Changes in the city of trees.

[netmouse]

In a response to Mrissa from an earlier thread I go on a bit about ways that Ann Arbor has changed that makes it less fun these days for me to show people around town. I grew up here, and find it much less the comfortable, casual, ideosynchratic and hippy college town it was when I was a kid. Borders has changed from a deep and interestingly unique store to a chain clone. I didn't even go into how the Art Fair has gotten less artsy and fun and more commercial. Even Zingerman's sandwiches are not as good as they once were, since they shrunk them a few years back to keep competitive in the face of Amers and other sandwich cafes.

Would you agree that Ann Arbor is changing for the worse?

What changes do you like? (having Trader Joe's and Whole Foods come in could be counted as positives, for instance).

What do you miss?

Comments

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that the last Zing sandwich I had was smaller than I expected. Thought maybe it was just back luck for getting two pieces of bread that were maybe closer to the end. I would normally just eat one half and save the other half for the next day, but one half didn't seem like quite enough food.

I miss living walking distance from everything like I did as a college student. That's a lifestyle choice that isn't going to change, but it does mean I no longer bop out my door and go exploring. Exploring now requires a car trip plus finding parking, then walking around.

There are cool condos and whatnot going up around downtown, and I think it's great that housing is being built downtown. But it's primarily affluent housing, and while that may bring in some good things (like better restaurants?) it also means that prices go up for everything.