2009 – Page 20 of 98

Ann Arbor prepares to dabble in permeable pavement

By Newsroom

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October 7, 2009

Pavement is often vilified by environmentalists as a pollution enabler, allowing rain water runoff to deposit old oil, fertilizer and other chemicals into local waterways. Ann Arbor is trying something different – permeable pavement.The city plans to rebuild Sylvan Avenue with the new kind of pavement that absorbs rain water as if it was a dirt road. The small stretch of road (800 feet) is between Packard Road and White Street on the southern edge of the University of Michigan's student ghetto."We were going to resurface it this year but we discovered some drainage problems with it," says Nick Hutchinson, project engineer for the city of Ann Arbor.Instead the city will tear out the old road next year, rebuild its base and then repave with the permeable pavement next spring/summer. Putting down the new base will allow for the absorbed rainwater to filter into the water table without causing any damage to the road, similar to what happens in freeze-thaw situations.The city plans to spend about $300,000 for the project. That is more expensive than just slapping another layer of pavement on the old road bed, but cost competitive with rebuilding the whole stretch of street and using regular, non-permeable pavement."It's not much more expensive than that," Hutchinson says.Source: Nick Hutchinson, project engineer for the city of Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke

Ypsilanti takes fresh but desperate look at Water Street

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 7, 2009

The buildings are about to come down on the Water Street property next to downtown Ypsilanti.The city has landed the $850,000 in federal and county grants to raze the buildings and has hired an environmental consultant to facilitate the process. The buildings are expected to actually begin falling in January. The Ypsilanti City Council is also reevaluating its options in regard to the 38-acre property."The economy has changed what we are looking at in the future," says April McGrath, assistant city manager for Ypsilanti.The city took out millions of dollars in bonds to buy the 42 properties on the parcel just southeast of downtown. The collection of properties borders Michigan Avenue and the Huron River. It became an albatross when the chosen developer, Joseph Freed & Associates, pulled out in 2007.City officials have been scrambling to find a developer for the parcel, originally envisioned as an urban extension of downtown. Now they are willing to chop it up and allow suburban-style development to get the tax revenue flowing in to help pay off the bonds.Right now the city is negotiating with three developers interested in three separate sections of the land. One wants to build a commercial development on Michigan Avenue between Park Street and the river. The other two want to build multi-family housing, including possible senior housing.Source: April McGrath, assistant city manager for YpsilantiWriter: Jon Zemke

Know Y: A Place For Us?

By Kate Rose

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Community Development

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October 7, 2009

Kate Rose is part of a coveted demographic. An employee at Google and in her late 20s, she represents exactly what Ann Arbor needs more of. But is our community doing what it needs to keep her, and young talent like her, here? Concentrate went straight to the source for the answer. Each month Kate will chime in on what her generation is looking for when it comes to housing, cultural amenities, and work opportunities.

EVENT OF THE WEEK: David Cross

By Jeff Meyers

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Arts and Culture

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October 7, 2009

It's one of those weeks... too many damn choices. Editor Jeff Meyers winnows the long list of boffo local events into six must-not-miss nights out. Who says you can't eat your cake and have it too? Click on the magic "more" button to read about the also-rans, as well as a brief reflection on Grand Rapid's ArtPrize.

Mobatech begins hiring at Ann Arbor SPARK Central

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2009

Creating a iPhone application is so common these days it's almost cliché. But Ann Arbor's Mobatech thinks it has the experience and the skills to help make its applications stand out from the 75,000 others in Apple's App Store."Everybody from your brother, sister and grandmother is creating mobile applications today," says Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of Mobatech.Schwartz founded the firm in 2003 in Ann Arbor. He started with making a checkbook application for smart phones before everyone and their extended family began writing code for mobile applications. "When I started it was all about the web," Schwartz says. "By the time I graduated the bubble had burst and I had moved to mobile phones."He kept it as a side gig when he worked in New York City, but made it his full-time job two years ago when he moved back to Tree Town. Today he employs five people and four summer interns from Ann Arbor SPARK's Central Incubator in downtown Ann Arbor. He hopes to hire 3-5 people within the next year."We're definitely trying to build out the team," Schwartz says.Mobatech has concentrated on the Blackberry app market so far, which has helped it pump its revenues up to 300 percent in the last year. It expects to start putting out iPhone apps by the end of the year.Source: Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of MobatechWriter: Jon Zemke

Walk-on program big part of Michigan coach’s strategy

By Newsroom

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Healthy Communities

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October 7, 2009

Talent at the University of Michigan's football team is coming from new, untapped places.Excerpt:ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan's defensive coaches kept coming up to him on the sideline."Are you ready?" they asked.Jordan Kovacs never actually believed he needed to be ready. Sure, he had worked his way up the depth chart to the point where he was starter Mike Williams' primary backup at free safety.But he was a walk-on, and this was the Notre Dame game.Still, the leg cramp that was bothering Williams wouldn't go away."I blew them off, saying I'd be ready (but) thinking there was no way I was going to get in the game," Kovacs said. "Next thing I knew I was playing in front of 110,000 people at the Big House on national TV."And contributing at crunch time. Kovacs made three tackles in Michigan's come-from-behind 38-34 win on Sept. 12.The redshirt freshman from Curtice, Ohio, is one of a number of either current or former walk-ons who are seeing significant playing time for the undefeated and 22nd-ranked Wolverines this season.That's just fine with coach Rich Rodriguez, who walked on at West Virginia in the early 1980s, around the same time Kovacs' dad was a walk-on under coach Bo Schembechler at Michigan.Top scholarship athletes from across the nation have been coming to Ann Arbor for decades, lured by the winning tradition, winged helmet and six-digit crowds at Michigan Stadium. Rodriguez's starting 11 on offense alone boasts former prep stars from California and Washington on one coast to Florida and South Carolina on the other.Despite its reputation as a destination for blue-chip athletes, Michigan also wants to be known as a place where hardworking overachievers hoping for the chance to prove themselves can make the team — and thrive."The best guys play," Rodriguez said. "Whether you come out with a four-star or five-star ranking, or whether you're a school-start or tryout walk-on guy, if you're good enough and you prove yourself, you'll play."Read the rest of the story here.

U-M’s MFA hits topnotch status

By Newsroom

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Arts and Culture

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October 7, 2009

Michigan's Masters in Fine Arts program has produced luminaries like Patrick O’Keefe and Uwem Akpan, and has the distinction of being considered second only to Iowa.Excerpt:In the basement of the newly remodeled University of Michigan Museum of Art, a sizable crowd has gathered in a sleek, sterile-looking auditorium. It's a Friday night in Ann Arbor, and you can almost hear the sound of cheap beers cracking open throughout the city. But for those sitting in UMMA’s Helmut Stern Auditorium, the only sound that echoes is the voice of Kyle Booten, who is center-stage, reciting his ambitious, abstract brand of poetry.Booten — along with a large percentage of his audience — is a student in the University’s MFA program. The atmosphere is warm and congenial, and the sense of community among those assembled is akin to that of a congenial family reunion. As the night wears on, it becomes clear that the University's MFA students are unlike most other graduate students.Short for Master of Fine Arts, an MFA program is an often overlooked and misunderstood two-year graduate program in which students prepare for careers writing poetry, fiction or both. The MFA program was first introduced at the University of Iowa 70 years ago. Now MFA degrees are offered at more than 150 universities across the nation. Despite the success of the MFA movement, it's been surrounded by a fair degree of controversy.Most of the flak arises from the very nature of an MFA program. In essence, it attempts to teach something historically considered unteachable: creative writing.Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor Nanosystems blooms thanks to green products

By Newsroom

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In The News

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October 7, 2009

Ann Arbor-based, green-chem start-up Nanosystems doesn't look to stay small for much longer.Excerpt:In just four years, John Nanos has gone from teaching organic chemistry at the University of Michigan to building a multimillion-dollar company that's helping the environment.In 2005, the former adjunct professor launched a start-up company in Ann Arbor called Nanosystems Inc. after coming up with a greener way to make the polyurethane foam used in everything from the cores of surfboards to ear plugs and wound dressings.Nanos, who grew up in Dearborn as the son of a Ford Motor Co. engineer, developed chemicals for foam that are derived from soybeans, corn and other vegetables instead of oil. Today, Nanosystems produces these liquid building blocks for foam in Ann Arbor and Los Angeles, shipping them to dozens of customers around the country."You are essentially having a softer carbon footprint," said Nanos, who works out of a laboratory at the Michigan Research Institute in Ann Arbor.Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor, the land that newspapers forgot

By Newsroom

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Arts and Culture

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October 7, 2009

A correspondent from the New York Times recently came to the Ann Arbor area and found it's number of newspapers somewhat lacking.Excerpt:This past week, I visited a place that newspapers forgot, or was it the other way around? While working on an article about Time Inc.’s decision to parachute into Detroit for a year, I tried to get used to the fact that the newspapers there get delivered only three days a week and the other days, it is tough to find them. Too bad, because between a city where stories seem to lie around every corner and with such a really talented bunch of journalists on hand, it would be nice to have a newspaper plop into the middle of things more often. But as Richard Pérez-Peña points out, newspapers are deathly ill, no more so than in a place like Michigan where the implosion of the auto industry has created collateral damage in all sectors of the economy.And then I went to Ann Arbor over the weekend to watch Michigan take on Eastern Michigan at the Big House. Ann Arbor seems like a perfect newspaper town: a highly educated populace, abundant retail and a major university that would seem to be the source of endless town/gown stories. But the Ann Arbor News, which has come out under various names since 1835, shut down as a newspaper in July and was replaced by AnnArbor.com, a Web site with a print version that comes out twice a week.Read the rest of the story here.

U-M president, U vibrancy continues to grow

By Newsroom

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In The News

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October 7, 2009

The local economy may be down, but the University of Michigan continues to trend up, up and up, according to U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.Excerpt:Ann Arbor -- While other universities around the country lay off staff, halt construction projects and shutter programs, University of Michigan is expanding, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman said Monday during her State of the University speech."Whether in Ann Arbor, Flint or Dearborn, the University of Michigan is more vibrant than ever," Coleman said during a 35-minute talk at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the $145 million building that opened in March and marks one of the major construction projects of Coleman's tenure. Read the rest of the story here.