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.
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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.
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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“The scariest things I’ve experienced in my forty-plus years” as a federally funded researcher, says U-M nursing school professor Janet Larson.
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Taylor was soundly defeated by county commissioner Yousef Rabhi in the Democratic primary even as two council incumbents, Cynthia Harrison and Jenn Cornell, and two other Taylor-endorsed council candidates, Sandy Aldrich and Aidan Sova, cruised to victory. This being a city dominated by Democrats, the primary was tantamount to winning the office; thirty-eight-year-old Rabhi is, barring some wild turn of events, now the mayor-elect.
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High-rises and luxury student apartments are transforming Ann Arbor’s skyline, and the streets and neighborhoods below.
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In its 2025 annual report, released in late April, the Washtenaw County Health Department announced a promising decline in deaths from opioid overdoses, firearms, and suicides in 2024. Firearm deaths continued to drop in 2025, and preliminary data show a similar trend for opioid overdoses and suicides. With all three issues nationally recognized as public health crises, why has Washtenaw County been so successful?
Read MoreIn an exceedingly rare political maneuver, resigned Ann Arbor school board treasurer Don Wilkerson filed in June to run in the November special election called to fill the seat he vacated.
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In late June, three Democratic state reps—Jason Morgan and Morgan Foreman of Ann Arbor and Jimmie Wilson of Ypsilanti—introduced legislation that would require university officials to follow local zoning requirements and ordinances. This followed U-M’s announcement in May that it would purchase the 140-acre Concordia University campus for $60 million. Because the university has legal autonomy on land purchases, the move did not require local input.
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“[A] 140-home enclave set on rolling hills between the Huron River and Whitmore Lake Road” and “a masterpiece of the landscaper’s art.” That’s how a June 2005 Observer piece, “The Buried History of Barton Hills,” described Barton Hills Village (BHV). Two decades later, there’s trouble in paradise.
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There were at least two reasons why U-M’s $60 million deal to buy Concordia University’s Geddes Rd. campus rankled city hall.
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Ann Arborites Eli Savit and Abdul El-Sayed say their campaigns are steeped in what they have experienced here, whether as a schoolchild, like Savit, or in formative college years, as in El-Sayed’s case.
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Jenna and Jim Tenzillo moved to Northville Township from Ann Arbor to shorten their commutes, but the move came with a trade-off: the smell of the Arbor Hills landfill, located just across the county line in Salem Township.
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Sarah Russman’s daughter will leave their home in Ann Arbor this fall to embark on her freshman year of college and the new experience of shared living in a dorm room. Meanwhile, Russman is themself getting ready for a new shared-living experience, under a program that aims to address housing affordability and the challenges for older adults living alone.
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On the August primary ballot: Three mayoral candidates and many more seeking council seats
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Kratom is a natural pain remedy and pick-me-up with a wide following. But a dangerous lab-made version is hitting the health care and recovery communities hard.
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In late February, when I started researching Alyshia Dyer (Washtenaw County’s first female sheriff) and her first year-plus on the job, there was already much to unpack and discuss.
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As the sky spasmed with lightning in the early hours of April 15, smartphones throughout Washtenaw County shrieked: TORNADO WARNING. Mournful wails could be heard outside, even above the thunder and bullet-hail of rain. Ann Arbor’s twenty-two outdoor warning sirens were sounding an emergency for the first time since the bow echo thunderstorm in July 2023.
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After over a dozen years of crashes and complaints, the State and Ellsworth roundabout will be revamped in 2027.
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