Ann Arbor: Missed Connections

During our tours and discussion of Ann Arbor, which were expertly organized by the staff of our Chamber of Commerce, I kept feeling like I wanted to get another two or three sides to the story.  We heard from some business, nonprofit, and government leaders - ones that were recommended to us by the Ann Arbor Chamber. All of the panelists were knowledgeable and informative.

But missing were voices of residents, students and faculty, community advocates, downtown boosters, bloggers and that much-vaunted "creative class."  Interestingly, I returned home to get several messages by e-mail and twitter from some of the very folks who felt left out of our visit! The Ann Arbor Chronicle, a new local news website not unlike the Carrboro Citizen, wrote about our visit. And Ann Arbor consultant Bill Tozier tweeted about it and shared some local frustrations on his blog:

Apparently the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce and the SPARK have decided to host a tour of our city for the inhabitants of our sister city in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, NC.

This comes as a surprise to many of us who might be helpful. Not because the Chamber of Commerce is a useless echo of the city’s political machine, nor because the SPARK doesn’t signify much beyond traditional economic development old boys’ networks of “investors” looking for the next Google. Those are givens.

But because we’re headed into the “Creative Cities” time of year, and the city hasn’t even got the brains or social capital to think of us. Whoever “us” is.

It’s not the Chamber or the SPARK, let me tell you.

Barbara pointed out some of the comments coming out of the meeting via Twitter today, and I have to say I’m saddened by the implications. It’s clear that the fools broke it. Standard conference, standard list of suits, standard “address of innovation” bullshit, standard “welcome to Wonderful Wolverine City your high-tech research powerhouse monopoly” kowtowing.

I wish somebody from ArborWiki were there, or it was at least mentioned.

I wonder if any of our visitors will be able to attend a2b3 on Thursday, or will even hear about it. They’re invited!

I wonder if anybody’s deigned to mention ArbCamp 2007, or ArbCamp 2008, or Startup Weekend Ann Arbor—all the unconferences we (the folks who live here and do the work, not the obsolescent city fathers) have put on ourselves? Doubtful.

Or any of the dozens of other useful, interesting things going on here that are the only path to life in the city (or the region) in the coming years.

- Notional Slurry: Upon finding our “sister city” folks are here, 9/16/08

In some ways, I don't blame the Chamber for the focus on Chamber-friendly speakers and tours. They organized and paid (or fundraised) for much of the trip, so of course it reflects their perspective. If I want to hear from people like me, maybe I should organize a visit to a nearby town and hook up with all the activists, small businesses, bloggers, and elected officials that I think are doing good stuff. We could even organize it as an unconference!  Anyone up for creating our own alternative inter-city trip?