Monday, January 24, 2011

What do you want downtown to be?



DDA member Newcombe Clark tweeted this last night, and I thought I would pass it on to you gentle readers. What do you want downtown Ann Arbor to be? What would you like to see there in the future?

Personally I would like to see density increase gradually, more stores to buy regular things (i.e. wastebaskets, Cheerios) and of course more bicycle parking.

4 comments:

  1. Pretty much the same, even though it was almost twenty years ago that we came here to be grad students. Next thing you know you are home owners, then parents....

    What I worry about is the slow creep toward downtown being a sideshow for out-of-towners on the weekend, with fancy restaurants and tchotchkes. I like buying shoes for my kids where we can try them on, get a new toaster oven, buy a broom (which Target does not appear to sell!), so shout out to Footprints, Hollanders, and Downtown Home and Garden.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want to see the AHA Shop ( http://allhandsactive.com ) currently in the basement next to the Michigan Theater combine with the new SPUR Studios-related initiative James Marks from VG Kids is setting up in Ann Arbor, and with the progressive art/design community responsible for http://tinyexpo.com http://winterdoldrums.elevatedworks.com/ etc. in the 35k sq ft McKinley Tally Hall basement (where http://um.startupweekend.org was this weekend, and new site for http://techarb.org ), like our own version of Providence's AS220:

    http://as220.org

    Art+tech+music+food == culture

    Doesn't have to be all in one place, but it sure helps when a single organization can suffer the logistics of fundraising from foundations and other major donors once, and have many groups benefit (e.g. http://a2geeks.org ).

    ReplyDelete
  3. No more chains. PLEASE. We've been lucky so far, now if we could only get rid of Mongolian BBQ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Chris, I agree. I want a downtown where people can easily get things they need.

    @Dug thanks for the information about all those great groups.

    ReplyDelete