Rpegccecsquellerleftblankoutptdropp
Back from out of town.
The News concedes that Ann Arbor might sometimes seem like a stressful place to live. After all, they point out, there’s the weather. And the parking and traffic. And…um…paying for Christmas presents! But these factors don’t come close to outweighing “the beauty of the landscape, the almost limitless cultural and recreational offerings, the tremendous community services and the warmth of the people.”
“Relax,” the headline tells us. “You could be almost any place else.”
I’m still wiping coffee off my monitor. The “beauty of the landscape”? Was that written by someone who has never been outside of Washtenaw county?
posted by Anna on January 21st, 2004 at 9:58 amAnna, I’ve found it’s helpful to install an intermittent wiper on my monitor to correct similar AA News-related mishaps. Between the lack of scenery and bleak climate calling this place “beautiful” seems like a stretch - odd that people in such an otherwise scenic state would single out the one ugly corner of it for praise. And though I haven’t been here long, I believe there are limits to the cultural and recreational opportunities if you look hard enough.
posted by Nick on January 21st, 2004 at 10:49 amWhaddayamean limits to culture and recreation? We got cable!
posted by js on January 21st, 2004 at 11:11 amjs
Speaking of the limitless cultural opportunities in Ann Arbor — will the football fans among you settle something for me. As someones who has lived in both Columbus and East Lansing, I have heard local football fans babble endlesssly about the “{Big Game” against U-M. WHich is the “bigt game” MSU/U-M or OSU/U-M?
posted by Lucky Jackson on January 21st, 2004 at 11:43 amIf cable is recreation you must get a few interesting channels than I don’t.
posted by Nick on January 21st, 2004 at 11:44 amSorry, “that” I don’t.
posted by Nick on January 21st, 2004 at 11:44 amAnd there’s bingo at the Senior Center over near Burns Park. I noticed that while I was at a lecture on sausage making. The seniors also had playoff football on TV, which really had me psyched about joining up (since I DON’T have cable), but when I noticed there was no bar, I thought better of it.
posted by Anonymous on January 21st, 2004 at 11:44 amOSU. No question
posted by David on January 21st, 2004 at 11:46 amLucky — I think both are considered “big” games, although MSU/UM often isn’t much of a game. In fact, I think I’ve heard both of them referred to as “The Big Game”.
posted by Anna on January 21st, 2004 at 11:46 amI defer to David’s expertise in this area.
posted by Anna on January 21st, 2004 at 11:47 amWhat do you want to watch? Cheese of snow?
posted by Eric on January 21st, 2004 at 12:01 pmCheese of snow! That’s what next month’s lecture at the Senior Center is about. Apparently (I’m just quoting from the brochure) there’s a naturally occurring bacteria in the upper part of the ozone layer. It precipitates out in snow (but not in rain), which is then collected, mixed with milk and paprika, and then fermented and aged for about two weeks. The seniors are curious because it’s supposed to be really easy to gum. In fact, it’s practically the only thing eaten by the oldsters in Lapland.
posted by Anonymous on January 21st, 2004 at 12:11 pmI think probably that anyone with the News’ perspective has not lived outside of Ann Arbour or any village bigger and is not use to the cultural amenities that can be offered elsewhere. It’s quite cute actually, to be so complacent and content with such little offerings. Maybe it’s better that way!
posted by sammy on January 21st, 2004 at 5:41 pmActually, Sammy, other students in my department have suggested to me repeatedly that the best way to cope with living here is to willfully ratchet down your expectations (and to not stop even when you think they’re low enough).
posted by Nick on January 21st, 2004 at 7:51 pmAh, the sweet smell of ennui. Aren’t teenagers cute!
posted by Anonymous on January 22nd, 2004 at 8:48 amCold.
There is no other explanation for this place, and that is why I am going to move when I can.
posted by eston on January 22nd, 2004 at 8:52 amOk, I know I’m going to get hassled for this one, but here goes.
The limitless cultural blah blah is mostly directed towards the Zingerman’s crowd (to quote Seinfeld: not that there’s anything wrong with that). These are people who are between the ages of 35 and 65, who for the most part have a ton of disposable income, and either have kids—and are therefore only able to get out of the house on their own once. You’d be surprised how great a town AA is if you only get out once a month (I fall into this category)—-or they are empty nesters who take weird classes on taoism, go rowing, learn about pottery, and above all, buy stuff.
YES I am generalizing big time, but again, that is the point of this site.
The problem that most of you have is that you are the wrong age, and are used to instant culture. Most of you are from larger cities where everything is waiting for you the minute you finish school/work. In a small town, you have to earn your culture, and this can be a difficult thing when you are short on time. This isn’t necesarily a bad thing, but if you really work at it, I think that you’d be surprised at what Ann Arbor has to offer. Of course, since I don’t get out of work much, I could be horribly wrong.
This is the part where Boris reassures me that Ann Arbor is without question more fun than Vegas is for a speed freak. Help me out, Boris.
posted by todd on January 22nd, 2004 at 9:24 amIt also helps if you don’t have an extremely narrow notion of what, for you, constitutes a cultural opportunity. For instance, let’s say I like Wilco. Once a year or so Wilco comes to town and I’m happy for a night. Once every month or so I get to see some other band that kind of sounds like Wilco. If that was all I cared about, I’d be happy maybe ten days a year. “This town fuckin’ sucks!”, I’d say, “In New York, I could see alt-country bands every night! In Chicago, I’d be, like, hangin’ with Wilco.” And I’d pout and sulk and be too depressed to even flirt with the bartender at the Elbow Room.
But what if I also liked fishing? And maybe not just regular fishing, but ice fishing too? Golly, I could do that any day! Year round! And I only live two blocks from the river!
Maybe I’d find a happy person, and shadow her for a few weeks, see what she does. Maybe I’d try that pottery stuff, or the rowing. Maybe I’d take responsibility for my own entertainment and find that it wasn’t the town that was boring, it was me.
posted by David on January 22nd, 2004 at 10:05 amI dunno — I liked the Arb a lot. Tried to go there every day to let my dog run around with the other dogs. I had a little group of arb friends who I saw often and with whom I sometimes even had dog picnics. And I had a friend with whom I used to go to the arb on solitary quiet nights, the kind of nights where the sky is midnight blue and the trees are black and the dogs can romp with impunity in the field and on the trails and maybe even come close to catching a possum.
Still, circling around the arb year after year, day after day, night after night, the same little trails, the same unchallenging hills, the same trees and little areas near the river — even if you love the place it gets dull after a while. I never had more than a spare hour or so in a very long day, and even then, the Arb was pretty ho-hum after the first five years.
My arb experience is pretty much an allegory for my entire AA experience. Could I find some way to be content in AA? Sure, I guess, especially with the right combination of sunlamps and medication. But is AA still overrated? I would still vote yes.
posted by Anna on January 22nd, 2004 at 10:36 amI’m no Boris, but I’ll back Todd on this one. I have lived in Chicago for eight loooooong years, and before that I lived in Ann Arbor. Yes, there is almost anything one could want in Chicago–except community and affordability.
You think Ann Arbor is expensive? Sheesh. Hang out with Wilco every weekend and you’ll be sleeping in a van down by the river. Want to park downtown and stay out past midnight? $26, please. (After midnight is charged at the 24-hour rate.) Beer? $6 in a dive. Crappy tickets to a half-rate touring company musical? $65 for upper balcony.
Don’t forget to factor in an hour or more to get where you’re going.
And you can have all that any night you want.
I know Ann Arbor is small and it doesn’t take long to get to know the ins-and-outs, but there really is something to be said for becoming part of a community, and that is a heck of a lot easier to do there than here–but it still takes effort. At this point in life, I want to make that effort.
(This point in life = married, no kids, 30-something, some but not tons of disposable income)
posted by Mo on January 22nd, 2004 at 1:38 pmSorry for not getting back to you sooner, Todd, but I just got back from my zen pottery class. Do we throw the clay or does the clay throw us? I’ll leave you to puzzle over that little imponderable. All I know is, once this baby comes out of the kiln, I’ll finally have the perfect place to store my organic homemade marshmallows. And not a moment too soon, either, I might add. Oh look at the time — off to Zingermans!
posted by Boris on January 22nd, 2004 at 2:32 pmDavid– nice taste in music, but Wilco sure as heck ain’t alt.country these days. And have you seen Porchsleeper yet? They keep eluding me.
Mo– the nice thing about Chicago is that you can actually take transit to get where you are going at night (can’t you? How late to the trains run?), and thus don’t need to pay that $26.
Anyway, I think it is all relative. I think we really need to be comparing Ann Arbor to other cities of just over 100,000 people… I think it will fare better than the majority of them, anyway. Overrated, yes, but you just need to not expect too much– there is usually something to do here if you look… every week there is at least a good live show or two or 5 in AA/Ypsi, there is high bar-per-capita selection, there are are 5 movie theaters, some of that theater/classical stuff if that’s your bag… I mean, I’m sort of tired of Ann Arbor, but feel I’ll probably have to move somewhere significantly larger to find what I need. For its size, it does okay… “overrated” is a fitting moniker– people make it out to be more perfect than it is, but compared most other Midwestern cities of similar size as far as “cultural opportunities” and I think we do okay.
posted by Brandon on January 22nd, 2004 at 4:20 pmBrandon - If you live in the city you can take the CTA trains (”the el”) at almost any hour, depending on the station. It’s great if you live walking distance to a station, as I did for about a year; otherwise you then must use a bus and/or cab. If you live in a nearby suburb, as I do now, the Metra trains stop running at 12:30 AM.
You’re right: comparing apples to apples is the most fair way to go. Relative to towns of its size, Ann Arbor has a lot going on. I lived in Rockford, Illinois, (pop. ~150,000) for a time. It is almost entirely devoid of entertainment, culture, higher education, or much of anything else–unless you like a steady diet of RV shows, farm-equipment shows, and restaurants that specialize in pork.
posted by Mo on January 22nd, 2004 at 5:17 pmWhat adds to Ann Arbor’s boring-ness is that it’s not near that many really great things (OK, you Ypsi fans, except Ypsi). I never hated Detroit/Hamtramack, but you can only go to the motor lounge so many times.
I live in a town that is the exact same size as AA (though I thought it was twice the size at one point!!) and there is a lot more going on here. It has half the median income, and still manages to be more interesting (and, to be fair, more dangerous). But here we also have surrounding towns that have lots going on in terms of bars, live music, etc. and we access to ocean, mountains, good hiking, not to mention a couple major cities. Even though I’m just as busy as I was in AA (maybe more-so), cool things are accessible enough that I can get out and do them. I think that the critical mass of interesting people in other nearby towns helps ours to be more vibrant.
I guess that to the extent that it’s not AA’s fault that it doesn’t have these other things going for it, then it’s not really fair to fault AA for lacking those things. Overrated, still.
posted by Anna on January 22nd, 2004 at 6:41 pmWhat adds to Ann Arbor’s boring-ness is that it’s not near that many really great things (OK, you Ypsi fans, except Ypsi). I never hated Detroit/Hamtramack, but you can only go to the motor lounge so many times.
I live in a town that is the exact same size as AA (though I thought it was twice the size at one point!!) and there is a lot more going on here. It has half the median income, and still manages to be more interesting (and, to be fair, more dangerous). But here we also have surrounding towns that have lots going on in terms of bars, live music, etc. and we access to ocean, mountains, good hiking, not to mention a couple major cities. Even though I’m just as busy as I was in AA (maybe more-so), cool things are accessible enough that I can get out and do them. I think that the critical mass of interesting people in other nearby towns helps ours to be more vibrant.
I guess that to the extent that it’s not AA’s fault that it doesn’t have these other things going for it, then it’s not really fair to fault AA for lacking those things. Overrated, still.
posted by Anna on January 22nd, 2004 at 6:57 pmAnn Arbor is mostly “Self-Overrated”. Compared to the average town of its size, AA comes out OK. It probably has a per capita arts inferiority with tiny Athens, GA, but …
AA’s problem is it tries to compare itself directly to cultural heavy hitters like the Bay Area, Austin, or NYC (where I once saw a fat Michigander with a shirt that said, “Cambridge, the Ann Arbor of the East” or maybe it was “Harvard, the U of M of the East”.
posted by Leighton on January 22nd, 2004 at 7:23 pmAh, tourists. You’d think that after actually visiting other places, they’d be ashamed to wear such a shirt? Wait, shame?…from Ann Arbor?).
That’s really the nail on the head. My disappointment upon moving here lay in quickly realizing that this was not, in fact, the greatest place to live, anywhere, and at any point in history, as numerous alumni and residents persistently argued when I was still weighing grad schools. It may be great for Michigan, but compared to Pittsburgh, Chapel Hill, and southern California it’s far inferior in every way. If I had just been told I was moving to a tiny, quiet town in the middle of nowhere, I would have had much more appropriate expectations.
posted by Nick on January 22nd, 2004 at 10:38 pmNick,
posted by Brandon on January 22nd, 2004 at 11:25 pm“a tiny, quiet town in the middle of nowhere”? I guess because I really am from a much smaller, duller, more awful town than Ann Arbor I do get a bit irked by some of the big-city snobbishness… hey, it isn’t heaven, but have you ever been to a REAL “tiny, quiet town in the middle of nowhere?”… Ann Arbor is what it is, no more no less. A small city dominated by a major university dominated by Bobos with a respectable per-capita-things-to-do ratio. Go visit Zeeland, Michigan– you guys really wouldn’t stand a chance there. Damn you Ann Arbor, I don’t know whether to defend you or bash you…
Well, what I expected when I came here was something like Chapel Hill, NC, where I used to live. Aside from the obvious contrasts in climate and charm, it struck me that CH has so much more to do than AA, a much better music scene and far better restaurants, while being half the size of AA and being cheaper in many ways. As I say, AA wouldn’t be nearly so bad without the pretentiousness - CH really is just a college town that thinks of itself as a college town, not a college town putting on airs of being a sophisticated, exciting city (and working hard at giving potential newcomers a very misleading impression).
posted by Nick on January 23rd, 2004 at 8:40 amUm, “the warmth of the people”?
I don’t think it’s a “tiny, quiet town in the middle of nowhere.” I’m from southern California originally and I don’t think it’s inferior to southern California unless you long for a lot of sunlight and the rest of the typical stuff that southern California offers. I don’t really miss California all that much.
I don’t think A2 is the be-all and end-all of existence (which, unfortunately, it clearly does), but I don’t think it’s hell, either.
NOWHERE in the United States is the “greatest place to live anymore,” unless you’re independently wealthy.
posted by frank on January 25th, 2004 at 4:51 pmI dunno, Frank. I think there are a lot of good places to live in the United States. It’s just a question of whether you are lucky enough to have the right opportunity to move to one of them. I sacrifice a lot vis a vis my personal life for my career, since I’m an academic and constrained by the job market and availability of facilities for my research, but if I could make a living anywhere, I can think of lots of places that I’d like to live. And academics are more constrained than most; many of the places I have in mind would be easy to move to if I were in private industry.
posted by Anna on January 25th, 2004 at 6:08 pmAnna, you’re probably right. I hope so, because there are a number of places that I’ve visited that seem like they’d be fantastic places to live. The question then becomes: well, could I find a job there?
I understand what you’re saying about constraints. I suppose it depends on what career you have and how “portable” that career is. I am studying to be a librarian, so I suppose this topic is always in the back of my mind.
posted by frank on January 25th, 2004 at 8:10 pmWell, all this stuff is very subjective, of course. I dislike AA because it’s much, much worse than anywhere else I’ve ever lived - and I have moved around a bit. Relative to everywhere else I’ve been, AA is: (a) very quiet and boring; (b) very small; (c) very isolated; (d) very ugly; and (e) pretentious in a way I never could have imagined. Sorry if that makes me a big-city snob, but I can only speak from experience (particularly that of living in a smaller town a few years ago). But to me, AA is kind of the worst of both worlds: none of the energy, culture, job opportunities, or social scene of a city; none of the friendliness, peacefulness, or affordability of a small town. Honestly if it were one or the other I’d probably like it a lot - but to me it just seems like a small, out-of-the-way burb with nothing to do but eat $15 sandwiches and watch cable in your $800/mo apartment.
posted by Nick on January 25th, 2004 at 8:47 pmNick, I can see your point. And I agree with some of what you’re saying. AA is overpriced. It’s definitely quiet and highly geared toward college kids. It is pretentious.
I guess it depends on where you’re coming to AA from. If you’ve lived somewhere bigger and livelier and miss that, I can see AA being a huge letdown. I moved here from San Francisco, which, while one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is increasingly also one of the dirtiest, unfriendliest, most overpriced, and most depressing places to live in the US (unless you can afford to live in, say, Pacific Heights or Sausalito).
I guess my overall impression after having lived here for 5 months is that it’s not paradise but it’s not as bad as I expected it to be. Maybe I had low expectations. I don’t know.
posted by frank on January 25th, 2004 at 10:17 pmYeah, lower expectations can be a good way to go - I had the opposite problem, with many people rather forcefully lying to my face to convince me that I’d be happier leaving California for here. It does depend on perspective. I came here from LA, which I actually rather liked - aside from the climate, beaches and mountains, wonderful food, the great music scene, the nightlife, and the incredible energy of the town, I had lots of friends and a great job there. My other points of comparison are Pittsburgh (not a spectactular city, but very fun, loaded with personality, and extremely lively around the universities, at half of AA’s cost of living) and Chapel Hill (half the size of AA, but lovely, friendly, great restaurants, bars and coffee houses, terrific music scene, and somewhat cheaper than AA).
posted by Nick on January 25th, 2004 at 10:52 pmNick, apart from AA’s other limitations, if you left a great job and good friends behind in LA, I can see why you would find AA lacking. I would feel the same way. My situation was somewhat different; I left a great job, but most of my friends had either already moved away from SF or were in the process of doing so. I suppose my view of LA is colored by the fact that I left it at the age of 18 with the typical attitude of someone wanting to leave his hometown and try something different. I visited again last spring after a long absence and had a much better (and more mellow) viewpoint about it. I would not rule out moving back there if the situation were right.
I’ve never been to Pittsburgh or Chapel Hill but have heard many good things about both. I have a friend who lived in Chapel Hill and misses it a lot. One of my favorite 90s indie bands, Superchunk, is native to the Chapel Hill area.
posted by frank on January 26th, 2004 at 2:10 amAlthough I have a very robust preference for the E. Coast (specifically New England), if I had to choose between Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor there would be absolutely no quesiton which I would say was better. Pittsburgh is everything Nick promises — affordable, fun, good music scene, lots of young people from the universities and locals, etc. Plus, for a city very managable. Also, for me, as a person in a technical field, it was a fabulous place because of the presence of CMU and Pitt; we could call a store downtown and have three new hard drives delivered to our lab within hours, and, really good programmers who weren’t in grad school were easy to find. Actually, in general people were much more computer-literate; even the administrative assistants could trouble-shoot network problems. Also, some very interesting and reasonably-priced restaurants courtesy of the Big Burrito guys. In fact, despite my preference for New England, I would happily move back there. Sadly, I haven’t had the chance.
posted by Anna on January 26th, 2004 at 9:27 amYeah, since I work in health science research Pittsburgh is kind of my professional Xanadu, so there’s a strong possibility I’ll end up back there after grad school. Which wouldn’t be so bad.
Another attraction that I forgot is the biking. I’m very into mountain biking and it’s hard to find a city east of the Mississippi with Pgh’s combination of lovely urban parks and spectactular topography.
As far as the computer-literacy, Anna, were you there when Telerama set up all of Oakland, Sq. Hill, Shadyside, and Bloomfield for dirt-cheap wireless? A wonderful thing.
posted by Nick on January 26th, 2004 at 4:32 pmSorry to the rest of you….
Nick — No, I was there in 1994-1995. I’m also in a health-science related (and high-tech) field, oddly. BTW, I lived on Maryland Avenue near the corner of Ellsworth and Maryland around the corner from the Elbow Room. Two floors to myself, $375/month.
posted by Anna on January 26th, 2004 at 5:28 pmNick, I forgot to add… Yins goun’ duntun?
posted by Anna on January 26th, 2004 at 5:35 pmDuntun an’at?
posted by Nick on January 26th, 2004 at 10:10 pm