Whether you hate it as a boondoggle or hail it as a blessing, there’s no question that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was good to Ann Arbor. Between February 2009 and May 2010, the financial stimulus gave local entities a total of $430 million. That’s $3,900 for every man, woman, and child in town—and three times the national average of $1,170.
The U-M, the town’s biggest corporate citizen, got the most: $261 million, with the hospital ($78.6 million), the Institute for Social Research ($48.3 million), and the College of Engineering ($47.8 million) grabbing the biggest shares. But twenty-two other organizations in town also got Recovery Act money.
The Ann Arbor Board of Education snagged $15.4 million. “We got $3.2 million for special education, $1.2 million for Title One, and $11 million for rate stabilization,” says interim superintendent Robert Allen—the last being “money the federal government gave to the states to fill the gaps left by holes in state funding.” In other words, ARRA merely plugged an already existing hole—a hole that will reappear when the money runs out at the end of the school year.
The city itself scooped up $8.8 million to help pay for storm water, drinking water, and road improvement projects—most noticeable in West Park and on West Stadium. And that doesn’t even include the windfall of federal money the city got in October: $1 million to expand the Blake Transit Center, $17 million to fix the Stadium bridge, and whatever part of the recently announced $150 million in high-speed rail improvements stays in town.
The Great Lakes Science Center got $8.2 million to plan and build two new research vessels. “They’ll be in the 69–79-foot range,” says director Russ Strach, “and we’ll use them for deep water research on the Great Lakes, gathering information to set fishing regulations and stocking levels.”
Altarum Institute picked up $19.6 million to help transfer 4,000 primary care doctors’ files to easily transferable computer files. And Merit Network got a whopping $102.9 million to build 2,217 miles of advanced fiber-optic network in rural areas across Michigan.
The Center for Empowerment & Economic Development got “$700,000 for micro-loans for small businesses,” says executive director Michelle Richards. “$300,000 in grants and $400,000 in loans so far, though we’re expecting more. We made five loans in Ann Arbor–Ypsilanti and a total of fifteen in Washtenaw County.”
In Ann Arbor, microloans went to City’s Pizza & Subs, opened in October by Pat Krolik and Paul Stone, and Frita Batidos, a Cuban-influenced restaurant on Washington run by Eve Aronoff that’s expected to open this month.
