Downtown Hounds
If you need a quick doggie fix in downtown Ann Arbor, you’re in luck. There are plenty of pooches, purebreds, and hounds working side by side with their owners who will be glad to oblige–as long as treats and petting...
Read More2015 March
Taken for a Ride
Uber in action is nearly impossible to see. Except for an identifying decal in their rear window, “Uber X” cars look like what they are: privately owned vehicles. But they’re out there. Just ask bar...
Read MoreThe Elephant Under the Rug
“I want you to know that I never considered your father an alcoholic because his drinking never interfered with his job,” my mother-in-law confessed to her sons at the end of her life. Until that day, she had never...
Read MoreClosing the Frontier
Soybeans grew last summer in the fields of the three Nixon properties on the city’s far north side. Deer grazed in the woods, and frogs croaked in the wetlands.In February, the fields, woods, and wetlands lay beneath a...
Read MoreThe Collector
“There is someone you need to meet,” Bill Martin says. On a cold Sunday morning, the developer and former U-M athletic director ushers me into his Lincoln SUV at the downtown Sweetwaters. We head out Newport and pull...
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Glencoe Hills
The huge Glencoe Hills apartment complex is a familiar sight to passersby zipping down Washtenaw between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Stretching north to Clark Rd., it’s now growing even denser, with several new buildings...
Read MoreA Space of Her Own
Dana McGrath was “ready for something more.” With the youngest of her four children preparing to leave for college and with more than a decade’s experience working as an interior designer and buyer at Merkel...
Read MoreBrillig Dry Bar
Low lights, a jazz trio, tables packed with people socializing, and a line waiting out the door to get in. All that’s missing is the booze.That’s the point at the Brillig Dry Bar, Nic Sims’ twice-a-month pop-up...
Read MoreSkating at Buhr
Looking for another outside winter outing? Within sight of Cobblestone Farm’s barnyard (Outside, January) is a strictly winter attraction: Buhr Park’s Outdoor Ice Arena, located at 2751 Packard Rd. A regulation...
Read MoreTreasury Department
The telephone rang on a Thursday morning. It wasn’t the usual time for calls asking for a donation to this or that charity, so, without too much thought, I picked up the receiver and said hello. The man at the other end...
Read MoreStony Lake Brewing Co.
In late February, Jerry and Heidi Tubbs were waiting on their final state permits to open Saline’s first microbrewery, Stony Lake Brewing Co. Jerry says he was nervous about the location at first–they’re tucked...
Read MoreSalads UP 2015
Walking by the big window of the new Salads UP on Liberty this winter, I wondered why it’s so often so crowded. Wasn’t this the warm soup, roasts, and potatoes time of year?After a couple of early February visits, I...
Read MoreWashtenaw Community Auto Repair
We received sixty-three entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Washtenaw Community Auto Repair in the Winter Community Observer. The ad featured a list of automotive services offered, each with the letter ‘L’...
Read MoreAnn Arbor Film Festival 2015
As more and more mainstream films make it their mission to deliver as much eye-popping spectacle per second as humanly possible, it’s refreshing to see a movie that actually asks its audience to wait. That’s a common...
Read MoreLegal Beagles
Now that’s beginning to change, thanks to a public outreach campaign by city clerk Jackie Beaudry and her staff. A flurry of fliers and banners at dog-friendly locations and events like the Halloween party at Olson Dog...
Read MoreAnn Arbor Symphony Orchestra
This year’s vernal equinox will roll in with a spring tide of Russian classics performed by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra at the Michigan Theater March 21. The concert will open with the Polovtsian Dances from Alexander...
Read MoreBrookstone and Radio Shack Leave Briarwood
Brookstone at Briarwood was closing in February–the company is bankrupt. The mall’s RadioShack is also closing because of that chain’s bankruptcy. High-tech gadget companies have taken a beating...
Read MoreStone School Road
Q. Late in the autumn, when Stone School Rd. reopened after months of being closed, I eagerly anticipated driving on a newly rebuilt road. So I was very surprised to find that it was still the same old road, with pretty much...
Read MoreHistoric Birds
Archivists in the Bentley Historical Library are used to seeing part of the North Campus deer herd wander through the library’s exterior courtyard–a beautiful outdoor space adjoining woods. But in January both...
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