Thanks to a recent Washtenaw County housing
needs assessment report, both Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor are in the midst of a bit of an identity crisis. Ann Arbor has too much demand and not enough affordable housing for middle class residents. Ypsilanti has affordable housing, but not the demand to fill it. What this means for each city has put a spotlight on the core issues in each. For Ypsilanti, that means some soul searching about how to attract more people to their ample affordable housing stock.
No one needs to convince Lois Richardson of the city's appeal. The 14-year Ypsilanti councilwoman has been a longtime advocate for her community, even recently claiming in a public meeting that Ypsilanti is safer in terms of crime than Ann Arbor. Here's what she told us about Ypsilanti's affordable housing supply, perception issues and the city's future.
What will creating more demand look like in Ypsilanti, and how do you hope to achieve it?
Believe it or not, I have encountered several middle class families that tell me that they use Ypsilanti as a bedroom community. They bought a house here, they work in Ann Arbor, they play in Ann Arbor, they shop in Ann Arbor. The only thing they do is come to Ypsilanti to sleep. That's a person's determination of how they want to live. If an affordable house is important to them, they will seek out an affordable house. If it's more important to live in Ann Arbor, or to live in what is considered by some a more upscale community and struggle, that's on the individual.
In some ways, we do need to change the perception of Ypsilanti, but once people get here, they realize that Ypsilanti is a pretty cool place to live. One of the things we're looking at is to start a marketing campaign and begin to toot our own horn. I think, unfortunately...we haven't really talked a lot about what we do have. We haven't gone out and really bragged on ourselves.
We have, in Ypsilanti city, at least three or four museums. We have wonderful parks. We have neighborhood parks that have been completely redone by the neighborhood associations or people who have just volunteered. And we're the home of EMU, which is an outstanding and nationally known university.
One of the recommendations in the report is a unified Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti School District. Do you believe that would be a benefit to Ypsilanti?
Yes, I believe that a unified school district would help the city, but at the same time I can't foresee that happening. I also believe a collaboration of services would help both districts.
Given that the report says Ypsilanti already has too much affordable housing, what does this say about the need or feasibility of a project like Water Street Flats? Should Ypsi be staying away from more affordable housing projects?
There is a difference between affordable and "low income" and "subsidized" housing. Ypsilanti does have more than its share of subsidized/public housing. However, the Flats will be affordable. The city hired some new fire fighters recently and their base salary would qualify them, along with a mate, for an apartment at the Flats. Their salary is above the median income.
Actually, the rent at the Flats is very close to market rate. In speaking with several friends who are semi/retired and retired, all agreed that if they lived solely on their social security they would not be eligible for the Flats.
Last week, you were quoted as saying that Ypsilanti is safer in terms of crime than Ann Arbor, something may people refute, stating that you're confusing the rate with the total number of crimes. Do you stand by that statement, and what exactly did you mean by it?
If you look at the raw numbers, Ypsilanti's numbers were not the highest. But when they they brought it around to per 100,000, yes, they were up. People have been asking me about my remarks for the last several days, and if you look at the raw numbers, we're lower.
People say of Ypsilanti, "You don't want to go there because it is full of crime. You don't want to go there because it's full of low class people." Traditionally, Ypsilanti was a working class, college town. Ann Arbor has always saddled over Ypsilanti. Because of U of M, there was always the perception that they were above Ypsilanti.
But the perception issue really came up around 1999 or 2000 when I attended the Ypsilanti Leadership class. Even having been raised here, I learned some things about Ypsilanti I didn't know, and my tagline has become that Ypsilanti is the best kept secret in southeast Michigan. Ypsilanti has many, many assets that people don't really know about or choose not to acknowledge.
This was back when we had a printed newspaper, and very few of the positive things happening in the city were on the printed page. ...The newspapers played a big part in that [the negative perception.] Whatever was negative they were quick to print it. And not the good things. But the news has a way of kind of doing that anyway.
So, do you feel that crime in Ypsilanti doesn't need to be a particular focus at this time?
I don't. Our crime rate has dropped over the years. One of the things I think made a big difference was in the early 2000s we started community policing, and I think that played a big part in the rate of crime dropping. And even though we weren't able to participate in community policing lately [due to budgets], we're getting back to that.
Natalie Burg is a freelance writer, development news editor for Concentrate and IMG project editor.
All photos by Doug Coombe.
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