Archive for March, 2009

In a post titled “I Love Ann Arbor,” the writer of Eclectablog describes his dinner experience at Arbor Brewing Co.: “Last night we decided to wade into the morass of St. Patrick’s Day celebrators and venture to our favorite pub. As expected, it was a madhouse when we walked through the front door. We were greeted by a familiar face behind the host’s stand (as I said, we go there quite often). ‘Anne and Chris!’ he welcomed us. ‘Two for non-smoking?’ Ayup, that’d be us. He remarked at our fortitude, coming out to hang with drunk college kids and told us how they had just had to kick some drunk frat boys out (something that never happens on a normal night at … [Full Story]

Due to incorrect information supplied by the city, we inaccurately reported the name of a member serving on the Ann Arbor Area, Height and Placement Advisory Committee. Bob Martel (not Bill) is on that committee. We note the error here, and have corrected it in the original article.

A New York Times article reports on the growing popularity of the whoopie pie:   “The whoopie pie sold since last fall at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, in Ann Arbor, Mich., sports a chocolate glaze on its dense chocolate cake and is filled with Swiss buttercream filling. The basic elements of the whoopie pie turn up in many other snacks that might be considered its far-flung relatives. Amy Emberling, a partner at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, grew up in eastern Canada eating a similar cookie called a Jos. Louis.” [Source]

Al dente Pasta is offering a path to participation in the April 5 FestiFools event through a video contest. First prize for the video contest (3-minute time limit),  according to the “al dente canoodler”:  “YOU can be the FOOL to don the FestiFettuccine Crown in Ann Arbor’s most outrageous FestiFool Parade on April 5, 2009 at 4:00 on Main Street.” [Source]

Mike Bergren, assistant field services manager for the city of Ann Arbor, assures city council that there'll be enough salt on hand, even if it snows again.

City council meeting (March 17, 2009) The “tomfoolery” that the headline indicates is nothing more than a play on words: Tom Wall expressed appreciation on behalf of All Star Hot Dogs; separately, Shoshana Hurand made a presentation about the upcoming FestiFools parade. City council’s Monday meeting also featured a brief performance on harmonica by Peter “Madcat” Ruth and a puppet-head of vast proportions resembling Mayor John Hiefte [photo after the break].

But woven into the mix was less lighthearted fare: People’s Food Co-op Board elections, protection for migratory birds, appointments to a zoning advisory committee, potholes, the vehicle fleet and road salt. Council authorized an expenditure that Mike Bergren, assistant field operations manager with the city of Ann Arbor, said was estimated to get us at least through the rest of the winter – saying it was possible that there’d be ice storms in April. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor District Library board meeting (March 16, 2009): At their Monday night board meeting, a full contingent of the AADL board heard about the online searchable archive of Ann Arbor city council minutes, got a report from director Josie Parker (putting a recent library rating into context), set a process for conducting Parker’s performance review, and voted to approve additional funds related to replacement of air-handlers in the downtown library. [Full Story]

A story in The Oprah Magazine features UM psychology professor Colleen Seifert, telling a personal anecdote about a life transformation as well as looking at her academic research: “Preparing your mind for a certain behavior increases (by as much as 50 percent) the chance that you’ll pull that behavior off. And that’s what Seifert was attempting: to prepare – or encode into memory – her plans to change her behavior in a way that might change her future. By imagining a new role as a ‘people person,’ she was giving herself a better chance of behaving like one whenever the opportunity arose.” [Source]

The Freep and Crain’s Detroit Business are among the media outlets reporting that Daimler AG is considering Washtenaw County as a site for an R&D center for hybrid vehicle systems that would create more than 200 jobs. A memo prepared by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. states that the automaker is also looking at sites in North Carolina and South Carolina. [Source] [Source]

In preparation for its grand opening next week, the UM Museum of Art is asking patrons to vote for their favorite work in the UMMA collection, out of a selection of 36 pieces. Results from the UMMA Art Pick are posted daily. [Source]

MSNBC posts a bizjournals quality-of-life ranking in which Ann Arbor takes fifth place. The city’s five strengths were listed as: 1. sizable percentage of adults with advanced degrees, 2. solid concentration of management jobs, 3. strong concentration of adults with bachelor’s degrees, 4. decent percentage of workers living close to home, and 5. high income levels. The No. 1 city in this ranking is Provo, Utah. [Source]

The New York Times reports on a debate about whether there’s water on Mars. The article quotes Nilton Renno, a UM professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences who believes there is, based on photos taken by NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft: “I think the evidence is overwhelming. It’s not circumstantial evidence.” [Source]

The Detroit News reports that some freshman state legislators plan to form “a task force to study the feasibility of a proposed high-speed rail line that would run along elevated tubes on interstate highway rights-of-way between Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit.” The effort is being pushed by a private firm, Interstate Traveler Co. of Whitmore Lake and Detroit. [Source]

From left to right: Ron Mucha, Greg Jones, David Strosberg, Kevin McDonald (city attorney's office). Mucha and Strosberg are with Morningside LLC, while Jones, a former chair of Ann Arbor's Historic District Commission, is the architect on the parking lot.

By the conclusion of its Thursday evening meeting, Ann Arbor’s historic district commission had denied the application by Morningside LLC  for permission to demolish two houses on the Old West Side.

Morningside wanted the option for demolition of the structures to give them more flexibility in the marketing of a 19,000 square foot greenhouse space adjoining the Liberty Lofts condominium project. The plan was to add additional parking spaces, if a tenant requested them.

The commission took three votes on three different motions related to the application for demolition, but was not able to pass any of them. The votes all split 3-3 among the six commissioners who attended the meeting. Given the failure to pass any of the motions, the body had fully considered the application and thus acted on it without approving it, which meant that the application failed.

What were all those motions about? [Full Story]

Joe Eastman's hand almost disappears into a blur in executing the toss of a ping pong ball towards a cup. Eastman and his teammate Dane Ellis won the tournament.

“If a ball bounces off a dead cup into a live one, does that count?” was the question to Drew Harrison from a competitor in Saturday night’s double-elimination beer pong tournament held at Rick’s American Cafe on Church Street.

Harrison is operations manager of Clutch Pong, a company that’s trying “to bring this game out of people’s backyards, basements, and porches and turn it into a mainstream sport giving everyone a chance to play.” Contestants paid $20 apiece ($40 per team) for a shot at the first place prize, which was tickets and a hotel stay in Atlantic City from June 11-13. [Full Story]

Brad Hedeman, who handles marketing and purchasing for Zingerman's Mail Order, in their temporary retail store (the front entry for the warehouse).

According to Mo Frechette, they miss seeing customers out there in warehouse land. Toni Morell says they’re bored during off season. There’s also some inventory they’d like to move at discounted prices, Frechette says, so “why not do it as a hush-hush locals-only thing?”

The Chronicle suspects that Zingerman’s fans won’t really care why the managing partners of Zingerman’s Mail Order decided to open a super low-key discount retail store – they’ll just care about the when, where and what.

So here’s the deal: Every Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., starting last Friday and running for 21 weeks, the warehouse at 610 Phoenix Drive will be selling 21 types of items at deep discounts – including some things priced at $21 – to anyone who happens to stop by. The stock will be different each week, though there’ll likely be some overlap, too – you can sign up to get weekly emails alerting you to what’s on offer.

When we stopped by on March 13, the venture’s kickoff day, we watched a steady stream of people drop in – mostly from the surrounding industrial park, which includes the Borders Group headquarters and the Ann Arbor Learning Community, a charter school. Frechette said they’d told some of the surrounding businesses about it – plus there’s a sign at the entrance to their driveway – but otherwise, only some “leakage” about the store on Facebook and the blogosphere. Yet word is getting out. [Full Story]

The New York Times’ City Room reports that Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof – a UM associate professor and the author of “A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950” – will be answering readers questions this week about “how New York has been transformed by the Dominican settlement and how Dominicans’ lives here have affected life in their native country.” [Source]

Larcom Building 2nd floor bulletin board

Already on Wednesday of this past week the decision had been made to cancel city council’s Sunday caucus. I received a two-sentence email that morning – sent in equitable fashion to both The Chronicle and The Ann Arbor News by Mayor John Hieftje: “We have another light agenda for Monday night so caucus has been cancelled for this Sunday. Enjoy the evening.”

But the way I enjoy my evenings on the Sunday before a regular city council meeting is to attend caucus. You can’t cancel the thing I enjoy and then invite me to enjoy myself. Well, you can, actually, as Mayor Hieftje proved. But you can’t do it without causing me to ask some questions. Like: How was this decision made and who makes it?

Before diving into that, let me address a possible point of skepticism in readers’ minds. I do enjoy caucus. Really, I do. [Full Story]

Stedman Graham

At last Wednesday’s administrative briefing for Washtenaw County commissioners, the group was reminded about a VIP reception to be held before their March 18 board meeting. The special guest? Stedman Graham.

“Stedman – is that Oprah’s boyfriend?” asked commissioner Ken Schwartz.

“Yes,” county administrator Bob Guenzel replied. “But don’t call him that.”

Aside from the Oprah Winfrey connection, Graham is a management consultant, best-selling author, motivational speaker and founder of the nonprofit AAD Education, Health and Sports, which works to develop the leadership skills of disadvantaged youth. He’ll be in Ann Arbor to highlight the county’s efforts to end illiteracy, and will be speaking at five different events on March 18-19. [Full Story]