“I think the city does need to allow more high-density developments that include low-income housing — but not exclusively low income development “projects.” We don’t need seven story buildings with million dollar condos on crowded side streets.”

Writes my friend and 4th Ward candidate for Ann Arbor City Council Scott Trudeau about the impact of the mayor’s greenbelt plan. City politics in Ann Arbor in both major political parties is driven by the interests of older, mostly property-owning residents who have systematically opposed new development and modest proposals to increase the number of rental units avaliable to the city’s mostly student rental population. Trudeau, a 2001 graduate of the University, is running as a member of the Green Party against Marcia Higgins, the incumbent republican, and Dan Shiel, a libertarian. Ward 4 includes a sizable slice of the student neighborhood area, including the housing along State Street up to a little beyond the intersection with Packard, and then west to 5th Street. Confusing? Thank your city government, which has sliced up the student population into nearly every ward. The good news? In the last election – 2001, a democrat lost to Marcia Higgins by just 76 votes out of only about 1,200 cast.