Ann Arbor, Michigan

 Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state o Michiganand the county seat o Washtenaw County. It isthe state’s seventh largest city with a population o 114,024 as o the 2000 Census, o which 36,892(32%) are university or college students. Te city, which is part o the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint,MI CSA, is named ater the spouses o the city’sounders and or the stands o trees in the area.

Customer Service

Center 

(Located diagonally across the street rom City Hall)

City Center Building, 1st Floor

220 East Huron

 Ann Arbor, MI 48104

(734) 994-2700

Fax: (734) 994-1765

E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org 

 

 Ann Arbor was ounded in January 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, both o whom were landspeculators. On May 25, 1824, the town plot wasregistered with Wayne County as “Annarbour”.Te city became the seat o Washtenaw County in1827, and was incorporated as a village in 1833.Te town became a regional transportation hubin 1839 with the arrival o the Michigan CentralRailroad, and was chartered as a city in 1851.During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputation as a center or liberal politics. During the 20th century, the economy o Ann Arbor un-derwent a gradual shit rom a manuacturing baseto a service and technology base, which accelerat-ed in the 1970s and 1980s.

 Ann Arbor is home to the University o Michigan,established in 1837. As the dominant institutiono higher learning in the city and one o the toppublic universities in the world, the university provides Ann Arbor with a distinct college-townatmosphere. Te university shapes Ann Arbor’seconomy signicantly as it employs about 30,000 workers, including about 7,500 in the medicalcenter. Te city’s economy is also centered onhigh-technology, with several companies drawn tothe area by the university’s research and develop-ment money, and by its graduates. On the oth-er hand, Ann Arbor has increasingly ound itsel grappling with the efects o sharply rising landvalues and gentrication, as well as urban sprawlstretching ar into the outlying countryside.

Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and eventsare sponsored by the University o Michigan. Sev-eral perorming arts groups and acilities are onthe university’s campus, as are museums dedicatedto art, archaeology, and natural history and sci-ences (see Museums at the University o Michi-gan). Regional and local perorming arts groupsnot associated with the university include the Ann Arbor Civic Teatre; the Arbor Opera Teater; the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra; the Ann ArborBallet Teater; the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet (estab-lished in 1954 as Michigan’s rst chartered balletcompany); and Perormance Network, which op-erates a downtown theater requently ofering new or nontraditional plays.

Te Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, located in a renovated and expanded historic downtown restation, contains more than 250 interactive ex-hibits eaturing science and technology. Multipleart galleries exist in the city, notably in the down-town area and around the University o Michigancampus. Aside rom a large restaurant scene in theMain Street, South State Street, and South Uni-versity Avenue areas, Ann Arbor ranks rst among U.S. cities in the number o booksellers and bookssold per capita. Te Ann Arbor District Library maintains our branch outlets in addition to itsmain downtown building; in 2008 a new branchbuilding replaced the branch located in PlymouthMall. Tis new branch is called the raverwoodBranch, and opened on June 30, 2008. Te city is also home to the Gerald R. Ford PresidentialLibrary.

Sunday Morning by Carl Milles in Ann Arbor

Several annual events – many o them centeredon perorming and visual arts – draw visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event is the Ann Arbor ArtFairs, a set o our concurrent juried airs held ondowntown streets, which began in 1960. Sched-uled on Wednesday through Saturday in the third week o July, the airs draw upward o hal a mil-lion visitors. One event that is not related to visu-al and perorming arts is Hash Bash, held on therst Saturday o April, ostensibly in support o thereorm o marijuana laws. It has been celebratedsince 1971.

 A person rom Ann Arbor is called an “Ann Ar-borite”, and many long-time residents call them-selves “townies”. Te city itsel is oten called A²(“A-squared”) or A2 (“A two”), and, less common-ly, ree own. Recently, some youths have taken tocalling Ann Arbor Ace Deuce or simply Te Deuce. With tongue-in-cheek reerence to the city’s liberalpolitical leanings, some occasionally reer to Ann Arbor as Te People’s Republic o Ann Arbor or25 square miles surrounded by reality, the latterphrase being adapted rom Wisconsin GovernorLee Dreyus’s description o Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Arbor sometimes appears on citation indexesas an author, instead o a location, oten with theacademic degree MI, a misunderstanding o theabbreviation or Michigan.

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