Word of the Year
In January, U-M English prof Anne Curzan attended the annual meeting of the American Dialect Society, where the country’s top linguists and graduate students present their academic papers–and vote on the Word of the...
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The Uprising
Just after Thanksgiving, engineering Professor Fawwaz Ulaby posted an open letter to the U-M administration, protesting a plan to eliminate more than 300 jobs in the university’s departments and schools. The online...
Read MoreWhy Don’t Chiefs Stay?
“I found out when everybody else did,” says mayor John Hieftje of fire chief Chuck Hubbard’s abrupt announcement that he will retire at the end of January. “I don’t know why. I suspect he’ll...
Read MoreDoing it the Hard Way
Jan 11, 2014 | News |
Last fall, an Ann Arborite noticed that the city was using a rented truck to pick up compost in his neighborhood. Moreover, he noted, it was an older-style rear-loading truck with a crew of three–while the city’s...
Read MoreThe Schools’ Unhappy New Year
Jan 7, 2014 | News |
“Our fingers are crossed that we won’t have to borrow [to meet] December payroll,” says Ann Arbor school board president Deb Mexicotte.Ten years ago, the public schools had a $40 million savings account. But as...
Read MoreSurviving the Sequester
Jan 2, 2014 | News |
When Congress couldn’t reach a budget deal at the end of 2011, it triggered an automatic 5.1 percent across-the-board spending cut. Local governments worked hard to blunt the impact of “sequestration” on human...
Read MoreCurbing the DDA
For the past year, Steve Kunselman has been using the city’s Downtown Development Authority as a political punching bag.Asked why, the Ward Three councilmember answers with a question of his own: “Why did mayor John...
Read MoreCouncil’s New Majority
Dec 3, 2013 | News |
The tide has gone out on the council majority of seven-term mayor John Hieftje.When Republican Ingrid Sheldon decided not to seek reelection in 2000, Hieftje, a first-year councilmember, ran for mayor and won. Within five years,...
Read MoreWhat Price Pensions?
Six years ago, the funds that pay for employee pensions and retiree health care for Washtenaw County employees were nearly balanced: they held $215 million in assets against what staff estimated to be $225 million in...
Read MoreClassy Dorm
Nov 21, 2013 | News |
Gilded quad: Thanks to a $116 million makeover, the seventy-four-year-old East Quadrangle, home of the U-M Residential College, now boasts a two-level atrium, handsome new furnishings, and air conditioning. But that didn’t...
Read MoreCharter Countdown
Dexter Village voters will soon make their biggest political decision since the town was settled in 1824: to be or not to be a city. And the clock is ticking: as the Community Observer went to press, voters were selecting nine...
Read MoreTen Candidates, One Contest
Even in an election year with no national or state offices at stake, ten candidates are competing November 5 for five seats on city council. It’s the most heavily contested council race in the last ten years.Because only a...
Read MoreNegotiating Obamacare
Nov 1, 2013 | News |
“There’s 100 people in the waiting room right now!” says Ellen Rabinowitz, director of the Washtenaw Health Plan.More than 8,500 low-income county residents get health care coverage through WHP. With the advent...
Read MoreThe Sweet Smell of Success
The city’s costliest building project has a fresh-air payoff. If you take the Border-to-Border trail past Geddes Dam, or walk the grounds at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, you might have noticed that the air is pleasanter...
Read MoreHistory on the Move
A small sign saying “Closed for Renovations” is taped to the enormous front door of the U-M’s Clements Library. Kevin Graffagnino unlocks it and leads the way into the Great Room. It’s not looking so...
Read MoreA Tale of Two Buildings
At the fibrillating heart of hard-partying undergrad-ville rises University Towers, a well-worn apartment building that until a few years ago loomed unchallenged over its campus neighborhood.”Did you know Madonna lived...
Read MoreSemi-Privatization
Oct 6, 2013 | News |
“If we didn’t have this opportunity, we’d have to sell off half our properties,” says Jennifer Hall.”HUD is shrinking so fast it’s scary,” says Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor...
Read MoreRIP AnnArborcom
Oct 2, 2013 | News |
Last summer, bright blue billboards proclaimed AnnArbor. com the “#1 local newspaper site in America.” Yet in September the website’s owners, the Newhouse family, abandoned the four-year-old brand and its acorn...
Read MoreReanimating Michigan Football
In his first two years as head coach, Brady Hoke brought Michigan football back from the land of the undead. He did it by humbly adapting his style to the talent he inherited–something his predecessor, Rich Rodriguez,...
Read MoreThe Schools’ Fiscal Cliff
“We’re all marching toward the cliff,” says Glenn Nelson, treasurer of the Ann Arbor school board, “and we want Ann Arbor to be far back in the line.”The cliff is the seemingly inevitable bankruptcy...
Read MoreUpcoming Events
- May 8, 2026 Riverside Swings: Riverside Arts Center 9:00 pm
- May 8, 2026 “Telescope Observing”: U-M Detroit Observatory 9:00 pm
- May 8, 2026 “I Ain’t No Joke”: Hear.Say Brewing + Theater 9:30 pm
- May 9, 2026 Annual International Migratory Bird Count: Washtenaw Bird & Nature Alliance All Day
- May 9, 2026 “Apple Blossom Bliss”: Ann Arbor Community of Traditional Music and Dance Various Times
- May 9, 2026 Group Runs: Ann Arbor Running Company (AARC) 7:00 am