Bill Morris
Most of us in this part of the world remember the John Lee Hooker song about the 1967 riots: “Oh, the Motor City’s burnin’ /It ain’t no thing in the world that I can do … My home town is...
Read More2014 August
The Fehsenfelds Buy Nicola’s
Nicola Rooney wasn’t happy last February when Publishers Weekly reported she was looking to sell her bookstore. She had been trying to sell Nicola’s Books quietly and hadn’t yet told her employees. But...
Read MoreDave Lamkin
It’s a rainy June afternoon, and All Star Driver Education instructor Dave Lamkin is giving two high school sophomores their fifth driving lesson. The girls remind him that today they’ll practice parallel parking and...
Read MoreMain Library Elevator?
Q: The elevator at the downtown library has been out of service for a couple months, and a sign says it “will be out of service for the foreseeable future.” What’s the problem? Isn’t there any money in...
Read MoreHelping hands
When Priya Khangura went to work for Food Gatherers two years ago, she developed a pilot program delivering fresh produce to needy families at their kids’ schools. And she didn’t stop at handing out fresh fruits and...
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The Other Futon Drops
Teresa Chajec is closing her Polish deli, Copernicus, at the end of July. She has already moved back to Poland to be with her aging mother, and at press time was back in Ann Arbor to close out the store. “My mother needs...
Read MoreMix’s Wearable Art
These aren’t your grandma’s clothes. Unless your grandma is an aging hippie, in which case tell her to get down to Mix before all the other aging hippies beat her to it. “Aging hippie” is the proud...
Read MoreBlank Slate Creamery
Millennial-generation readers will recall the old house at the corner of W. Liberty and First as the backdrop for a fiery car crash in the 2009 movie Youth in Revolt. To many baby boomers, however, it remains best known as...
Read MoreLearning Curve 2014
Since 2007, seven “roundabouts” have opened around the periphery of Ann Arbor, mostly at intersections previously controlled by stoplights. Planners promised they’d yield less congestion and fewer accidents....
Read MoreMainstreet’s Mezzevino
“I love working holidays!” says Nikki Leibold, who says that you’d better when you’re in the hospitality business, because you end up working a lot of them. She’s the manager of the new Mezzevino,...
Read MoreFour for Mayor
The August 5 Democratic mayoral primary marks the end of one era and the start of another.After an unprecedented seven terms, John Hieftje is retiring undefeated. Since 2000, he has faced ten opponents in primary and general...
Read MoreThree Critical Council Races
The drama of who’s running for city council began in March when Bob Dascola went to federal court to get a place on the ballot and climaxed in June when Dascola won his case and Leon Bryson abruptly ended his campaign.That...
Read MoreRestored Habitats
The local affiliate of the global affordable housing group began building single-family houses in 1989. Habitat sells the houses to qualified families: those with sufficient income to pay their bills, mortgage, taxes, insurance,...
Read MoreMaking Believe
The Gaffield Children’s Garden at the U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens practically begs kids to run through its leafy arched entrance. On the other side is an understated playland—part garden, part park, part trail—that...
Read MoreCleaning Up
Community Standards Officer Chani Reaves pulls out of the City Hall parking lot at 9 a.m. Today’s first destination: someone’s called to report an abandoned vehicle blocking a driveway south of Packard.Reaves started...
Read MoreHop on the Bus
Following a successful bus millage vote in May, 2014, the AAATA (the new third “A” is for “Area”) is drastically increasing route miles and hours in four phases over the next four years. The first phase...
Read MoreAerial Silks on the Diag
People walking through the Diag on a Wednesday evening may not have noticed, but Nate Juliar was suspended upside down twenty feet above the ground, his legs spread apart, blood draining to his head, grinning. He’d wrapped...
Read MoreMaker Works
Between them, Tom Root and Dale Grover have enough cool tools to fill an 11,000-square-foot space. With everything from saws and hammers to 3-D printers and plasma cutters on hand, the partners have made Maker Works the work...
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