Sarah Smallwood: Paving over bricks symbolic of what's happening in city
A few weeks ago, I was walking down Liberty at night during the repaving project. The old asphalt had been torn up, but the new blacktop hadn’t yet been laid down, leaving the turn-of-the-century brick road beneath it exposed. I leapt the barrier for a few quick pictures, knowing we wouldn’t see the original street again in my lifetime.
Creeping away from the scene, I wondered why the city opted to repave rather than let the original bricktop come back to the surface. It seems to work for the streets of Kerrytown and Depot Town — would it have been that much harder to drive over?* Two weeks later, Liberty successfully re-topped, I paused in front of Red Hot Lovers and sighed. There was no getting around it.
The times, they are a changin’ — and it blows.
The closing of Shaman Drum was the hardest to take. Although I never had an occasion to buy textbooks there (making me part of the problem, I suppose), I wandered in from time to time, scanning shelves, cuddling with a poetry collection in one of the reading nooks and enjoying the quiet. I loved reading the signed plaques from visiting authors on the wall, daydreaming that one day (oh, pipe dreams) I would have my own book signing here. The confluence of my vanity and deeply-ingrained guilt convinced me that the Drum’s closing was all my fault.
In reality, of course, the blame lay with the economy: when all retail businesses take losses, the independent stores don’t have the resources to survive. So what happens in Ann Arbor, where indy stores are directly woven into the culture of the city? Could we lose Crazy Wisdom, Encore, Orchid Lane — even if none of us regularly shopped there — and still be Ann Arbor? Does the store’s mere existence play into the ethos of the town?
It’s nothing new to bemoan the loss of convention and mistrust its replacement. I’m just wondering what that replacement is going to be, and whether it will have waffle fries.
* Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but I think it’s a shame that the heart of the city is covered over instead of polished up. ‘Old’ doesn’t mean ‘broken;’ spiff those bricks, sand the shutters and put on a new coat of paint. And, oh yeah — get off my lawn. Photo: Red Hot Lovers - Sarah Smallwood
Comments
samshoe
Mon, Jul 27, 2009 : 1:39 p.m.
Do you really need to use the phrase "and it blows" - some of us find this offensive and not up to journalistic standards. You sound like my 15 year old nephew.
DagnyJ
Mon, Jul 27, 2009 : 9:36 a.m.
I was so hoping the AA.com would be a voice of a new Ann Arbor. Instead, it's the same old thing. Handwringing about change, crying at whatever is new. I'm sure the next whine here will be about tall buildings. Between Geoff Larcom and this kind of bemoaning the new, I'm ready to give up on AA.com. Please, please find a writer who will say something different. I've heard all this before.
PrimeMinister86
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 9:09 p.m.
There is nothing wrong with moving on, as long as we can still look back and see what was good and what was bad. We learn from the past, and improve on it to make the future. Brick streets are fine in areas like Depot town where there is little to no room for expansion; and renovations are unlikely due to historic district laws. On heavy traffic streets such as liberty where the vehicle traffic is high, brick cannot support the constant changes in pressure and thus deteriorate too quickly. As for the Ann Arbor environment, as an aspiring architect, I have to be forward thinking. I still love the ambiance of downtown and with good, well planned designs, this does not need to change. A. Bernard mentioned the observer and as I recall about 6 months or so ago there were two articles in the Observer discussing some of the new downtown buildings. Most of the comments in the articles were by architects or professors. They were correct in their assessment of the situation. Students and citizens alike need more housing, so these AWFUL buildings are assembled in response. These new developments speak nothing of Ann Arbor and could just as well been built in some other college town. Designs, whether urban planning or architectural, need to be site specific if they are to add and not distract from the continual growth of a city. Progress does not be the destruction of a city's "character," as long as we "progress" in such a way that reflects the city. Boston is Boston for a reason, and it's planning schemes will not reflect Ann Arbor, therefore any comparison between what they do and what we do is logically flawed. All we can do is say "Does that work for Ann Arbor?" This is where progress starts.
Eric P
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 7:08 p.m.
All things move towards their end, and we are left remembering. Moving back to Ann Arbor after several years I still find myself telling people "that used to be a hobby shop" or "that used to be a bakery". At the same time I realize that businesses need to provide their service to the community, and give people a reason to support them. The number of times that I walked into Shaman Drum and couldn't find what I was looking for, so I went else where made it hard to support them as much as I would have liked to. That said I do miss the diversity of shops that populated downtown from the late 70s to the late 90s-- towards their ends.
Sarah Smallwood
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 2:26 p.m.
Alan Bernard, I don't think it's possible to "lock down" A2--or any city, for that matter. Shaman Drum was a victim of the overhead costs of selling a product that can be gotten cheaper elsewhere--much like the Ann Arbor News. But even writing for the replacement of the print publication, I feel like we've lost something with the closing of the News. Tradition? Possibly. Sentimental, certainly. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Of course I embrace new technology; I'm sitting at a computer writing an article for an online paper. I would be a hypocrite if I didn't advocate change. But the important thing is not to lose sight of the wonderful institutions that we've lost. The bricks were a reminder to me that history is not printed, it's living and fluid--in some cases, dormant, waiting to be uncovered. Shaman lives in the minds of every UM alum--and the News, every resident--as the standard of what we don't have, what we should have, and what we will make again when we want it back. PS Thank you for the link to the Boston article. It mainly discusses brick sidewalks rather than streets, which are a slipping hazard for sure, but it does make the point (in the comments) that the cost of repair to a bricktop is cheaper and more environmentally-friendly, although more costly to install.
Anna K. Jonsson
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 1:17 p.m.
I sure do miss my Reuben Dog and delicious, unrivaled waffle fries from RHL.
Alan Benard
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 11:44 a.m.
Sarah asked if Ann Arbor would be Ann Arbor without the current tapestry of independent businesses. It would -- it would have a different set. I didn't say she was wrong, and saying I did is a neat and disingenuous rhetorical trick on Gibulet's part to make me look like a meanie -- the cardinal sin of Ann Arbor discourse. Nice try. I did ask: Should we lock down Ann Arbor as it is? Which is what the article advocates. I answered my own question. Doing so is impossible and it is ill-advised to try. Sorry if that offends your personal preferences or imperils your real-estate holdings, but that is true.
Bob Martel
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 8:44 a.m.
I can see the loss of the local retail culture continuing unless we all band together and buy locally whenever possible. Finding a desired item in a locally owned store and then making the purchase online to save a couple of dollars will eventually destroy this aspect of our lovely town. I urge everyone to search their soul before doing this.
Tammy Mayrend
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 8:31 a.m.
I's with you Sarah - Uncover the brick roads and let them shine!
Gibulet
Fri, Jul 24, 2009 : 7:57 a.m.
The point of an opinion is that it is a personal view, and not agreeing with it does not make it wrong. This article expresses a view that a lot of downtowners share. We like the history in Ann Arbor; it is a big part of it's character. Change can be a good thing, as long as the integrity of the town remains. Knocking down century old buildings for new condos may increase residency, but no one wants to take an afternoon off to wander the streets and take pictures of a highrise. We like our brick. We like the fairy doors. We love the originality that is our town, and wanting to keep that uniqueness is certainly not killing it. Also,the link posted in the comments was another opinion piece, just like this one. It does not make sense to claim one opinion is incorrect by comparing it to another. The best part of that article was one of the comments, about the pros and cons of using brink instead of concrete. I personally find that I have a little more traction on brick, and that I constantly slip on the paint used to mark crosswalks more than the sidewalk itself. Maybe the slippery solution is to have the city salt the roads more often, no matter what they are made of!
Duane Collicott
Thu, Jul 23, 2009 : 8:50 p.m.
Wasn't Red Hot Lovers/Chicago Dog going to re-open somewhere else at some point, or am I just being optimistic?
Matt Morgan
Thu, Jul 23, 2009 : 4:52 p.m.
Well, when it comes to the survival of local business, people have to remember that their vote counts-- they vote with their wallets, and the way they choose to shop shapes what services are available in their community. I once had a debate with someone who worked for a chain of big-box retail shops about this. Which shops you want in your town is something you can influence. If a store provides a service or product you value, shopping there will help keep it around, be it big box or mom and pop.
Melissa LR Handa
Thu, Jul 23, 2009 : 8:59 a.m.
You will be missed dearly, Shaman Drum Bookshop!