Bold, Fluorescent Abstracts at Sareka Unique’s First Gallery
Sareka Unique has expanded from artwork in once-vacant Briarwood storefronts to a storefront of her own.
Read MoreAnn Arbor
BaoBao Asian Eatery
Bing Wu emigrated from China as a teen and recently moved from the San Francisco Bay area to launch a full-service restaurant in Chalmers Place on Washtenaw Ave.
Read MoreDecember 2025 Ann Arbor Home Sales
Located on the Old West Side, a classic 1920s workman’s cottage, which sold for $535,000, is part of a distinctive neighborhood project.
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Michigan Theater
“This month’s I Spy is the Michigan Theater with the new high rise looming in the background,” writes Michael McGraw.
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John Hilton
Last October, he retired after thirty-nine years as the Observer’s editor.
Read MorePapa’s Coming Home
It’s been more than six years since Papa Johns closed its last Ann Arbor store. It ranks fourth among pizza chains in U.S. locations, but stores on W. Stadium, E. Huron St., and Plymouth Rd. are all long gone.
Read MoreMarketplace Closings | December 2025
The aptly named Makeshift Gallery will punctuate its three-year run with an open house party on December 28, its last day at 407 E. Liberty.
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Something Blue
In October, the city began accepting applications from property owners for the Bluebelt program, a new effort designed to safeguard the sourcewater that feeds Ann Arbor’s drinking water system.
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Second Chances
After forty-three years, eleven months, and twenty-three days, Billy Cole was released from prison. It was 2019 and he found himself scrambling, trying to find his footing. He took on factory work, delivery work, anything he could find to bring in money and avoid returning to prison.
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Rode To Hell
It was a bright autumn morning for the more than 100,000 people driving to the Big House for the University of Michigan’s October 4 homecoming game against Wisconsin. Some sixteen miles west, about 250 others gathered at Chelsea Community Fairgrounds for a very different athletic contest: the annual Rode To Hell gravel bike race.
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Slippery Sidewalks
With the recent snowfall and cold weather, it should come as no surprise that A2 Fix It, Ann Arbor’s online system for reporting community issues—from potholes to broken streetlights to missed trash collections—has been inundated with complaints about ice-clad sidewalks. What is surprising is that some of these uncleared sidewalks are maintained by the city.
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Renee Baumunk’s Wild Women Years
What she didn’t know was that this old house on a quiet, tree-lined road would become the birthplace of a beloved, long-running tradition: the Wild Women parties.
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Old-School Street Maps
“I have been searching for an Ann Arbor street map on behalf of a friend who’s thinking of moving to the area. Evidently, they don’t make them any more, but phone maps are so limiting. Used book stores don’t have any. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t. Any chance you know where I can locate one? The AA Observer seems to be connected to everything Ann Arbor! Help!”
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Growing Pains
Barbara Gamm watched, worried, as nine trees fell in Scheffler Park near the construction site for Fire Station 4, touted as the city’s first net-zero facility.
Read MoreNovember 2025 Ann Arbor Home Sales
You build me up: This month saw an unusual number of sales—at least five—of homes that were either rebuilt or so substantially renovated as to qualify as new construction.
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