View this email in your browser

June 5, 2026

Can you guess what’s pictured above? Click the image to find out!

View of the Week

Teachers and their supporters rally for a new contract before Wednesday night’s AAPS board meeting. Credit: Ryan Dolan

1 Big Thing

(From left to right) North America’s Building Trades Unions president Sean McGarvey, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Related Companies CEO Brent Behrman, governor Gretchen Whitmer,  Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, Walbridge chairman John Rakolta Jr., and Blackstone senior managing director Mike Forman. Courtesy: OpenAI

1

Whitmer all smiles at Saline Twp. data center groundbreaking: Despite the roar of controversy surrounding the construction of the 2.2-million-square-foot, 250-acre, $16 billion “hyperscale” computing facility, the Democratic governor lined up (above) with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, and Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk to shovel some ceremonial dirt this week. Whitmer, whose off-again, on-again flirtation with a 2028 run for president became a subplot at last week’s Mackinac Policy Conference, endured brutal blowback for the appearance on social media, with U.S. representative Rashida Tlaib calling it “disgusting,” state rep Dylan Wegela saying she is “selling out Michigan to big tech billionaires,” and progressive blogger Chris Savage writing that this “seems like a terrible look for a potential presidential candidate.” The governor was an early booster of the Saline Twp. plan, calling it “the largest economic project in Michigan history” when it was first announced last fall and arguing then that it will create jobs and “help Michigan continue to lead the future of advanced manufacturing and technology.” She didn’t back down this week amid the criticism, insisting: “These data centers are going to get built. So, my thought is if we can hold them to a high standard and do it in Michigan, that’s the best way to do it.” Still, national and statewide polls show people oppose building these facilities in their areas out of concerns about increased water and power costs, environmental impacts, a loss of local character, and the advancement of AI technology. In an effort to shift the narrative, the companies behind the data center announced at the groundbreaking they’d be giving $10 million to build a new recreation center for the city of Saline in addition to $14 million pledged to Saline Twp. as part of the settlement that led to the approval of the necessary zoning changes.

From the Observer

Why that AAPS contract “agreement” was anything but: Leaders of the Ann Arbor Education Association tell me they knew the district’s proposal was a nonstarter, but they were so frustrated by the glacial pace of talks that they decided to call a vote so they could expose how skimpy the offers have been. “We said, look, let’s let our members see this offer because they had put ‘confidential’ across the top of all of their proposals and so we couldn’t share anything like that,” AAEA president Fred Klein says. “We thought, well, if we TA [tentative-agreement] it, it becomes public. That was our strategy. We’ve never had a ratification vote that lopsided before, and it sent a strong message.” AAPS’s proposal included 1.5 percent annual pay raises for two years – well below inflation – and would make teachers give up their rights to pay less for health insurance even if a bill – which passed the state Legislature in December 2024 and would require public employers to pay at least 80 percent – is signed into law. As AAEA rolls into the summer without a contract, they’re waiting to schedule new talks with the school board.

Does A2 Summer Streets shut out people with disabilities? Antonio Cooper examines the challenges faced by people with mobility issues as the Main Street Area Association’s A2 Summer Streets program kicks off, opening sections of Main, Washington, and Liberty streets to pedestrians on Thursdays through Sundays through September 28. Downtown landlord Ed Shaffran says he quit the MSAA board five years ago to protest the idea that people with disabilities “can no longer be dropped off in front of that restaurant.” MSAA executive director Ashley Shafer says the street closures still leave accessible sidewalks and follow city and federal law.

Poet Tree Town: Molly Pershin Raynor offers a meditation on lessons passed from parents to children that touches on the Gaza encampments, ICE crackdowns, and the Kerrytown courtyard.

Hit These Links

• As U-M defends its $60 million Concordia purchase, some Concordia alums are anxious about the future of the campus’s most important buildings.

  
  

• It must just be a coincidence that, after critics bitterly complained that the Concordia purchase keeps the land off the tax rolls, U-M announces it’s giving $1.26 million to the city to buy a new ambulance, repair tornado-hit Vets Park, and more. Right?

  
  

• Ann Arbor may be the key to growing more Michigan unicorns.

  
  

• This piece has nothing at all to do with anything local, but the Michigan Daily’s headline writer deserves a huzzah.

  
  

• Downtown proprietors say a surge in the number of unhoused people is harming business.

  
  

• The state House killed a proposal to change U-M, MSU, and Wayne State boards from elected to appointed.

  
  

• County administrator Gregory Dill is retiring this summer.

  
  

• Michigan Parents for Schools cofounder Steve Norton was sworn in this week as an AAPS board trustee. He’ll replace Don Wilkerson, who resigned in May. Norton will serve to the end of the year but says he won’t run for the seat this fall.

  
  

• A former NFL dude somewhat randomly attacked Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood. When called out on it, the dude said he hoped his insults motivate Underwood to “prove me wrong.”

  
  

• A fired administrator is suing the Washtenaw County sheriff, claiming she was targeted in an effort to purge older Black women from the department.

  
  

• This sounds like a super-fun way to cool off on the Fourth of July.

  
  

• Blake Transit Center is closed for the year for renovations.

  
  

• A Troy-based developer wants to put seventy-six townhouses on eight acres on Glazier Way near Green Rd.

  
  

• If you’re going to have a house fire, evidently Ypsi is the place to do it.

  
  

• This U-M prof flies to and from New York City every week to teach here.

  
  

• Since it’s getting hot out there, here is a list of county-sponsored cooling centers.

  
  

• Three cheers for the three teens at Washtenaw Technical Middle College who created an app to help people with allergies navigate eating out.

  
  

• This seven-part podcast series tells the story of the Ann Arbor DJ who propelled Del Shannon’s “Runaway” to No. 1.

  
  

• The city is testing out rubberized asphalt on a patch of Oakbrook and Northbrook. I wonder if it squeaks.

Marketplace

Two pot shops expand: Belleville’s Blue Sky has opened a second location in the brick Enoch James House on E. Liberty that was previously home to Arbor Wellness, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Meanwhile, Inkster-based Green Acres added a location on Washtenaw Ave. near Pittsfield Blvd. that Pure Roots vacated last year. That’s the chain’s ninth Green Acres store, including another shop two miles south on E. Ellsworth.

Juicy Kitchen reopens July 15: So say the owners in a triumphant social media post after a catastrophic freezer fire shut the restaurant down in September. It was originally expected to reopen by February or March, but the damage was too extensive. Fans of the restaurant donated $28,072 to a GoFundMe campaign to help pay staff during the shutdown; in a separate post, the owners say they’ve retained eleven of the fourteen staffers.

Tios Mexican Cafe shuts down after forty years: Owner Jeremy Seaver told MLive the rent was getting too high and he couldn’t afford the $50,000 to fix the HVAC system that failed last year. In addition, Seaver said business never recovered in a consistent way after the Covid pandemic. Tios first opened on E. Huron St. in 1986 and moved to its E. Liberty berth in 2009.

Helpers

AAUW relocates book collection site following tornado: Usually, the American Association of University Women take in the donations at the Vets Park Ice Arena for their massive fall charity sale, so they had to scramble to find an alternative after the twister peeled an entire wall off it. Instead, publicity chair Pamela Ehrhart tells a2view, they’ve relocated collections to the defunct Rite-Aid at the corner of Platt and Packard. Donors can come by between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from June 15 to July 25 (except on July 4).

Avalon Housing seeks volunteers to clean up Dexter site: The nonprofit builder and manager of affordable housing complexes is hosting a “property beautification day” in conjunction with Ann Arbor Spartans from noon to 3 p.m. next Friday (June 12) at the Hilltop View Apartments, 7651 Dan Hoey Rd. Helpers will assist with planting and weeding the grounds. For more information, email Avalon’s senior groundskeeper John Slowey.

Crowdfunding campaign slow to raise trestle mural funds: A GoFundMe effort to raise $15,000 to support the next large-scale installation planned for the N. Main railroad underpass near Argo Dam has collected just over $1,600 since it launched in mid-April. The program, Murals That Bridge, previously commissioned TreeTown Murals to renovate trestles on Huron St. and First St. The N. Main mural, which features a sunburst and images of birds and fish, is expected to be painted this summer. Concentrate reports the work is privately funded; the GoFundMe is a way to “expand community participation in its development and execution.”

Things To Do

Friday: The Ya’ssoo Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church offers Greek food, live music, dancing, and more.

Saturday: The Ann Arbor African American Downtown Festival features live music ranging from headliner Chico DeBarge of the DeBarge family to Ypsilanti jazz guitar virtuoso John E. Lawrence.

Sunday: U-M Matthaei naturalists lead a walk through the Arb’s historic W.E. Upjohn Peony Garden to see the gorgeous garden in bloom.

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

Connect