Yo, Adrian

Adrian's T-Shirt Printery, located at 1002 Pontiac Trail near where the Huron River meets Broadway Street, has been a supplier of screen-printed garments in Ann Arbor since 1973, specializing in the reproduction of photographic half-tone and four-color process images. Company owner Adrian Cleypool often can be found selling his shirts at political events. For the recent protest of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder at the University of Michigan, he sold shirts for $15 with a cartoon depicting Snyder squeezing money out of a firefighter. "The unions are being squeezed and he's a symbol of the union," Cleypool said of the firefighter on the shirt. The T-shirt of Snyder hanging in the printery's window in the photo below reads "Don't Let Rick Dick Mich!"

Magical Marigolds

In a last-ditch effort to draw attention to their crumbling street, residents on Ann Arbor's northwest side have erected signs to commemorate the "Spring Street Beautification Project," with a sarcastic thank you message to the city of Ann Arbor.
Marian Horowitz and her partner Richard Douglass put up the signs on Friday after trying for several months to get the city to fix their heavily deteriorated street with no luck. Someone else planted African marigolds in between the heaving chunks of pavement in the middle of the street, just north of Summit. "It's really a community effort," said Douglass, a professor at Eastern Michigan University. "Lots of cars have come by giving us the thumbs up. It's really been quite a ridiculous affair." Read the story here.

Spring Has Sprung

Putting Out Fires

The president of the Ann Arbor firefighters union told Mayor John Hieftje and the City Council Monday night he believes deep cuts to the fire department over the last several years have led to an increase in response times on fires — and subsequently, a higher fatality rate. "In the last 20 years, 15 citizens lost their lives to fires in Ann Arbor. From 1991 through 2005, in 14 years, three people were killed by fire, or an average of 0.2 lives per year," Schroeder said. "But since 2006, in six years, 12 people were killed, or an average of two lives per year." Going from 0.2 lives per year to 2 lives per year is a significant increase, Schroeder said, and it coincides with a 29 percent reduction in the number of firefighters on the job. Read the story here.

Darth Postema Must Go

Medical marijuana dispensary owner Chuck Ream holds a sign calling for the firing of Ann Arbor City Attorney Stephen Postema outside city hall. Ream has been at odds with Postema over the details of the city's pending medical marijuana ordinances. Ann Arbor City Council members have decided they no longer want to make grow operations apply for licenses. Read the story here.

Folding Under Pressure

Michael Appel, associate director of nonprofit Avalon Housing, appeared before the Ann Arbor City Council Monday night with several supporters holding 4,738 origami cranes. He explained the colorful cranes represented the number of men, women and children who faced homelessness last year and turned to agencies in Washtenaw County for help. The Ann Arbor City Council was expected to vote to allocate $1.16 million from the city's general fund to several community nonprofit agencies, which would have been about a $116,000 decrease from last year's levels. But after several members of the public spoke during a hearing on the city budget, council members held off on making a decision until two weeks from now. Read the story here.