Ann Arbor : In the News

And yet another set of national stats on public high schools, this one from Newsweek's Daily Beast, puts Saline High School, Chelsea High School, and Ann Arbor's Community, Huron, and Pioneer in the nation's top 1,000, with Skyline High School just a few slots behind. 

See the full list here.

Unlike many other cities, it seems college grads can afford to live in Ann Arbor without being packed into apartments four-deep. Ann Arbor makes another nation's top 10 list, this time getting the shout-out for its reasonable cost of living. 

Excerpt:

"Luxury high-rises are sprouting up like weeds in downtown Ann Arbor, so it may come as a surprise to some that the city is apparently one of the cheapest places in America to move after college.  Appearing on yet another “top 10” list,  Ann Arbor came in at No. 8 on Complex’s guide for thrifty recent college graduates which was headlined by No. 1 Spokane, Wash.

According to the pop-culture website, typical monthly rent for one bedroom outside of the “city center” costs about $600. The costs for utilities, public transportation and “annual income needed for a living wage before taxes” (estimated at $19,738 for Ann Arbor) were also factored into the decision process."

More here.

We think cheese maven Madame Fromage, whose blog is followed by the likes of Zagat and the New York Times, finds Zingerman's cheeses to her taste. You'll want to try the Charloe, Sant Mateu, and Bitto after reading.

Excerpt:

"Last weekend, a pair of hobbits couriered some cheese from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Philadelphia in their luggage. The hobbits are a petit couple who, like mice, can eat their weight in cheese without gaining girth, and before coming to Philadelphia they scouted out the best shnibbles at  Zingerman’s  — thanks to some help from a cheesemonger named Chad....

I have never been to Zingerman’s, but I am intrigued by their catalogue and their  books on cheese and service. I think fondly of the company as the “granola” Dean & Deluca; they are ruled by a Jerry Garcia-esque genius named  Ari Weinzweig  who has managed to turn the cheese retail industry into a kind of cult jam band, based on his anarchist approach to business. Cheese retailers flock to Michigan to study at his feet."

More here.

No longer is the carryout pizza counter just a blank place to stare at empty boxes and count down the minutes. Now, picking up the pizza is an event an itself.

Excerpt:

"With bright colors, a beverage cooler and staff showing off its pizza-tossing skills, Domino's hopes its customers will think they're in an old-time pizzeria. But they'll probably be taking their dinner home.

Dubbed "pizza theater" by the Ann-Arbor, Mich.-based fast-food chain, the new store design reflects a growing carryout business and a newfound pride in the primary product...

Last summer, Domino's said it was dropping "pizza" from its name and planned to redesign its stores, making the pizza-making process more transparent and its stores more comfortable for consumers stopping by to pick up their dinner rather than dialing the store once they get home."

More here. 

Read on for this very entertaining Q&A featuring one of Concentrate's own, development news editor Natalie Burg. Natalie and her husband share heir backstory and why they chose Ann Arbor as the place to hone their creativity.

Excerpt: 

"Mike and Natalie had been recommended by my superiors as  Happy Hour's  first group interview because of their success at their interesting jobs: Mike as a full-time singer-songwriter and Natalie as a journalist and author.   They turned out to be excellent subjects, talking at length about their careers, their love of Michigan, and what it's like to be young professionals in creative fields."


Jake:   You have  a book that's coming out  right?

Natalie: Right! Before I met Mike, when I was living here, I had the opportunity to -- and I use the word "opportunity" lightly -- I had the opportunity to go to Sweden as an au pair for a family.   And it was a  total disaster.   The end all, be all is that I ended up being an undocumented domestic servant who was not paid enough…

Natalie:   And the thing was, the real answer to the reason they hired me was, they lived on this farm in the middle of nowhere, and the mom was this free-spirit, metaphysical --

Mike:   Yeah, they had a cult in the barn.

Natalie:   Yeah, she was starting this, like, religious philosophy, and she wanted to really focus on that --

Mike:   She didn't want to do any of the work.

Natalie:   Yeah, she wanted to quit being a mom and a farmhouse wife and focus on that, so she had me come in, as I would find out later, to take over the farmhouse wife and the mother duties, which is not at all what I was expecting.   So I was supposed to be there for a year, but I wasn't there for a whole year.   The book is about that and getting out of that.

Mike:   It's like  Eat, Pray, Love  meets David Sedaris's humor.

Natalie:   Meets Lena Dunham.   And the moral is, never leave Michigan."


Read the rest here.

Given Ann Arbor's prominence as a tech community, it's no surprise that its professional service providers are also enjoying high distinction.

Excerpt:

"Four attorneys from the Ann Arbor office of intellectual property law firm Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione have been recognized as IP Stars for 2013 by  Managing Intellectual Property  magazine for their insights into the intricacies of practicing IP law and their experience serving clients in various industries and technology sectors...

Brinks Ann Arbor attorneys named were Lawrence G. Almeda, Joshua E. Ney, Ph.D., Steven L. Oberholtzer, the Ann Arbor office's managing partner, and Eric J. Sosenko. Also included was Brinks' president, Michigan native and University of Michigan graduate, James R. Sobieraj."

More here.

A sizable round of seed funding has gotten Ann Arbor-based Seelio onto Forbes' radar.

Excerpt:

"Seelio is especially popular with educational institutions  for students to showcase their school projects.   Today Seelio has announced that they have raised $900,000 in a seed round of funding from First Step Fund, Michigan PreSeed Fund, and several angel investors...

Many institutions have been using Seelio non-traditional educational programs like boot camps and training programs.   A couple of examples of these programs include the Digital Media Institute at the  University of Texas at Austin  and the  University of Michigan Design Expo...

Seelio is now being used by thousands of students across 500 campuses."

More here.

When it comes to education, if you live in Ann Arbor you're likely to get a good one. Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School ranks 12th and Huron High School is a close 16th among Michigan's public high schools.

See the U.S. News & World Report rankings here.

Ann Arborites are among the country's most prolific page-turners, according to major bookseller Amazon.com

Excerpt:

"Last year, Ann Arbor placed fourth. The 2013 list ranks Ann Arbor behind Alexandria, Va.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Miami, Fla.; Cambridge, Mass.; and Orlando, Fla...

The list "is proof that the country is reading," Sara Nelson, Amazon's editorial director of books and Kindle, said in a press release."

More here.

Software start-ups get much of the glory, but in a nice turn, here's an interesting interview with Sally Carson, co-founder of Ann Arbor-based Pinoccio.

Excerpt:

"Pinoccio is a new Open Source Hardware business, building “a complete ecosystem for the Internet of Things”. The Pinoccio is a pocket-sized microcontroller board, with wireless networking, rechargeable LiPo battery, sensors, and the ability to expand its capabilities through shields, much like an Arduino board...

Eric Weddington (EW): What intrigued you about the Pinoccio to co-found a hardware startup company?

Sally Carson (SC): Well, I was always a creative kid, always drawing or making something. And, I always loved fiddling around with gadgets and electronics. In high school, I became an audio/video nerd. I got into skateboarding and playing in bands with friends. But, a huge part of both of these hobbies was the A/V part. So, for example, I filmed tons of footage of my friends and I skating. I would make these skate videos, editing the footage down using two VCRs. I’d use a 4-track to mix in audio, or I’d splice in the audio from an old Nintendo, like from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Every time we ollied or did a trick, there would be the “bloop” sound of a turtle jumping. So, I wasn’t like, busting out the soldering iron, but I was trying to find all of the different ways I could combine the electronics that I had access to."

More here.

The Boston Marathon bombing showed that anything can happen on a second's notice. You can never be too prepared.

Excerpt:

"You can learn a lot from a zombie.

At least that’s what a University of Michigan professor hopes her 31 graduate students took away from Tuesday’s bizarre, albeit bloody, “zombie apocalypse.” The classroom exercise was designed to get School of Public Health students thinking about what the appropriate response should be during a disaster...

"'Zombie apocalypse' sounds a bit silly, but the point of this is to show that if we're prepared for any hazard, even the unimaginable hazards, like zombies — because we know they don't exist — we are capable of preparing ourselves for perhaps anything that might occur," said Dr. Eden Wells, the epidemiology professor who teaches the course and serves as the brains behind the exercise."

More here.

It looks like U-M is putting up a good green fight.

Excerpt:

"Students, faculty and staff collected nearly 750,000 pounds of recyclables during the 10-week 2013 RecycleMania competition. The collection total placed U-M 11th among 365 colleges and universities participating in the nationwide competition's Gorilla Prize category.

At the conclusion of the program, the university’s efforts generated the following results:
• 31.1 percent recycling rate per person (Grand Champion category).
• 11.4 pounds of recycling per person (Per Capita Recycling category).
• 36.6 pounds of waste per person (Waste Minimization category).
• 746,025 pounds of collected recyclables (Gorilla Prize category)."

More here.

Amidst calls for the demise of the book, it's good to see a couple of Ann Arbor's presses are still hot.

Excerpt:

"Ben Mondloch is talking about the fierce nature of the book publishing business and bears.

It's all in a day's work for Mondloch, CEO of Cherry Lake Publishing, which he started in Ann Arbor four years ago to offer educational books, and Sleeping Bear Press, which he acquired in 2012 and sells children's books.

Though book publishers had a tough time in 2012 with the Internet and economy wreaking havoc, Mondloch saw his sales jump 25%.

Sleeping Bear Press currently has more than 400 titles with another 60 in development."

More here.

A super article on the growing spread of Metro Detroit's creative class, including input from U-M professors and a call for extending mass transit between Ann Arbor and Detroit.

Excerpt:

"In an email to me,  Christian Unverzagt, a  Detroit-based architect  who lives in Lafayette Park and teaches at the University of Michigan's Taubman College, pointed out the transformation that the  Cass Corridor  has undergone. Long home to activists and artists, its gritty, windowless galleries and practice spaces have given way to a variety of renovated spaces including Green Garage (a co-working space), Great Lakes Coffee, and small retail shops such as City Bird, Nest, Hugh, and Nora, along with several yoga studios...

With $200 billion in economic output, its economy is the same size as Ireland's, Hong Kong's, or Singapore's. It is connected to the world through its airport. On top of this, the region is home to an incredible cluster of universities and knowledge based institutions, the University of Michigan in nearby Ann Arbor, long a center for top researchers and now an emerging nexus for tech start-ups, Michigan State in East Lansing, and Wayne State in Detroit. The region's talent base is especially deep in engineering, design, and industrial know-how. Before all those assets can be fully-leveraged, suburban interests must come to the table, and transit must be extended outside the core to the suburbs and ultimately all the way out to Ann Arbor."

More here.

The dwellers of the Great White North of Alaska, which has to import many of its fresh veggies, are reading about Ann Arbor's greener greens.

Excerpt:

"Spring greens are popping up at grocery stores and farmers markets...

Woods picked up a bag of pea shoots from Garden Works organic farm in Ann Arbor....

"They're very tender, and have the same flavor as a pea pod," says Robert MacKercher, 46, who owns Garden Works. "They're very good sauteed with olive oil and garlic."

But the appeal of spring produce goes beyond the taste. As farmers markets gear up for the summer season, sales of spring greens are a healthy pick-me-up for those who eat them and those who sell them.

Says MacKercher: "It's a nice spring boost for everybody."

More here.