Opinion Section

Joel Goldberg

Maybe you’d like to unwind with some friends after work over a glass of wine and bowlful of mussels. Perhaps you want to grab a quick bite before – or after – the evening show at The Ark. Or you may simply need to escape an onrushing case of midwinter cabin fever.

Whatever the reason, a good wine bar can scratch the itch. Compared with a brewpub or bar, people expect wine bars to offer a quieter ambience and more sophisticated level of food, along with a selection of interesting wines available by the glass.

But the four downtown Ann Arbor wine bars we visited quickly demonstrated that this generic definition of “wine bar” is infinitely bendable and expandable. Local wine bars range from a complete wine-centric focus to a simple rechristening of a restaurant’s lounge area.

So I decided to head out to the wine bars, and take them on their own terms. What does each one set out to do, and how well does it succeed? [Full Story]

The Chronicle's state House of Representatives press pass. We hope this year's will be purple.

Back in early September, only a week or so after we launched The Ann Arbor Chronicle, I trekked up to Lansing to meet with our locally elected state legislators. Man, I had grand plans. I’ve never found a good resource for learning about what our state lawmakers are doing, and I thought The Chronicle could be that resource.

The women I met with could not have been more gracious. The three state representatives – Pam Byrnes, Alma Wheeler Smith and Rebekah Warren – work in adjacent offices in a building with spectacular views of the capitol across the street. I met some of their staff, and talked with each about their goals and priorities for the year. Liz Brater, the state senator who represents Ann Arbor, gave me a tour of the Senate chambers. And I wrapped up the day by joining Rebekah Warren and Alma Wheeler Smith while the House was in its afternoon session (their desks sit next to each other on the House floor, but not because Alma is Rebekah’s mother-in-law). I even acquired a press pass for the rest of the year, which involved filling out some forms and getting my picture taken. [Full Story]

The salt/sand mixture at 721 N. Main is self-serve and free to residents. Bring your own shovel and 5-gallon bucket. One bucket per visit, please.

By now sports writers across the nation will have collectively written a flurry of columns, each heaping scorn by the shovelful upon the Detroit Lions – a football team that yesterday completed the first 0-16 winless season in National Football League history.

If only a bit of that shoveling could be harnessed in service of clearing the snow from Ann Arbor’s sidewalks and roads. The headline to this piece reflects the fact that according to National Weather Service statistics through Dec. 28, the date of the Lions’ historic loss, 16 inches of snow have fallen on the city of Ann Arbor this season. The headline also reflects the opinion that we, as a city, are losing the battle against the snow. [Full Story]

It was late on a Saturday night earlier this month when the Google alert showed up in my inbox: “Editor’s column: The Ann Arbor News is changing; you can help us,” by Ed Petykiewicz.

At last, I thought, Ed has finally written a column about what’s happening at The News. That’s great! So I clicked on the link, and pulled up … a blank page on MLive.

I groaned – the mess that is MLive strikes again! – and I put my head in my hands: This technical glitch reflects so much of what’s wrong with the News’ business model, and shows how far they have to go in addressing this and all the other challenges they face. Maybe, I thought, Ed’s column will confront some of these realities. I’d just have to wait for the newsprint version on Sunday morning to read it. [Full Story]

The shop was located in a poorly maintained old brick building on Chicago’s south side. It housed the typical uneven dusty shelves overloaded with books that spilled over into various small alcoves.

To an antiquarian book collector it was the perfect spot, much like a trout fisherman finding just the right pool on a bedrock bottom of the North Fork. I asked the store owner the location of books on early American History published prior to 1900. She tried to appear interested in helping me but she wasn’t. Her gig was first edition modern literature and her brain cells were filled with Margaret Atwood. [Full Story]

On Thursday evening, the second floor of Cottage Inn Pizza on William Street in downtown Ann Arbor was cram-packed with geeks and non-geeks alike. But it seemed like mostly geeks – propeller heads, techies, code-freaks, whatever term of endearment you prefer. They were there for ArbCamp 2008, a gathering meant to stimulate discussions around topics mutually agreed upon, on the fly at the event, and to promote connections in the tech community that might prove constructive. If the breaking news of the day – UM’s purchase of the old Pfizer site to establish a medical research hub – represents a big box approach to economic development, then ArbCamp 2008 is a grass-roots approach. [Full Story]

The Housing and Human Services Advisory Board made a recommendation to city council back in May 2008 for the location of supportive housing units to replace those lost at the site of the old YMCA building. (See previous Chronicle coverage on site analysis for such units.) In analyzing an alternative to its recommendation to issue an RFP for construction of housing units at the site of the old YMCA, the HHSAB noted one of the downsides to other sites located within the downtown: [Full Story]

Fly on the wall at Detroit Metro airport: Lots of Ann Arbor area residents travel to exotic places. Smack dab from the middle of America, we long for a change of scenery, and Midwesterners are friendly types.

But Rwanda? 

In 2007-2008, three local couples, well into their careers, traveled to the heart of Africa, landing in a country about half the size of Michigan. For differing missions, David and Valerie Canter, Andrea Sankar and Mark Luborsky, and myself and Rob Pasick stepped onto the warm black tarmac of modern Kigali airport, and began to work. [Full Story]

The Chronicle attended rehearsals of the Ypsilanti Community Band and the Ypsilanti Community Choir in preparation for their joint concert last Thursday night. We enjoyed the concert. Here we would like to observe and commemorate the absence of one of the band’s charter members, clarinetist Lorne Kennedy, who passed away on Sunday. The performance did his memory proud.

Lorne Kennedy's first chair clarinet seat was graced with a rose for Thursday's concert at EMU's Pease Auditorium.

We are extremely grateful to the people who advertise with The Chronicle – they are the reason we’re able to do what we do. We hope our readers take note of them, too, especially if you’re a subscriber to our RSS feeds and don’t get to see their ads on our site. You can find our complete list of advertisers here.

Some of them – the Washtenaw Drain Commission, for example, or the Ann Arbor Public Schools – aren’t in the business of selling gifts in the traditional sense. But many are, and we’d encourage you to consider spending some of your holiday dollars in their shops. To that end, here’s a quick roundup of some of the things you’ll find at these local businesses. [Full Story]

The second mailing of the National Research Center's city of Ann Arbor 2008 Citizen Survey.

The Chronicle was among 3,000 Ann Arbor households that have received three pieces of mail over the last couple of weeks sent on behalf of the city of Ann Arbor by the National Research Center in Boulder, Colorado. First to arrive was a post card alerting us to the fact that our household had been “selected at random to participate in an anonymous citizen survey about the city of Ann Arbor,” and that we should watch the following week’s mail for the survey and instructions. [Full Story]

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Joel Goldberg

Do the current economic travails rule out Dom Perignon’s $150 price tag at your holiday party? Does it seem churlish to pour Cristal at Christmas for brother-in-law Bob, whose job disappeared when Pfizer pfled town?

Not to worry. Unless you’re after bragging rights among the neighborhood hoi polloi, you needn’t eviscerate your budget to serve good sparkling wine at holiday time. In fact, you may taste less quality difference between what $15 versus $100 buys on the bubbly shelf than most other places in the wine store. [Full Story]

Today marks the third month of publication of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. As we have on the previous monthly milestones, we take this opportunity to touch base directly with readers.

We’ve made a couple of minor changes to the layout. The left sidebar is now a bit cleaner, partly because we’ve consolidated some material into the top shaded box.

In response to reader suggestions, we’ve also made the the link to the Tip Jar as prominent as we know how. It’s sitting in the masthead where the news stand price is typically displayed for a printed publication (upper right).

Also based partly on reader input, the frame for the advertisements now contains a link (at the bottom) to a … [Full Story]

When I present to school groups, I always pose the same question: What images come to mind when you hear the word homeless? Inevitably, the answers sound the same, whether I’m speaking to University of Michigan athletes or elementary age students huddled in a circle on the floor. They think of single adults, often male, outside, asking for food or money. They think of someone who is dirty, wearing layers and layers of clothes, maybe someone pushing a grocery cart.

The truth is, the homeless are diverse – and a great many are invisible and forgotten.

Each day, I work with homeless families, children and youth as an education advocate with the Education Project for Homeless Youth. You likely won’t see … [Full Story]

A reader, Betty, of the website Chowhound.com for “those who live to eat” wonders what Ann Arbor area restaurants will be open on Thanksgiving. She’ll be in town for a brief visit, and the alternative to going out to eat a Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant doesn’t sound attractive: “[T]hree people eating takeout in a dorm room doesn’t sound very appetizing!”

The readers at Chowhound.com provide some ‘usual suspects’ suggestions, but as of Nov. 19, Betty said she’s starting fresh with the search. Part of that effort included contacting The Chronicle with her query. She adds parenthetically: “Other cities list such things on their CVB sites or in the paper.”

Oh, boy. Betty knows how to get Ann … [Full Story]

It is always nice to have a place to sit – and thanks to advocates for persons with disabilities, there are more seats for people with disabilities at the University of Michigan’s “Big House.”

Throughout history, people in America have had to stand up for their rights. It was no different in this case. Discrimination about adequate seating arrangements for persons with disabilities at UM goes back decades.

Prior to the recent major renovation of Michigan Stadium, there were only 88 out of 107,000 seats that accommodated someone in a wheelchair – and they were lousy seats in the end zone. UM signed a consent agreement to more than double the “handicapped” seating to 188 after a lawsuit was filed by the … [Full Story]

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People working at The Ann Arbor News are facing some life-changing decisions today: This morning, management at The News and all seven other newspapers owned by the Newhouse family in Michigan announced a massive round of buyouts and plans to consolidate some operations in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. [Full Story]

Frizt Haeg presents his "Edible Estates" project to a gathering at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library.

In Fritz Haeg’s first slide, shot straight down into his own compost pile, a banana peel was still discernible. “This,” he said, “was what we should be celebrating!” Not banana peels per se, but rather compost – a kind of recycling that does not lose value with each cycle as many of our other efforts do (like, for example, paper recycling).

Haeg was standing in front of about 40 people in the multipurpose room of the Ann Arbor District Library to present his project, “Edible Estates,” which involves installations of … [Full Story]

Stephen Kunselman

Editor’s note: We asked the four members of Ann Arbor city council whose terms are ending – Chris Easthope, Stephen Kunselman, Joan Lowenstein, Ron Suarez – to share their thoughts about their experiences in that elected position. Yesterday, we published the observations of Joan Lowenstein.

Today, Stephen Kunselman, a Democrat elected in 2006 to represent Ward 3, reflects on his accomplishments and gives some insights into what it’s like to serve on council. He works for the University of Michigan’s Energy Management Office.

1. What was the best advice you received (or the worst) before starting service on council? What advice do you have for incoming councilmembers? [Full Story]

Joan Lowenstein

Editor’s note: Four members of the Ann Arbor city council – Chris Easthope, Stephen Kunselman, Joan Lowenstein and Ron Suarez – are leaving office. Their final meeting was Nov. 6.

We asked each of them to share their thoughts about their time on council. These are the observations of Joan Lowenstein, a Democrat who represented Ward 2. She is a local attorney who also serves on the Downtown Development Authority board.

1. What was the best advice you received (or the worst) before starting service on council? What advice do you have for incoming councilmembers? [Full Story]

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the introduction to “A Golden Age of Jazz Revisited: 1939-1942″ by Hazen Schumacher and John Stevens, published by NPP Books to be released on Nov. 14. It includes two CDs of music discussed in the book, and will be available online after Nov. 14. Schumacher is an Ann Arbor resident and jazz historian whom most readers will know from his long-time NPR show, “Jazz Revisited.”

Almost everyone has a connection to a favorite type of music, and many can trace that connection to their years as a teen or a young adult. Music critic Whitney Balliett put it this way in The New Yorker: “The music that teenagers like penetrates their bones.” It’s as if we stop discovering new music at some point in our lives and continue to explore the music we already love. [Full Story]

There’s a page on the Homeless Dave website called HD Washin’ Man, which is probably the most frequently visited page on the site. It documents a pedal-powered laundry spinner I cobbled together. It’s more popular than Bill Clinton’s teeter totter interview or even T. Casey Brennan’s. (T. Casey has a massive email contact list and he’s not bashful about using it.) I hear from T. Casey from time to time or else bump into him on my frequent trips through downtown Ann Arbor. [Full Story]

Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, but on the occasion of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s two-month anniversary, I’d like to go ahead and say thanks. Thanks first to everyone for reading. That’s the number one thing anyone can do to help this publication along. [Full Story]

Joel Goldberg

OK, I’ll ‘fess up. I’m becoming a locabibe.

What’s that? Let’s start with “locavore,” which Oxford University Press unilaterally proclaimed as 2007’s word of the year:

The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.

And locabibe? That would be a locavore on a liquid diet. Locabibes are the folks at the next table in the restaurant who ask for filtered tap water instead of Evian, thereby skipping a heavy plastic bottle schlepped halfway around the globe to deliver essentially the same product that flows for free from the kitchen faucet.

Or, it’s possible that they’re merely cheap. [Full Story]

Looking east, crossing Ashley on the south side of Liberty Street.

The city of Ann Arbor has been installing some new traffic lights around town. Traditional signals display a “Walk” light for as long as 25 seconds. This new type of signal displays a “Walk” light for only four seconds, out of a total cycle of up to 90 seconds. One example of such a signal is the crossing of State Street at Liberty Street downtown. [Full Story]

When Ann died a short while ago, you knew that Bob would soon follow. You never thought of one without the other. Ann and Bob. Bob and Ann. They loved Ann Arbor and believed that this was the best place to raise a family. [Full Story]

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