A look at the political blogs in town. Community organizations and political candidates take on garbage collection, the Ann Arbor mayoral race, what happens to schools after they are closed, opposition to the runway expansion at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport and advocacy for non-motorized transportation.

Ann Arbor Mayor

A2Politico's Pat Lesko, a candidate for the Ann Arbor mayor's race, leads with a discussion of single-stream recycling. "Stinks for more reasons than you can think" is the lead, noting that only 35 percent of the materials currently going to the city's Materials Recovery Facility come from the city, with the remaining 65 percent coming from elsewhere in the region.

Independent mayoral candidate Steve Bean doesn't have a campaign website up, but he has pulled petitions to run this fall. Bean would run as an independent; his campaign treasurer, Peter Schermerhorn, ran as a Green Party candidate for council in 2006.

Mayor John Hieftje's campaign website is up. From the looks of it, it hasn't been refreshed since 2008, when the mayor easily won re-election; the lists of accolades and awards don't include any from 2009 or 2010.

Ann Arbor schools

The Ann Arbor Schools Muse weblog has a characteristically thoughtful perspective on school reorganization, leading with a retrospective on the 1985 Ann Arbor school reorganization that closed Bader, Clinton, Freeman, Lakewood, Newport and Stone schools. The author looks at what happened when the district put these properties to new uses, and concludes that about 500 students now go to private schools in former public school buildings:"When you close a school, who are potential buyers? For whom is a building like a school perfectly suited? Why, for another school. One of the unintended consequences is that, in selling schools to other schools, the district set up competition for itself."

Ann Arbor Municipal Airport expansion

The Committee for Preserving Community Quality has started the Stop Ann Arbor Airport Expansion weblog, launched on March 1 to organize efforts against the expansion of the runway at the airport, which is located south of Ellsworth Road in Pittsfield Township. They have a chronicle of airport expansion plans dating back to 2009, with links to letters from runway expansion opponents. The environmental assessment report for airport expansion is under review, and a public hearing is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 31 at Cobblestone Farm, 2781 Packard Road.

Non-motorized transportation

The getDowntown weblog has an announcement that the 2010 Commuter Challenge is open for signups. The contest starts in May and encourages commuters to pursue a variety of options for their commute other than driving in by themselves.

The Michigan Complete Streets Coalition is an organized effort to build "roadways that move people not just automobiles." They report on their efforts to introduce language into the Michigan Department of Transportation budget to prioritize funding for MDOT projects that support "the adequate accommodation, in all phases of project planning, development, construction, maintenance and operation of all users of the transportation system, including but not limited to, pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit users, children, older individuals, motorists, and individual with disabilities."

Edward Vielmetti is the lead blogger at AnnArbor.com. Contact him at 734-330-2465.