Profiles

Martin Contreras and Keith Orr

Over coffee one morning last October, Martin Contreras, fifty-four, and Keith Orr, fifty-six, discussed whether they should get married that day. “Let’s do it,” urged Contreras. They had been a couple for...

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Ann Arborite Josh Greenberg

Josh Greenberg has just landed in Uganda. It’s the summer after his sophomore year at Duke, where he founded a nonprofit called the Progressive Health Partnership. He’s raised the money to start a small medical...

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Susan Murphy

“What’s the game here?” U-M prof Susan Murphy asks as she projects strings of equations and approximations in a crowded classroom in the Dennison Building. Students in this advanced U-M statistics class write...

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Liz Davis

For more than twenty-five years, waitress Liz Davis has walked the wooden floor of the Old Town Tavern. “When I first started working here, this was a rough corner,” she recalls in a husky voice. At the time she was...

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River Hero

Standing on a footbridge next to Argo Dam, Laura Rubin likes what she sees: a group carries inner tubes toward the new Argo Cascades, bikers and runners whiz by, a couple of paddleboarders balance clumsily on the pond, a few...

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Sports Shrink

Dan Saferstein knows how important sports are to a lot of Ann Arbor kids–and to their families. “In this city, parents have high expectations,” he says. “College [athletic] scholarships become kind of a...

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A Knowing Nose

Sitting down at Sweetwaters with Michelle Krell Kydd, I ask, “What exactly can you smell right now?” “The generic smell of a coffeehouse,” she replies. “I can smell cake. I can smell something...

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Kiki Markovits

You must “build right angles,” Kiki Markovits instructs in a heavy Austrian accent as she points at her perfectly positioned chin and neck. A petite woman dressed in a stylish cotton top, black leggings, and...

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Taking Flight

“Man, it was hard,” says Grant Grimard, nineteen. The former Pioneer High basketball captain broke with the pack after graduation in 2011: Instead of college, he joined the nonprofit City Year program, where he...

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Bernie and Marvel Mayotte

A toddler is on the loose in Bernie and Marvel Mayotte’s family room, weaving in and out among the toys and books that dot the floor, climbing up and down on couches, and pointing around the room. Bernie, age...

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Giving Boys a Voice

Nine-year-old Alden Rohwer loves to sing. “He sings all day long, on car trips—­everywhere!” says his mother, Aileen. She says since joining the Boychoir of Ann Arbor about a year ago, Alden’s been inspired not...

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Prairie Dock and Poison Ivy

It’s with a feeling of awe and gratefulness that I’m looking at my first prairie dock, a tall wildflower that could pass for a sunflower’s skinny sibling. Prior to this, I had only encountered prairie dock...

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Sober Housing

It’s been said that getting sober is easy; staying sober is the hard part. Dawn Farm and the Home of New Vision (see Substance Abuse Support Groups) offer their newly sober clients a way to increase their odds for...

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Disc Golf Generations

It’s no surprise that Michigan ranks third nationally in the number of disc golf courses. Compared to conventional courses, disc golf—where players toss Frisbees and other flying discs into basket-like goals—is easy on...

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A Week on the West Side

Bemoaning the decline of the city’s live music scene has been a favorite pastime for music-loving Ann Arborites for at least a generation, going back to the demise of legendary nightspots like Joe’s Star Lounge, Mr....

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Horseshoe Delight

The Huron River bisects Ann Arbor with a winding swath of beautiful ponds and flowing water. Its steep bluffs and rich floodplains are protected by a patchwork of parks that comprise more than 1,000 acres of open water, forested...

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Leaping Forward

Brandan Montgomery did very well at the public high school he attended in Washtenaw County. Too well for the effort he put into it, he says. He didn’t study, slept through classes, and still received As on tests....

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Worshiping in the Woods

The procession in the Botsford Recreation- al Preserve in Scio Township reminds me of fifth-grade school hikes. But instead of youthful explorers on a field trip, the partici- pants in this summer solstice celebration are mostly...

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