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This is the final issue of a2view for 2025, and what a year it has been, huh?
Did you ever imagine you’d give this much thought to whether inconceivably huge data centers built by the world’s most sophisticated tech corporations were the best use for patches of farmland all over our county? Or that Trump II’s agenda would be quite this radical when it came to cutting funding for academic research? Does it not seem forever ago that Santa Ono gave up U-M’s presidency for a humiliating, ultimately failed, quest to run the University of Florida?
And now, of course, there is the utter tragedy of Sherrone Moore. One day, he ran one of the nation’s most storied football programs; the next, he appeared on a livestream in a white jail jumpsuit for his criminal arraignment. How did it come to this? We’ll spend quite a while in 2026 trying to figure that out, I suspect.
Before we get to that, though, I had a couple of inquiries for you last week. I asked for inventive potato latke recipes only to have a few folks point me to this New York Times gift article with several delightful alternatives.
I also asked for sledding ideas, and I got plenty. So many, in fact, that I haven’t had a chance to really digest them all. So that’ll have to wait until our next issue, on January 9.
The news is here. There’s more dissent over data centers, more alarm about funding cuts, and some potential justice for Sugar the Cat.
This was last week’s most-clicked link.
Best wishes for a peaceful, restorative, meaningful holiday break.
– Steve Friess, editor
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Tow trucks were out in force in Kerrytown last weekend, prompting Observer editor emeritus John Hilton to post this image on N. Fourth Ave. on Facebook. “Thank you for shopping at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market,” writes Hilton, who has tried to warn drivers about that easy-to-miss no parking zone for decades. “We look forward to seeing you again after you recover your vehicles.” Credit: John Hilton
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Screengrab from livestream of Sherrone Moore’s December 14 arraignment.
Credit: Steve Friess
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1. More on Moore: Last Friday’s arraignment of the former U-M football coach on charges of third-degree home invasion and stalking continued to reverberate across campus, city, and nation all week. Moore is out on $25,000 bond with strict orders to have no contact with the former staffer with whom U-M says he conducted a two-year extramarital affair that allegedly involved domestic abuse. Now the university has engaged the same high-powered Chicago law firm to conduct a probe into the scandal and the athletic department itself that conducted the investigation leading to the ouster of president Mark Schlissel in 2022.
2. Local projects impacted in GOP’s surprise $645M in cuts: Michigan House speaker Matt Hall used a rare maneuver to defund hundreds of programs already approved by the legislature. Ann Arbor state rep Jason Morgan told WEMU those cuts included funding for Ann Arbor’s new election center and for new firefighting equipment for Scio and Northville townships. Cuts elsewhere, Morgan says, include “everything from buying wigs for children who are struggling with cancer to cash for pregnant and new moms for diapers and other critical baby supplies and mental health support for kids who have been sexually assaulted.” The Michigan Senate, controlled by Democrats, has voted to restore the cuts, but it remains unclear if that’s good enough to undo the House move.
3. DTE approved, but data center pushback continues: Even as the Michigan Public Service Commission approved DTE’s nineteen-year contract to provide power to the $7 billion, 1.4-gigawatt OpenAI-Oracle-Related Digital facility on Thursday, opposition persists. A Saline Twp. resident is suing to block the project from going forward on grounds township officials violated the Open Meetings Act in the way it approved a deal to allow it. Meanwhile, Ypsilanti-area state representative Jimmie Wilson Jr. filed a bill in Lansing to rescind a $100 million state grant for U-M and Los Alamos National Laboratory’s planned data center in Ypsilanti Twp. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell this week published a letter she received from U-M interim president Domenico Grasso promising to hold a public meeting in Ypsilanti Twp. in late January “to ensure broad public participation.” The rare public response from U-M on the matter was prompted by Dingell’s earlier missive calling out the university for not holding public meetings in the town where they want to build the facility. Grasso also made a distinction between the computing center U-M and LANL want to build, which is focused on research, and others including the Saline Twp. plan. “We recognize that this distinction has not always been clear in public dialogue,” he acknowledged.
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Chefs and business partners Kyle Young (left) and Bobby Rosenberger bought 1027 Broadway St. on the condition that they would preserve the historic building, a task that is proving challenging, laborious, expensive, and time-consuming. They intend to turn it into “a dive bar with a fine dining aspect” called the Old Loon. Credit: Mark Bialek
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What’s happening at 1027 Broadway St.? Antonio Cooper digs into the saga behind one of Ann Arbor’s oldest commercial structures, the August Herz Building, which chefs and Carrozza Pizza co-owners Kyle Young and Bobby Rosenberger bought for $2.1 million in 2023. They plan to create a bar-restaurant called the Old Loon, but they’ve also been beset by costly renovations and repairs to an ancient structure that operated as a party store for years until shutting down during the Covid pandemic. “There are floor joists fully hanging off the wall,” Young says. “The building has eight inches of lean in the floor. It is a ton of structural work that needs to be finished.” Read more
Federal research cuts bite deep at U-M: The gutting of grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies is sending shockwaves across the university, Ken Garber reports. Scientists worry about reversals of progress on RNA applications in medicine as well as the elimination of a wide range of studies into health issues facing specific ethnic groups, topics related to climate change, and more. Many of the U-M’s 8,000-plus faculty members and roughly 6,000 PhD students are now experiencing a previously unknown level of anxiety and uncertainty. Read more
HERD mentality: The city now requires residential real estate listings to include a Home Energy Rating Disclosure to guide more eco-conscious buyers. It may be more environmentally friendly, but has it made any difference in sales prices? Not really, Cynthia Furlong Reynolds finds. Read more
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Courtesy: Humane Society of Huron Valley
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The Humane Society of Huron Valley says criminal charges have been filed in a case last year where a kitten was riddled with BBs. Sugar, that beautiful creature staring at you above, made a full recovery and was adopted. Read more
AAPS superintendent Jazz Parks says the district’s finances are in good shape and that the state has released it from the early warning reporting process. Read more
ICE arrested an Ypsi construction worker who has been in the U.S. since he was three, his family tells Newsweek. He’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been in the process of applying for a green card.
Depot Town gets its social district designation just in time for that balmy January weather.
Trump seemed to be referring to Bryce Underwood when opining on the dark side of NIL.
Former Michigan congressman Fred Upton extolled the importance of bipartisanship in his U-M winter commencement address. “We will get through these very troubled times, but only with your leadership, vision and involvement,” he told the graduates.
Federal funding changes could imperil long-term affordable housing around the county.
Council voted to remove some 600 Neighborhood Watch signs around the city. Councilmember Jen Eyer says the signs for the defunct program “send a message that no longer reflects our values or our practices.” Read more
Ypsi’s venerable Bomber Restaurant was named Michigan’s “best hole-in-the-wall brunch” spot by Chowhound. Perhaps any good press is good press, but there’s nothing hole-in-the-wall about the Bomber. It’s spotless, carefully decorated with vintage aviation memorabilia, and, yes, delicious.
Is this a clever approach to solving the housing affordability crisis?
U-M’s special collections archive has some super-cool Lawrence Kasdan stuff. Read more
Can STIs be curbed by an anonymous app, the way Covid was at the height of the pandemic? An MBA student with backing from Ann Arbor SPARK thinks so. Read more
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Springin’ up like mushrooms: Mush Love, which opened in October, is the fifth new local business this year offering dried mushrooms and various preparations for use cases ranging from psychedelic exploration to alternatives to Big Pharma, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. According to its press packet, Mush Love chose Ann Arbor “because the city embodies creativity, openness, progressive culture, and curiosity – the exact qualities that define modern mushroom wellness.”
Blue Leprechaun, Pinball Pete’s shut down: The South University arcade’s departure has been long planned as its building is being demolished to make way for a high-rise apartment complex. (It’ll relocate to a much larger space on Liberty St.) The closure of the Blue Leprechaun sports bar, however, took fans by surprise, MLive reports. It closed last week after seventeen years, Niko Porikos says, after his father, Perry, chose not to renew the lease. The senior Porikos still owns the Brown Jug nearby. (Algase also writes about it in the January issue of the Observer coming to your mailboxes soon!)
Juicy Kitchen to return in 2026: The N. Maple Rd. restaurant closed in September following a catastrophic freezer fire, but now owner Kelby Ziola tells WEMU they expect to reopen in February or March. A GoFundMe campaign launched after the fire raised over $26,000 to pay staff and help with the rebuilding efforts.
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Courtesy: Yoga Strong Foundation
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High schoolers bestow holiday gifts in “Operation: Christmas Wishes”: Students from Brighton and Pinckney dropped by the four early learning centers in Ypsi this month with presents sponsored by the Yoga Strong Foundation, according to a post from the group. The organization of yoga enthusiasts spent $44,000 on gifts for 922 children and their schools. The group also gave each child a hat-and-glove set, stocked a boot, coat, and snow pants closet at each school, provided shelf-stable classroom snacks, and more.
Ypsi-born NFL star covers rent: Atlanta Falcons wide receiver K.J. Osborn paid the $4,269 balance for a family of three living in Schooner Cove Apartments, ClickOnDetroit reports. The family happens to live in the same unit that Osborn and his family occupied years ago, when they received rent assistance and he attended Lincoln High.
Volunteers sought to restore bird habitat on Dec. 28: The Washtenaw Bird & Nature Alliance will be out at the WBNA Searles Nature Preserve in Ypsi from 1 to 3 p.m. to maintain trails and clear invasive shrubs. For more information and to sign up, click here.
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By Jennifer Taylor
Friday: Hear WSU anthropology professor Felicia B. George discuss her new book, “When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling’s History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City,” about early 20th-century underground gambling. 6 to 7 p.m., AADL Downtown, lower level program room. Free.
Saturday: See iBallet Studio’s production of “The Nutcracker.” Tchaikovsky’s classic features professional dancers in the roles of Clara, the Nutcracker Prince, and Uncle Drosselmeyer, backed by iBallet Studio (Novi) student dancers, dancing to recorded music. 7 p.m. (Fri.) and 1 and 6 p.m. (Sat.). Power Center. Tickets $29 to $40 in advance online and (if available) at the door.
Sunday: Hear the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church adult choir, children’s choirs, and handbell choirs present “Christmas Lessons and Carols,” the traditional English service, in which scripture readings alternate with seasonal anthems and carols, some sung by the congregation. 4 p.m., St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division. Free.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events.
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