Q: What’s the history behind the two red towers on the residential property at 4500 Washtenaw Ave.? The entire property looks like it must predate most of the A2-Ypsi community.A: This substantial parcel lies along a busy...
Read MoreStorm 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...
Read MoreThe 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...
Read MoreThe 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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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...
Read MoreHow 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...
Read MoreAnn 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,...
Read MoreThose 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...
Read More“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...
Read MoreMy 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...
Read MoreThe 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...
Read MoreThe Kiwanis Center West opened on Staebler Rd. in June. Like the original downtown location, the hours for its weekly thrift sales are brief: Saturdays only, for a crazy, jam-packed three hours. Kiwanian Dan Dever says that in...
Read MoreLeslie Science & Nature Center recently said goodbye to its mature bald eagle, believed to be the only one in Michigan that will fly free and return to its trainer. After trainer Francie Krawcke left this spring, the...
Read More“When we walked in the door, I had to laugh. It was a deja vu moment,” recalls architect Jan Culbertson of her return to the office at 115 E. Liberty that she and her partners at A3C Collaborative Architecture left...
Read MoreI learned a bit about shopping for produce from my mother, a housewife of Italian descent. I also was lucky to live in Italy for almost two years, where my neighbor Franca taught me how to shop at the market. In Italy, shopping...
Read MoreThe director of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and the Arb is explaining the thinking behind Matthaei’s new Medicinal Plant Garden, which opens August 2 (see Events). “People are very curious as to where these...
Read MoreThe former Roma Bakery on Washtenaw near Golfside is now Yee Siang Dumplings. A cozy cafe with upholstered chairs and wooden tables, it serves the food of northeastern China.”I will give you more details,...
Read MoreWearing a maize-and-blue helmet adorned with toilet bowl brushes, and with cans of beer chilling in his toilet tank, Dain Vettese is raring to race his Kohler toilet-on-wheels in the premiere Big Flush Toilet Race. His teammates...
Read MoreAbout half the buildings on the out-lots between Meijer and Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. have taken shape, and some tenants are open for business. There’s nothing in the six buildings that will make up Pittsfield Place to set a...
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