ann arbor is overrated.

A consultant hired by the A2D2 group solicits some serious, in-depth analysis from the community on downtown development:

Selecting a male volunteer from the audience who towered over him, he then turned to participants in a downtown design workshop and asked: If the two of them were buildings, “which would you rather have next to your neighborhood?'’

The example was intended to illustrate “why the community should care about developing some guidelines and standards for the appearance, shape and mass of new buildings downtown.” Well, it’s about time someone tried to overcome those timid Ann Arborites’ historic reluctance to form and express opinions about building mass and appearance. Perhaps we could also hire a consultant to tease out the A2 position on whether Bush is doing a good job as president.

The new fancy coffee drinks at McDonald’s just can’t compete with the hip coffee culture in A2, writes News columnist Mary McDonough. “In 1992, I knew what a mocha was and I felt cool. I could often be found bent over a textbook in a smoky cafe, surrounded by empty coffee cups. In 1994, the television show ‘Friends’ debuted, with a local coffee shop as a central meeting place. Right about then, I noticed something had begun to change: Coffee shops were going mainstream.” (We should mention that the opening of Primo Coffee on Fifth and Liberty has just about doubled the amount of drinkable coffee in A2.)

The News explores the phenomenon of would-be home sellers putting their houses and condos up for rent when they can’t attract buyers, which has led to twice as many properties listed for rent this year than last year.

Real estate agents said the rise in home rentals is occurring throughout the state, and with no end in sight for the sluggish economy, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. (Emphasis ours.)

Worse for whom? Well, according to one of the renters they quoted in the story…just kidding! Renters’ perspectives sought out in a story about the A2 housing market — that’s a good one.

You can call me Dr. AAIO.

(Except I’ll laugh at you.)

(And technically you’ll be incorrect until August.)

“Three-and-a-half hours from Cleveland and bursting with youthful energy, the college town of Ann Arbor, Mich., invites us to remember those warm-weather moments — at a street festival, in a bookstore or paddling across glimmer-glass water — when we lingered as soulful teenagers,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer effuses in their paean to “enchanting Ann Arbor, college town of renown.” We’d also put “four hours from Chicago,” “four and a half hours from Toronto” and “two hours from Boston in a plane” ahead of “bursting with youthful energy” on our list of positive A2 attributes, but that’s just us.

A2’s student culture is best experienced without all those students in the way:

Those endless summers are gone, but there are weekends to rediscover the kind of artsy, outdoor and mind-expanding stuff we used to love and always will.

College is this city’s year-round business, which keeps the idealistic culture continuously flowing. Spring and summer bring the bigger festivals, fewer students and more parking spaces … Bring lots of loose change — of the pocket and of the mind.

So that’s the secret to enjoying A2: a certain mental slackness. Good to know.

How can anyone argue that A2 rent is too high with deals out there like the ones offered at Academic Homes? How about a Kerrytown 2-bedroom in a building of “academics and young professionals” with all hardwood floors and heat included for $1050? Or a 4-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom Ann Arbor Hills house, perfect for a “discerning family,” for $1995? Of course housing discrimination on the basis of student status or source of income is illegal, so we’re sure that the site’s promise to “help you locate professionals to stay in your home while you are away” isn’t meant to be taken literally.

(To clarify, we mean that these rents, at $500/bedroom, are amazing deals by Ann Arbor standards, just not likely available to riffraff like ourself.)

Quiz time: which of the following remarks about the possibly-soon-to-be demolished Anberay Apartments, described here [PDF] in the February Planning Commission minutes included in a Monday memo to the City Council, was made by an actual resident of the building?

• “[T]he Anberay building, with its gorgeous brickwork,
  overlapping balconies, and enticing courtyards, was important to her … the Anberay building was a bit of charm and grace from the jazz age that should be preserved and enjoyed.”

• “[T]he Anberay building was a beautiful building that has gracefully housed generations of Ann Arbor students, allowing comfort and conviviality … a perfect model of urban habitation.”
• “[T]he charm and beauty of the Anberay was non-existent … the heating of the building was inefficient and the basement smelled extremely bad.”

It’s been an Arborific week for the Times. First there was Thursday’s Zingerman’s piece by stalwart mitten-state correspondent Micheline Maynard. And now there’s this profile of veteran city-ranker Bert Sperling, in whose new edition of “Cities Ranked & Rated” A2 comes in fifth, just behind Gainesville, Florida and Bellingham, Washington. Here we learn about Sperling’s scientific approach to quantifying city rank. For the most romantic city, “we looked at sales figures for flowers given as gifts, at places with water nearby.” And it turns out that the exact same approach works for finding the city with the most retirees in the hospital! (West Palm Beach.) As far as we’re concerned though, no one beats David Byrne in the city-ranking business.