Happy Lunar New Year, one and all. As someone who has celebrated in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau during my years working as a journalist abroad, this time of year always makes me nostalgic for really authentic Chinese food. I’m open to suggestions! E-mail me.

In other news, I owe you folks a clarification after hearing from A2 city councilmember Jen Eyer. It seems I misunderstood some of what happened at the dramatic Jan. 29 public meeting in which the prospects for a proposed downtown Sports Illustrated-themed resort imploded. Eyer pointed out that she didn’t join in the criticisms made by members of the public – but she was one of four councilmembers who declared they were prepared to vote against selling the city-owned parking lot for this project. “For the proposal to have moved forward, it couldn’t have received more than three ‘no’ votes,” she explained, so the developer withdrew it. She also pointed out that Destination Ann Arbor, the tourism bureau, did not endorse the SI project specifically, instead reiterating the group’s desire to see a large convention space built somewhere in the city. The developers have said they’re looking at other possible sites. 

I have other regrets this week, too. There’s more crime news than we’ve had for a while. We lost an Ann Arbor-linked original, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, whose passing merited an impressive outpouring. And we’re being asked to watch out for Hepatitis A, as if Covid, RSV, and the flu weren’t enough. On the bright side, a nine-year-old at Pattengill Elementary received a big honor for his original composition and I discovered that the AADL has a podcast about, of all things, the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. How random and wonderful!

As I gear up for a Super Bowl I only care about because Taylor Swift will be there, I wish you a very fortunate start to the Year of Dragon. 

– Steve Friess, editor

Man charged with kidnapping son after motel standoff: The two-year-old was found unharmed after his father allegedly took him from his mother’s Ypsi Township home at 3:30 a.m. yesterday, according to a Facebook post from the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office. Police say the mother and other relatives in the home were assaulted during the kidnapping but did not sustain significant injuries. The father was taken into custody at the Victory Inn on Washtenaw Ave. around 8 a.m. A second suspect is being sought.

Ypsi apartment fire displaces scores: Crews took hours to douse the blaze at Arbor One Apartments in the 700 block of W. Clark Rd. early Wednesday, WXYZ reports. Nobody was injured but two third-floor units were destroyed and units on the lower floors sustained water damage, according to the Ypsi Fire Department. Dozens of people were forced from their homes.

Man robbed at gunpoint at west-side ATM: The thirty-four-year-old told police he was confronted by three armed men in ski masks early on Jan. 31 on Pauline Blvd. shortly after withdrawing cash at Comerica Bank on W. Stadium Blvd., MLive reports (paywall).The robbers drove off in a black Chevy Impala with front-end damage. The victim was not physically harmed.

Woman punched by cop in 2020 acquitted: Sha’Teina Grady El was charged with resisting and obstructing police, causing injury to an officer, and malicious destruction of police property after she and husband Daniyal Grady El, also charged with resisting, refused to leave the vicinity of a shooting in Ypsilanti Twp. A jury last week found them not guilty on all counts after their attorney argued that they had the right to resist because the arrest was unlawful, MLive reports (paywall). During the trial, a sheriff’s deputy acknowledged he punched Sha’Teina Grady El in the head three times while she was biting him. The incident, which took place the day after Minneapolis police killed an unarmed George Floyd and sparked nationwide outrage, prompted local protests and drew attention from social justice activists. The Grady Els are suing the sheriff’s office and Ypsi police, arguing they were the victims of unjustified use of force.

B2B flasher, home trespasser pleads no contest: Isaiah Matthew Hopkins’ pled guilty to three charges of home invasion and one of indecent exposure, MLive reports. The thirty-nine-year-old Dexter man was arrested in 2022 after a report from a sixty-seven-year-old woman that a man had exposed himself to her on the Border-to-Border trail in Dexter Twp. Hopkins was later identified as a suspect in several home break-ins and another flashing incident.

Indigent defendants save $925,000 thanks to new policy: That’s the sum of fees and fines waived in Washtenaw County courts for 409 criminal defendants who were convicted or plead guilty and could not afford private attorneys, according to a report reviewing the program’s first year. The county is among the jurisdictions to join the Cities and Counties for Fine and Fee Justice, a national effort to make the justice system more equitable for low-income people. 

Guitarist Wayne Kramer of punk rock pioneers MC5 dies: He was seventy-five and had pancreatic cancer. Kramer’s New York Times obituary (paywall) calls the MC5 the “house band of sorts for the radical left in the late 1960s and early ’70s.” In 1968, the band helped finance John Sinclair and his radical associates’ move to Ann Arbor, where they called themselves the White Panther Party. The band was a fixture in West Park until the city shut them down. The Ann Arbor District Library shared candid, thoughtful interviews with Kramer from 2012 and 2018 this week, and tributes poured in on social media from fellow musicians and politicians. According to IMDB, Kramer made a living in recent decades in Los Angeles composing music for movies and TV, but in December he told Mojo magazine he planned to reunite MC5 for a tour behind a new album, “Heavy Lifting,” due out this spring.

Longtime DDA chief reflects on decades of whimsical touches: Susan Pollay, who stepped down as executive director of the Downtown Development Authority in 2020 after twenty-four years, tells Jan Schlain in this month’s Observer about her admiration for sidewalk artists and building muralists who create the possibility that you’ll “turn a corner and see something new” as you amble about town. Pollay oversaw the rebuilding of Ann Arbor’s parking structures and downtown sidewalks but is equally proud of letting chalk artist David Zinn and others add creative elements by “saying yes and getting out of the way.” She’s especially touched that Zingerman’s created a grilled cheese and asparagus sandwich in her honor, the “Schmoozin’ Susan.”

More security cameras coming to AAPS buses: All 131 vehicles will be outfitted with five of the devices to provide better visual coverage, MLive reports. The board voted 4-3 to approve the $361,514 purchase from Pro-Vision Video Systems of Byron Center, with opponents raising concerns about how the footage could be used inequitably for disciplinary purposes. This move comes amid a lawsuit against the district over a bus aide’s assault on a Carpenter Elementary student with autism, a case one board member described as a “catalyst” for its vote last year to oust superintendent Jeanice Swift.

Planning commission recommends rejection of Church St. high-rise: In a 5-2 vote, the panel followed staff’s recommendation to turn down the seventeen-story, 273-apartment complex as too big for the parcel, according to city records. The proposal from Developer LV Collective LLC, based in Texas, now goes to council for a final decision on whether to rezone the property to permit the project.

Cases of Hepatitis A spark alert: Citing two recent, unrelated infections, the Washtenaw County Health Department is encouraging residents to get vaccinated. There have only been eight confirmed cases – including these two – of Hep A in the county since 2020, but they’re worrisome because they can permanently damage the liver. The WCHD believes the two cases were acquired during international travel. For more information about Hep A, click here. People without insurance or who are on Medicaid can call WCHD at (734) 544-6700 to schedule a free vaccination.  

WCHD halts its use of X: A health department spokesperson tells MLive (paywall) that they’re “not seeing a lot of helpful dialogue” on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, so they won’t be posting there for the foreseeable future. WCHD’s last post, on Jan. 30, offers other ways to reach the agency and to receive updates and alerts including by Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, and this link to sign up for weekly emails.

AADL’s Fifth Street Studios builds podcast lineup: The newest show emanating from the downtown library branch is “We Are What We Speak,” which looks at how language and linguistics connect the human experience, Antonio Cooper writes for this month’s Observer. It joins a growing library of audio programming that also includes “The Gayest Generation,” an interview show featuring older LGBTQ+ people, “Presenting Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” in which hosts analyze the famed director’s mid-century TV show episode by episode, and the long-running series “AADL Talks To.”

U-M’s first Black student went unnoticed in 1853: Samuel Codes Watson earned his medical degree but avoided the virulent racism of the era because he was able to pass as white, MLive writes in a fascinating Black History Month feature based on research at the Bentley Historical Library. Of mixed Black and White heritage, he escaped slavery in South Carolina after his parents died and in addition to Michigan, was the first Black student enrolled at Phillips Academy prep school in Massachusetts. Though he evidently never disclosed his heritage to others in Ann Arbor, he did make “connections with Detroit abolitionists and political leaders seeking to expand the Underground Railroad.”

Two local chefs, one restaurant among James Beard semifinalists: Ji-Hye Kim of Kerrytown’s Miss Kim and Dan Klenotic of Bellflower in Ypsi landed nominations for Best Chef Great Lakes, and Spencer in downtown A2 repeated its 2023 recognition with another nomination for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, according to the organization’s website. Spencer was a 2023 finalist. This is Kim’s fourth semifinalist nomination since 2020. 

Nine-year-old honored for original musical composition: Demarion Williams, a fourth-grader at Pattengill Elementary, was one of fourteen K-12 students across the state whose work was highlighted at the 2024 Young Composers of Michigan Premier Concert in Grand Rapids on Jan. 27. Williams’ work, entitled “DW,” is a one-minute piece of ethereal electronica created on software called Soundtrap, according to a post from the AAPS. The piece can be heard in this YouTube video. 

Izzy’s returns in new but familiar hands after owner’s death: The venerable westside hoagie shop was struck by tragedy when Terry Lahner died unexpectedly at fifty-two in December, but by Jan. 8 it was again serving up its cheesesteaks and other lunch offerings under longtime manager Acadia Mercer’s leadership, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. A new website and point-of-sale system now allow for online ordering; DoorDash delivery is in the offing. With help from two other employees, Mercer has also reopened the dining area for the first time since 2020, giving her more opportunity to interact with customers.

HomeGoods coming to Arborland: The home furnishing chain expects to open this spring in the space vacated last year by Bed Bath & Beyond, MLive reports (paywall). It’ll be the third in the county, along with the one in Maple Village on the west side and another on Carpenter Rd. in Pittsfield Twp.

Himalayan restaurant opens in Scio: Base Camp began serving dishes from Nepal, India, Tibet, and Bhutan yesterday, according to an Instagram post that also offers a 15 percent off coupon throughout February. The restaurant, which replaces Fresh Forage at 5060 Jackson Rd., is owned by chef Tasi Sherpa, a Nepal native who says he has summited Mount Everest seven times.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby seeks help for “melting snowman” protests: The weather may be unseasonably warm this week, but the next time there’s enough snow, the local branch of the non-partisan national environmental group hopes more people will join them building snowpeople to raise awareness of climate change. Six of the group’s members were out after last week’s snow to build ten snowpeople outside Rackham Auditorium as a “lighthearted” demonstration that coordinator Nancy Lincoln Stoll hopes will encourage people “to act on the serious problem of our planet heating up.” For more information, email the group here or visit the local chapter’s website.

U-M heart center assists effort to recycle pacemakers for patients in need: Through the My Heart Your Heart program at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, people in Michigan with the devices can pledge to donate them after they die, the Michigan Daily writes. The harvested pacemakers are sent to patients in five African nations and Venezuela. United 2 Heal, a U-M student organization, is responsible for ensuring the devices are sterile and ready for reuse before they are shipped. For more information about donating, click here.

Tickets on sale for Hands-On Museum’s Feb. 22 fundraiser: The adults-only party, “PLAY: A Scientific Soiree,” will collect donations to help offset the cost of providing admissions to visitors to the popular local children’s museum who use EBT discounts. Attendees get to screenprint their own tote bags, solve puzzles with New York Times Wordle editor Tracy Bennett, and enjoy food and drink from local eateries including Bao Space, Blue Tractor, Pilar’s Tamales, and more. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: See local company Brevity Shakespeare race through a 90-minute version of Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” a masterful portrait of evil whose fratricidal protagonist savagely hacks his way to the throne. 7:30 p.m. (Fri. and Sat.) and 2 p.m. (Sun.), First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti, 209 Washtenaw. Tickets $15 (students and seniors, $10) in advance online or at the door. 

Saturday: Celebrate the Lunar New Year by attending the U-M Museum of Natural History/U-M Center for Chinese Studies planetarium show exploring the Chinese lunisolar calendar, star mythology, and the achievements of the Chinese government’s Chang’e missions to the moon to set up a semi-permanent robotic research facility. 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., U-M MNH, 1105 North University. Tickets $8 the day of the show in the Museum Store. Limited capacity. (734) 764–0478.

Sunday: Hear the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Adult, Junior, and Cherubim Choirs, joined by the Adult and Junior Handbell Choirs, present “A Celebration of African American Music,” an afternoon of American spirituals and compositions by African American composers featuring works by William Dawson, Harry Burleigh, Rollo Dilworth, and others. Organist Mi Zhou plays a solo work by Florence Price. 4 p.m., St. Andrew’s, 306 N. Division. Free. (734) 663–0518. 

See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. 

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