As always, graduation weekend in Ann Arbor meant hotels, shops, and restaurants were packed to the proverbial gills. But this year, downtown Ann Arbor became far more hospitable to guests with vision, hearing, and mobility...
Read MoreIrv Mermelstein, the local attorney who’s led the assault on the city and its Footing Drain Disconnection program, first met Abby Elias, the city attorney who wrote the FDD ordinance, in July 2012.With Elias in the small...
Read MoreStadium Blvd. never had horses and buggies travel on it, nor has it ever been much of a pedestrian street. Constructed in 1926, it was a product of the automobile age. Originally named “Boulevard Drive,” it was also...
Read MoreMay 30, 2016 | Featured, Marketplace |
Was Patrick Doyle shocked at the thought of publicly admitting that some people didn’t like Domino’s pizza? “Oh, sure,” the company’s CEO says. “First time around? Absolutely.”But in...
Read MoreDave Munson is used to solving problems. That’s what engineers do. Now, as he approaches retirement after ten years as dean of the U-M College of Engineering, he thinks he has gotten a handle on a very big one. From the...
Read MoreJeanice Swift was the school board’s second choice. On July 28, 2013, the board learned that Brian Osborne, the New Jersey superintendent they’d wanted to hire, had turned them down. Three days later, they offered...
Read MoreApr 30, 2016 | Featured, Marketplace |
Hollis Wyatt lets the menu sit untouched on the table—she knows what she is going to order. She heard from a friend that the Grange Kitchen is serving an unusual dish that is not to be missed. A twenty-one-year-old...
Read MoreFranz Harary is levitating a paper napkin over my kitchen table. No strings or props, just a napkin that was sitting on the counter and now is floating above his hands, with me sitting two feet away. I have no idea how...
Read MoreApr 28, 2016 | Featured |
Opening night, winter 2013: Spectators pour into the lobby, enjoying complimentary champagne as they engage in animated conversations about the play they just saw. They cluster around the buffet, helping themselves to shrimp and...
Read MoreCity council directed staff to study culling the city’s resident deer herd in May 2014. It voted to create a “deer management program” in August 2015. But David Silkworth and Tanya Ridella-Mehlos didn’t...
Read MoreIn 2015, Jen and Charlie House moved from Milan to Dexter. Jen, thirty-eight, says Milan lacked a sense of community and a vibrant downtown. In Dexter, she “feels like I’m living in a Norman Rockwell painting,”...
Read MoreOn Christmas Eve 1944, in Southampton, England, George Bigelow and the U.S. Army’s Sixty-Sixth Division boarded the Leopoldville, a converted Belgian cruise liner bound for France. They were rushing to reinforce depleted...
Read MoreIn the summer of 2014 Trish Heusel attended a design planning session for the former Washtenaw County Juvenile Detention Center site on Platt Rd. The plot, just north of Platt’s intersection with Huron Pkwy., directly...
Read MoreAn academic star in his Detroit charter high school, driven and confident, Darren Gordon felt “a little annoyed” to learn that his acceptance at the University of Michigan was contingent upon attending...
Read MoreFeb 28, 2016 | Featured |
“This place was born the day twenty-two-year-old Jeff Daniels started his apprenticeship at the Circle Repertory Theatre Company in New York,” Guy Sanville says, sweeping his arm around the Purple Rose Theatre during...
Read MoreThe biggest public works project in the city’s history–a $94 million reconstruction and renovation of the wastewater treatment plant–is almost done, and it smells marvelous.That’s the first thing to...
Read MoreAnn Arbor has a reputation as an environmentally progressive town when it comes to recycling services, bike lanes, and local organic food, but it’s lagging behind when it comes to alternative ways of preparing and burying...
Read MoreBrad O’Furey is Ann Arbor Democrats’ go-to campaign manager. In the past three years, he’s helped elect Christopher Taylor mayor, Sabra Briere to council, Carol Kuhnke to circuit court, and Adam Zemke to the...
Read MoreWith their matching light wood paneling and benches, the courtrooms on the second floor of the Washtenaw County Courthouse are almost identical. But Tim Connors’ court stands out. On the walls are Native American dream...
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