Colorful trees are a typical autumn sight, but in mid-October, Northside resident Janet Chen saw a surprising shade: pale purple. The lilac in her backyard was in bloom.
When the news broke last year that Downtown Home & Garden was closing, everywhere I went, people wanted to know: what will happen to the building?
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Two of U-M’s most successful recent basketball coaches—John Beilein and Dusty May—left Ann Arbor after getting offers to coach in the NBA. Is U-M’s all-time winningest basketball coach, Kim Barnes Arico (312 wins over fourteen seasons), likely to follow suit?
Cyber scamming has become endemic to the tattoo industry. The scammers’ M.O. is to mine an artist’s social media pages for photos and videos of their work, then create fake accounts impersonating the artist. Scammers contact potential clients seeking to arrange appointments, for which they require a deposit.
The Environmental Protection Agency added the Gelman dioxane plume to its Superfund list in March, bringing federal oversight to a groundwater contamination problem that has plagued Washtenaw County for over four decades. But at Ann Arbor’s water treatment plant, much of the work remains the same.
Gretchen Preston started her first early childhood education center, Gretchen’s House, on the Old West Side in 1982. By the time she had reached her seventies, the business had expanded to eleven centers, and Preston was looking for a succession plan that would protect its mission long-term.
Kathleen London’s customers at London Beauty & Spa at 306 S. Main are used to parking in the Kline’s lot, crossing the alley, then popping in the back door to reach her shop. But with the sale of the Kline’s lot between Main and Ashley, which was approved by city council in September, those 144 parking spaces will disappear.
Opponents say current cycling traffic volumes don’t justify the proposed changes, warning that they will lead to congestion and longer commutes for motorists. Supporters say the very idea of the project is to slow the flow of traffic on roads where speeding and lane changes cause collisions, making traveling safer for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.
U-M history professor Derek Peterson has noticed a difference in his students’ reading habits in the past several years. “Getting them to sit down and read a whole book is a real challenge,” he says. “Some of them do—and Michigan students are smart, generally—but very often they want to rely on AI summaries, instead of actually doing the reading for themselves.”
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Hear from a dozen candidates vying for five seats in November’s election.
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For John Bernos, the dream of a career on the stage started here in Ann Arbor. At Pioneer High, sports were his passion—until he discovered the Pioneer Theatre Guild. His focus intensified when he won FutureStars, a singing competition between students from Ann Arbor’s public high schools.
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By the time you read this, 2,300 U-M students will have settled in at Wolverine Village, U-M’s first new dorm in over half a century. U-M spokesperson Brian Taylor says the $649 million housing complex represents a 25 percent increase in university-owned housing capacity. In 2026, he adds, nearly 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students will live on campus—“the most ever.” How will this addition to the housing supply affect the affordability of Ann Arbor’s broader housing market?
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The eight-acre parcel in Ann Arbor Twp., just south of Glazier Hill Nature Area, was once a farm and remains home to hundreds of trees. Its owners, a family in Massachusetts, have an agreement to sell it to the Centennial affiliate. The plan is for Ann Arbor to annex the land and zone it R4B, a multiple-family dwelling district allowing a density of up to fifteen residences per acre.
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In the end, everyone needed to move on. The district couldn’t move forward with more concrete “right-sizing” plans until it knew the cost of wages and benefits for its teachers. And many teachers clamored for whatever increases were on offer because, with their prior contract expired on December 31, their compensation had been stagnant even as the war in Iran sent gas prices soaring.
Proposal E would amend the city charter to create a municipal electric utility run by a nine-person governing board, with five elected members and four appointed by city council.
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Food trucks can be a convenient—and trendy—way to get a fast meal and support an entrepreneur. They can also be a regular feature at gas stations, even if the surroundings are less than romantic.
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The List, a local giveaway and discovery email list, features a different Washtenaw County small business every week, alongside an interview, a giveaway, and a weekend events roundup. Since launching on February 3, 2025, they’ve profiled more than seventy businesses and racked up 332 email subscribers and 1,888 followers across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The service is free for featured businesses and subscribers.
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“It is really exciting to be able to talk with people who originally pulled these cards from packs, and hear about which convenience store they purchased them from and what the gum tasted like.”
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UCMC founder and executive director Allyson Cohen envisions a world where “everyone has access to exceptional musical performances and feels included and valued in classical spaces.”
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A new initiative spearheaded by U-M and the Detroit Regional Chamber aims to generate a renewed age of economic prosperity for southeast Michigan.
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