Neighborhoods Section

When The Chronicle spots a single chunk of concrete lying lonesome on the grass, we’ll generally swing back around for a closer look. Around Eberwhite is an area where we’d noticed sidewalk replacement in progress on a neighborhood scale over the last couple of days, but the busted up slabs had generally been stacked up and carted off. Why was this lonely chunk still sitting there? It was as if someone had set it aside as something extra special. [Full Story]

In many ways, Saturday’s gathering of neighbors was ultra-ordinary – a friendly potluck on Arborview, brats sizzling on the grill, wine and soda in plastic cups, kids running around while their elders relaxed on lawn chairs.

But this group – all members of the Dexter-Miller Community Co-op – had something more revolutionary at its heart: To strengthen their neighborhood bonds in ways both practical and personal.

So far, 34 households are part of DexMil, more or less within the boundaries of Miller Road to the north, Dexter Road to the south, Maple to the west and Seventh to the east. They’ve got their own currency, directory of services and newsletter.

And that’s just the start, says Al Feldt, the co-op’s driving force. [Full Story]

I miss my daily newspaper as I remember it. Beginning at age 8, I delivered the Detroit Free Press starting at 5 in the morning. It was a small town that depended on two bikes and two people to get the paper out before the milk was delivered to most doorsteps by Alward’s Dairy. It was my world.

I still remember the streets and house numbers as well as some of the more scandalous family entanglements on “my route.” It was hard to keep anything from the paperboy since things seem to either happen or clear out just before daybreak. Recently, a retiree in Ann Arbor said that she grew up at 126 Tyrell Street in my home town. I blushed … [Full Story]

I’ll admit – I’m not a regular rider of those purple buses that circle downtown Ann Arbor. In fact, this summer when I thought, “Hey – I’ll ride The Link!” I was revealed to be an idiot, unaware that the fleet went on haitus as soon as UM students dispersed. (Even though AATA posted signs to that effect at each stop. When you aren’t looking, you don’t see.)

Now, like the students, The Link is back. So when I set off for a chat with Ken Nisbet of UM’s Office of Technology Transfer, which sits above the Starbucks on South University, I decided to grab a free ride. [Full Story]

Seven years ago, Eileen Bristol was about to move to California when the property at Huron and First came up for sale.

“I said, ‘Oh, man, I love that building – what could I do there?” she recalls, laughing.

The building was a former gas station built in the 1930s, and what she decided to do was start RelaxStation, a small walk-in massage business that crammed a lot of personality into the tight 280-square-foot space. Business has been good – so good that “we pretty well maxed out the space,” she says.

It was time to expand, and her project to more than double the space – a $900,000 $90,000 investment – is nearing completion. [Full Story]

For folks passing through Kerrytown – whether to Zingerman’s Deli, Kerrytown Market & Shops or the farmers market – it’s easy to overlook the backside of Community High School. But two new banners that now adorn its outer back walls aim to bring attention to the school and add some public art to the Kerrytown district.

Ansted Moss, a Commie High senior, designed the two 24-foot by 12-foot vinyl pieces, which are stretched like a canvas over metal bars facing South Fifth Avenue. They were hung over the course of two days – using a cherry picker lift – just before school started.

Kris Hermanson, who taught art for 30 years at CHS before retiring two years ago, describes them as “elegant, yet edgy and original.” [Full Story]

Along Zeeb Road just north of Washtenaw County’s Western County Service Center, The Chronicle noticed a small green sign with white lettering that read: “Reflective Address Signs Available Here!” [Full Story]

There’s an asphalt path that runs from the entrance to Gallup Park along Geddes westward toward the Arb. Along the way it becomes a sidewalk.

Two weeks ago I pedaled east out Geddes Road to the Gallup Park entrance in search of a bench – or possibly just a plaque – that indicated the path was created in memory of someone. Even though I’d run past that marker many times, I no longer had a clear recollection whether it was a bench or a plaque, much less the actual name of … [Full Story]

We’ve all seen the ubiquitous stencil art around town – often, but not always, making some pointed political or social commentary.

But you’ll prove you really know the city if you can identify the locale of this work:

[Full Story]

Shailesh Saigal has owned his red hybrid Honda Insight since 2000, but it’s only been within the past year that he’s turned the car into a mobile canvas.

“I wanted to put stuff out there that makes me me,” says Saigal, who lives in northwest Ann Arbor. 

[Full Story]

There are several different segments of local culture of which I have scant knowledge. One of those is whatever you’d like to call that segment that makes Punk Week happen in late August every year. Details in published sources are few. Even the the venerable ArborWiki’s description of the Shopping Cart Races, apparently one of the core events of Punk Week, is too vague to allow attendance or participation in the event. [Full Story]

Late August in Ann Arbor brings any number of signs by the curb announcing that the items set out there are free for the taking. Here’s an example of a such a sign that turns out to have been composed by Kevin Leeser. Whatever had been left out under the sign was already gone by the time The Chronicle noticed it, so we pounded on the door this morning to find out. [Full Story]

When Ann Arbor residents leave their corrugated cardboard out (before 7 a.m.) for curbside pickup by Recycle Ann Arbor, sometimes it doesn’t disappear by the time they’ve returned home in the evening. It will be sitting in the same neat pile they left it in – with one difference. Stuck to the top of the pile will be an orange sticky note declaring: “Your corrugated cardboard wasn’t prepared properly.” [Full Story]

I operate a modest bicycle-based cargo hauling and delivery business here in Ann Arbor. Although I use a trailer hitched to a ordinary two-wheeled bicycle to deliver my loads, I’m also intrigued by pedal-powered vehicles that are designed from the ground up for carrying cargo. So when I spotted a three-wheeler in the wild, I pedaled up to the operator for a chat. [Full Story]

Following up on a previous Stopped. Watched. item about a provocative bumper sticker The Chronicle was provoked to chat with the owner of this Ford 4-speed manual transmission pickup:

 

The signage created by this driver is not strictly speaking a “bumper sticker.” First, the frame he’s constructed atop the truck bed gate isn’t the bumper. And although he “sticks” them into the frame, he prints the text from his computer out onto ordinary 8.5 x 11 inches sheets of paper and pieces them together into a single message.

He creates a … [Full Story]

Spreading the word about an event in today’s digital age includes posting the information on websites, writing about it on personal blogs, exhorting other bloggers to blog about it, sending email to lists, listing it on Craigslist and Upcoming … and taping a sheet of paper on the wall where people can see it.

Absent the flyer – complete with tear-off tabs – posted at the Jefferson Market, The Chronicle would have missed the photo contest sponsored by … [Full Story]

On a lazy Saturday August afternoon, there’s still plenty happening on the University of Michigan Diag. This couple chose the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library as a perfect location to stage a wedding kiss.

From left-to-right: the bride’s white shoes, the parasol holder, the bride and groom locked in a kiss, the photographer lying on her side to get just the right angle, and one of Ann Arbor’s finest pedaling past.

Some questions not answered for Chronicle readers:

• What’s special about the Hatcher Graduate Library? Did they meet in the … [Full Story]