Today at Selma Cafe, having an incredible breakfast and talking with Alexander Jarosev, who said: “I find Ann Arbor cleaner, more decent, more affordable, a place with tastier food and superior civic architecture (not to mention more culturally vibrant) than Oxford, England – similar but no contest.” Alexander is a literature scholar and former archeologist from Oxford University.
Soule & Madison
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Agreed on all counts, well said sir.
Superior civic architecture!?
The Law Quad does resemble an Oxford college to a remarkable degree but surely that is not what he meant. It is a treasure, though.
Maybe he was referring to various UM buildings?
Surely by civic architecture he meant the NON-university architecture (civic as in city) in both towns. And I can see his point–Oxford’s non-university but non-residential streetscapes are a mix with some really rotten ones in there. So are A2′s tho.
Did he define “decent?”
Superior to Oxford in many important ways, exactly as we are, right today? No wonder our political class is so determined to throw out everything that makers us superior.
I once heard of a man whose goal was to make Ann Arbor unrecognizable to anyone who had lived here in the recent past. Sounds like his efforts would be put to better use in England.