On 3/8/07, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Talk about old home week!  How's the County Clerk business, Larry?  Got the
> deeds alphabetized yet?
>
> Hope you're well.
>
> Ralph

I'm well and busy and lurking the list.  I'm looking toward
re-election in 2008.  The office is in much better shape than when I
started, but there's lots more I want to do.

(As Clerk-Register, for those who may be wondering, I'm in charge of
deeds, vital records, elections, court records, concealed weapons
permits, notary commissions, etc., etc.  I have three chief deputies
and a staff of 55 located in three different buildings.  I was elected
in 2004, defeating my longtime Republican predecessor, to become the
first Democratic county clerk here in seven decades.)

Meanwhile, Ann Arbor's status as Michigan's economic bright spot has
dimmed.  I mean, we still have by far the lowest unemployment rate in
the state, but Pfizer is shutting down its Ann Arbor pharma research
center, putting 2,100 people out of work.  ProQuest is moving its
headquarters (and 600 jobs) someplace else.  The big U.S. auto
companies seem to be teetering on the brink of collapse, and that's
10,000-plus  jobs just in our county.

But all that being said, we still have two state universities and
several private colleges and a thriving tech sector, among many other
assets.  So, they're still building and subdividing and developing all
over the place, including downtown, and the county is up past a third
of a million population now.

And some of that has led to historic preservation challenges and
controversies.  Ann Arbor suffered an awful but little noticed blow on
September 11, 2001 when some judges, under cover of the terrorist
attack that day, ruled that all of the city's individual historic
property designations were invalid due to some imaginary
hyper-technical defect.  (Can you tell that I don't agree with the
decision?)  And the city council has not had the political will to
redo the designation process.  Hence, many important landmarks are at
grave risk.

But Ilene has probably kept y'all up to date on that stuff.

What else?  My daughter Sarah is eight years old and in 3rd grade (see
sgsk.com for pictures including an action photo of her breaking a
board in karate).  My wife (a clinical psychologist in private
practice) now has her own office in a renovated historic building
downtown.  I'm working on a new version of my Political Graveyard web
site.

That was probably way more than you wanted to know.  I'll shut up now.

                                        Larry

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds, http://ewashtenaw.org
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Weblog: Polygon, the Dancing Bear, http://potifos.com/polygon
P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

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