ann arbor is overrated.

Another blogger and former A2 fan explains why this town now falls short of the funky-off-center-paradise ideal that its boosters stoutly maintain it still lives up to:

[A] few years ago, it started. Gentrification. Of course, maybe that’s not the right word; it’s so loaded and yet vague. What happened was a gradual, silent destruction, like an implosion. One beloved, ancient record store shut down. And then a few others. Then the card store, then some coffeehouses, then, just this month, the drugstore that’s been on campus since before I was born. Meanwhile, all the vacant lots started being filled with condos (in a town with practically no affordable housing), and the vacant stores were taken over by chains.

Speaking of condo-building plans, the city’s maintaining a brisk pace in that area. Did you know that a “penthouse” condo on the corner of Fifth and Washington goes for $1.5 million?