News

Remaking Miller Manor

Before he moved into Miller Manor four and a half years ago, Matt V. had at least seven bouts of homelessness. Suffering from schizoaffective and substance abuse disorders, he moved in and out of the Delonis Center homeless...

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A Raise and a Request

Angry at a breakdown in communication, Washtenaw Community College’s faculty union voted “no confidence” in WCC president Rose Bellanca last year. The union also filed a complaint with the commission that...

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Vacant Village

Developer Peter Allen assembled the property in 2000. He sold it to East Lansing-based Strathmore Development Company, which after years of negotiations with the city, county, and state won approval to build a grandiose retail,...

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Taylor’s Win

In fourteen years as mayor, John Hieftje never publicly opposed the reelection of a fellow councilmember. His successor, Christopher Taylor, took that risk in his first term. In August’s Democratic primary, Taylor backed...

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Tech Town

A computer guy once told me “tech geeks aren’t human and don’t let anybody tell you different.” It’s not true. I’ve interviewed more than a dozen tech geeks recently and didn’t meet any...

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What’s in a Name?

When MSU crushed Michigan’s football team last fall, many students drowned their sorrow in beer. Then-juniors Zach Bruch and Ryan Luck didn’t just vent. They started throwing names around–not just of...

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A Serious Man

Ann Arbor’s first police chief was also its longest serving. Thomas O’Brien started as chief in 1916 when the town went from mayor-appointed marshals to commission-appointed chiefs and ended seventeen years later,...

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What’s New

With iPhone poised I frame the scene. Standing on the east bank of the Huron River near Argo Canoe Livery, I see three yellow kayaks head off downriver. It’s a pretty summer riverscape. With a touch to the phone’s...

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Creating an Experience

How important is it for you to watch the game?” Raul Perdomo, supervisor of guest services for U-M athletics events, poses this question at interviews, and it’s surprising. How could someone not watch the game while...

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Hidden Sights 1

Storm sewers come up a lot when sustainability is discussed: they take every bit of poison we put on the ground, concentrate it, and put it into our waterways. There has to be a better way, and Ann Arbor is trying one along the...

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Hidden Sights

Those of us raised in the suburbs with perfectly manicured lawns may easily misconstrue a rain garden as a patch of unruly weeds and flowers. Rain gardens are popping up all over our community. They’re functional, but many...

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Hidden Sights:

“When I was a student at the University of Michigan, I made it a habit of visiting almost every park of any size in the City of Ann Arbor,” writes Monroe blogger The Erie Hiker. “The amazing thing is that even...

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The Performance Network

The Performance Network Theatre is a hub of artistic activity. A full season of professional productions is supplemented by children’s theater, classes in theater arts for adults and kids, and free play readings. The...

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Vegetarian-Friendly

My husband and I got awfully sick of grilled cheese sandwiches a couple summers ago while vacationing for six days in the Upper Peninsula. Breakfast wasn’t usually a problem, but finding vegetarian options on lunch and...

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Healed by Nature

The Elsifor family, one branch or another, has lived in Ann Arbor for four or more generations, but I have lived here for only eight years. When I moved here there was a lot going on in my life that wasn’t good so I...

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Feeding Crows

The things I’ve done to get birds to eat.I’ve donned a hand puppet resembling a crow to offer chunks of raw meat to a real fledgling American Crow.Using tweezers, I’ve fed wriggling mealworms to a nestling...

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Gagged

Mexicotte is president of the Ann Arbor school board, Carter president of the Ann Arbor teachers’ union. But hopes for either a public confrontation or a public reconciliation at a July Democratic Party meeting were dashed...

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Who’ll Control Council?

The eight candidates running for four seats in the city’s August 4 Democratic primary don’t agree on much, but they do agree elections are getting more interesting.This one is interesting. Three of the incumbents are...

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Three Towns, Three Mayors

Dexter, Saline, and Chelsea are very different cities, with very different mayors. Yet each tells the same archetypal political story: the call to public service, the challenge–for all three, the Great Recession–and...

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Schools Showdown

With 300 furious teachers, parents, and students filling Skyline High School’s auditorium, the June Ann Arbor school board meeting inevitably turned ugly.During the meeting’s public comment period, fourteen speakers...

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