ann arbor is overrated.

A2 or Chicago? A prospective medical student asks for relocation advice on the Student Doctor Network forums. Well, Ann Arbor is something of a “stuck up elitist town,” according to one response. Isn’t it, though? Oh wait, the poster is actually referring to a preponderance of “tons of people from New York and the East Coast that kind of wish they weren’t in the Midwest,” giving as an example a certain website. For the last time — we are not a stuck-up elitist from the East Coast. We are a stuck-up elitist from the Chicago suburbs.

But Chicago’s alleged selling points, according to this poster, include seeing a lot of babies everywhere you go and everyone waking up by 8. Makes us appreciate A2 just a little more.

Ann Arbor makes an appearance on Rip Off Report, the website for disgruntled consumers with varying degrees of language facility to vent about the businesses that fleeced or overcharged them. It’s not a specific A2 business that irked this Minnesota visitor - it’s the entire city. “I’m never going back to Ann Arbor. If I do, I hope I’m blind or dead. ‘Ann Arbor’? More like ‘Ann ArBORING!’” But an Ann Arborite reader isn’t going to take this lying down - A2 can comma splice with the best of ‘em. “Ya sure, you betcha to the land of 10,000 morons, not lakes, which by the way, Michigan has more lakes.” (via Panaphobic)

How can fraternities and co-ops be allowed to bring all these cars into the neighborhood when decent, hard-working A2 families can’t even find spots to park the cars they buy for their high-school-age children? That’s what the North Burns Park Neighborhood Association wants to know (via Arbor Update). These pampered, privileged U of M students whose parents do everything for them probably just feel entitled to street parking.

“At last we get to live in cute, charming, cozy Ann Arbor,” says a voice coming from a massive skyscraper planted incongruously next to a little ranch-style house in the Observer’s “Life in Ann Arbor” cartoon. Fortunately, though, this scenario will likely never play out — instead, the would-be high-rise dweller can move to Scio Township, profiled in the same issue as an alternative to A2 housing prices. “Ann Arbor is moving out,” says a sales consultant interviewed for the story who “finds the view of surrounding subdivisions and Meijer a welcome change from the urban views she had [in Chicago].”

And it seems such a waste of time, if that’s what it’s all about. Good luck moving up, ’cause Ann Arbor’s movin’ out.

There’s an interview with new Planning Commission chair Jennifer Hall in last week’s Business Review (formerly Business Direct Weekly.) Hall thinks that implementing the “consensus of community” can and should extend to dictating the color of a building’s brick. She also takes the “just because voters in Ann Arbor overwhelmingly supported the idea of a greenbelt doesn’t mean that everybody supported the idea of density” line, which directly contradicts what the greenbelt’s supporters promised. One encouraging sign: Hall, who favored the 828 Greene proposal, says that the current commission will specifically aim not to table projects. And she’s “of the camp that doesn’t have a problem with taller buildings.”

Former MSA president Matt Nolan finds the Students 4 Michigan platform (discussed here on Arbor Update) “the most offensive [he’s] ever seen.” He takes particular umbrage at the idea of a student representative on City Council (”So your goal is to convince them to give you representation to push … what?”) and tenants’ rights (”You’re going to change Ann Arbor city law and Michigan contract law to affect the leases of tenants?”) Apparently, this law student has never heard of illegal clauses on leases that students obey anyway.

Why can’t the MSA push some real ideas? Like a soda machine in the cafeteria? No, wait, that was our junior high student council president’s platform. Nolan wants credit for LSAT classes.

His description of the Students 4 Michigan platform as “a litany of complaints,” though, compels us to give them our highest endorsement, from one complainer to another.

Neighborhood associations strongly oppose a proposed apartment building at 828 Greene because, among other reasons, it would be “a mini-dorm…without benefit of rules.”

In what will probably be seized upon as an example of their pro-Republican leanings, the News runs an oddly late story (and we an oddly late post, due to a broken power cord on our laptop) about Mayor Hieftje’s vote total falling short of Kerry’s, complete with cross-party sniping about whether Republicans voted for Kerry or Democrats voted for Lumm. But none of this manages to capture the upside-down-land quality of A2 politics, where couch ban supporters are considered to the left of density proponents.

Judy McGovern sees the new dorm as an opportunity to “reclaim” neighborhoods for “year-round residents.” In her dream scenario, the U of M would provide the funding to buy up houses and get them out of the hands of its students. Then the neighborhoods would be rezoned to keep them permanently student-free. We can’t wait until she tries to suggest this plan, under which the university would be paying to negate the easing of the student housing crunch caused by the dorms it’s also paying for, to Mary Sue Coleman.

The staff at the county clerk’s office have been told by the newly elected Larry Kestenbaum’s defeated opponent not to talk to him until the day he takes office, he writes. We hope the “L” keys aren’t missing from any keyboards when he finally assumes his new job.