2022 May

604 E. Washington

“The gingerbread trim is … gone,” says Pamela Kittel about April’s feature, the house at 604 E. Washington—one of four demolished “to allow developers to put up another monstrosity,” says Dan Romanchik, or as Lelia Raley coins it, “the latest Megalopolith Brat Castle.”

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Closings: May 2022

Washtenaw Ave. has bid farewell to two chain spots, one venerable and one relatively new. Denny’s closed in late March, a representative of the restaurant told MLive.  The all-day diner, known for its Grand Slam breakfasts,...

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Koney, Again

Last May, Marwan Al-Rabie opened the Alpha Diner on Jackson Rd. in Scio Township. It was his long-sought successor to the Alpha Koney Island in the Oak Valley Centre, which he’d operated for seventeen of the restaurant’s thirty...

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No, Not Those Cookies

As the Observer went to press, a double billboard on I-94 still announced cryptically, “Cookies / Coming Soon.” By then, though, anyone hoping for a Mrs. Field’s competitor knew better: the previous weekend, Ann Arbor’s newest...

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Real Irish Takes a Breather

Stuart Marley sounds delighted that Redden is taking over the digs his Real Irish shop had occupied since 2018.  The change gives Marley an opportunity to take a break from the retail operation to focus on his web business,...

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Question Corner

Q: Large cities with busy pedestrian populations frequently utilize a stoplight system at busy intersections when there is a period where all traffic is stopped and all pedestrian crossings signal “walk.”  Then traffic flows...

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Crime Is Back

In 2020, when most of the city was locked down for nine months, the Ann Arbor Police Department...

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