Molly and Jess do an impromptu reflection on the excellent election results. (Brought to you in part by a very good idea from #a2council Twitter, thanks #a2council Twitter; and also car-free streets, thanks car-free streets.)
Transcript
NOTE: This version of the transcript was generated by an automated transcription tool and will contain (sometimes hilarious) errors. When we have time for human editing to clean this up we will update it, but we hope this imperfect version is better than nothing.
Molly (00:01):
Hello. It is Molly and Jess live from downtown Ann Arbor in one of the streets where we have successfully banned cars. That’s right. And we are here celebrating the incredible election outcomes from last night. Oh
Jess (00:14):
Man. I’m still high. I’m still high. I mean, part of it was I cave up on seeing the results after 1:00 AM so I actually got some sleep, but before that it was refreshing every nine minutes, so Yeah.
Molly (00:26):
Yeah. Right. I had to go to sleep around 1130. I couldn’t do it anymore. But to wake up to this news has just been spectacular. And so we are here with no script that That’s right. No, no episode sheet. Just to talk through all of the things that we won. Yeah.
Jess (00:40):
We kind of wanted to process the election results with you guys because it’s good. But also, is it good? It’s
Molly (00:45):
Good. Don’t worry. It’s so good. Yeah. So good. So everyone won that. We wanted to win. Let’s
Jess (00:52):
Go down the list. Yeah. So May Mayor won Christopher Taylor. That’s right. Ward one. Cynthia Harrison. One
Molly (00:58):
Won. She won by a lot. She won
Jess (00:59):
By a lot. Amazing. Ward two and three uncontested. So Chris Watson and Aisha Gazi. Edwin. Yes. Ward four. Your ward.
Molly (01:08):
Oh, Dharma. Ackman. So exciting.
Jess (01:10):
Dharma.
Molly (01:11):
That was, we knew that that was going to be the closest race. It was so competitive and it was the closest rate it was. And
Jess (01:16):
It was less than 200 votes. I think. Difference. See? Didn’t we tell you guys every vote counts?
Molly (01:20):
Every vote, every single vote. Dharma put in the work. Her team of volunteers put in the work. Yep. And it paid off. Yep. I’m so excited for Ward four.
Jess (01:28):
Yep. And the same for Ward five. I mean, Jen Cornell going up against not only an incumbent, but everybody loves Jerusalem Garden.
Molly (01:36):
My kid is so excited she’s going to be allowed to have J Garden hummus again. Literally,
Jess (01:40):
This is what she told me this morning. But honestly, really and truly for all three of ’em, I, I’ll speak less about the mayor’s race, but for the council races, what I kept hearing from the candidates was how often they were on the doors and how frequently they coordinated with volunteers. What we saw was ground and team.
Molly (01:57):
Yes. Serious ground game. Yeah. It was great. You want to say ground game a few more times, Jess? Oh,
Jess (02:02):
Man. Saying ground game makes me feel so smart and I know stuff like
Molly (02:06):
Pundit.
Jess (02:08):
We are our own talking heads.
Molly (02:09):
We are. Yay.
Jess (02:13):
So we came to Frida Vinos to celebrate because the food is delicious. And also, as Molly mentioned, no cars on this block.
Molly (02:20):
I was like, we have to go to lunch somewhere where there is nowhere wear that. We’ve banned cars. That’s right. And we’re here, and Jess and I unintentionally are wearing matching street parking is theft. Is theft.
Jess (02:34):
We’ll post a picture for you guys.
Molly (02:36):
It’s so great. You might even see my bike in the background. So what else do we want to say? So that’s the city council elections. Yep. The transit millage also won. Yes. And you were saying just that it’s clo, it was closer than you think might have been comfortable for that.
Jess (02:49):
Probably It was 60 40. And my guess is they would’ve been more comfortable if they’d been confident in a 65, 35 or more outcome. It just was what it was, but passed. And what this says to me is that Ann Arbor and the relevant municipalities are willing to fund our most ambitious vision of transit. Yeah. Because that’s what they put out first. The most ambitious, most expensive Yeah. Plan.
Molly (03:15):
And I’m, I’m glad that they did it that way. Yeah. I was a little worried, honestly, that they were going for something so ambitious. I was worried about millage fatigue. I was worried about how committed are we really to transit, especially in this moment with transit ridership still depressed from the pandemic, but we got it. We’ve got this incredible long range plan, and now we actually have funding to do an express bus between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. I cannot tell you how excited I
Jess (03:44):
Am. It’s so weird. That doesn’t exist.
Molly (03:46):
It’s outrageous. It’s outrageous. Maybe we actually will on it.
Jess (03:50):
Yes. Yes. That whole plan that we have called the Envision.
Molly (03:53):
Exactly. Yeah. Yes. All right. What else? Well,
Jess (03:57):
I want to talk about big plans because it’s a sweep and this is neither the beginning nor the end, correct? Right. We’ve been swimming in these waters for a long time. You care a lot about transportation and safety. I care a lot about housing and affordability, and both of us kind of intersect on sustainability and man, I mean, this election is great. It’s heartening, but for me, what it means is we get to kick up the work from arguing about micromanaging staff to setting big visions for the city
Molly (04:27):
And then making sure they actually get implemented. That’s right. I brought this up before. I know. But I love the idea of elections as choosing your opponent. In this case, we’ve chosen as our opponents. Some people I genuinely, like some people I’ve worked with as colleagues, so it’s not like I’m sitting here thinking of them as someone I’m going to be going to battle with every day, but I we’re going to be able to pull these people along. I think
Jess (04:52):
It’s going to be a conversation instead of a fight. For the most part.
Molly (04:55):
Yes. For the most
Jess (04:56):
Part. Really and truly. Yeah.
Molly (04:58):
Yeah. Or the kind of and gentle fight that we had about the climate
Jess (05:01):
Village. I did love that fight.
Molly (05:02):
Not the lying mean. Oh man, casting aspersion, you
Jess (05:07):
Disagree with me and therefore you’re evil. Right. I really don’t understand that
Molly (05:10):
In the pocket of big developers because you want to be able to afford to live in the city.
Jess (05:16):
My least and most favorite insult is and maybe always will be, the fact that I advocate so hard for housing that I got called a Koch Brothers show.
Molly (05:25):
Wow. I don’t even, that’s like all the way around and back again. That’s right. That’s really something. My favorite remains radical alt transportation bully.
Jess (05:36):
Oh, good job. You are a member of the Bicycle Lo, the all powerful bicycle lobby, aren’t
Molly (05:41):
You? Correct. No. That’s right, Jess. Jess just discovered the all powerful bicycle lobby on Twitter. I
Jess (05:45):
Mean, I knew that y’all existed. I didn’t know you had a Twitter. We do. It’s delightful.
Molly (05:52):
But yeah, and maybe now I can be a radical alt transportation
Jess (05:56):
Frenemy. I love that. I love that. All right, so what do we want to say? What do we want our last thing to say about the next three months, about the next two years, about, I don’t know how awesome the street is because no cars are on it. It’s so
Molly (06:12):
Great. No cars. Just people and tables and chairs and really good food. And
Jess (06:16):
Good food. Yummy food.
Molly (06:18):
Yes. So I want everyone to take a moment to celebrate. Celebrating the wins is super
Jess (06:25):
Important and
Molly (06:26):
Rest and rest. Rest is super important. Feeling the good feelings when they happen are really important. We have time now. The new council doesn’t get seated until November, so let’s take a breath. Let’s be intentional and strategic and remember that it’s all people and we all want what’s best for the city.
Jess (06:49):
I think I kind of want to build off of that and say that my thought is build with and not for, and what I mean is actually not physical. Although you guys know I will hug a building. It’s not that. It’s power. Yeah, it’s momentum. Yeah. Build with the people around you. If you’re worried about the people who can’t afford to live here, talk to them. Yeah. Work with them. My God, they’re so useful and also friendly and can really help support. If you’re worried about mental health, talk to folks with mental illness. If you’re worried about broke folks, work with broke folks. Build with, build with, build with, build with. Yeah. I can’t say that enough.
Molly (07:27):
I like that. Let’s do some building together.
Jess (07:30):
Let’s do it. Yay.