ann arbor is overrated.

The argument behind this “Other Voices” piece in the News urging privatization of the U of M seems to be:

1. The university doesn’t get that much money from that state anyway.

2. Taxpayers would save money, since the university gets a LOT of money from the state.
3. The university wouldn’t have to worry about how to plan around the state budget, since it would know it’s not getting anything.

The authors seem to think that going private would better enable the U to compete with private institutions. Is there any basis for this?

Move over Sweetwaters! The new A2 singles scene, according to the Observer, is Whole Foods. “It’s that whole Farmer’s Market, Kiwanis-sale vibe: people feel fresh, rested, and flirtatious,” one “source” is quoted as saying. An employee observes, “People are definitely scoping out each other in the produce section.” So if Sweetwaters is our Hollywood, is Whole Foods our Berkeley?

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The South U area has been taken over by the students and it’s time to take it back, the South University Area Association says. We’re all for the density increases they propose, but we’re curious about what “restaurants that attract from across the city” and “shops that drew customers from multiple age groups” used to be there.

We’re thrilled to be one of the choices for “Honorary Ypsilantian” in Seat of the Revolution’s Coolest of Ypsilanti poll - who wouldn’t be honored to be on a list with Ron Jeremy and Todd Leopold? In return, we offer the people of Ypsi a dreadful coinage that we can’t have been the first to think of but we’ve never heard before: ypster. Use it in style.

“The word sheik was used incorrectly in a headline on page B4 on Monday,” the Ann Arbor News corrections page admits. “The headline should have read ‘Program helps kids go from geek to chic.’”

For anyone who missed it, Ypsidixit carries a Treetownerrific posting from an A2 parents’ message board. Ypsidixit doesn’t let you link to individual entries (ah, nostalgia for our own Diaryland days) but it can be summarized thus: an Ann Arbor parent has decided to sell a Jeep Liberty Urban Terrain stroller because it doesn’t have the canopy MP3-playing feature.

One of the things we most look forward to when going back to the Chicago ‘burbs for “spring” “break” is making left turns.

In Illinois, center turn lanes are so rare that they’re marked with double arrows to show that turning traffic can move in both directions. Intersections where left turns require a left arrow are similarly few and far between. We know, it sounds like total chaos - a choice of turning left OR going straight. Somehow, drivers handle it.

The Ann Arbor City Council is finally going to do something about the pervasive problem of couch-throwing. If you’ve ever been hit by a steel-frame couch during those student riots that tend to happen around the city, you know the feeling. “Not again,” we thought last time it happened to us, watching the whole thing unfold in slow motion as another tattered plaid Sealy sofabed exploded from the careless arm of an LSA sophomore in our direction.

The resolution, which would ban indoor furniture outdoors, may also make the neighborhoods prettier, but in the City Council’s unquenchable zeal to protect the citizens of this town, they probably never even thought of that.

Steve Cotner’s anti-AAPD (and DPS) screed, in which he details his experiences with Ann Arbor officers who “stalk parties for young drinkers, empty wallets looking for fake IDs, enter houses unannounced” and “interrogate a guy named Silver because he had a ’street’ appearance” is worth reading. A party at his house, Cotner says, was staked out by police looking for underage drinkers; they went “into stealth mode” when it suddenly turned into a violent brawl.

Writes a prospective undergrad: “From your blog, i can see that Ann arbor is an awfully
boring place to live in (hmm.. surprisingly..i always thought it was wild..
oh well.. ) … is it really THAT bad? Then what do people do at night?”

Not having been an undergrad here, we’re not quite sure what they do when they’re not smashing frat-house windows or writing satire about killing East Coast Jewish girls. Any perspectives?