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Sunday Morning in AnnArbor

by Carl Milles

Several annual events – many o them centered onperorming and visual arts – draw visitors to AnnArbor. One such event is the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, aset o our concurrent juried airs held on downtownstreets, which began in 1960. Scheduled on Wednesday through Saturday in the third week o July, the airsdraw upward o hal a million visitors. One event thatis not related to visual and perorming arts is HashBash, held on the rst Saturday o April, ostensibly insupport o the reorm o marijuana laws. It has beencelebrated since 1971.

Welcome

A person rom Ann Arbor is cal led an “Ann Arborite”,and many long-time residents call themselves “town-ies”. Te city itsel is oen cal led A² (“A-squared”) orA2 (“A two”), and, less commonly, ree own. Recent-ly, some youths have taken to calling Ann Arbor AceDeuce or simply Te Deuce. With tongue-in-cheek reerence to the city’s liberal political leanings, someoccasionally reer to Ann Arbor as Te People’s Re-

public o Ann Arbor or 25 square miles surrounded by reality, the latter phrase being adapted rom Wiscon-sin Governor Lee Dreyus’s description o Madison,Wisconsin. Ann Arbor sometimes appears on citationindexes as an author, instead o a location, oen withthe academic degree MI, a misunderstanding o theabbreviation or Michigan.

Customer Service Center(Located diagonally across the street rom City Hall)

City Center Building, 1st Floor220 East HuronAnn Arbor, MI 48104(734) 994-2700

Fax: (734) 994-1765

E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org

Welcome to Ann Arbor

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Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state o Michigan andthe county seat o Washtenaw County. It is the state’s

seventh largest city with a population o 114,024 as o the 2000 Census, o which 36,892 (32%) are univer-sity or college students. Te city, which is part o theDetroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI CSA, is named aer thespouses o the city’s ounders and or the stands o trees in the area.

Ann Arbor was ounded in January 1824 by John Allenand Elisha Rumsey, both o whom were land specu-lators. On May 25, 1824, the town plot was registeredwith Wayne County as “Annarbour”. Te city becamethe seat o Washtenaw County in 1827, and was

incorporated as a village in 1833. Te town became aregional transportation hub in 1839 with the arrivalo the Michigan Central Railroad, and was charteredas a city in 1851. During the 1960s and 1970s, thecity gained a reputation as a center or liberal politics.During the 20th century, the economy o Ann Arborunderwent a gradual shi rom a manuacturing baseto a service and technology base, which accelerated inthe 1970s and 1980s.

Ann Arbor is home to the University o Michigan,established in 1837. As the dominant institution o 

higher learning in the city and one o the top publicuniversities in the world, the university provides AnnArbor with a distinct college-town atmosphere. Teuniversity shapes Ann Arbor’s economy signicantly as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about7,500 in the medical center. Te city’s economy is alsocentered on high-technology, with several companiesdrawn to the area by the university’s research anddevelopment money, and by its graduates. On theother hand, Ann Arbor has increasingly ound itsel grappling with the efects o sharply rising land valuesand gentrication, as well as urban sprawl stretching

ar into the outlying countryside.

Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and eventsare sponsored by the University o Michigan. Sev-eral perorming arts groups and acilities are on theuniversity’s campus, as are museums dedicated to art,archaeology, and natural history and sciences (seeMuseums at the University o Michigan). Regionaland local perorming arts groups not associated withthe university include the Ann Arbor Civic Teatre;

the Arbor Opera Teater; the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra; the Ann Arbor Ballet Teater; the Ann

Arbor Civic Ballet (established in 1954 as Michigan’srst chartered ballet company); and PerormanceNetwork, which operates a downtown theater re-quently ofering new or nontraditional plays.

Te Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, located in a ren-ovated and expanded historic downtown re station,contains more than 250 interactive exhibits eaturingscience and technology. Multiple art galleries exist inthe city, notably in the downtown area and aroundthe University o Michigan campus. Aside rom alarge restaurant scene in the Main Street, South State

Street, and South University Avenue areas, AnnArbor ranks rst among U.S. cities in the numbero booksellers and books sold per capita. Te AnnArbor District Library maintains our branch outletsin addition to its main downtown building; in 2008a new branch building replaced the branch locatedin Plymouth Mall. Tis new branch is called the ra-

 verwood Branch, and opened on June 30, 2008. Tecity is also home to the Gerald R. Ford PresidentialLibrary.