Kobylarz, thirty-six, has loved rodents since childhood. Chipmunks ate from her hand at her family’s cabin up north in Gaylord. At home in Westland, her parents gave her gerbils as a gift. In college at Central Michigan she bought “feeder mice,” which pet stores sell as food for reptiles, to keep as pets
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Thressa Nichols, a people operations professional who works remotely, decided to open the business she wanted to patronize. She and her husband, Zac Hodgkin, are launching Recess Cafe, where young children can play while their adults work or socialize while enjoying coffee, elevated snacks, and even wine and beer.
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For many years, when I go back to my roots in Ann Arbor, I have been invited to play with a great group of golf enthusiasts. If the weather is good, they are trying to make it to the golf course.
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Tom Mast, second-generation owner of Mast Shoes, an Ann Arbor business that he helped shape into a local institution, passed away in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
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The latest scoop from Scio Township: the ambitious Arreola brothers have added a Mexican paletería within Dos Hermanos Express.
Read MoreYour Media Exchange is returning to Ann Arbor to make a longer-term home in the basement of Kerrytown Market & Shops, replacing its sister business, Diggers, which opened last year.
Read MoreThe Marketplace Changes beat includes periodic walks through Briarwood Mall, getting in steps while tracking stores’ comings and goings.
Read MoreSixty-three small-scale enterprises, intrigued by the prospect of affordable overhead downtown, vied for three retail spaces at the Ann Arbor District Library’s new “Lobby Shops.”
Read MoreRave reviews for their Brazilian açaí bowls and exotic smoothies weren’t enough to keep Samba Bowls afloat. The eatery closed Aug. 17, just three days after announcing it and fourteen months after unveiling a cheery remake of the former Vogel’s Lock & Safe on W. Washington.
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An old photo shows my mother, Geraldine, in the middle, at age fifteen, and Irv, age thirteen, on the left and Rolly, age eleven, on the right. The cost to park that close to the stadium was a whopping 25 cents.
Read More“This is a massive chasm, massive,” says Downtown Home & Garden owner Kelly Vore. “It’s heavy, on every level.” A decade after buying the iconic Ashley St. emporium from longtime proprietor Mark Hodesh, who retains its historic real estate, Vore announced that financial conditions will prompt its closure on Christmas Eve.
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Flower Therapy at Mott Hospital, the oldest activity of the Ann Arbor Farm & Garden Association, started in the 1950s. The program has always been entirely staffed by volunteers, with flowers donated by local grocery stores, florists, and a flower farm.
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Founder Pat Montgomery established Clonlara School in 1967 to “allow children to be themselves, free to explore their interests and develop into individuals who [feel] free in their own skin,” she told the Observer in 2017. Through what it calls Full Circle Learning (FCL), Clonlara empowers its students to pursue topics that spark their curiosity, and learn what they learn along the way.
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Theatre NOVA is heading into its eleventh season in 2026 in the face of financial uncertainty. In the summer of 2025, the Trump administration called for a 35 percent cut in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Its grants are vital to many creative organizations, and Theatre NOVA is no exception.
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How does a “walk in the park” become a challenge only the hardiest and most determined locals accomplish? By inviting people to visit every single one of Ann Arbor’s 162 parks. Nearly 100 community members have accomplished this feat in the past five years.
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On Hamilton Pl., just a few blocks west of U-M’s central campus, it’s standard to wake up to the familiar sounds of the city: passing cars, roommates, construction. However, at Tri Sug—a house shared by U-M students that doubles as an underground music venue—their morning starts instead with a loud meow from just outside the window.
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The Harts’ home, a “school bus yellow” Cape Cod with a huge garden, was the second one built by high schoolers in the Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program, an experiential learning initiative. The first was on nearby Yellowstone Dr., and the third, says Donna, “is right around the corner, on Carl Ct.”
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Marilyn Kirking says that the first time she and her husband, Duane, saw their future home in the Abbot neighborhood, “we didn’t even bring our checkbook.”
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I could’ve written another version of this essay and blown the entire word count just describing how the canopy of trees changes from season to season, or the way the maple leaves scatter sunlight across our chalky sidewalks in bouncing dapples.
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