ann arbor is overrated.

Nelson Algren once said, “Before you earn the right to rap any sort of joint, you have to love it a little while.” This weblog is an attempt to disprove him.

I’m a recently finished grad student who’s lived in a few different places, and Ann Arbor has always been my least favorite by far. But when I started this blog, I wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong with Tree Town. I had a vague feeling of wrongness, but nothing stood out. Questions would arise now and then — why does everything in Kerrytown, the allegedly “hip” part of A2, close before 10? why am I paying higher rent than in Boston? — but they seemed like isolated occurrences. I thought — yes, it’s hard to believe — that the problem could even be with me. Fortunately, I have since been disabused of that notion.

I kid because I hate.

By popular demand, here’s the Ann Arbor Is Overrated FAQ.

And here’s a piece I wrote for Consider Magazine in January 2005 that sums up why I think Ann Arbor is overrated.

A few notes:

You may notice that I publish reader correspondence from time to
time. However, I print writers’ names only with permission.

All entries before November 23, 2003 originally appeared at this
site’s Diaryland predecessor, so each has a title that’s just the first few words of the entry. All entries before October 28, 2003 appeared before I enabled comments. Some older threads are closed to new comments in order to stop comment spammers.