Jan 6, 2012 | Community |
Jammed meters are viewed as a lucky break by local drivers who figure they’ll enjoy a free hour or so of parking until the city repairs the machines. Turns out the problem is usually not mechanical but the gleeful mischief...
Read MoreJan 5, 2012 | Community |
Eight years ago, a friend introduced me to the pleasures of “geocaching”–essentially modern-day treasure hunting with a high-tech twist. He was visiting my northern Michigan cottage when he mentioned it, and I...
Read MoreJan 3, 2012 | Community |
“We first thought about a book, and then a friend of mine said, ‘Why don’t you try a calendar?'” recalls Shirley Beckley. Thus evolved the “History of Ann Arbor’s Black Community,” now...
Read MoreJan 1, 2012 | Community |
There are ten houses on Minerva, fourteen if you count corner houses facing other streets. Just one block long, it runs between S. Forest, where there are mainly student rentals, and Olivia, whose houses are mostly family owned....
Read MoreDec 30, 2011 | Community |
I’ll call her “Flora.” The neighborhood kids called her “the witch of Burns Park.”She had inherited her gracious home from her father, a distinguished U-M professor. She drove around town in an old...
Read MoreDec 30, 2011 | Community |
Elizabeth Nelson also works to make people aware of the complexities of compulsive hoarding, but with a different emphasis. Nelson is co-founder of Children of Hoarders, a nonprofit that reaches out to people who, like her, grew...
Read MoreDec 28, 2011 | Community |
One Sunday morning some longtime Saline residents enjoying coffee at the Drowsy Parrot mentioned a murder that took place years ago on a farm just outside of town. They also mentioned wild parties with loose women out on that...
Read MoreDec 26, 2011 | Community |
Early in November, “Andrew Waston” emailed the Observer with a story idea. He said he was part of a babysitting pool of stay-at-home dads, whose members were saving “tons of money” using online...
Read MoreDec 25, 2011 | Community |
“We absolutely are getting the word out!” says Mary Schlitt of Food Gatherers. The message Schlitt and other nonprofits are spreading is, “Give while the giving is still good.” As part of Governor...
Read MoreDec 23, 2011 | Community |
It’s a cold, clear November morning at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, and vendor Bill Hoppe watches from his booth as bundled-up shoppers mill about the long aisles, occasionally eyeing the unusual homemade crafts he sells....
Read MoreDec 19, 2011 | Community |
Bargain hunting brides-to-be might check out the Brides Project Wedding Boutique, a cause disguised as a store around the corner from Downtown Home & Garden on Liberty. Opened in September, the by-appointment-only shop is...
Read MoreDec 18, 2011 | Community |
Q. Are there any plans to put sound barriers in neighborhoods that are close to the highways? I live in Foxfire subdivision, which is north of Dhu Varren near US-23 and M-14. The developer put up a massive berm in the west...
Read MoreDec 17, 2011 | Community |
Last year the Observer predicted that the U-M was headed for another losing season–we even wrote that coach John Beilein was attempting to “reanimate a zombie.” But since the point of sports is hope, the...
Read MoreDec 7, 2011 | Community |
“I believe that’s Maynard House,” says Jeff Hauptman, “but from the angle it almost looks like [a] bizarre type of roofing shingle.” “The House illuminated by the Plaza is the Maynard House...
Read MoreDec 1, 2011 | Community |
When Republican Mark Ouimet announced last winter that he was giving up his seat on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to run for the state house, Democrats hoped first-time candidate Adam Zemke might take the...
Read MoreDec 1, 2011 | Community |
Land preservation has its own contradiction: to keep a treasured piece of property safe in a natural state so that the public can enjoy it forever, you have to keep the public out—lest its ardent enjoyment trample the...
Read MoreNov 30, 2011 | Community |
Linda–not her real name–decided to have cosmetic surgery eight years ago. Then sixty, the U-M prof took a group of her students to Europe during winter break. “Some of the pictures, when we got back–I...
Read MoreNov 28, 2011 | Community |
In Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football, the key word is “crucible.” If there’s a single takeaway from John U. Bacon’s account of his three years...
Read MoreNov 26, 2011 | Community |
When musician Dan Orcutt’s expensive brand-name guitar turned out to be a lemon, he decided to make his own.”I always made stuff,” explains Orcutt, who’s been playing around Ann Arbor since the 1980s....
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