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Changes in the city of trees.
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?
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?
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I like your Op Ed piece. I guess I haven't been very familiar with what sort of venues we have. A study that compares Ann Arbor with similar cities could be interesting, but who has the time? It would be a perfect thing to have in the paper, but of course we don't have a decent enwspaper either, and attempts I've seen to start up something alternative have failed. I wish the digital paper guys would give us something we can use for that. *crosses fingers*.
It is sad. I moved to ontario and thought the city we were in shut down too early at night and then moved here and found the same was true, though not as bad. Remember when there was a Denny's downtown? I mean, not the best food, but open late! I never understood why a restaurant never lasted long there (where the CEW is now).
There's a lot of energy here. Ron Suarez, who is now a city councilman, still runs occasional network downtown (http://www.networkdowntown.com/) events, and the IT zone or launchpad or whatever also brings entrepreneurs together, though more of the tech type than music. I'm sometimes amazed by the bands we get coming here, but the local music scene, like the detroit film and music scenes next door, is largely unsupported.
I'm not sure what to do about that. You might as Ron if he has ideas, though. He could be an ally.
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Wow... i never knew there was a Denny's where CEW is now. Hilarious! That may have been before my time. I do miss places like the Ann Arbor Theatre very much, tho, speaking of spots near there. I also bemoan the dirth of late-night eats, which you'd think would be a major thing in a town like this -- thankfully, there are still some decent options out there much of the time.
...the local music scene, like the detroit film and music scenes next door, is largely unsupported.
Absolutely. I know that, in general, indy music isn't widely supported, but there are many things about Ann Arbor that make one thing that the scene would be "above-average" here... not average or below-average.
More than once i've considered getting involved in initiatives and/or politics about this (and/or starting my own). I'll definitely keep Ron in mind. Sadly, my own life has changed a lot since my days of greater involvement in the music scene, and i don't have much time to devote to such ideas anymore.
Thanks for posting this, and for the discussion! More people need to know and talk about this...
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