with different organizations and groups around the city and uh and uh but really we learned a lot and so um I think all those hours were really worth it and so uh the document you know it's up just for draft form up for discussion you know now and and going forward we can talk about what we want to what we want to do and how we want to make

088those recommendations uh and to whom but we wanted to start the conversation this evening so um let me go ahead and share this I think can you see the screen here yes okay so as I mentioned this is uh this slide deck is just the uh top lines because uh the document is quite lengthy and uh I am bound and determined to get out of here by nine o'clock tonight uh and so um we'll go through here this is um a little bit of the the layout structure um of the first section background and properties we outline really what uh the center of the city is what is what it's comprised of and who we are as the Council of the commons um we give an outline of each of the properties uh and the

089diversity that that exists amongst them and a reason for these activation recommendations then we get into uh the next phase of the recommendations which are an outline of the current city processes and costs uh this uh includes uh the reservation process uh the um costs for reserving each of the spaces which is quite different uh from space to space and the process is quite different um and uh and uh so uh it is a uh it is a um a varying exercise um we want and we put those in there because we we spent a lot of time trying to figure them out frankly and uh and we wanted to illustrate um why we believe things need to improve um and and that's not to say that uh there's somebody at fault for this I

090think that what one of the things we learned is um because we have multiple uh Departments of the city managing each of these different spaces they each have their own process for doing things and um and that makes perfect sense if you're working in the department because that could be your sphere of of uh influence and the world in which you are living your daily life but um when you're trying to look at reserving a space such as the center of the city even though it's comprised of those three individual properties um uh it's it's quite a bit different so we looked at it from the outside in and I think that was actually a really helpful way to to think about it so um we have several recommendations and they start here with City

091process improvements uh we recommend a number of common elements uh that be created common reservation process for each of the sites uh in the center of the city uh common event calendar so that the center of the city is viewed uh as as one space that is that is even though three properties but one space from the perspective of outside uh outside community members that can be broken up into different areas for reservation uh connected online systems so what this really means is making sure that calendars are connected from special events to uh parks and that there is uh there is continuity amongst those uh so that uh if you are looking at the space from a potential applicant for reservation you are looking at the same data um and we recommend some parking removal

092uh as well and at least on a three season basis um uh in order to send really a signal uh about uh the space being utilized for other things besides parking and it flows frankly in line with a number of casualty use recommendations we have too I'm assuming that you're gonna run through and summarize all this and then after that we're going to have any discussion about it is that sort of the deal correct yep that's right I've got about 20 slides and so I'm gonna go through as quick as I can here and uh and then we'll talk and then you know this is just the first discussion so yeah no conclusions need to be drawn tonight um so um a next process Improvement we recommend is uh some really intentional um uh bridge

093building with block partners and surrounding businesses not just the ones on the Block but uh but certainly uh businesses that surround the block as well um yeah with that in line especially on the Block Partners uh uh their uh the establishment of consistent easement um uh for a specialty special event usage we heard from uh uh certainly the parks department and other city government agencies that this does happen and it does uh happen fairly easily but consistency is something that's helpful across the board um we also recommend that sustainable support be built so as David noted uh and Alan I'm glad you asked the questions you asked because I think that was important information to tease out this stuff is not free uh and uh if we want to have a sustainable center of the

094city we do need to figure out a revenue model that supports it and it supports staff time at the city coupled with volunteers uh is is the direction that we are recommending here um was this setting up some sustainable fees we don't identify what those fees should be I think that's something that really is a function of of um in a discussion or discussions with City staff who have more knowledge of that type of thing and frankly how it relates to other fees that are charged uh throughout the city uh we also recommend some extension of the arpa funds um that are currently reserved just for the Liberty Plaza area of the center of the city uh and the the extension of using those over the other properties as well um in in conjunction with

095these other improvements uh the next main bucket of the report there's sort of these three buckets the the background on the properties and City process improvements that's bucket one uh the next bucket is regularly planned activations and the final bucket is the uh the Casual use and then we do get into some recommendations that are specific to the resolution that council member brings council member dish councilmember Grand councilmember hayner sponsored previously so enabling regularly planned activations we have a series of recommendations here starting with branding um you know we heard from the parks department a couple of months ago I think around a brand that they have been establishing for Liberty Plaza at the center of the city and uh we thought this was a really uh cool idea uh and so we uh said

096that we should establish that consistent center of the city brand um and have these micro Brands associated with it so things like the library lot and Library Lane not necessarily having to renamed things but really establishing these are all under the umbrella brand of the center of the city and have some signage that that utilizes uh that type of thing it doesn't have to be fancy but directional and and consistency around that brand we indicate that there should be a public-facing portal this really started with an idea around a website and we took it much more beyond that but it includes certainly a website and we do feel like in the last bullet point here you could see some third-party management of that website is important um one of the uh the things that uh

097David's organization has is a website called downtown Detroit partnership I'm sorry uh Decked Out Detroit which is a a third party website that is branded to support all the activities that are at these downtown parks that downtown Detroit partnership manages but it's a website that is effectively a a portal into the park rather than portal into the downtown Detroit partnership so a little bit different um and so we adopted that idea we recommend a similar uh similar concept we recommend a social media presence that goes along with it that can be utilized to do some organic hashtagging organic advertising but also some paid social media advertising because that's a great really cost effective way to get the word out around activities that are going on in the center of the city um taking that uh

098connectivity that we talked about amongst the two City websites to the next level we recommend some enhanced online connectivity to this third party website and then as I previously mentioned you know some concerted advertising there are multiple ways to advertise certainly paid social media ads earn media attention through the local newspaper uh and uh and of course social media presence because of uh hashtags and other things while events are going on there um we do recommend that some facilitation of events David did a nice job highlighting this that they were very intentional with uh how they approach events even today but I imagine especially uh as they were getting things going in their early days so we recommend uh sort of at least a quarterly series of anchor events is what we decided to call

099these sort of sort of signature types of things that people can come to expect a great example of something that could be extended was the uh the parks uh uh Christmas Market or Holiday Market that they had there uh in Liberty Plaza last year that event could have it just has tremendous potential in my eyes um and and really could um could serve as an anchor event for That season we also recommend that that the time period be filled in with intentional monthly events um of some kind and there's a lot of variation we had some really great ideas and ideation around this uh that that we did those are all some recommendations some ideas are in the in the document as well um we were really intentional uh around it inclusivity um we talked

100about it quite openly uh in our discussions that we did not want people to feel pushed out of any area of the park uh of any area of the uh the center of the city and so uh these are some of the questions that uh that were asked uh on the visit to downtown Detroit uh as well and we gathered some data there and gathered some data from from the discussions with other uh communities and came up with a couple of recommendations uh one uh is based on the idea around volunteer ambassadors to help welcome people to the park and let them know that they're welcome there no matter what their socioeconomic status or their uh their um uh uh their home status uh maybe um and then also specifically targeting um uh events that

101are intended to be fee free and uh and uh be targeted towards constituencies who may be needing some extra Services uh community services and so uh really being intentional that these are not add-ons these are part of the activation process for the spaces um and I'll just say in in one of my conversations with some of the organizers of uh of um Sonic lunch uh they uh recounted that during their setup um uh they uh always went around and talked to people who are hanging around the park uh in Liberty Plaza as a result of that they built a really strong uh uh rapport with those individuals and they felt included they never at first when Sonic lunch started people may have left the park if they didn't want to feel if they didn't feel

102welcome or they didn't want to participate but uh these organizers shared that uh that that was not happening because of their intention at being inclusive and so um so that was a really positive Point uh that I thought and we tried to bring that and lift that up in the in the idea around volunteer ambassadors um we I do recommend this third party limited joint management um what we didn't want to get into was a complete uh uh embodiment of the public-private partnership like downtown Detroit partnership has we didn't think we were ready for that yet um as a community but we should work our way to that and so uh um what we talked about was the idea of I already mentioned this online portal management you know establishing a third-party website that pulls

103from the city uh sites but also includes other information and and really looks like an advertisement for the center of the city and the events that are happening there but also then we thought that um at the point where Ann Arbor is right now at this effort we could recruit some volunteers to help with some of the ideas that we're talking about some of the programs that could happen at the park um and uh and so this third party uh limited partnership could include uh management of that volunteer recruitment effort and coordination so it could reduce any a burden that uh the city staff would would normally have to bear um the final bucket here in the uh in the activation recommendations are the enabling of the areas for casual use um uh you know

104one of the things I think I quote that I sort of stuck out stuck out in my head really I may butcher this a little bit so you may have to step in here but um people uh feel in in these in these communities uh that uh that are really engaging in intentional activation um people feel that uh that the space is their own when the activations are not happening uh and uh and and it is because it's their own they're public open spaces um and uh and so they see them like that and and the community intentionally enables that to happen that is not just organic there's thought that goes into uh into that process and so um uh so uh the first recommendation here uh uh that is built out we talk about

105it in the city process improvements previously but it's built out here is the permanent semi-permanent parking removal uh of the uh top of the the uh Library structure so we've we're calling that the library lot throughout the document um and uh and so uh the removal of permanent semi-permanent removal of cars from that area we say at least three seasons is the the recommendation um we determined that in particular with the change of of uh work downtown that structure is nowhere near uh becoming full and so there's ample parking available and so we we feel pretty strongly that this is really a negligible Financial impact the 36 spots on the top of the structure um are able to be that revenue is able to just be shifted uh down below without any adverse effects at

106all so we don't think this could be a cost and we thought that was important to call out frankly um we feel like that the uh throughout all of the properties including the kempf house yard we should establish configurable Furniture Arrangement Arrangements in the document there's some links uh to uh some ideas here uh in I think we linked heavily to Capital Park uh in Detroit we link to Centennial Commons in Royal Oak and they had some really great pictures of uh things that that the city in in those cases or the DDP had done to create Community spaces that could be configured based on the needs of the community um and we thought that was a really uh really uh a good way to approach it you know people wanted to be able to

107uh set up uh and sit at a table and have a casual lunch uh or do a zoom call uh from uh their laptop or or uh um tablet and they also wanted to be able to sit in a lounging style chair at Adirondack chairs uh were a common um uh theme throughout a lot of the spaces that we looked at but the key thing is that they're able to be configurable that it wasn't just fixed and spread apart in some cases that you could sit as a community um and gather and and that the furniture reflected the promotion of that idea so um we outline uh really what those things look like um include some examples and we did some cost research too and include some ranges around costs and obviously cost ranges are

108heavily dependent upon how much you purchase we included item pricing uh some approximations and there's obviously variation within that too we also get into lighting and we have a lot of ideas we only included uh one or two uh in this document but there's a lot of ideas around lighting um and part of the reason we limited it to one or two because is because of the fact that there is uh string lighting already in Liberty Plaza that uh that the parks department put up and it has a really nice Ambience to it and uh so we included the recommendations around string lighting across all three of the properties um and uh and and you know I I emphasize that it's all three of the properties that includes the chemfaos area and part of the

109reason that that uh we are intentional about including that is because it's a space that we found in our discussions um was not being utilized heavily by uh through the reservation process and so we really wanted to be intentional that was not left out that it was not just a historic home uh on division uh that it was part of the center of the city and certainly there are other limitations uh that come with that but it was uh but we didn't want it to be uh to be a second thought so uh string lighting again same idea uh uh as uh as with the configurable furniture we included cost adjustments and that sort of thing uh shading uh we mentioned that there are two areas two of the three uh center of the city

110properties that have really nice natural shading both chemphouse and uh library or I'm sorry Liberty Plaza um but uh there should be some additional shading actually I have a typo in here not across Library Lane it actually says in the document across the library a lot um so my apologies for that are really including either sail shading and or umbrellas to provide for some uh some uh coverage from the Sun uh across the library a lot and in particular in concert with configurable Furniture so that you have spaces there that are frankly I had forgotten about the downtown Detroit Beach in Campus Martius I've been to that before though and uh and certainly I think that uh inadvertently um uh influenced our our Visions for this and so uh certainly creating some of those types

111of spaces uh on the library lot as as well we highlighted that waste disposal was potentially could increase and frequency of uh emptying containers and making sure we're doing so in ways that support the universe sustainability goals was important to us we brought that up um and you previously heard in the public comment tonight from uh Jeff Crockett and the Green Team uh who has been um really uh going after trying to put some art privately funded art on the uh spaces and so we really highlighted this as a as an important part not just the art that Jeff and Mary tiefos and others uh are uh working on but really having this visual artistic enhancements throughout to draw continuity across the space and some um some real uh beautiful visual connection we've seen that

112in on the side of buildings in downtown Ann Arbor already and on the sides of um utility connection points uh and that sort of thing and and uh you know we're really an artistic Community very creative and we thought this could be a real high point to blend continuity across the spaces and create the connection and add some uh some real beautiful visual representation to some hard concrete uh we also highlighted uh Natural Area enhancements there's great gardening programs going on in the the spaces but connecting them and making sure that uh we're Gathering donated plants which is happening in some cases already uh across all the spaces was very important you know we have garden beds and Liberty Plaza certainly gardening around uh the the grass on Kemp House's yard and also the green

113team's gardening at uh the library lot our areas of Highland but making sure those are continent continuous and volunteer recruitment is engaged for all three um uh we thought was was important to Target together we spoke with the DDA um and uh they indicated that they had located a lot a storage locker to store equipment um and uh and we recommend that we make use of that um for more common equipment that is going to be needed for special event purposes and to try and make the lives of of staff and volunteers a little bit easier in supporting the activation we specifically asked questions of communities we spoke with around theft and vandalism and we included responses from those communities in the recommendations we just like to say that we think this idea around theft

114and vandalism especially as a as it uh pertains to configurable or movable furniture is really overblown the idea that this will happen and you know we're going to have huge swaths of furniture stolen uh it does not be does not appear to be supported by statistics from other communities at least and so we relied on that included those pieces here and finally you know as uh as David uh Cohen uh highlighted uh we thought the idea around public and private a partnership uh was going to be really important uh to to not only uh further the um the transformation of the spaces but really the activation of the spaces too and we embraced that and we know this is not going to be free there are real costs associated with this um but uh but

115we think that the the returns economically and the benefit to the community is well worth it and it should be paid for uh as part of a joint uh effort um with private and public dollars uh I'm gonna really quickly just go through these next few slides here um we did specifically uh and we plan on having some discussions with uh the city staff who are assigned to respond to this resolution to city council that's not really our role but we thought because we're looking at these broader recommendations that we would want to uh have our thoughts laid out for this we include some intersection points with the resolution uh that pass city council last fall including uh some background on the text uh specifically highlighting how it pertains to planned activation and Casual use

116we highlight that really how all of our recommendations uh could serve as a baseline to support the efforts uh that uh that resolution asks City staff to investigate we include some best practices from other communities we then get into some specific pieces around planned activation including better communication around the surrounding businesses and especially when it comes to food related businesses given that there are several brick and mortar uh restaurants surrounding spaces we talk about the expansion social District to help cover uh the uh the use of alcohol particular around planned events um we get into food specific rallies and non-food events and then again this idea of specific strategies to you know monthly planned activations I'm a casual youth space um we uh make note of the idea of a food truck Zone around Library

117Lane similar to something that you saw around Cadillac park or Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit in David's presentation including a standard permit fee again for sustainability reasons and for ease of use frankly we noted that uh that the Farmers Market has a wonderful food truck rally on certain Wednesdays throughout the summer they have done a lot of the homework for us already and they attract hundreds of visitors to this food truck rally each year and we should capitalize on that they were extremely helpful and generous with providing information they've got a good process we should not reinvent the wheel um and then continued uh emphasis on this idea around a mobile food calendar and advertising to push that information out so that people know uh who is coming and what uh what vendors are going

118to be there and when so um and finally uh this is the last slide here um we talk about the importance of intentionality that uh none of these things even the Casual use uh uh enabling is done um with intention uh and deliberate uh decision making and uh we talk about the fact that there is going to be trial and error uh there's no way that uh any Community as David even highlighted is going to get this right the first time we're going to learn from it uh we're gonna learn what works what the community likes what the community doesn't like um and that's okay um and we noted uh that uh that um in all of the instances that we looked at um these efforts generated considerable Pride uh in the community and it

119really United the community together and uh and that was that was shown through it didn't matter what the terrain or the size the shape of the park or the uh the open space was um uh the efforts were done uh and were popular in the community and they brought the community together and we thought that was a really important point because that's really what this effort should be about in my opinion is bringing the community together and allowing them to uh to be outside and so that's the last uh slide in in this deck as I said this is just a summary of the that document and wouldn't have expected everyone to read the document because uh we only got it out to you about 24 hours ago um and I apologize for that but

120I wanted to kick the conversation off tonight and so I will stop sharing this slide deck and just open it up for questions and discussion and we will be able to to continue to discuss uh over the next meeting or so too so any questions at all on this piece actually we lost Rita she's on her way back ah okay council member Briggs yeah thanks um I wish that I hope Rita is joining and can hear these comments I know that um gee I'm sure it's been very much engaged in the development of uh of this document obviously this is I'm sure a lot of work to get to this point um and a lot of research and um conversations and um it's a really substantial document with a lot of um good you know

121guidance about what makes it makes us successful um space um however it's hard for me I guess acknowledging all of that um I there's a few initial thoughts and I know we're not making a um you know any decisions tonight but I guess a few cautions or initial points of feedback um you know we just completed our our prose plan and that provided a lot of feedback from the community about how to proceed with Parks obviously the some of these spaces are parks some of them are are not designated as such um but one of the pieces that we know how you just got off is Basin from the Parks Commission um is that we don't have additional resources to dedicate to new spaces um right now and so we don't actually have the resources

122that we need to um address all of our current spaces and so that's been that's been a something that we've kind of known throughout the entire process and so um obviously the DDP presentation provided you know one model that's being used um pretty consistently throughout the country to provide um develop these types of face spaces recognizing when there's a lack of public resources to dedicate to that and so I guess I'm a little questions in terms of you know you acknowledged in the presentation that um that is a model out there that wasn't the model that was recommended in this but it's I I guess I'm curious why that was not leaned into a little bit more in this set of recommendations yeah I mean I can speak to that too uh so I think

123that's ultimately I mean I'll just speak for me uh on this I think that's ultimately the key to success especially on the the transformed uh space um but I think that we wanted to um you know take these in reasonable steps um and uh so that's part of the reason why we recommend the limited partnership you know that we get things moving build a sustainable funding model that does support some limited staff time I I think I even think we even called out in the report like I've I don't know if we called out but we were thinking it's sort of like a quarter time um uh staff member uh to to support and that but that be in line with a fee structure that helped uh close that funding Gap Public Funding Gap that

124you indicated um and then uh you know creating the partnership to coordinate the volunteer efforts and uh and have the online portal be managed a lot by by outside folks so that we didn't have uh cost piece um and uh so you know we we thought that um you know uh you know sort of walking across the Huron rather than jumping across the Huron might be a uh good uh model for initial success and so um you know we didn't get into uh the cost modeling around each of the events but certainly um you know the the uh highlighting of the uh both private um and uh also uh public dollar usage around the arpa dollars that are appropriated for Liberty Plaza was something that we were thinking of so we feel like it's a

125balance um but I think that just speaking for me I think that the ultimate success of of the center of the city is based on the idea that um we will build something like a downtown Detroit partnership um might not be as big may not need to be as big um but uh but um you know we are not going to get there tomorrow not from where we're at and so we wanted to be successful in those efforts so that's it thank you I appreciate that a couple other thoughts I mean I think um I think there's a desire to get to some of these Paces tomorrow as opposed to recognizing that it's going to take some time to do that and so for example there was earlier the last part last announcement was the

126the exciting announcement that um the private funding has been secured to do a planning process and so um I think you know I um we have some some public spaces that are in this center of the city that are already um activated and already being utilized and um we're trying to improve the spaces of them and so um allowing that process to move forward that long-term planning process would allow I think opportunity for those um the existing space that does not have any programming on it to perhaps for that private funding to to be acquired to be able to to do those things that we're kind of seeing how these models operate in other parts they um other parts of the country um in terms of the arpa funding I do think that it's important

127to know why that funding was utilized or remember why that funding was utilized for Liberty Plaza and that's because we were recognizing that some unhealthy activity was happening on that space that was becoming problematic for our downtown and so there was a um and really wanting to to turn that into a healthier space for everybody who's using it and so that's not that's not the same existing issue that we're seeing here um at the on the top of the Library Lane surface parking lot um so in terms of intentional use of those resources I'm not sure that that's something that that's really suggesting utilizing those funds very differently than house but how they're currently you know the purpose of why they're out there right now um and we need to use delivery Plaza um and

128then I guess another final thought is there seems to be in terms of it makes a lot of sense to have this very intentional marketing and branding of spaces and all that in terms of having a successful urban place but if I look at the city's website in terms of all of the the parks that we currently have we're not having this level of intentionality about except for with Liberty Plaza because and you know maybe our in our Farmers Market um and so it's it seems to be leap frogging over some of our existing public spaces and how we're currently operating so I'm curious if you might be able to talk a little bit about that recommendation well certainly I think that we support the idea I'll speak just for me again uh you know

129of this type of branding be extending to a lot of public spaces um obviously our charge is limited to those Force you know the block Bound by those four streets and so um you know we uh we highlighted the ideas that uh these are all things that are best practices uh you know essentially in in other communities and so um you know we thought that that was probably a good extension given the spaces we we had purview with um and uh and so um you know in terms of the arpa fund usage too I I think one of the things that we we found is as Liberty plots in fact this was actually highlighted in the prose plan uh and we raised some concern with it that uh that um you know as as one

130area is uh activated one of the worst things we can do from an equity perspective is uh is push people who are using the space out of doing that and we did find that uh that a better way to solve that problem was to activate a larger space and uh and so um you know we uh that's part of the reason uh we had the thought between behind um extending that uh the funding uh that was already appropriated by Council to uh delivery Plaza over the the course of the space was we did see and it was highlighted in the pros plan that it that people did get pushed out and we thought that was really not in the spirit of inclusivity and so um so that was sort of uh you know a couple

131thoughts certainly Rita may have some others as well and as well as others who participate in that process but uh um you know that's um and and to your point uh Eric I uh I agree 100 that as the development proceeds especially with that RFP that should serve as a real Catalyst uh to um promote a private funding um uh acquisition for these things and so um I think we we're excited about the uh that piece moving forward not only for the spirit of it moving forward but also because we think it will um it will bring about more private funding too so I don't know Rita you've got your hand up but if you wanted anything else can you hear me we can okay good thanks um yeah I think one of the things

132that I think of first of all is that this is a different kind of Park this is an urban park and urban to me means that it is um it does recognize The Hardscape that exists and the um intensity of use that's different as described by the downtown Detroit partnership um and so I see this as a way for Ann Arbor to join itself actually as we become more densely populated in the downtown I think when when I spent a lot of time looking at the pros plan this year and um or the new Pros plan that's been adopted and we all know that the central area of Ann Arbor is the most densely populated and has the least amount of open space available to people regardless of whether it's Hardscape or greetscape it has

133the least and given that there will soon be many more units of housing nearby and and that there have been more more recently um it makes sense to me to prepare for providing people with a space that is available within that 0.2 miles that um David Cowan cited and that is one that will make them want to be there together and and I think that we create the atmosphere so that's that's where I would like to see this going and yes it is a different kind of support required clearly from the other parks and I I am one who loves our Ann Arbor parks this is this is really a different model and I think we're ready for it I think the city should be ready for it and I don't know how to be

134more specific than that right now but thanks and uh Adam excellent job in writing this up I I think you did a fabulous job and good presentation thank you uh Alice and Alan and then yes um Adam and Rita have hello made me raise my hand because uh and Erica too you know it is true that the arpa funds were offered to um I'll resolve some difficulties at Liberty Plaza um uh Erica called them unhealthy activities and I think Adam actually uh spoke about the something that's helpful to make those make engender healthy activities is to give more space there isn't much space to give at Liberty Plaza but if you can combine this these properties in a systematic way and in a in a way that's integrated you'll find that you have our opportunity

135for more inclusive activities and more opportunity for healthier activities as they might be described as well as the fact that we do have more and more people we need more and more space for those healthy activities whether there's sunbathing reading or or playing chess or whatever it is um that we come up with and that people come up with I think this is a great opportunity to find the benefits of of intentional planning and inclusive exclusive sustainability I guess I'd say and I just wanted to add that that I'm hearing these these really good sort of interactive ideas that I think are quite like what we are intending to start with at Liberty that um the library Lane area uh Alan and then Frank unmuted I think this last little question about Liberty Plaza I

136just want to almost out of order say I'm quite distressed at the way Liberty Plaza has been addressed separate from the rest of the uh Commons area and that in the alleged effort toward activism that the tables were taken out so people can't play chess or actually have a card game or eat a lunch together there this was this failure of communication between Milton Mahoney and the rest of our processes really we are not positive and his approach to Liberty positive without regard to the rest of what's going on I think that we should try and have a better conversation with him overall and my concern was that really in about the third line and this is a urban Central Park and a Civic centered Commons Civic Center at least implies Civic functions and a

137potential Civic building that whole concept is omitted here as you have omitted the commons this is not simply a space call it the center of the city for convenience but it is a way of organizing resources so that the people have a role in their allocation and in their management different from having a Staff Care Project which just moves increasingly towards and that is because you call it branded as a center of the city rather than branded as the common which would remind us all because that is a way of organizing resources Who come out of the people and the people use and in that regard we have the view way back when in the times of the past course that there would be multiple working groups about kids about their food about programming about

138music about energy and so on and those working groups would see well how do we get things going there here and there disregard himself because the city has you know categorically refused to get the cars off and they say partially car removal the car should be off that's it's not a parking lot it is a park it has been repurposed by the people but until it's actually able for people to begin to play around there and begin to you know make things happen the working groups don't happen and so management by default is deflected to his staff but that is not what the idea is and that is not what is really building Community it is building that we have the staff that's going to be able to program 2000 programs a year or what

139they do in Detroit but that's not really the idea I want to see us advancing so in the the initiating committee is really the group designated by the city council to begin to do on the ground stuff and that is completely omitted from this picture at all so it didn't exist probably some combination of the initiating Committee in the library green Conservancy will become a non-profit with the library green so far has not really been looking to you know assume additional functions I hope perhaps that it will but the I think in terms of understanding what is the dynamic that we need to establish this needs to rethink The Branding toward a Commons and not simply the physical location though that is what it can well be called for good reason of how the city

140Charter is organized and a little bit we'll have plenty of time to discuss this but I wanted to put those initial reactions out there this really has not been listening adequately to what is the vision here whether we do not yet have adequate alignment of what our vision is is Robert urges us to you know get it all straight they were talking about the same thing so thank you thanks Ellen Frank yes I did I just want to I think emphasize and I think I'm supporting what some of the comments have been made earlier that I think for this near-term activation as well as the longer term planning we need to think about all the public land on the Block Liberty Plaza Library lot the Lane Camp House and uh you know the arpa funding

141is sort of build a financial barrier that it it doesn't uh is not accessible and my fear is that you know we'll create this uh this space that does uh Liberty Plaza that does push out segments of the population to other parts of the center of the city uh and if funding were available and I think a lot of the money still available because they weren't able to hire staff it just makes more sense from a planning perspective in this near-term activation to think of the entire entire space that's that's my comment thanks Frank uh Alice couldn't find my arrow um yes Frank I'll I'll second that that's what I was trying to say and you grew so succinctly um that I think dealing with one little one one piece at a time will never

142get us across the road um and so I second your um more comprehensive look at this space because Liberty Plaza is very small we have a little bit larger space if we combine the efforts in any way that we can that what helps the center of the city will help Liberty Plaza and vice versa so in Camp Palace it's a beautiful little crown on the on the three um so I I really appreciate Frank and bring us back to the idea of of what we do now will help in the future and just to add one piece to this too because I I uh you know just in terms of the the document and really our charge which is where this document came from our charge is to act is to recommend things uh around

143the entire space and so certainly when we got into this and um you know we we looked at things holistically to that church which is where the recommendations came from and that really feels the the um the appropriate um place from my perspective it's not it's not too um it's not too uh if it's if anything it's to create greater continuity uh and uh and uh that that scene you know going the opposite direction seems um seems um problematic but uh Erica yeah thanks and I appreciate that I I understand that the idea is to you know think holistically about the different spaces I just wanna um sometimes worry that there's there's a piece that this commission is not acknowledging um around Liberty Plaza and the activity that was happening there um and I know

144that there have been some disconnected conversations and so that's perhaps why there is a little disconnect here um I've been able to sit into different conversations that you know haven't necessarily um been a part of this commission so I understand um to some degree that disconnect but when I say unhealthy behavior I'm talking about assaults and fighting and behavior that we don't want to see anywhere in the city and that is behavior we absolutely want to drive out of Liberty Plaza and we want to we don't want to it's not acceptable anywhere um honestly so it's not that we have to you know it's not about um um individuals it's about behavior that we're seeing um that is not the behavior that we want to see in our public spaces or private spaces for that

145matter and so um you know I think that that's obviously why programming is something that's really important and we know that about Urban um Urban parks and spaces but we have a pretty limited amount of funding when it comes to that arpa that was dedicated and so thinking about how we're strategically using it in an you know in a space that we were seeing really unhealthy Behavior at times um while also trying to make sure that folks that need this also increase in the services to that space as well so having a comprehensive look at that space I just think it's important to acknowledge the the magnitude of problems that we are seeing on one section of the center of the city space and the reason that there's a need for additional emphasis in one

146corner of that it's not about the fact that additional programming is wouldn't be beneficial in many of our public spaces but I would hope that we would all want to make sure that that we're addressing that problem effectively yeah Erica and I I can't agree with you more that criminal activity like uh assault is not something that we're talking about here but there is an emphasis you know on some of those activations where some of the population who is experiencing homelessness in Ann Arbor used to gather uh on at the spot at Liberty Plaza very lawfully and uh and uh during some of the activations they there's pictures of them over on the top of the parking structure in the dark uh doing their normal uh gathering with free pizza and things and it was

147because Liberty Plaza was activated at the time and they would normally be there and so that's the kind of thing that we're talking about you know and that's it just felt very wrong when we when we saw some of that and um so we tried to address the holistic nature um around the activation so that that didn't happen to anybody no certainly not the criminal activity or anything like that certainly law enforcement should take care of that and you know get get folks either criminally punished or the help they need uh um you know if if that type of thing were to exist so that's really the the specific examples so Erica if I just might say um we were all pretty much in the dark if those of us who are not directly involved

148in the addressing that library that Liberty Plaza situation the assault and all of that stuff there was it was like a there just was not an not enough sharing of information not enough um ex extension into other conversations to figure out what the true impact was what the true incident was and um I I just feel like we can't carve out one little piece the overall charge the block and actually the whole city you know the whole downtown you can't just spot check you have to you have to look at the whole um and obviously an incident does require a specific action or look at the situation but I think that's that our our charge is greater and and not just in land use and so um that's what I was trying to get uh

149Rita and then I think is there another hands up will wrap up uh at that point thank you um I I just want to Echo what Alice just said we have been disconnected from the information related to the current management of Liberty Plaza it makes it pretty hard to do the kind of planning that that we would like to do and to understand the needs that are associated it would be great to have a report on the actions a summary report on the actions that have been taken and the assessment of outcomes and and just to know the goals we we don't have that information it would be very helpful to us um so I hope that that can be provided to us it should be part of what we're looking at overall all the

150time I think and so I agree that looking excluding one small part is not helping us with the goal of this project and I'm confused about that thank you okay thanks and so I I do want to just uh indicate you know that the uh the document is out there for discussion now you know please feel free and uh we've had a couple members of the public have written in and provided feedback already and others are more than welcome uh to do so um and uh you know maybe we'll take action on something here uh shortly related to the activation document um uh you know as a series of recommendations um I do want to just uh indicate though that uh I would just encourage you know some certainly some of the conversation you can

151hear some of the frustration folks voice um you know all over on this and um I would really just like to indicate to note that um there's really a promising opportunity here and um and a lot of the work that is reflected in those recommendations is about the promise um and we heard that from David you know we saw some of the pictures of what they started with and and we're very fortunate frankly we're very privileged to have a community that's not starting with the type of economic distress that uh that downtown Detroit had and um and so um you know I would just like to I try to always be look at things optimistically um and uh we've had some real major wins tonight uh that have been highlighted with the the formal uh

152hitting of that Target figure on the RFP to be issued and really the most concrete series of recommendations we've had around activating the space I feel like this is um a great starting point for something fresh and regardless of anyone's frustration around past instances I would just encourage everybody to look at things with um an open set of eyes that um tomorrow is different from today and it's different from yesterday so if we're going to think about yesterday all the time we're never going to think about tomorrow so uh let's take what we've done here and think about what could be tomorrow so that's that would just be my words of encouragement for everybody amen very well said very well said thanks so um with that uh Erica yeah I just I think you're heading

153towards public comment it was I just wanted to before you open that up I just wanted to say thank you to Heather um this is you put in a lot of work on this commission I know it's been um so pretty pretty much outside the scope of your uh professional activities oftentimes with the city in some facts so thank you very much for your leadership here um and I'm excited to see what you're doing next with the Housing Commission thank you and Chris we'll see you next time yes you will and how you're definitely in good hands with Chris uh sorry I didn't mean to cut you off yeah you're good go ahead Paul and thank you for those kind words council member Briggs um yeah quite a meeting to go out on there's a

154lot happening right now um some really good discussions some you know I think it indicates that there's things to that you're you're genuinely addressing so I think that's good um yeah and again thank you for those kind words and um I won't be far uh quite literally I'll be working on the project quite across the street from this over at the Y lot so you'll find me there um and of course I'm around so I'm sure I'll be interacting with all of you in the future thank you thank you Heather thank you heather when uh your comment was made that some people have written in comments already how does how do we see that does that get added to the minutes is there are notes or when people write in comments it's actually on the

155agenda Alan right so that will come into the next agenda it's already on the agenda it's on the existing agenda I'll send it to you if uh if you can't see it and Heather I I just want to say uh I personally very much appreciate all the work you've put in we've had a number of conversations uh offline and um I think uh I think you've really done a Yeomans effort and so thank you and uh also excited that you're going to work on uh affordable housing project I think that's going to be great for the community and uh certainly it's proximity to this space everyone deserves open space and so um it's a great compliment effort and congratulations thank you I appreciate that and I've really enjoyed working with you as well thank you

156um okay so with that um uh we will go into public comment and see if there's any members of the public who are here with us this evening we're a little over the nine o'clock hour but we're not too bad given our agenda forever black all right Robert black can you hear me Heather I can that's probably the last time I'm going to say that but thank you again for your your kind service um wow you guys rock I'm telling you um now we're talking now we're talking I've said through hours and hours of this meeting for a year okay you're literally years now and I've watched you guys it's like watching sauce be made right it's just kind of coming in there we keep stirring the Heat's going up a little bit but bam

157tonight you rocked it and I'm telling you I am so thrilled and happy to see this I have lots of comments but I'm not even going to say them because um you're on the ball here and the thing is to remember that you can do this your vision of the future is the strength of this thing the in the Council of the commons is the Hub you are the Hub of this thing although you're a recommending body you carry the vision and this document that you created is so powerful it could use an executive piece at the top that's the vision what is this thing what are we strive living for inclusivity center of the city all that stuff and you heard it from David Collin tonight how they moved through that vision and all

158those burned out buildings empty plazas Sandhill lots and tumbleweeds are gone and there's a new thing there and you are on the brink of doing this and each one of you has contributed mightily to this and I just want to remind you that part of the process and facilitation is called commonalities of differences alignment doesn't necessarily mean agreements and that you have dissenting views is important the the antipathy that comes in a dissenting view opens the possibility of growth and vision and Adam thank you for closing it back around the vision because that is so important you have examples already around you I presented something many times before about the Kaiser Center built in 1960 in Oakland California five-story parking structure with an award-winning park on the top that has been there for how many

159years now 63 years years right and you have examples certainly from Detroit I send some things through you have a an underpinning in your work of the initiating committee count them as roots to you Grassroots visit count them don't just dissent them count them their website is an example the the logo they've already created for center of the city are part of the city um the the signage and other things the Green Team actually came out of that initiative so look to them for help they might even be that third party that can help you do things Amy from North Carolina myself or Vermont another woman that has just come aboard that was one of Frank's Old students at Dexter High School was the superintendent of Parks from Milwaukee superintendent of parks of Louisville a

160great resource you have it right at your fingertips so don't forget to use those people as you move forward in this work and um God what was the last thing I wanted to say I just I'm so thrilled and excited about this that go ahead and practice do it trial and error make a mistake learn right it's learning by doing and so the next thing I just pitched this one more time one of your anchor events we already did this in the initiating committee an annual calendar with all the different key dates in there you talked about aligning calendars and and that we already showed how to do that in the initiating committee take a look at our Trello boards and see what's there and then um think about an anchoring event is coming up

161in April and it's a big one called Earth Day and we've already got a coalition of networks working to align that around the commons and it's going to be powerful the bands that are playing there's really cool bands um there's a whole bunch of different ideas of talks and things from a diverse array of topics and art activities Mary tiefel's talking and other stuff so we want to engage the whole community in a celebration leading towards a big celebration in the bicentennial year um Detroit's Parks came out of that 300th birthday let's celebrate Ann Arbor's 200th birthday and get it rocking this year with some really really good events um kudos to your good work you guys best of luck to you Heather and and uh welcome Chris let's get on with this thing thank

162you thanks Robert any other members of the public Heather actually can't see I see that there's a total of two phone call and listeners Chris can you see oh there we go all right um all right you can um go ahead and speak person with a phone number ending in three four five hi uh this is kittycon in Ann Arbor's Fifth Ward uh first of all I want to thank Adam for his positive optimistic words it's so important to remember that I heard a lot of great information tonight I enjoyed the presentation by David Cowan and I hope it'll be attached to the minutes so that we can go back and see that presentation can that be attached somehow but I'll ask for a copy and if I get it okay great I was also

163happy to read and then hear discussion about the activation recommendations I'm really impressed by the way they Incorporated the information that was gained from the site visit to successful Town squares in other cities they make perfect sense and I hope they will enable some forward motion with the center of the city plan I am also very glad to hear that the library green Conservancy is giving more money to enable the rrsp that's great I do think that it's important to mention that besides corporate donations many small individual donations also were made to the library green Conservancy small donations do add up and small donors should not be forgotten I heard behind the scenes that a donate button will be added to a new website I was very happy to finally learn about a donate button

164because that will make it easy for individuals to give money people want to give money they don't know how so now once that's up and running and it's publicized that'll be a wonderful thing and people can just donate with their credit cards lastly I am very disappointed in Erica Briggs yes Erica once again you put a damper on the project here we go everybody's positive wonderful things happen tonight and no you have to put a damper on it why do you insist on doing that it's very upsetting that is all thank you Heather any other members of the public I don't think so none with hand raised Chris are you saying anything different no I'm missing some reason my visual is a little bit different tonight well uh in that case uh we have no

165other items on the agenda this evening uh we are a little bit over so apologize to members of the public uh uh and all of you for not getting done by nine o'clock I've been pretty good about trying to meet that deadline um but uh we are going to uh and would love feedback on the recommendations that were attached to tonight's agenda um and uh you know certainly you've heard some of it tonight uh in discussion we will um we will certainly uh have some figure out how we're going to incorporate different ideas and alterations uh certainly nothing is set in stone um but I did want to uh just uh as we uh have a motion for adjournment I just want to say that there is a lot of uh exciting things happening and

166debate is good that helps strengthen ideas and we heard that tonight but let's emphasize it going forward and ask that we do stay away from the personal attacks and focus on making the top the positive forward movement going into Ann Arbor's 200th year so with that Heather we will miss you but I'm sure we will see again Chris welcome and uh and we look forward to working with you going forward and um do we have a motion for adjournment motion thank you both all in favor say aye aye okay have a wonderful evening everyone thank you so much thank you thank you good night bye thank you