I've been around BP since it started, I think, but I have been
neglecting it for a while.

In the long interval of my nonparticipation, I notice that quite a few
worthy newcomers have come along.  So I guess it's time for a new
self-introduction.

I'm Larry Kestenbaum.  I grew up during the dark era of "urban
renewal," when my favorite buildings were always being torn down. 
Hence, I've been involved in history and preservation projects since,
oh, some time in my teens.  I have fought destructive highway
projects, helped lay out the boundaries of historic districts, written
historic district ordinances and guidelines, served on three different
(city, university, regional) planning commissions, chaired a historic
district commission, served on the board of a historical foundation,
and taught for years a grad course in historic preservation law.

I'm an attorney, and though I haven't been in active practice for some
time, about the last thing I actually did with that license was to
serve as co-counsel for a group of rabble-rousers who unsuccessfully
attempted to halt the technically illegal implosion of the Hudson's
department store building in downtown Detroit.

I'm also, and I'm not going to try to phrase this delicately, a
politician.  At various times, I have been elected as county
commissioner in two different Michigan counties.  More than that, I
have been a campaign manager, a fundraising and redistricting
consultant, a candidate for city council and state legislature.

In the 2004 election, I defeated a longtime incumbent to become
Washtenaw County Clerk and Register of Deeds, a full-time job
supervising a staff of 55 who deal in deeds and plats, birth and death
certificates and marriage licenses, court filings, elections, and so
on and so forth.  This is the office which many other states call
"county recorder" or similar.

Washtenaw County is in southeast Michigan, and contains the cities of
Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti (each with a state university) and several
smaller towns and rural areas.  It is something like the 10th most
highly educated county in the nation.  It has a growing population
currently estimated at something over a third of a million people.

Contrary to its liberal image, Ann Arbor and environs used to be very
Republican (Washtenaw County never voted for FDR or Truman or JFK),
and I am the first Democrat to hold this job in seven decades.

I've been in office almost 15 months now, have accomplished a lot, and
the honeymoon is not over yet.  It pays pretty well, too.  I think
this will keep me busy for a long time.

Almost ten years ago, I created a web site called "The Political
Graveyard" -- http://PoliticalGraveyard.com -- which gives (very)
brief biographical information, including burial locations in about
15,000 cases, for U.S. political figures from the 1700s to the
present.

The original focus was on burial locations, because at the time some
of the nation's most significant historic cemeteries were being
abandoned to weeds and vandals and greed.  The goal of the site was to
promote (via linkage to political history) appreciation of these
sites, and to serve as a minor resource for people struggling to
preserve neglected historic cemeteries, people putting together
walking tours of historic cemeteries, and so on.

However, mission creep set in, and the site became an unreasonably
ambitious biographical database.  I still like working on it when I
can.

"Polygon, the Dancing Bear" is my weblog, which these days mostly
consists of occasional copies of my email bulletins I send to my
staff.

Unlike most BP'ers, I have almost zero experience actually swinging a
hammer or mixing mortar or climbing scaffolding.  But I do try to
listen and learn from those who've been there.

                                     Larry

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

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