Ann Arbor bureaucrats up in arms about development. Again.

They can't make up their minds I guess. Ann Arbor can't have much outward expansion because of the Green Belt. The urban planning types want higher density, multiple family dwellings, but not too big. Or too many. Or too tall either. So they're gonna look into zoning law matters yet again.

The long, strange trip of the Village Corner party store

Village Corner circa 1970

What a long, strange trip it's been for the Village Corner party store over the last couple of decades. I used to buy cigarette papers and screens for my bong there back in the early '70s when it was located on the corner of South University and Forrest Avenue. It kinda had a charming sleaziness to it back then. I was living on Walnut Street right down the block at the time. Now all these decades later VC  has morphed into a high end wine shop and relocated to a Plymouth Road mall. "Nothing is constant but change" it is said. This is especially so when high value real estate is involved, eh?

The truth about the "revitalizing the cities" hype

From the New Geography blog on the "Let's-move-back-to-the-city!" hype now currently in vogue: "Most [large] cities are either far too expensive or too lousy to even be a option for most middle class families (still the number 1 buyer of houses)."

The author here is talking about the meme being put out by some that posits that because some trustafarians and childless yuppsters are moving back to the urban core cities and are loving it that there must be a major demographic trend at work. But then again with their means they'd love living just about anywhere, no?  So in that sense it really is "all about the Benjamins".

Some aspects of this this phenomenon seem to apply to my hometown of Ann Arbor. A lot of folks who don't actually need to live in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor live or relocate to Ypsilanti or Pittsfield Township for the lower cost of living there or to Dexter or Scio Township if they have higher incomes. On the other hand there are also the old-timer hold outs (like me) and the folks that just like PRAA enough that they'll put up with the high taxes and the closed-off political system or in fact actively benefit from it. (And you guys know who you are.)

Gentrification on a very small scale doesn't prove anything. You can't build a large sized and thriving urban core with such a small albeit prosperous base.
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