2024 October

A Vital School Board Vote

The November 5 election is about the schools’ past, present, and future—the current board’s firing of superintendent Jeanice Swift last summer, the discovery of a $25 million hole the budget in March, the hiring of Jazz Parks as the new superintendent in June, and the need to grow enrollment to keep the schools financially sound in the future.

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Pretty in Pink

“This whole store is me,” beams Amanda Debek from a deep U-shaped booth upholstered in pink velvet and topped with a rich arrangement of artificial flowers at her new House of Chimney Cakes Café.

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University Flower Shop Branches Out

University Flower Shop has expanded from Nickels Arcade to the west side with a second, much larger production and sales site. The 4,000-square-foot facility on S. Wagner Rd. provides ample space for creating custom floral arrangements and planning events, as well as free, on-site parking for drop-in or pickup customers.

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Trudy Bulkley

At 11:11 p.m. on August 18th, on a full moon, Trudy Bulkley, known affectionately as Mother Goose, died peacefully with her family by her side after a brief and unexpected battle with AML. Two weeks before, she was working in her garden, doing yoga, tending to her bonsai, an active member of her book group, having friends over for delicious meals she made, walking her beloved dog Maggie, playing Wordle, being in touch with friends and family near and far, practicing for her piano recital, writing postcards to remind people to vote, and being Mother Goose at preschools and her monthly gig at Kerrytown.

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Stealing Halloween

Rachel Ufer has looked forward to Halloween on Granger Ave. ever since she moved there in 2017. “You can’t really believe it until you see it,” Ufer says of the spooky decorations that drew roughly 1,400 trick-or-treaters to her block in Burns Park last year. But a few days before Halloween, a large inflatable skeleton was stolen from her house—and the next night, an inflatable spider. 

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Election Revolution?

The historic contest between Democratic vice president Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump at the top of the November 5 ballot is expected to draw huge numbers of voters on Election Day. But with no city council seats contested, the most impactful items locally are proposals near the end of the packed ballot—particularly Ann Arbor proposals A, to create a city-owned “sustainable energy utility,” and C and D, which would make city elections nonpartisan and provide public funding for council and mayoral candidates.

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Pianist Rick Roe

Whether he plays at Blue LLama, the Kerrytown Concert House, or does a solo gig at the Earle, Rick Roe usually includes a few of Monk’s tunes and some of his own. These show Monk’s influence, but Roe has studied many other great musicians—“Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, and not only piano players”—as well. His music integrates their influence and is entirely his own.

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Thelonious Monk Mural

“This month’s I Spy is the Thelonious Monk mural by Brian Whitfield on Ashley Street,” writes Silvia Ruiz. David Karl identifies it as “the old Del Rio Bar building,” which Dyke McEwan adds is now home to “the Cellar by Grizzly Peak.” The mural, writes Kathy Scott, honors both Monk at the bar where he sometimes performed. Dan Romanchik credits his wife Sylvia for spotting it, even though “I walk by there all the time—so if I win I’ll have to give the prize to her.” 

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Question Corner | October 2024

Q. Where did the poet Joseph Brodsky live in Ann Arbor?

A. Brodsky was born and raised in the Soviet Union, but his poetry was deemed critical by the government, and in 1972 he was convicted of “malicious parasitism.” Declared a “pseudo-poet in velveteen trousers,” he was pressured to leave the country.

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Pickleball Pals

Several years ago, a CAT scan revealed a cancerous 2.5-centimeter mass on the retired Ann Arbor elementary school teacher’s right lung. He says a biopsy revealed “a rare form of lung cancer called NUT carcinoma.” Surgeons removed a lobe in his right lung and thirteen lymph nodes.

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Haiti Connection

Alcindor runs the Faculty of Nursing Science of the Episcopal University of Haiti (FSIL in French). With help from the Ann Arbor–based Haiti Nursing Foundation, she’s led it through hurricanes, earthquakes, Covid, and the country’s descent into political chaos since its president was assassinated three years ago. In that power vacuum, heavily armed gangs have kidnapped thousands of people and held them for ransom. 

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Conservation Voters

Wozniak is executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. It was founded in 1999, she says, “to address some of our state’s most egregious problems regarding the air we breathe, the water we drink, and protecting public health and the natural environment.”

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The Last Holdouts

In the end, even Julie Welch accepted the inevitable. Back in June 2023, she defiantly told MLive that she hoped never to sell 730 S. Division St., a 1,064-square-foot Cape Cod built in 1901. Her parents bought it in 1962 as a student rental, and she said, as far as she was concerned, “Build around me, and let’s coexist in peace.” 

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Gracie’s Odyssey

After a contentious lawsuit, Gracie the Bernedoodle is back with the teacher she lived with during her stint as a therapy dog at Wines Elementary School. 

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