Ann Arbor

This is great! The site, despite being right near downtown, has been blighted and basically abandoned for over a decade.

Personally I think this is a great thing! I've been carrying narcan kits in my car and on my bike for years now. Fortunately I've never had a need to use one, but that also means I now have an expired narcan kit I need to discard.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/12955233

Dr Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian died June 3, 2011 in Royal Oak, MI at the age of 83.

From the AP article…

> On a video recorded by Kevorkian in 1993, Poenisch steadies Frederick’s Lou Gehrig’s disease-ravaged body as she signs a form requesting help to die “in the most humane, rapid and painless manner” possible. Then, [Carol] Poenisch reads words just penned by her mother [Kevorkian patient, Merian Frederick] that convey her final, fervent, wish: “My tears should not be taken as an indication that I am in doubt.”

> The videotaped interview, clinically labeled “Medicide: File 8,” is one of many in a new archive at Kevorkian’s alma mater, The University of Michigan. It’s been digitized and included in one of nine boxes stored in the stacks of the Bentley Historical Library in Ann Arbor — available for the first time as legislation supporting physician-assisted deaths makes gains in the U.S.

> Kevorkian, a graduate of Michigan’s Medical School, died in 2011 in suburban Detroit at 83. He sparked the national right-to-die debate with a homemade suicide machine that helped end about 130 ailing people’s lives, using the term “medicide” to describe physician-assisted suicide. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for assisting in the 1998 death of a Michigan man with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was released from prison in 2007.

> While rooted in the past, the archive has been unveiled at a time when the movement gains ground. In October, California became the fifth state — following Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where physician-assisted deaths are legal, and that’s made proponents of right-to-die legislation optimistic about possible successes elsewhere. Other bills are pending.

> Where does the outspoken, unapologetic and now archived Kevorkian fit in the current debate? Some see him and his efforts at the center. Others, like Poenisch, praise his trailblazing but believe his approach — wearing costumes and plugging his ears in court, once talking to reporters with his head and wrists restrained in a medieval-style stock — was detrimental to him and the cause.

> Others say the outlandishness was necessary. Mayer Morganroth, Kevorkian’s attorney and friend, said people who have said he had the right message but was the wrong messenger are missing the point. […] “The only way to get out there was to be out there himself, go over the top.” *** What We Want Now [email protected] ☆ [email protected] ☆ [email protected]

Archive link: https://archive.ph/gWxhx

@[email protected] does a wrap-up blog post for most city council meetings - here's her latest, about last week's council meeting.

More housing for people rather than cars!

The Ride pointing out what's well known in the industry but still seems to be beyond some.

ANN ARBOR, MI - Michigan traveling to Los Angeles to play a football game was seen as an oddity in 1902, said Greg Kinney, the athletics archivist at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library.

ANN ARBOR, MI -- Despite a brief closure, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore has returned to downtown Ann Arbor.

Johnny's Speakeasy, Ann Arbor's secret, underground speakeasy hidden in plain sight. Built in the 1870s, converted into a speakeasy in the 1920s.

East Lansing-based Fuel'd expands to Ann Arbor, Police Chief candidates, Mochinut opens in Ann Arbor, and Great Lake goldfish

Milk and Froth to open at old Prickly Pear location (328 S Main St.), 17-story building proposed, hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters, and October's state housing market

Ann Arbor Crime Map, Ann Arbor's new downtown toilets, Grand Rapid's newly proposed soccer stadium, and Ohio legalizes marijuana.

Madras Masala reopening, Saline's superintendent bus driver, Fresh Forage to close, and a state health insurance marketplace

StoneFruit Social to open in AA, proposed 500-unit mobile home park, helicopter laser pointer, and Sanders Bumpy Cake shortage

Redeveloping Sears, new Taco Bell, new bridge, new coffee shop, and a new university president house

A component in my 30 year old Gaggenau oven died and they discontinued the part. Does anyone know of someone in the area who is skilled enough and willing to fabricate the part?

see https://midwest.social/comment/3437155

It is with great sadness that we are announcing our imminent closing this Friday, September 29th. This absolutely breaks my heart. We brought in an investor/partner. It was all a bit overwhelming for him so now he has made a decision to sell to another group of investors. Please look out for a gofundme that we will be posting soon to look for another brick and mortar location as well as a food truck. I will continue to post updates on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We will be open and functioning all week. Come by and support. Get your faves or call in large orders. We will be taking large orders throughout the week. Thank you all so much for your continued support throughout these wonderful 33 years. This isn’t the end for us! If we are able to raise enough through our gofundme, Shanae, Dima and I will be embarking on a new path to open something that we can call our own. Much love… Tamara, Jinan & Monib

If you manage to see this before 6pm on Friday, I suggest trying them while you still can. One of my favorite middle eastern places. Their makmor is like the only eggplant dish I've liked.

The timeworn real-estate maxim is “location, location, location.”

When the location is Ann Arbor, one of the least affordable places to buy a home in Michigan, “timing” may be even more essential.

Ryan Stanton, the lead reporter on a package of stories this week on MLive highlighting Ann Arbor’s surge in building growth and housing costs, knows this firsthand. He moved to the city in 2009, during a national housing crisis, and was able to find reasonable rent. By 2013, as the economy improved, he sensed he’d have to act if he ever wanted to be a homeowner.

“I saw prices going up and said, ‘If I want to stay on Ann Arbor, I can either pay escalating rent that I probably won’t be able to afford into my old age, or I could buy a house now and lock in a fixed 30-year mortgage.

“So that’s what I did. I saw the writing on the wall.”

That writing was a line chart that shows an arrow going up like a hockey stick. The house Stanton bought in the Old West Side for under $200,000 is worth double that now. And that’s still well under the average house price in the Ann Arbor school district – $623,000. Rents for new units in the city have crested $3,000 a month in some instances.

Stanton, reporters Lucas Smolcic-Larson, Sam Dodge and Makayla Coffee, and photographer Jacob Hamilton have worked since spring to research and report this insightful and illuminating journalism. Their stories, photos and data lay out a powerful collision of market dynamics, social policy and city culture – and the resulting consequences.

For one, all but the wealthy are getting squeezed out of Ann Arbor. That includes lower-and middle-class people, young professionals and families, and even employees of the University of Michigan.

That has pushed people into neighboring communities and made those areas less affordable: The Ypsilanti School District, long seen as a less-expensive housing option, has seen home prices rise 39 percent in three years.

Hamilton chronicled the quest of Jean Whiting, a young professional seeking a home under $300,000. She started looking in Ann Arbor but gave up on that after a home she considered making an offer on sold for $55,000 over list price. She moved down to Saline without satisfaction, and now is considering going as far away as Monroe.

“We do a lot of great data-based reporting on the real-estate situation in the county that paints a broad picture of unaffordability, but Jean’s personal experience really drove it home,” Hamilton said.

Stanton wrote of a study that showed 77 percent of renters in Ann Arbor are priced out of buying a home in the city. But even renting is getting less feasible for many – reporter Dodge found one home on campus shared by 42 tenants. While that is extreme, the market for newer units is prohibitive. A studio apartment in a new development on Main Street is more than $2,200 per month, for example.

Ann Arbor is in a building boom, and our reporting lays out arguments from some community leaders that the city needs even more. But Stanton says history suggests that alone may not solve the affordability problem.

“You got pro-density advocates who say you can build your way out of this – just keep building more and more and more and you can gain ground,” he said.

“But Ann Arbor has been trying to do that for 20 years and not really gaining ground. So, it’s beyond a supply-and-demand issue at this point. It’s probably going to take rent control and maybe a lot more public subsidy.”

However, progressive social policy has proven no match for capitalism – dating back to the 1960s, when hippie leader John Sinclair attempted to build an egalitarian culture in Ann Arbor. In 1975, he declared the city “a rich college town” and moved back to Detroit.

Some powerful forces are revealed throughout our reporting on this issue. The University of Michigan is growing, in both employees and students; the city, quirky and cultural, is a vibrant and desirable place to live; and its current population of 120,000-plus is going to continue to rise as fast as housing is built. Demand drives up prices, and Ann Arbor is an in-demand destination.

“It’s like everybody says – it’s a wonderful, cool city and lots of people want to be here,” Stanton said. “It’s hard to imagine there will come a day when there will be more housing supply than there is demand in Ann Arbor.”

The Ann Arbor Juggling festival is a longstanding tradition that was interrupted by COVID. But now it's starting to come back!

This year's iteration is a Juggling Arts and Flow Festival that will take place in Taylor this Saturday September 23. Open juggling starts at 10:30 am, show is at 7pm.

For more information, see:

https://annarborjuggling.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/124002494054658/

Older people are less likely to be diagnosed but more likely to experience certain kinds of illnesses, research suggests.

Ask Patricia Anderson how she is doing, and you probably will not get a routine answer. “Today, I’m working and I’m fine,” she said on a recent Tuesday. “Saturday and Sunday, I was bedridden. Long Covid is a roller coaster.”

Before the pandemic, Ms. Anderson practiced martial arts and did without a car, instead walking and taking buses around Ann Arbor, Mich., where she is a medical librarian. Just before contracting Covid-19 in March 2020, she had racked up — oh, she keeps track — 11,409 steps in one day.

Looks like a Slim Chickens has been proposed west Ann Arbor off Zeeb and Jackson. I believe this is the lot next to the new Panera Bread. Slim Chickens looks like a fried chicken type restaurant, similar to a Zaxbys. Anecdotally, I don’t think there are many fried chicken or chicken wing takeaway type places in Ann Arbor, but I’m not a big fried chicken guy so correct me if I’m wrong.

Speaking of Panera Bread, the old location on Jackson is proposing upgrading the lot with a drive through. That’s curious, they might have already found another tenant.

Overflowing with too many animals but not enough people to adopt them, the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Ann Arbor is waiving adoption fees through Sunday.

Dataviz of DTE outages via @[email protected]

Nearly five inches of rain fell on some parts of eastern Washtenaw County in just a few hours as storms swept across the area Wednesday night, Aug. 23.

The unusually heavy downpour qualifies as a “500-year” storm for a three-hour time period, meaning such an event has a 0.2% chance of happening at any given time, according to the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office.

Every month Third Mind Books shows a movie based on the kind of books they sell. This Saturday August 26th at 8pm its "The Maltese Falcon." Here's the info from their web page:

>Join us for our 7th monthly installment of Classic Movie Night! >We'll be watching the legendary film noir and the 1941 directorial debut of John Huston The Maltese Falcon. >A San Francisco private detective deals with a group of cons who are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted Maltese Falcon. >Based on the 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett (Available in store!) >Snacks and drinks (with lids!) welcome. https://www.thirdmindbooks.com/

They just project it on a screen, it's not exactly a movie theater, but it's still a great environment. Downtown AA at 118 E Wasthington, btw.

Harbaugh to miss games against East Carolina, UNLV, Bowling Green

New EV chargers, FoolMoon's future, Planet Fitness shooting, state lawmaker softball, and July's housing market

Ann Arbor has historically been the scene of a vibrant community of jugglers, who often practiced on the UM Diag and elsewhere. The COVID pandemic disrupted this but the scene is starting to return, and several weekly meet-ups have already happened this summer.

The next Ann Arbor juggling meet-up is next Sunday, August 20th at 2pm on the UM Diag. If you're into juggling (balls, clubs, ...) or related activities (flow arts, unicycling, ...) then pass by and join us! If you want to learn, let us know and we'll help you out!

archive link

> A record-high 10,500-plus trips were clocked along one small stretch of one downtown Ann Arbor bikeway during the month of July, new data shows. > > An online dashboard for the Division Street bikeway just south of Catherine Street shows rider counts there have gone up from 8,681 in May to 10,138 in June, and now 10,502 for July.