Archive for June, 2009

Bluestone Realty Advisors’ “Bluestone Blog” has a post to promote available storefront space at 209 N. Main, which formerly housed a UPS store. From the blog: “This historic brick building features 2,350 square feet of open floor plate and is perfect for any prominent office or retail tenant. The highlights of the property include lofted ceilings and appealing exposed brick walls. Two ADA bathrooms, a delivery port in rear, and great sign exposure also accompany the suite.” No mention of cost. [Source]

The Garden Faerie’s Musings blog has nearly three dozen photos taken at the seven gardens featured in Saturday’s Ann Arbor Garden Walk. Five were residential gardens, plus the Tappan Middle School Agrarian Adventure Garden and hoophouses for Growing Hope. [Source]

Ann Arbor City Council Sunday night caucus (June 14, 2009): At least 20 people attended the Ann Arbor city council’s Sunday night caucus to provide arguments for keeping the Argo Dam in place. The city council will have a work session on the topic starting at 6 p.m. tonight, before its regularly scheduled meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.

Other topics addressed to the councilmembers who attended caucus included the status of the East Stadium bridge repair, the proposed installation of parking meters in residential areas near the downtown area, and foliage obscuring sight lines along Glazier Way.  The allocation of $75,000 to SPARK, which is on the agenda for Monday, received some discussion in response to a query from The Chronicle.

The three councilmembers remaining at the caucus at its conclusion (Sabra Briere, Mike Anglin and John Hieftje) had little to discuss as far as formulation of questions among themselves. Briere briefly mentioned to Hieftje that she’d had some conversations with councilmembers who were interested in exploring some revisions to council rules – to address emailing policies, among other things. [Full Story]

The Columbus Dispatch reports on how Ford is using social media to market its subcompact Fiesta. The article quotes Christie Nordhielm, a UM marketing professor: ”These types of viral marketing campaigns can be a very effective tactic. However, they are usually not a source of sustainable competitive advantage … If it only works in the short run but doesn’t establish a long-term differentiation for the brand, then it is difficult to call it a truly successful campaign.” [Source]

The Epic Portions blog posts several photos from the Taste of Ann Arbor, a downtown festival held on May 31. The writer says the food is great, but pricey: “Before you think this is food heaven, tickets must be purchased in order to get the samples, and prices have gone way north. La Dolce Vita was charging 10 tickets ($5.00) for a single chocolate covered strawberry. Besides the high prices and large crowds, this is a great event.” [Source]

Crain’s Detroit Business reports that local landlords who lease space to UM face losing their major tenant as the university acquires the former Pfizer research campus. The article quotes Chris Grant of Ann Arbor-based First Martin Corp.: ”They would be crazy not to move into some of that space. But they’ve been pretty close-mouthed, so nobody really knows what they’ll do with that space.” [Source]

The Washington Times reports on how high tuition costs are affecting where – or if – students attend college. The article quotes John Boshoven, a board member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and counselor for continuing education at Community High School in Ann Arbor: “With public institutions, the yield was higher because kids locked in to what they perceived as a lower-priced tuition – to save money and be closer to home, which in some cases meant living at home.” [Source]

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Frances Kai-Hwa Wang (photo courtesy of Mark Bialek)

Called my girlfriend Nina to see if she would play hooky with me one recent Sunday afternoon. Alas, she’s off with her latest beau somewhere, no time for me. So I sit on the sidewalk outside Sweetwaters café downtown, soaking in the sunshine on this glorious spring day. My laptop sits unopened at my side.

Instead, I steal my friend Rich’s New York Times and I guiltily and gleefully read the entire thing, from arts all the way down to business and even, ugg, politics (which I generally try to avoid). Just one day to stop. One day to sit in the sunshine. One day to visit with all the friends who walk by – Kenji-san with his big brown dog; Diane with her latest middle-aged man from Match.com; Arthur with yet another joke from his old Jewish uncle. There is nothing like the beginning of spring in the Midwest. [Full Story]

Matthew Naud, environmental coordinator for the city of Ann Arbor, posted a gallery of photos from Friday’s Green Fair. It includes a shot of the city’s storm water manager playing base for Corndaddy. During their set, Corndaddy played their song, “Daylight,” and the connection to the solar panel display next to their stage did not go unnoticed.  [Gallery]

Jen of A2EatWrite has a post about why she joined the People’s Food Co-op in 1980, and why she’s still a member: “I spent the first couple of years as a co-op member cutting the cheese. I kid you not. And it was one of the stinkiest jobs imaginable, but it earned me my extra 5% discount, so it was worth every wire through every block of Jarlsburg.” [Source]

Robin Agnew

[Editor's note: Robin Agnew and her husband Jamie own Aunt Agatha's mystery bookstore in Ann Arbor. She also helps run the annual Kerrytown BookFest.]

“The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu” by Michael Stanley (Harper, $24.99)

As everyone knows, there is a very famous series of books set in Botswana, by Alexander McCall-Smith. McCall-Smith’s delicate prose is matched by the charm of his main character, Precious Ramotswe. Now there is a new series set in Botswana, with a slightly darker take, though the main character, Detective Kubu, would surely be friendly with Precious were they to meet.

Detective Kubu (the Botswana word for “Hippo”) is hugely fat and hugely smart. If Precious is the African Miss Marple, then Kubu is the African Nero Wolfe. Kubu and Wolfe both share a deep appreciation for the pleasures of the table, and both of them have brains that work best with their eyes closed. [Full Story]

The Freep reports that state Rep. Pam Byrnes, whose district covers a large part of Washtenaw County, “is set to announce Saturday at a gay rights rally in Lansing the launch of a long-shot effort to amend the Michigan Constitution to allow same sex couples to marry. The proposed amendment would repeal the marriage amendment approved by voters in 2004 which reserved marriage exclusively for unions of one man and one woman, and replace it with specific authorization for gay and lesbian marriage rights.” [Source]

After their Tuesday evening meeting, members of the Ann Arbor Energy Commission checked out a hybrid plug-in Ford Escape parked outside the county administration building on North Main. From left: Fulter Hong, Charles Hookham, Bill Verge, David Wright, Mike Delaney and Jason Bing. The car was brought by Delaney, who works for DTE Energy Ventures in Ann Arbor.

At the start of last Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Ann Arbor Energy Commission, Bill Verge commented that for the first time since he’s been on the commission, people in the audience outnumbered commissioners. “I’m quite happy about that,” he said.

The reason for the interest? Argo Dam.

The dam has been at the center of a heated debate over whether to repair it or remove it completely – the latter option would result in the elimination of Argo Pond. The city’s Park Advisory Commission and Environmental Commission have both weighed in with recommendations to city council, the body that will ultimately decide the dam’s future.

Because Argo Dam has the potential to generate electricity, as Barton and Superior dams already do, the Energy Commission decided to look at the issue, too. Nearly a dozen people showed up on Tuesday night to see what the commission would recommend. (As soon as the commission finished with that segment of its meeting, all but a couple of people in the audience departed.) [Full Story]

Merchants in and around Westgate Shopping Plaza at the corner of W. Stadium and Jackson are holding their first annual Westgate Summer Festival on July 18 from noon to 9 p.m. The event will include food, music, children’s games, a health and wellness section, book signings by Michigan authors and other activities. [Source]

The Ann Arbor Business Review reports that the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission has approved the proposed CVS pharmacy project at 209 and 211 S. State St., near the intersection with Liberty. The developers plan to keep the building facade but take down the main structures and construct a new building: “Two historic structures on the site have been integrated into one commercial building over the years. The roofs of the old homes are visible from above, but no historic significance remains, according to commission staff person Jill Thacher.” [Source]

A confluence of textures at the Workantile Exchange. The wheels on the table legs let them glide across the predominantly hardwood floors to wherever they need to be.

What kind of “helpful” customer rearranges whole shelves of technology books at Borders – because the downtown Ann Arbor bookstore has them organized in a less-than-optimal way? Trek Glowacki.

For that sort of book rearranging, Glowacki is supported by the credential of a master’s in library science from the University of Michigan’s School of Information. Plus, the “self-described information problem solver” spends a lot of time at Border’s. It wasn’t some kind of drive-by book reorganization.

Given that Glowacki is inclined to reconfigure the space he inhabits – even if it’s a public space – it’s not surprising that he and his colleague, Jesse Sielaff, wound up using the Workantile Exchange as the venue for a course they taught recently.

That venue is a new coworking space at 118 S. Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor – a space furnished mostly with chairs and tables on wheels. It’s intended to be easily configured by the members of the Workantile Exchange to suit the specific needs of a particular project on a particular day.

The 3,000 square foot Workantile is partitioned into a very public area towards the front (just behind the new Mighty Good Coffee storefront), private areas for phone calls, plus a conference room towards the back.

But it was Workantile’s 800 square foot Training Loft that Glowacki and Sielaff used to teach their 5-week Ruby on Rails course. That course concluded on Thursday – the same day that Ann Arbor public schools wound up their year.

What’s Ruby on Rails? [Hint: It's not a Wizard of Oz mass transit system.] And how does teaching classes fit into Workantile’s culture of coworking? [Full Story]

The getDowntown blog publishes results from this year’s Commuter Challenge, a month-long program aimed at encouraging alternative forms of transportation in commutes to work. Awards, which were presented at an event on Wednesday at Conor O’Neill’s, include the Super Commuter Award, given to Mike Woelmer of SRT Solutions. Woelmer lives 18 miles from SRT’s Ann Arbor office, and commuted daily by bike. [Source]