Issue 2 – Summer 2019
Ypsilanti City Council voted on June 4, 2019 to appoint Annie Somerville to the vacant City Council seat in Ward 3. City Council’s process lacked transparency and did not reflect public constituent input. In-person interviews of candidates to fill the Ypsilanti Ward 3 City Council…
Racial Equity and Representation Since her inauguration on November 12, 2018, Ypsilanti Mayor Beth Bashert has decided not to reinstate two Black city commissioners to their respective commissions. A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Mayor Bashert has not nominated a single non-white Ypsilanti…
In Ypsilanti, the mayor has the sole power to nominate people to the city’s commissions. City commissions are government bodies made up of volunteers who make decisions that affect Ypsilanti. Some commissions merely advise City Council; others actually have the final decision-making power over city…
I am this personwho must wrestle with my relationship 2 wordsalone, intimately & deeplyyet then, when I have reached a place wherethis works, whereit feels good, whenI feel sated with this practice ofgrappling & scribbling,sounding out what will work &scratching out what won’t,it means then…
What’s Left contributors Amber Fellows and Aaron Apsey met with Grace Sweeney, 40+ year resident of Ypsilanti and recent widow to Pete Murdock—a longtime representative of Ward 3 on Ypsi’s City Council and original ‘Mayor Pete’, who passed away from cancer-related illness this May—to interview…
Last week Amory began an eight-day jail sentence for resisting ICE in Bristol County, Massachusetts. PLEASE READ Amory’s statement that he released before beginning his sentence: “Last summer, some friends and I demonstrated outside the Bristol County Jail, a jail and ICE detention center in…
Over the past year and a half, I served on the City of Ypsilanti’s Housing Affordability and Accessibility Committee. The term “affordable housing” can be confusing to many. Oftentimes when people hear the term, they think of government-subsidized housing. The term is often a loaded…
The good news is: we made it. With one more eclipse in December we’ve successfully survived eclipse season and Mercury retrograde. The Universe is ready to reward us for dealing with emotional (Cancer) and structural (Capricorn) upsets in our lives with an astrological gold star:…
