Since city council decided not to expand the primary runway at the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport last December, some are asking questions about the future of the property.
City council voted unanimously in March to hold a special election on August 5 to consider two city charter amendments. Together, they’d enable construction of a new downtown library in a high-rise spanning the existing library parcel and the “Library Lot” above the underground parking structure.
Read MoreSchools throughout the country responded, some by shuttering diversity programs, some by renaming webpages to make their pursuit of DEI less obvious, and some by resisting.
Read More
Yet by April only eleven were actually foreclosed and sold, and all of them were vacant: ten lots and one house.
On December 1, 2021, Recycle Ann Arbor unveiled Ann Arbor’s revamped materials recovery facility (MRF). Their predecessor, ReCommunity, had trashed it back in 2016, and the upgrades came with a hefty price tag. RAA secured two grants but still had to take out $5.9 million in loans.
Ann Arbor’s parks and rec department has opened multiple courts at Leslie Park, two at Burns Park, and single courts at several others. Hunt Park is not among them—yet several years ago, pickleball lines appeared on its tennis court.
Read More
It was a snowy winter, and Ann Arbor used a lot of road salt to clear its streets: 4,057 tons as of March 19, according to city communications specialist Robert Kellar. That’s 656 tons more than last winter, though still around 1,800 tons shy of the most recent high in the winter of 2021–2022. Along with ice-melter applied by contractors and homeowners, some of it ends up in storm sewers and the Huron River tributaries they feed.
Read More
At risk are dozens of conservation easements, grants, and farm programs worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In Michigan, 90 percent of USDA funding is allocated to commodity conservation, leaving new farmers and small agricultural businesses particularly vulnerable.
Read MoreAt U-M, ICE agents aren’t supposed to enter residence halls or locked class buildings without a warrant, and students are advised to contact the Division of Public Safety & Security if they encounter an agent in a public space. But it’s not clear how much protection the university can provide.
Read More
The Trump administration’s plan to slash payments on research grants has put thousands of U-M jobs at risk. But other local researchers are in even more immediate jeopardy: those who work directly for the federal government, at the EPA or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
Read More
“We’re dealing with an insane amount of mental health issues and anxiety from our residents,” says Derrick Miller, executive director of the Community Action Network. CAN’s seven community centers provide everything from after-school programs to housing support and emergency food pantries, and its clients are reeling from the Trump administration’s budget cuts.
Read More
On October 7, 2023, as Jon Mallek married first-term state representative Jason Morgan in matching navy suits with teal bowties under a trellis draped with eucalyptus leaves, the thought of running for office himself was the furthest thing from his mind.
Read More
No need to look out the window—just sign up for A2 Fix It, the app and website where residents report problems online. After a mid-January snowfall, most of the complaints were about people who hadn’t cleared their sidewalks.
Read More
In recent years, public works has cleared only “major” streets. But in December, city council approved a contract with Saline’s KBK Landscaping for up to $500,000 worth of “supplemental plowing” whenever four or more inches of snow are predicted.
Read More
“Law enforcement tows” by the sheriff’s office and AAPD generated $436,500 in fees in 2023, not including extras like storage. “They make so much freaking money off towing,” says Clayton. “And we regulated how much they could charge for this and that. Enough for ’em to make money—they’re all making a ton of money—but they’re not gouging the people” whose cars are towed.
Read More
Prop C, which would have eliminated partisan labels and primary elections, earned just 28 percent of the vote. Prop D, to create public funding for council and mayoral candidates, went down 30–70 percent.
Read More
More than ten years after the first complaint on A2 Fix It, a sidewalk on Third St. will finally be fixed next year.
Read More
The 22nd Circuit Court’s Tim Connors’ term expires in January and the 15th District Court’s Joseph Burke plans to retire at the end of December. Both seats are for six-year terms, but the job usually winds up being for life or until mandatory retirement at seventy, because sitting judges seldom face challengers. When they do, they almost never lose.
Read More
Wilczewski, a vendor at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, was responding to a question about the latest plan to “reenvision” it. Indeed they have.
Read More
