ann arbor is overrated.

ABORT ABORT ABORT! They’re on to us. They being Talk About Town:

The author of our favorite anti-Ann Arbor blog, “Ann Arbor is Overrated” (formerly known as Ann Arbor Sucks and now located at www.annarborisoverrated.com) recently floated the question of an Ann Arbor is Overrated meetup to his readers. They seemed enthusiastic about the idea; the post generated 48 comments at last count. But when it came down to suggesting a site, the prevailing preferences - Leopold Brothers, Ashley’s and Old Town - were all in Ann Arbor. Shouldn’t a group united by the opinion that Ann Arbor is Overrated meet in Ypsilanti?

Props to them for getting the word out about our new virtual location.

A letter in Thursday’s News oh-so-subtly - as is our wont here in the genteel Midwest - implies that it’s students and faculty driving up the price of A2 housing. “Who will see to it that those of us without tenured professorships or monthly allowances from our families will be able to afford to live here?” asks Abigail Glogower. We can assure her that those with monthly allowances from their tenants are also managing to hang on.

Conservative columnist Jay Nordlinger on his hometown (from a year-old column about the Lynn Rivers/John Dingell race):

Friends, I was raised by Ann Arbor liberals; was educated by them (sort of); was enmeshed with them. I’m not sure there was anything “intellectual” about them. I’ve since known a few intellectuals: particularly at my places of employment, The Weekly Standard and NR. Ann Arbor? Wouldn’t have thought of the word, actually. “Jacobin” comes to mind.

We thought Jacobins were supposed to be revolutionary and all that, but we could imagine Madame Defarge in the Old Fourth Ward Association.

He also refers to Rivers as “Ann Arbor squared” in another column, which we guess makes her A to the fourth.

Also, a letter in today’s Daily also fails to grasp the connection between all of those research papers coming out of the University and the fact that grad students are paid. “That must be a tough life, to actually have all your living expenses covered by your salary,” writes Jon Ochmanek. Undergraduates, he points out for those grad students who went straight from high school to grad school and may not be aware of the undergrad experience, must “take out loans to cover the rest of the living expenses.”

This is huge. Goodspeed carries an item about what we’ve referred to as Michigan’s walking-under-the-influence law - under which police could require pedestrians under 21 to take Breathalyzer tests - being struck down by a federal court. This long-deserved neutering of the party patrol brought to you by the Michigan ACLU.

Oh, dear. This is the second time we’ve picked on Aubrey Henretty’s column, which we usually like. But today’s, which opposes GEO, contains a line we couldn’t let go. Grad students, she says, “don’t understand that teaching two or three college courses in exchange for a free graduate education is not, by any stretch of the imagination, like working in a factory or even in a public high school.”

Graduate student instructors teach courses. They are paid and receive a free graduate education. This leads many people to believe, understandably, that they receive a free graduate education simply in exchange for teaching courses. But the point of graduate school is to do research, original research that makes a new discovery. Otherwise, by the same argument, fellowship students receive a free graduate education in exchange for doing nothing.

We’re undecided on how much the University should be responsible for the child care of grad students’ kids, which, along with health care premiums, was the GEO position Henretty opposes. And we wouldn’t argue that grad students are undercompensated for what they do - be it teaching and research or, um, nothing and research.

Tired of losing all those display lines on your terminal when you try to run your VT100 software? The Ann Arbor Ambassador may be just what you’re looking for.

An “Other Voices” column in the News lays the blame for lack of affordable housing in A2 at the feet of the University, which has demolished a number of apartment buildings over the years (as well as the historic houses the writer seems mainly concerned about, which, as a source of affordable housing, are questionable). The writer of the article, who is coming out with a book about defunct historic buildings called “Lost Ann Arbor,” is probably the sort of historic-house fetishist who writes A2 house fan fiction (that 1101 Washtenaw/534 Hill slash is sweet!) but it’s an interesting read nonetheless.

Today we launch Ann Arbor is Overrated at its new location, annarborisoverrated.com. We’ll still be leaving up this site as we try to get our old entries over to the new site somehow. Leave your feedback on the new site!

From a News profile of Bob Seger, a phrase you don’t hear that often: “blue-collar roots growing up in Ann Arbor.”

A reader writes in with five reasons Ann Arbor doesn’t suck:

1. Dominos Pizza originated from Ann Arbor.
2. Borders
3. Andrew W.K.
4. Iggy Pop
5. Bob Seger

Were it not for the inclusion of Iggy Pop and Andrew W.K., we’d think he was being ironic (Borders? Now?) but that appears not to be the case. These may in fact be the five exports A2 is best known for, and, whatever else you may think about them, it’s a pretty unpretentious list, considering their source. Salon even ran a piece recently that gamely tried to rehabilitate the “monumentally unhip” Seger on the basis of his unfussy “sturdiness.”

Ypsi’s becoming a pretty cool place lately. But don’t worry - they’ve got a plan to remedy that. By rezoning the up-and-coming Cross Street area, they’ll be able to attract “more families and fewer students.” An Ypsi resident whose main problems are “noise and parking” supports the plan - what’s cooler than quiet parking lots? “Landlords who rent to students,” on the other hand, oppose it.

No students were quoted or acknowledged to have a perspective on the rezoning in the News article.

UPDATE: Seat of the Revolution may have the definitive take on this - Steven actually attended the planning meeting.