“I was really fascinated by the fact that all these kids were really great storytellers but weren’t really good readers,” recalls Bailes, now a U-M medical student. Once back in the United States, she began working with a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to better understand how to keep kids who are falling behind on track to learn to read. She thought, “Why can’t dance and literacy come together to get kids excited about reading and learning?”
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We received 161 entries correctly identifying last month’s Fake Ad, which featured an old joke about accountants being dull.
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It was an experiment: give 100 citizens on the margins monthly cash payments of $528 for two years. No strings
attached—they would decide for themselves how best to spend the additional income.
The “Mighty Fitz,” the biggest ship on the Great Lakes when it was launched in 1958, went down with all hands in a storm on Lake Superior in November 1975. Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot immortalized it in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and now it’s the subject of Bacon’s latest book: The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
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My first Ann Arbor Observer article appeared in the October 1980 issue. This October will be my last as editor. Our deputy editor, Brooke Black, is already planning her first issue as editor-in-chief in November. Publisher Patricia Garcia is also retiring and will be succeeded by our media director, Danielle Jones.
Read MoreUniversity Commons’ first $1 million sale: Praxis Properties CEO Bill Kinley sold his 3,500-square-foot, three-bed, three-bath unit for $1,040,000, a record for the complex of ninety-two condos built in 2000.
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Twenty-two years ago, Bob Materka stood on the balcony of the three-story bed and breakfast he and his wife, Pat, had recently bought, facing the lawn by the Rackham Building. It was Christmastime, and he found his yard lacking. “Gee whiz,” he thought, “we should decorate this in some way.”
Read MoreThe federal government’s demands for cash payments from universities have made headlines around the country. In August, when the Justice Department fined UCLA $1.2 billion for allegedly tolerating antisemitism, California governor Gavin Newsom called it “extortion.”
Read MoreQ: On my daily commute I noticed that the intersection of Earhart Rd. with Old Earhart and Goss has been made a four-way stop. This has definitely caused more traffic backups at the intersection: three to five cars line up before crossing with stop-and-go speed that causes less fuel economy and more pollution. How was the decision made to make this change?
Read MoreExplore the abundance of fun, senior-friendly activities Ann Arbor has to offer! Build new relationships with community groups and classes, and strengthen your body and learn new skills in fitness classes designed specifically...
Read MoreQ. The road construction on Pauline involves putting in new fire hydrants. Each new hydrant has an electrical connection. What is it for?
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“I Spy the Aviation Fuel company sculpture west of the southeast area Bicentennial Park!” writes Kathryn Powell, referencing August’s clue. It’s “one of the many features that make this global headquarters campus look like a nice place to work.”
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Since 2008, Liberty St. has been home to what may be Ann Arbor’s ultimate “if you know, you know” secret: Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair.
Read MoreFor roughly a decade last century, the neighborhoods around Packard and Platt were their own city. East Ann Arbor separated from Pittsfield Twp. in 1947, only to accept annexation to Ann Arbor in 1956 in exchange for completing a water and sewage system. Ever since, its modest neighborhoods have provided much of the city’s most affordable housing—but as this month’s map shows, even “affordable” is now more than $300,000.
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Kobylarz, thirty-six, has loved rodents since childhood. Chipmunks ate from her hand at her family’s cabin up north in Gaylord. At home in Westland, her parents gave her gerbils as a gift. In college at Central Michigan she bought “feeder mice,” which pet stores sell as food for reptiles, to keep as pets
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For many years, when I go back to my roots in Ann Arbor, I have been invited to play with a great group of golf enthusiasts. If the weather is good, they are trying to make it to the golf course.
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An old photo shows my mother, Geraldine, in the middle, at age fifteen, and Irv, age thirteen, on the left and Rolly, age eleven, on the right. The cost to park that close to the stadium was a whopping 25 cents.
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Flower Therapy at Mott Hospital, the oldest activity of the Ann Arbor Farm & Garden Association, started in the 1950s. The program has always been entirely staffed by volunteers, with flowers donated by local grocery stores, florists, and a flower farm.
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