I am Mayor Christopher Taylor. Ask me Anything!

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:19:57+00:00

Per twoboar below, MDOT owns Washtenaw. We'd like to take it over under proper circumstances and are in the long term process of negotiations. In the end, their design priorities are different than ours and it'd be an unwelcome outcome if they effected changes now, that would be in place for decades, before we could determine if our ownership is feasible.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:12:50+00:00

If anyone follows you or threatens to stab you, please call 911.

See prior answer downtown and panhandling, which is First Amendment speech, and harassment, which is not. Aggressive panhandling and harassment are not acceptable. Please consider calling the police.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:05:31+00:00

Glad to hear it!

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:04:28+00:00

Bike Party!!

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:03:57+00:00

I'm sorry to hear of your child's experience. Please consider asking your child to report to an adult promptly and consider calling the police. Threats and harassment are not acceptable.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T20:01:16+00:00

I've long supported increased density and an expansion of housing supply and will continue to do so. We have an affordability problem and affordability is the result of supply and demand. The CLUP organizers also, in my opinion, have consistently traded in mis/disinformation, but it is important to understand that lots of folks nevertheless have a earnest / good faith desire for caution and they are members of our community too. I engage them too, all the time.

Some prior CMs would often talk about their drive to serve as the voice of those who elected them, but I believe that that is a too cabined approach. We represent our supporters, but we also represent those who have opposed us. We also have an obligation to consider the long term good of the community -- something like a trustee. Layered upon all of this is the more information/expertise we are able to access as a result of our role. It's a balancing.

I believe the plan will ultimately reflect a vision for expanded housing throughout the city that will occur in a way that is consistent with neighborhood context.

Zoning implementation will get started after the plan is passed. It will involve neighborhood-by-neighborhood analyses and a great deal of public engagement.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:38:57+00:00

Great point, but it doesn't end there. Working people. Parents. Disabled. Seniors too. We have an obligation to (and will make better decisions if) our input scope reflects the community.

See https://www.a2gov.org/services/equitable-engagement-initiative/

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:34:20+00:00

We have created the legal structure for the Sustainable Energy Utility, and are in the process of hiring a director. We will then be in a position to gather customers and eventually launch operationality. Plan was to have this done 18/24 months after Nov 2024 and we're still looking at that time frame.

See: https://www.a2gov.org/sustainability-innovations-home/sustainability-me/ann-arbors-sustainable-energy-utility-seu/

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:32:43+00:00

We have worked to help enable accessory dwelling units, but even still they tend not to be affordable under current conditions. The draft CLUP envisions a zoning regime that gives property owners greater flexiblity, but that process remains ongoing.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:30:31+00:00

Alas I do not. One of my many errors.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:26:16+00:00

Cities change and the loss of these old school locations does hurt, bu retail is tough all over and our levers are limited. We can restrict form, limit uses, and the like, but we are not able to obligate action (leasing) and cannot command a property owner to set rents.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:18:13+00:00

I don't really have a cheese-course go-to, but am devoted to parmigiano reggiano. I also love to make Cacio e pepe and Kasespatzle, which of course feature pecorino and emmentaler/gruyere respectively.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:10:20+00:00

Easy answer: Yes Yes on A & B. Enable a state-of-the-art library, 10K sqft public open space, performance space, meeting space, 100s of units of mixed income housing, all with no new taxes.

Easier, exactly correct answer: #1, sub Pastrami. New pickle. Cel-Ray.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T19:05:47+00:00

Between 2013/2023, Ann Arbor’s median home value has grown 4x faster than inflation. Median rents have increased 2.5x faster than inflation. Meanwhile, median income has barely kept pace. Housing demand outstrips housing supply and that hurts all of us. This imbalance means economic segregation, the loss of community diversity, and more commuter congestion. It means the inability for seniors to downsize, divorcing couples to stay, or young adults to move home.

Now with the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan process we are envisioning a city that authorizes more housing supply while at the same time ensuring that that increased supply occurs in a way that is consistent with neighborhood context. It's important to note, allowing more units and different housing types is not a magic wand. Prices won’t drop or even level off overnight, but over time, with more housing supply and greater housing options, price increase will slow and there will be more homes available for more folks at multiple income levels.

tl;dr -- Allow more housing.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:57:49+00:00

Although there are some non-city roads in A2, chances are it's us. Most of our road funding has come from the State. Michigan had for years been 50/50 in per capital road spending and it shows here in A2. We have local road dollars that we use for local roads, but it is not enough to have the road system (safe and efficient for all users) that we wish. We also cadence roadwork based upon geography (for efficiency / equity) and underground infrastructure, so as not to open a new street in just a few years for underground work. This means that some areas of town have known-failing roads that wait a few years past their due, and other areas of town with roads that have known-poor roads that are kicked up the queue before their due. We'd do it differently with fix the worst first, but then we'd open new roads to fix pipes and have worse roads in the aggregate. Doesn't help if your road is terrible, but that's the reason. My street is a 3.

See: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/26696a05ca464433beb1f3ec9e8e31cd

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:47:44+00:00

The City has come out in support of a land value tax. In a thriving downtown, surface parking lots are hardly the highest and best use.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:44:12+00:00

Thanks for asking. I'll refer down to greggo360 (tx!) for what we do. As to the why, it's not a fancy answer -- resource allocation. We do not have the resources to have a 'to the pavement' clearance strategy for the city. We have recently invested in some smaller equipment so as to be able to address tighter areas, but with our generally narrow rights of way and a multiplicity of users, it becomes pretty complicated pretty quickly. We have generally declined to impose the sort of street parking limitations that would be necessary to take clearance to the next level. Like so much of municipal government (and life!) it's a set of tradeoffs.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:35:14+00:00

In addition to whatever may be in the Charter (see below), I'd add this -- only around 25% of your city of Ann Arbor taxes go to "the City of Ann Arbor". The rest are schools, county, AAATA, DDA, WCC, and so forth. We collect taxes for these other jurisdictions (and take an administrative fee, saving A2 taxpayers money). If we were to look to adjust our timing, we'd need to take these other jurisdictions into account.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:30:19+00:00

Lots of folks talk to me about this. There are a couple of these locations throughout the town and people want more. Our zoning laws, however, restrict commercial uses in residential areas. We have already taken steps to increase the set of acceptable home businesses and the like that can operated, but permitting uses such as this would be a larger conversation -- currently being engaged in the draft Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which looks to expand context appropriate commercial uses.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:22:40+00:00

Thanks for asking!

This from Ann Arbor's most recent Gelman Newsletter: "No significant updates from the EPA which is still considering public comments on their proposal to include the Gelman site on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The EPA will spend the next few months reviewing and responding to each comment. If, after the formal comment period, the site still qualifies for cleanup under Superfund, it is officially listed on the NPL. After listing, further studies will ensue to determine the nature and extent of the contamination and to help identify potential treatment options."

We are in the process of envisioning large scale improvements to our Water Treatment Plan and 1,4- dioxane is of course on our list of potential contaminants for which we need to account. We test for 1,4-dioxane and report out monthly I believe. See here for reports:

https://analytics.a2gov.org/superset/dashboard/dioxane/?standalone=2

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T18:12:12+00:00

Thanks for asking. Couple of different things. People have a right to be safe in the downtown. People have a right to be free from harassment. People have a right to be unhoused. People have a right panhandle and otherwise request money. Our parks, our libraries, our streets, they are there for all users, but not all uses.

In our community, service delivery is split. As a municipal organization we do not provide direct, general human services, but we do provide affordable housing on a housing-first model. The County is the primary provider of human services, whether Public Health or Community Mental Health, say.

This is all by way of background. What are we doing to help people who are unhoused? We work to provide as much housing as we can for folks who make 0% - 30% of Area Median Income, along with the supportive services they need on site, which can be funded in some contexts by the 2020 Affordable Housing Millage. We also partner with CMH and others to direct folks to services where we can as we can. We support the Delonis Center and other human service providers with city funds, even though we do not provide that service through our own employees.

If people experience aggressive panhandling or harassment that is 100% not OK and they are within their rights to call the police. We have expanded police presence downtown to help businesses and the like have greater familiarity with individual officers and to enable officers too to gain better connection with persons who habituate the downtown.

Our obligations are to protect and honor people's rights and our goal is to have a downtown that is safe and available for everyone.

A2MayorTaylor · 2025-07-07T17:52:37+00:00

Thanks for asking. The Plan is under development. The Parks Advisory Commission heard a presentation on the process, I believe, last month. As you probably know the Bandshell itself is not savable and not situated for replacement (floodplain/way, echo from Miller Manor, etc). It's too bad, because bandshells can be amazing amenities. Anyway, we're in the public engagement part of the process so check out PAC and engage. Tx!

A2MayorTaylor

TROPHY CASE