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1 month ago | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Ann Arbor’s parks and rec department has opened multiple courts at Leslie Park, two at Burns Park, and single courts at several others. Hunt Park is not among them—yet several years ago, pickleball lines appeared on its tennis court. Subscribe Now This content is for subscribers only. Already a member? Log in here
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1 month ago | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Question Corner | March 2025 Preventing foodborne illness.
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2 months ago | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Question Corner | February 2025 Congestion pricing in Ann Arbor.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. The sign for Bell’s Diner on W. Stadium is mounted on a chimney. Old-fashioned lettering can be seen behind the sign. Only the first two (of the five) letters can be read: “Wo.” What is written there? A. “Woods” That’s a trace of the Woods Manufacturing Company, which Beulah and Drell Woods operated at that location from 1942 to 1954. They made precision tools for the aircraft industry, and stainless-steel clothespins for homemakers. Related: Ben Kwon: He made Bell’s a multicultural diner
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
The Observer’s call for historical artifacts earlier this year yielded an interesting range of items. Many will be documented by the Ann Arbor District Library as part of its digital archive of the city’s history. Subscribe Now This content is for subscribers only. Already a member? Log in here
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. Where did the poet Joseph Brodsky live in Ann Arbor? A. Brodsky was born and raised in the Soviet Union, but his poetry was deemed critical by the government, and in 1972 he was convicted of “malicious parasitism.” Declared a “pseudo-poet in velveteen trousers,” he was pressured to leave the country. According to an article on the U-M’s history website, Brodsky’s friend Carl Proffer was visiting him at the time.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. As anyone who has seen Miss Firecracker knows, the government used to hire people to scrape dead animals off the roads. And as anyone who has driven down US-23 lately knows, it doesn’t anymore. When did they stop? A. The Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC) moves large animals, such as deer, from active roadways. The WCRC does not dispose of the carcasses. This has been its policy since 1992.
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. Why are there still “township islands” within the city of Ann Arbor? A. Starting more than a century ago, when Ann Arbor built its water and sewer system, owners of property that hadn’t yet been annexed to the city had a choice: accept annexation and connect to city services or keep their own wells and septic systems and stay in their townships.
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Jun 25, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. I think it is great that the city is providing public restrooms, but when I loaded the app on my phone I wondered why it required personal information and phone location. A. The phone number is used for accountability. “We anonymize it in the system and it becomes a unique user ID,” emails a representative from Throne, the company that has installed eight of these restrooms around town.
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May 24, 2024 | 
annarborobserver.com | Tim Athan |Brooke Black
Q. I love the Hoyt Trail at Parker Mills County Park. However, sometimes the odor from the nearby wastewater treatment plant ruins a visit. Is there a way to know when the odor will be bad? A. City public works spokesperson Robert Kellar replies: “Unfortunately, it is very difficult to predict with certainty all possibilities of odors occurring, however we are taking steps to reduce the chances of them happening in the first place.
