City of Cultures
The Daily’s Weekend Magazine embarks on what they describe as the “impossible task of pinning down ‘Ann Arbor Culture.’” We learn that A2 is diverse “compared to Grand Rapids” and that it’s home to cultural events that “would never happen in Howell, or Grass Lake, or even Jackson.” That’s right - even Jackson. The writer, who starts out by lamenting Ann Arbor’s lack of nicknames other than “A2,” ends by suggesting one that outdoes even “Tree Town” in insipidness: “City of Cultures.”
Also, Uncle Grambo finally gets some belated Freep props from Mike Wendland, who decided he “wasn’t nearly as tigs with the Detroit blogging scene as [he] thought.”
Jackson is a mecca of cultural hottness. Prison garb = obvs in `05. You read it here first.
posted by Uncle Grambo on September 23rd, 2004 at 12:36 pmWell yeah, compared to Jackson and Grass Lake, Ann Arbor might have culture. But I don’t think it can compare to Detroit (DSO, Detroit Opera House, DIA, etc). Anyways, why the need to compare it to somewhere else? It should stand on its own merits.
posted by Kozzie on September 23rd, 2004 at 4:44 pmClearly Kozzie is not up to date on the voluminous literature on the subject of “Well, if you think Ann Arbor sucks, you should try living in .”
posted by Nick on September 23rd, 2004 at 6:24 pmI bet Owosso is poppin too.
posted by Steve on September 23rd, 2004 at 6:59 pmNo, Kozzie is up on that, he just doesn’t get it…:P
posted by Kozzie on September 23rd, 2004 at 9:15 pmUncle Grambo! (what a lame screen name!) Please buy a fifth of vodka or two and take an evening to resign yourself, already. to the fact that you LOST this little–OK, statewide–competition to, among others, wizened pushing-40 biker types in Godforsaken Ypsilanti! Adjust! Get a grip! And read my (cough) Best of Michigan Bloggers site for (apparently) much-needed tips! (rolls eyes).
posted by Laura on September 23rd, 2004 at 11:48 pmNot saying it makes any sense. If comparing AA to really godawful, godforsaken places makes people here feel great about living here, more power to them, I guess. Though I can’t tell whether praising AA in this fashion is just backhanded or not.
posted by Nick on September 24th, 2004 at 12:14 amWas the writer really unaware of the “Tree Town” nickname? She needs to get out more (i.e. beyond South University and a newspaper other than the Daily). Is AA diverse compared to Grand Rapids? Judge for yourself:
AA: 77.6% white, 10.5% black, 10.9% Asian, 0.4% American Indian, 3.3% Hispanic. GR: 74.4% white, 20.3% black, 1.8% Asian, 0.9% American Indian, 6.2% Hispanic. And with per-capita incomes of $26,117 (AA) and $16,102 (GR), I’m sure the latter has more socioeconomic diversity.
I won’t argue that AA probably has more to do per capita, though.
posted by Brandon on September 24th, 2004 at 1:52 amlaura, what flavor hatorade are you drinking?
posted by rob on September 24th, 2004 at 9:12 amGrand Rapids is also larger than Ann Arbor. (About 3 times the size, I think)
Ann Arbor wouldn’t be nearly as diverse without the University though.
posted by Kozzie on September 24th, 2004 at 9:38 amCity of Cultures = yeastown
posted by Leighton on September 24th, 2004 at 9:42 amYes! Ann Arbor– You Could Make Yogurt Here, We Have So Damn Much Culture.
posted by art student on September 24th, 2004 at 4:34 pmActually Grand Rapids is less than twice the size of Ann Arbor. AA ~110,000; GR ~190,000.
posted by Brandon on September 24th, 2004 at 9:45 pmActually, I’m curious about something - when people cite that 110,000 figure for AA’s population, does that include students or not?
posted by Nick on September 24th, 2004 at 11:35 pmlest we forget john bull’s other island.. U of M Flint… Students are rarely included, and they rarely volunteer for the fire dept.
posted by boydafull on September 25th, 2004 at 3:53 amEver since the 1950 U.S. Census, college and university students have been counted at where they live in April, i.e., their dorm or apartment at school.
I’m guessing that there are only about 20,000 “typical” age 18 to 24 UM students living in dorms or apartments in the city of Ann Arbor, so they are presumably less than 20% of the population.
On the other hand, MSU students (by the same definition) make up a majority of the 50,000 or so population of the city of East Lansing. Indeed, when I was there, students were about three-quarters of all the adults in the city. Since that time, however, thousands of new student apartments have been built outside the city, and the downtown and on-campus student population has presumably declined.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on September 25th, 2004 at 11:17 pmThis could just be my own skewed view of thing, but it seems to me that *a lot* more people this year are living off campus and commuting in. It might just be my particular group of friends, but I was surprised when I came back this year by how many people had decided to save money and live at home.
posted by art student on September 26th, 2004 at 2:50 pmI always used to call Ann Arbor “A-deuce” when I was in school. There’s another nickname for ya’.
Well, sort of.
posted by the watergirl on September 27th, 2004 at 4:00 pmWe could call it “Little Ypsi.”
posted by js on September 29th, 2004 at 11:54 amAnd of course there’s a lot to do here, if you don’t mind going to a lot of crap to find the decent stuff.
(Which is easier when you’ve got cash to burn, I suppose).