Street Walkers
The sidewalks along Main Street are overflowing again, with restaurant staffers wiping off tabletops and restocking silverware, student types strolling along looking for coffee or something stronger–and some colorful...
Read More2011 August
“People love their carts”
To understand how single stream has changed city recycling, ride on a recycling truck and talk with the man who drives it.Allen Kennedy, Recycle Ann Arbor’s curbside manager, sets up the ride. He tells me he’s...
Read MoreWCA’s resale ministry
The 8,000-square-foot space recently vacated by Fashion Bug in the Commons and Sauk Trail didn’t stay empty for long. “It’s perfect for what we’re doing, which is really a ministry,” says Lou...
Read MoreThe Good, the Bad, and the MRF
Last July, Ann Arborites switched from sorting recyclables into two plastic totes to using a single ginormous wheeled cart. Since then, the city’s overall household recycling rate has risen 21 percent–from 8,857 tons...
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Enter Burak, exit Ionnia
Ionnia, the small gift shop in Nickels Arcade specializing in high quality Turkish gift items–ceramics, glass, wooden boxes, and jewelry–is closing for the happiest of reasons. Owner Ilkim Erturk had a baby and wants...
Read MoreOdd little building on Miller?
Q. What is that odd little building on Miller that abuts the eastern side of the train tracks, right before Knight’s Market? I remember walking past it twenty years ago, and it still looks the same, though a little worse...
Read MoreEco-Hero or Menace?
On a sunny Saturday last winter, my friend Roberta and I headed out to the city’s Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) on Platt for a workshop on using earthworms to turn household garbage into garden compost. The setting was...
Read MoreHelp Wanted
In late August, a small, plain sign appeared among the garish “Store Closing” and “Everything on Sale” banners at Borders Store #1 on Liberty. It announced “Now Hiring,” and directed...
Read MoreDoggie Dream
Four years ago, Ralph Pasola bought a standard schnauzer puppy from Ackley Kennels in Northfield Township. He named him Petey. Petey goes everywhere with Ralph–he even follows him into the bathroom in the morning. Ralph...
Read MoreAnn Arborite Demond Johnson
Five years ago, Sgt. Demond Johnson was told he could choose either Michigan or California as the next stop in his army career. Sunny San Diego beckoned, but after Johnson finished catching his breath at the cost of homes there,...
Read MoreTaste Our Goods, Continued
Taste Our Goods is possibly the tiniest lunch counter in town–it’s a two-seater, and if there’s a one-seater somewhere, we don’t know about it. It’s been next to Kerrytown’s Sparrow Market...
Read MoreSaxophonist Janelle Reichman
When the Detroit News named her one of the top twenty high school graduates in the arts in all of Michigan a decade ago, the young saxophone player Janelle Reichman gave her career plans simply as “musician.” By then...
Read MoreGood News for Drivers
The AAPD is writing fewer parking and traffic tickets.After averaging $5.7 million a year for a decade, Ann Arbor’s ticket revenue dropped by a third between 2008 and 2010. Parking ticket payments fell from $2.5 million to...
Read MoreSuper Shelter
For the third time in four years, TheRide is changing its bus stop at Arborland. For many years, both Ann Arbor- and Ypsi-bound buses stopped in the shopping center’s parking lot–until they were evicted by the its...
Read MoreWestside Furniture Consignment
At the other end of Scio Town Center, Westside Furniture Consignment Emporium just got bigger. When Joe Grammatico, who owns the complex, opened his used-furniture store there a few years ago, it was a shot in the dark. With his...
Read MoreEllen Baker
Ellen Baker’s first novel, Keeping the House, has had the kind of success that’s not supposed to be possible anymore. Since it was published in 2007–to good, if occasionally mixed, reviews–its reputation...
Read MoreTower Mini Mart opens
Nabeel Gneym made money at his new Tower Mini Market before he’d even opened the store–and it came in the form of hidden treasure.When Gneym, fifty, leased the onetime Matthew C. Hoffmann jewelry store in Tower...
Read MoreAmerican Home Fitness Moves
American Home Fitness has moved across town. “We love the mix. We’re next to REI, Whole Foods, Ethan Allen. Everything is full, there are no vacancies, plenty of parking,” says manager Adam Burns of his new...
Read MoreThe Joy of Drive-Ins
When I was a kid, my mom and I perfected the technique for making and eating root beer floats. I use the word “eating” deliberately, because the dish we concocted was more suitable for dessert or Sunday supper than...
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