End Of An Era

This month marked the end of John Hieftje's 14-year reign as Ann Arbor's mayor. City Council Member Margie Teall, who served alongside Hieftje for the last 12 years, also stepped down. Hieftje, an Ann Arbor native, is the longest-serving mayor in the city's history, going back to the 1850s. Go here to read an exit interview with Hieftje. Go here to read coverage of his council sendoff.

15 Going On 51

Ann Arbor City Council Member Stephen Kunselman, one of four candidates competing for mayor in the Aug. 5 election, holds up a copy of The Ann Arbor News from Monday, April 23, 1979, featuring a story on him and his friends who had built a homemade skateboard ramp. The photo at top left is of Kunselman at 15 doing a trick. He's now 51 and still a major advocate for skateboarding in Ann Arbor. Read his profile.

$4.4 Million

Ann Arbor's city hall, also known as the Guy C. Larcom Jr. Municipal Building, will not be getting a $4.4 million exterior makeover anytime soon, the City Council has decided. Read the story.

Paint By Numbers

As the Ann Arbor City Council prepares to cast a final vote in two weeks to remove roughly $820,000 in unspent dollars from the city's public art fund, council members are stressing what they're doing shouldn't be viewed as an attack on art. Read the story.

What Compromise Looks Like

Ann Arbor City Council Members Christopher Taylor, Sabra Briere, Sumi Kailasapathy and Stephen Kunselman work out a compromise on the language for directing the city administrator to come up with a plan for mid-block crosswalk improvements. Read the story.

Pre-Gaming

One can only imagine what Ann Arbor City Council Members Marcia Higgins, D-4th Ward, and Stephen Kunselman, D-3rd Ward, were talking about here before Monday night's meeting.

Super Surplus

City Administrator Steve Powers listens during Monday night's Ann Arbor City Council budget planning session in the jury assembly room on the fourth floor of the city's Justice Center building. Powers will present his budget recommendations for next year to council in April and early indications suggest it could include a sizable surplus. Read the story.

One More Time

2nd Ward candidates Sally Hart Petersen and Tony Derezinski debated the issues one last time before Tuesday's Ann Arbor City Council primary. Read the story.

Trust And Transparency

A discussion on trust and transparency in Ann Arbor city government led to a feisty exchange between two 2nd Ward candidates for City Council on Saturday. Sally Hart Petersen, who is running as a Democrat against incumbent Tony Derezinski in the Aug. 7 primary, took issue with Derezinski after he spoke about the importance of holding neighborhood meetings to get feedback from residents. Petersen questioned the openness of those meetings, while Derezinski questioned his opponent's allegiance to the Democratic Party. Read the story.

618 South Main

Ann Arbor developer Dan Ketelaar assures his newest apartment complex on South Main Street won't be geared toward University of Michigan students. "This is not a student project. This is designed specifically for young professionals," he said just before the Ann Arbor City Council voted 8-2 to approve the project Monday night. The complex, officially called 618 South Main, is expected to break ground by next spring, bringing 231 more bedrooms to downtown Ann Arbor. Read the story.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere A Sign

The gloves were off before the debate even started Wednesday night between 1st Ward Ann Arbor City Council candidates Eric Sturgis and Sumi Kailasapathy. The two Democrats, who will face off in the Aug. 7 primary, engaged in a heated verbal sparring match outside the Arrowwood Community Center after Sturgis' mother took down a handful of Kailasapathy's campaign signs that were on the property. "You don't have a right to remove my signs," Kailasapathy said, yelling at Sturgis, who argued Kailasapathy was violating city ordinance by having the signs up. Read the story.

A Dissenting Opinion

After years of staffing cutbacks in police and fire, the Ann Arbor City Council voted 8-2 early Tuesday morning to approve a city budget that begins a rebuilding process. Jane Lumm was one of two council members who voted against the final version of the budget after she tried unsuccessfully to get the council to add more police and fire positions. Read the story.

Running For 1st

Eric Sturgis, a 26-year-old tennis coach, is running for an open seat on the Ann Arbor City Council in the 1st Ward. "Am I a CPA? No. Do I have an MBA from Harvard? No," he said. "But as somebody who's grown up in Ann Arbor and lived in the 1st Ward my whole life, I've seen the issues." He'll face Democratic challenger Sumi Kailasapathy in the Aug. 7 primary. Read the story.

Pretty Sure I Asked For Pecan Sandies

Ann Arbor resident and labor attorney Jack Eaton is back taking another shot at running for the Ann Arbor City Council. Here he is in a photo I snapped last year at a council meeting, snack in hand for a long night of fun. Read about his candidacy.

West Side Story

Tony Derezinski said it's a slippery slope if the Ann Arbor Planning Commission starts to equate apartments with crime. "We have a lot of complexes going up, and if we were to use that criteria every time, I think it would be sort of suspect," he said during Tuesday night's meeting where a discussion about a proposed housing development on Ann Arbor's west side turned into a debate about crime in relation to nearby apartment complexes. Read the story.

Fire In The Hole

Mayor John Hieftje said working cooperatively with Ann Arbor's firefighters union is going to afford the city the best opportunity to meet the challenges still ahead for the Ann Arbor Fire Department. Read the story.

Decision Time

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje is thinking about serving one more term before stepping down. Who could be Ann Arbor's next mayor in 2014? Three names come to mind. Read the story.

Will The Real Rob Thomas Please Stand Up

Rob Thomas said he looked at employment opportunities in Ann Arbor, Boston and San Francisco when he graduated from college, and he was committed to living in a city where he would not need a car. "Ann Arbor fits the bill. It's fantastic," he said, citing the area's high quality of life partly thanks to good public transit.

He's now going out and making disciples.

"In the last month in my office, I asked my co-workers to commit to getting downtown without using a car, without parking it in one of the parking structures," said the Google employee. "I expected maybe 10 people to sign up. Thirty-five of my co-workers committed to getting downtown without parking downtown in the month of January, and I hope to double that number when the summer comes."

Thomas spoke before the Ann Arbor City Council on Monday and lobbied for support of expanding AATA transit services. Even for a common muggle, many agreed he was quite captivating as he offered a vision of what it'd be like if there were more frequent bus services, more trips on nights and weekends, and connections to new areas.

"It's like the town I loved suddenly grew to be four times its size, like that part in Harry Potter where they touch the brick and you see Diagon Alley open up," he told council members. "It's like new pockets of the community I've never seen before suddenly open to me by expanded transit."

Wheels On The Bus

Ann Arbor City Council Members Jane Lumm and Christopher Taylor talk over a four-party agreement for the countywide expansion of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. Read the story.

Kind Of A Big Deal

This is Ann Arbor City Council Member Stephen Kunselman, D-3rd Ward, and he doesn't take crap from anybody. Also, he wears nice suits and is kind of a big deal. Here's a Q&A I had with him almost exactly two years ago.