Reprinted from the June 1981 Ann Arbor Observer. Stevens died on July 26, 2015.His gaze fixed ahead upon the Greek Revival house at 126 North Division, City Historian Wystan Stevens backed slowly out into the middle of the...
Read MoreAs mayor Christopher Taylor notes, the bridge connecting two Lansdowne neighborhoods ranked dead last on the city’s list of thirty-two possible alternative transportation projects. So why did council budget $450,000 for it...
Read MoreI have been unemployed since I quit my job at Sears on April 14.I was hired as a salesperson at the Briarwood store in 2011. It was my first job since being forced into medical retirement when I underwent cancer treatment from...
Read MoreIn hindsight, it wasn’t the safest time to join the military. But when Robert Fletcher enlisted in the Army in May 1950, the decision seemed relatively low-risk. “War didn’t seem possible with the Second World...
Read MoreOne Saturday afternoon in March, forty-four boys and girls of various races clustered around computers in Menlo Innovations’ cavernous office under the Liberty Square parking structure. One group was building castles and...
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CRACK! … CRACK! … CRACK!Dressed as a Union soldier, George Till shoulders his 1861 Springfield rifle and fires into the air as Chelsea High School history students applaud.”I started doing reenactments in...
Read MoreCrystal Metzger is shutting the lid on Lexi’s Toy Box. She originally planned to close at the end of July, but “it might be late June. Look at the room behind you–it’s almost empty,” she says,...
Read MoreFor Mike and Sarah Tayter, opening their second Elevation Burger franchise proved a lot harder than the first. “We started paying rent in January,” Mike says, “and we actually opened May 2.” The organic...
Read MoreOne evening some years ago I was at dinner in an Italian restaurant in Port Townsend, Washington. The food was lovely, the conversation lively, and recorded jazz was playing in the background. I thought I recognized the...
Read MoreThis is the first in an occasional series on the future of agriculture in Washtenaw County. In this issue, we meet two younger farmers from heritage farm families who are updating traditional commodity operations with...
Read MoreIn 2009, Food Gatherers launched a program called “Faith and Food,” inviting local faith-based organizations to cultivate gardens to provide produce for the hunger-alleviation group’s clients. Bethlehem United...
Read MoreSam Waze founded Belle Tire back in 1922 and named his Detroit shop after his wife, Belle. Very few Michigan roads were paved at that time, so there were plenty of repairs to be made on cars that had bounced too hard over...
Read MoreQ: What is behind the door labeled “Aqua Swirl” in the Library Lane parking structure?A. The rain that falls on the deck of the underground structure is channeled to the Aqua Swirl, which uses centrifugal force to...
Read MoreDexter, 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...
Read MoreThis summer, local Verizon stores are introducing a product developed by a group of recent U-M grads to solve one of smartphone users’ most common frustrations. TurtleCell, conceived in 2012 by then-grad student Paul...
Read MoreYou’re going to feel like you’ve walked on the set of last year’s uplifting movie Chef, about guys getting in touch with life’s meaty matters via a food truck, when you track down the new Ricewood...
Read MoreOne will soon be condos, one turned into donuts, one is slated for demolition to make room for an auto parts store, one became more space for a convenience store, and one just sits closed and moldering. Like other car-culture...
Read MoreBlank Slate Creamery marks its first anniversary in early July with reasons to celebrate–like frequent lines out the door for little scoops of its distinctive deep-freeze creations. Could this spell the end of turnover at...
Read MoreHammers pounded, brooms swayed, and feather dusters swished as the people at Ann Arbor Cabinet & Counter put the finishing touches on their new showroom in Lamp Post Plaza in May.”We moved here from Carpenter Rd.,...
Read MorePerfectly named, the Rocks, Paper, Memory exhibit at the U-M Kelsey Museum of Archaeology takes you to the tactile carved stones of ancient Greece and Rome, immerses you in Wendy Artin’s watercolors of them, and bathes you...
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