Like many other nineteenth-century immigrants, the first Jewish Ann Arborites came from southern Germany. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, “The five Weil brothers and their parents arrived in 1845; they conducted...
Read MoreAs always, graduation weekend in Ann Arbor meant hotels, shops, and restaurants were packed to the proverbial gills. But this year, downtown Ann Arbor became far more hospitable to guests with vision, hearing, and mobility...
Read MoreSally Mitani wrote her first Marketplace Changes column in January 2007. She figures that ten years immersed in the city’s retail and restaurant changes is long enough.She’s not leaving right away, but she will take...
Read MoreIrv Mermelstein, the local attorney who’s led the assault on the city and its Footing Drain Disconnection program, first met Abby Elias, the city attorney who wrote the FDD ordinance, in July 2012.With Elias in the small...
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Despite objections from some vendors (“Cold Comfort,” January 2016), plans for an $800,000 building at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market are advancing at full speed. Market manager Sarah DeWitt emails that a $175,000...
Read More“American-style bread is a little tough and big,” says Ms. Kim, a customer at Yoon’s Bakery. Ms. Kim said she’d rather not give her first name, but she did offer to serve as a translator for Sunhyup Yoon,...
Read MoreDouglas Fitzgerald Owen didn’t have much to say about closing his fine jewelry store D. Fitzgerald’s at the corner of Main and Broad streets. By now it will be too late for customers to cash in on the 30- to...
Read MoreIt used to be Rockefeller’s, a–what else?–rock shop on Jackson Rd., near the I-94 Fletcher Rd. exit, right on the border of Dexter and Chelsea. Then, the nineteenth-century brick farmhouse sat vacant for a...
Read MoreAs we write this, Max has finally returned. That’s our name for the ruby-throated hummingbird who has visited our backyard daily each summer since 2014.How do we know the hummingbird who came back this year is the same...
Read MorePredicting demand for library books is a lot like being a buyer for a bookstore: As much as you think you know about their tastes, readers don’t always behave predictably. You might as well be a pollster.The Ann Arbor...
Read MoreJan McCormick is closing the Pear Tree, her gift boutique in Dixboro. Eight years ago, she and her husband bought a horse farm in the northwest Lower Peninsula. Now that their last child is in college and the four-year lease up,...
Read MoreQ: The building next to Catching Fireflies on Detroit St. has two odd back doors far above Fifth Ave.: if anyone stepped out of them, they would plunge to the sidewalk. What gives?A. Ann Arbor is blessed with a number of expert...
Read MoreMarty Walker’s May cover of the Ann Arbor Skatepark received many warm responses, including a video showing the same skaters in action (see our Facebook page for a link). It also inspired poet, Observer reviewer, and park...
Read MoreWith no declared opposition to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District’s special ed millage, the red-and-white signs outside polling places announcing “It’s okay to vote no” took many voters by...
Read MoreKeith Poncher cinches his helmet tight then tips his skateboard over the edge of the cloverleaf bowl at the Ann Arbor Skatepark. Momentum carries him far up onto the opposite wall, where he slingshots around and heads back down...
Read MoreLanky, muscular, tattooed, barefoot, and dreadlocked, the poet crossing to center stage with an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder stands six-foot-six and appears even taller. Extending both arms as if to embrace his...
Read MoreThe 2014 U-M grad says his west side spa, Bloom Wellness, was inspired by music prof Steve Rush’s class on creative expression: “It was all about … how dance, music, art, inspires awe,” he says. Awe, as...
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