For Sale: Lamp Post Plaza
Lamp Post Plaza owner Ron Marten has heard the rumors too. Although the sixty-three-year-old shopping center on E. Stadium is being sold, “it is not getting bulldozed,” he tells the Observer.
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Marketplace Closings | November 2025
Pinball Pete’s will close its South U. arcade in late November, as construction remains ongoing at its next home in the Carver-Gunn Building at 500 E. Liberty.
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Don’t Call It a Data Center
In December, U-M announced its plans to partner with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to create a $1.25 billion “state-of-the-art” computing and AI research facility. Construction is expected to begin in 2027 and wrap up in 2031. The facility is tentatively sited on nearly 150 acres of land on Textile Rd. in Ypsilanti Twp.
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Sports for Sale
After a landmark July court decision, the NCAA enabled schools to pay their athletes and removed limits on scholarships. Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel decided that every competing athlete would receive a full scholarship, and revenue sharing too, although the bulk of that money goes to men’s football, basketball and hockey.
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Fixing Barton Dam
When I lived in Ann Arbor back in the 1980s, Barton Dam was barely on my radar. The Huron River was scenic enough from the road: a heron or hawk here and there, maybe a deer ambling just off the shoulder. The dam itself, tucked out of sight from Huron River Dr., might as well have been invisible.
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Newspaper Rescue
Ann Arbor businessman Nagabhushanam “Bobbi” Peddi has purchased the Sun Times News, a weekly paper covering Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, and Saline.
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The Observer’s Next Owner
Editor in chief John Hilton and publisher Patricia Garcia, who have owned the Ann Arbor Observer since 1986, were just beginning to think about a succession plan when the pandemic hit. They realized retirement would have to wait.
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Learning Lag
Students in grades 3–7 took the Michigan Student Test of Education Progress (M-STEP) last spring and the results were released on the same late-August day they returned to their classrooms. 56 percent of Ann Arbor’s third graders scored proficient or better, and 61 percent of fourth graders.
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Trade Off
On November 4, voters decide whether to raise property taxes by 1 mill for the next decade. The money raised—$25 million the first year—would support CTE programs like this one. Administrators can talk ad nauseam about the power of giving young people a variety of opportunities for instruction in specific career fields, but it’s student testimonials that have been front and center in the campaign to push through the millage. Yet the debate over the ballot question isn’t so much about support for or opposition to CTE as it is whether a new tax ought to pay for it.
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Fee Parking
Burns Park homeowners stood on street corners holding placards beckoning football fans to their lawns and driveways. West of the stadium, churches directed visitors to spots, and a line of cars waited to park at the U-M golf course on State St. Just another game day in Ann Arbor.
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Park #163
A sunny weekend in mid-September saw the grand opening of Broadway Park West. Sitting on seven acres of new green space on the Huron River just north of the Amtrak station, the park connects to the Border to Border Trail via a new pedestrian bridge—eliminating the need for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the less-accessible Argo Dam.
Read MoreTarget: Public Health
“We don’t have the capacity or technical expertise to do research,” explains Washtenaw County Health Department (WCHD) administrator Susan Ringler-Cerniglia. “The CDC has critical resources when we need to respond at the local level. In the case of an unusual pathogen, we call on the CDC. It’s incredibly frightening to feel like we may not be able to rely on them.”
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Play It Again Sports Comes to Saline
“Every kid should be able to try a sport, right?” says Jen Karcher. “The price of playing a sport right now is just astronomical.”
Read MoreThe New Dorms
Clearing the blocks south of Madison kicked off Phase 2 of the U-M’s Central Campus Residential Development. It was a signature project of ill-starred former president Santa Ono.
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Target: Public Broadcasting
At first, Wendy Turner, executive director and general manager of Michigan Public (broadcasting on WUOM and four other stations in Lower Michigan), was reasonably optimistic. So was Molly Motherwell, general manager of WEMU and president of the Michigan Association of Public Broadcasters. After all, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was still intact.
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Sign of the Times
The September ceremony featured speeches both lofty and bitterly political; a serenade from a transgender singer; the dramatic lifting of a white sheet from the marker; and a steady parade of attendees snapping selfies with DeGrieck and Kozachenko. (Wechsler, who lives in Boston, could not attend.)
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The Observer’s Next Leaders
My first Ann Arbor Observer article appeared in the October 1980 issue. This October will be my last as editor. Our deputy editor, Brooke Black, is already planning her first issue as editor-in-chief in November. Publisher Patricia Garcia is also retiring and will be succeeded by our media director, Danielle Jones.
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What $12.5 Million Buys
The new record holder is at the far northeastern corner of the district in Superior Twp., and cost more than three times as much: $12.495 million. That’s what the family of the late Louis P. Ferris Jr. got for his eighty-five-acre spread at 4000 Vorhies Rd.
Read MoreEnrollment Threat
The federal government’s demands for cash payments from universities have made headlines around the country. In August, when the Justice Department fined UCLA $1.2 billion for allegedly tolerating antisemitism, California governor Gavin Newsom called it “extortion.”
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Hometown Clickbait
How far will newspapers go to earn online revenue? Pretty far, judging from the ads that follow articles on MLive.com.
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