Stories indexed with the term ‘downtown Ann Arbor’

The entrance to the John Leidy shop at 601 E. Liberty, next to the Michigan Theater. (Photo by the writer.)

Just after noon on Sunday, several people had already assembled in the John Leidy gift shop on East Liberty: three generations of the family-owned business, and two self-described “Leidy Ladies” – long-time staff at the 58-year-old store.

A Chronicle reader had contacted us with news that the store planned to close. So we stopped by to talk with the Leidy family, who were gathering there after coming from church: John Leidy’s widow, Ann Leidy, their daughter Liz Arsenault, who manages the store, and son Peter Leidy, who’s acting as spokesman for the family.

Postcards were mailed to their customers over the last few days announcing plans to close at the end of February, when their lease is up. But on Sunday, Peter Leidy told The Chronicle that they weren’t yet ready for an interview. There’s a lot of emotion, he said, and gratitude to customers – but it’s a hard time for them. [Full Story]

Editor’s note: In what has now officially become an annual Chronicle tradition, we’re delighted to document this year’s Main Street Halloween Treat Parade through the eyes and lens of Myra Klarman, a professional photographer who lives and works in Ann Arbor. Downtown merchants handed out treats to dozens of spooks, superheros, puppies and princesses. If there were tricks, we sure didn’t see any – other than a little rain. Happy Halloween.

The Lion

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Candy-throwing politicians, a bike choir, baton twirlers, horseback riders, more politicians, clowns, a fife & drum corps and others marched the route as entries in this year’s Ann Arbor Fourth of July parade, which drew thousands of spectators to line the streets of downtown Saturday morning. The Chronicle enjoyed the spectacle and snapped a few photographs.

A crowd at the northeast corner of Main and Liberty awaits the next parade entry.

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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]

Andrew Dickinson surveys what he has wrought.

Men wielding chainsaws plunging them into big blocks of ice, sending a spray of frozen mist skyward – that’ll make The Chronicle stop and watch … for longer than a Stopped.Watched. item. Out in front of Bella Ciao on Liberty Street just east of Ashley, Andrew Hoeffner and Andrew Dickinson were enjoying a minor difference of opinion about how to proceed with the carving, which the restaurant had commissioned. But the chainsaw slice had been made and there was pretty much no turning back.

Hoeffner, who’s a sophomore at the University of Michigan, and in his second year of carving for the Michigan Ice Carving Team, said that they’d already adjusted the planned design somewhat: They’d started with the idea of making the letters of “Bella Ciao” raised relief, but switched to carving the outlines into the ice. [Full Story]

Liberty Street busking with drum.

You’re standing at the corner of Main and Liberty streets in downtown Ann Arbor. An out-of-towner shows you his bleeding hands and asks, “Is there any place around here I can buy a Band-Aid?” The Chronicle had an answer. For readers who’d like see how their own answers might match up, it’s left to the end of this article.

What trauma led to the blood on Rick Hale’s hands? He’d spent the previous hour pounding out improvised rhythms on his djembe just outside the Parthenon restaurant. [Full Story]

Josie Parker, Rebecca Head and Jan Barney Newman at Monday morning's special library board meeting.

A somber Ann Arbor District Library board voted unanimously this morning to suspend its ambitious project to build a new downtown library, though they held out the possibility of resuming the plan if and when the economy improves.

“I think we’re talking about a detour – at least I’m talking about a detour,” said board chair Rebecca Head.

The board called a special meeting for this morning which began in a closed session with the library’s real estate attorney, Jim Adams of Butzel Long. They reconvened for a public meeting at 10:15 a.m., and Head announced that Adams had delivered disturbing news about the bond market that was “very sobering.” [Full Story]

Banner from the Obama campaign hung in the Downtown Home & Garden courtyard Thursday night.

By Thursday night, the imperative “Make History” on the Obama campaign banner could have well been changed to the past tense “Made.” But along with a second banner reading “Hope,” it made a nice backdrop for a party pitched for the folks who worked on the Obama campaign at the First and Liberty headquarters.

The post-election celebration was held just down the block from Obama headquarters in the courtyard area of Downtown Home & Garden, which owner Mark Hodesh had made available.

One take-away from the event for The Chronicle … [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]

Historic Marker at Ashley and Washington: "Germans in Ann Arbor"

Just a brief note to alert Chronicle readers to two events on the western edge of downtown tomorrow (Oct. 2). At the DDA Board meeting today, Ray Detter, of the Downtown Area Citizens Advisory Council, announced that there would be a dedication ceremony at 5 p.m. of the new wall displays at Ashley and Washington streets, which is a part of the Downtown Ann Arbor Historic Street Exhibit Program. “At lunchtime workmen bought beer by the bucket from nearby saloons,” reads part of the text from one of the installations.

The second event is not an “event” per … [Full Story]

Last Friday afternoon in the sixth floor conference room of the Larcom Building, an aerial image of the block between Fifth and Division Streets was projected on the screen. The source of the image came from a computer in the back of the room, manned by Brad Ruppel, of the city’s land development review services. Throughout the meeting Ruppel zoomed, panned, toggled between mapping tools, and brought up various other images to support the back-and-forth between city staff and members of the project team for the South Fifth Avenue Underground Parking Garage and Street Improvement Site Plan. The meeting was an opportunity for city staff to explain what revisions to the plan would be required on resubmission, which is due on Sept. 24. [Full Story]

For four hours on Sunday, September 7, visitors to downtown Ann Arbor will be treated to a series of bicycle races on a 1.35 kilometer loop, all a part of the Priority Health Ann Arbor Cycling Classic. The Senior Women’s category gets things rolling at 10 a.m., with the afternoon wrapping up with the Men’s Pro 1 category race starting at 2 p.m. Registration for the 12:20 p.m. free kids race will begin at 10 a.m. at the corner of William and Main.

For fans of bicycle racing who want to see the race from a prime spectating location, a $25 membership in the Breakaway VIP Club will provide exactly that. In addition to online … [Full Story]

This Car Has Been Impounded

The first football Saturday morning of the season got off to a pretty awful start for one Texan, whose blue Honda Civic was tagged with a neat sign reading “This Car Has Been Impounded” tucked under the wiper blades. [Full Story]