Couch Ban Blowback

The Ann Arbor City Council delayed its decision Tuesday night on a citywide ban on keeping upholstered furniture on porches. The proposal has received blowback from University of Michigan students who say they aren't convinced the couches are a fire hazard or public nuisance. For the residents of "Woof Manor" on East Jefferson Street, hanging out on front-porch furniture is a part of everyday college life. "Couches are just a great way to porch it up with the guys," says Marc Lecerf, the one in the blue shirt in the first photo. U-M juniors Shelby Roback and Sarah Parsons, in the second photo, live in a rental house on South State Street next door to one gutted in an April blaze (involving a porch couch) that a killed 22-year-old student. "They shouldn't take away part of our life because of that," Roback said. "It's like the culture of Ann Arbor — couches on porches." Read the story here.