Edward Vielmetti

Links: A brief history of skateboarding in Ann Arbor

The Ann Arbor Skatepark Action Committee has secured a pledge from Washtenaw County for matching funds for a skatepark it is working to build at Veteran's Memorial Park in Ann Arbor.

I thought I'd give some some background to this effort by finding contemporary accounts of skateboarding in the area, including some of the struggles to make it safe and legal. This is a tremendously incomplete account, missing all of the self-published local skate literature, yet it still illustrates several important phases of Ann Arbor skateboard culture.

Links: Online suggestions for bicycle routes around Ann Arbor, including new options from Google maps

Google recently announced that its Google Maps service now has bicycle routes. You can now plan your bicycle trips and it will guide you to bicycle trails, hills that are not so steep and roads more suitable for bicycle traffic.

Just in time for the coming of spring, here's some links to area bicycle route maps, both pre-Google and post-Google, to compare how well the service works and show some good routes.

3D Lab open house at the University of Michigan, March 10-12

The University of Michigan's 3D Lab is hosting an open house March 10-12 at the Duderstadt Center, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd., on the U-M's North Campus. The lab offers services in the fields of 3D simulation, digital fabrication, education, visualization, motion capture, modeling, animation and application development. It is run as a part of the University Library system.

Workshops at the lab run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 10 and Thursday, March 11. On Friday, March 12, retired lab director Peter Beier gives a welcoming keynote at noon, followed by refreshments and an open house.

See the full schedule after the jump.

Ann Arbor CodeRED system tested

CodeRED is the City of Ann Arbor's emergency notification system.

City of Ann Arbor

The City of Ann Arbor tested its CodeRED emergency notification system today. Phone calls originated from the number 866-419-5000 to notify citizens of critical community alerts. If you did not receive the call, connect to the CodeRED system to update your information.

The full text of the email message is below.

Links: Ann Arbor Farmers Market report for March 6, 2010

A total of 41 vendors came to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on Saturday, March 6. They came from Alpena, Ann Arbor, Britton, Chelsea, Dexter, Henderson, Homer, Manchester, Milan, Oscoda, Pinckney, Plymouth, Stockbridge, St. John and Ypsilanti. They brought alfajores cookies, apples, beef, bread, brioche, buffalo, cheese curds, coffee, cutting boards, donuts, duck eggs, eggs, furniture, gluten-free baked goods, honey, organic ice cream, jams, jellies, jewelry, knife sharpening, kombucha, lamb, pea greens, potatoes, pussy willows, rag rugs, spinach, sprouts, yogurt and more to market.

Here's a few market highlights and links to more market information. It's based on the list of vendors at market for the week on Arborwiki.

Links: University of Michigan - Chile, Haiti, Shakespeare and graduation

The University of Michigan is the southeastern Michigan area's second largest employer, according to a University Record story of Jan. 7 that quotes Crain's 2010 book of lists. Here's a sample of some of the things going on at the University, drawn from links to a few of the less publicized parts of its sprawling online presence.

Edward Vielmetti - Our Neighborhoods

When maple sap starts running, you know spring is here

One sure sign of spring is when maple sap starts to run.

The first task in maple tapping is finding the suitable tree. In the summer time, sugar maples are easy to identify with their distinctive five-lobed leaves, like those seen on the Canadian flag. In the winter, it's harder, but you can pick them out by noting that the pointed buds on the slender twigs are opposite each other, and by the oval shape of the tree when it's growing in clearings.

City of Ann Arbor web site temporarily unreachable

The City of Ann Arbor main web site, a2gov.org, was unreachable for a portion of Friday and Saturday. Visits to the site were redirected to an alternate page, http://www.a2gov.org:8081/Pages/default.aspx, which was unavailable. The outage also affected the city's new municipal data catalog which was published in mid-February.

Links: Ann Arbor Area Acronym Authority (AAAAA)

Every area has its acronyms, its short abbreviations that help locals refer to things that get talked about over an over again without using extra syllables. It also helps to confuse people who aren't familiar with the lingo.

Here's a list of links to some of the acronyms that you might want to drop when you are trying to sound a little bit more in-the-know than someone else, and a decoder ring to help you make up a new acronym if you need to play the game yourself. They are focused specifically on local groups.

My best source for local acronyms is the acronyms category on Arborwiki, which lists 158 area acronyms. I am certain that is only a fraction of what's out there.

with slideshow & video: Ignite Ann Arbor 3 speeches span mastodons, corpses, MGoBlog and Thursday bibimbop lunches

A crowd of more than 400 people packed Blau Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan Thursday evening for Ignite Ann Arbor 3.

Ignite is an event where a roster of unrelated speakers give precise 5-minute talks with 20 auto-rotating slides. The first Ignite event was held in Ann Arbor in June 2009.

On asking for something you know doesn't exist

This week's FOIA Friday relates the process of asking for documents that do not exist. The Ann Arbor Historic District Commission has not prepared minutes for its last 5 months of meetings, even after I requested them via the FOIA process. I'm appealing the rejection of my FOIA request, knowing full well that I might get rejected on the grounds that the city can't provide something that doesn't exist. Nevertheless, this is a reasonable thing to do.

FOIA Friday is a weekly series; the first one in the series is a good introduction, if you're new to it.

Links: Seeing Ann Arbor's West Side via AATA Route 9

Earlier this week I took a trip on Route 9, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority's Jackson Road bus. Here's an account of what I saw on my trip out to the west side of town.

Ann Arbor police on scene of serious injury accident on East Stadium

Police, fire, and ambulances are on the scene at an accident in the 1700 block of East Stadium at Ferdon on Wednesday evening at 6:15 p.m.

Edward Vielmetti | AnnArbor.com

Ann Arbor police are on the scene of a serious injury crash at East Stadium and Ferdon Road.

Updated with correction: Preliminary environmental assessment report for Ann Arbor airport expansion available for review

An airplane takes off at Ann Arbor Municipal Airport in this photo from the cover of the report from JJR on airport expansion plans.

City of Ann Arbor, JJR

Traffic light routine maintenance on Huron Street in Ann Arbor

Drivers on Ann Arbor's Huron Street should be on the lookout for city work crews today doing routine maintenance on traffic signals. The city's signs and signals department expects the work on each signal along Huron Street will take a couple of hours, according to a message from city project manager Patrick Cawley.

Traffic signals in Ann Arbor are controlled by two computer systems. The newer SCOOT system, first deployed in 2005, controls Plymouth Road, Washtenaw Avenue, and Packard / Eisenhower signals. An older ACTRA system controls downtown signals.

Edward Vielmetti is the lead blogger at AnnArbor.com