Back To School

Driving into town, greeted by that delight of urban sprawl, the shopping, burger and gas station strip, Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti will probably strike you much like any other city in America. Walking just off the U-M campus, down Maynard Street, you'll spot the recently created Burger Row, with MacDonalds, Burger King and Gino's all within a block of each other, as well as a number of other buildings done in traditional brick-box Americana tastelessness just like Anytown, USA.

Yet look closer. Beyond the traditional trappings lies a vigorous and unique community with a rich history of cultural and political advances. Take the aforementioned MacDonalds. You've never seen one like it before. Word that the Golden Arches were arriving on Maynard Street set off a storm of protest last year, creating a largely spontaneous petition drive which gathered 7,000 signatures against the encroachment of blight. In response, MacDonalds decided to temper its usual golden facade and instead create a Burger Temple, to hopefully maneuver past the citizen opposition.

They won. The Republican majority in control of city council last year ignored the signatures and let MacDonalds have it their way (or is that Burger King?). After all, money in the (Republican) banks is money in the bank, period.

The seesawing of power from ultra-conservatives to progressives on city council has been a focus of much of Ann Arbor's (and Ypsi's) recent years. In the spring of 1972 the town elected two members of the newly emergent radical Human Rights Party to City Council, thereby changing forever the course of local history, pushing the Democrats to the left, enacting the city's famous $5 maximum fine marijuana law, funding alternative programs and other exemplary acts of government.

In 1973 the Republicans regained control and proceeded to quash most of the progress made the year before. Last April their conservatism backfired, and once again a left liberal majority composed of Democrats and one HRP member gained control. The present Mayor, Albert Wheeler, a black civil rights activist for a quarter century, is once again working to push the city forward in a unique direction.

Inside this guide, we've included a more detailed explanation of this political situation, which University students (who can vote here and most certainly should) have continually played a big part in. We've included parts of an interview with Mayor Wheeler so you can judge for yourself.

Culture in Ann Arbor has also been outside the mainstream. The town is known for local bars and bands, a flourishing of campus film groups, weekly free summer rock/jazz/blues concerts, and, until this year, the world-famous Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. The Festival was canned last summer by the Republicans then in control, due to attracting "undesirables" and "drugs." The present city government would love to see another one held, but last year's exiling of the Festival to Canada caused it to go bankrupt.

To make use of the frequent cultural offerings in the entire region, check out the Guide inside plus the SUN's regular biweekly calendar of events, or listen to WCBN-FM, the campus fm alternative radio station at 89.5.

The University community is central to all these activities, but also the scene of quite a bit of its own activism. The UM campus was a center of antiwar activities throughout the sixties and early seventies. Recently the campus has become active again over such issues as tuition increases, worker organizing, and continuing military research. The state of the big U this year is examined inside as well, along with a look at U-M's concert series.

The "Community Guide" inside provides listings of all varieties of community organizations, university services, commercial, cultural and entertainment resources which abound in the area, with short notes on the services provided by each along with phone numbers and addresses. All in all, we've tried to make this Back To School section a deeper and far more meaningful "orientation" to this locality than could ever be provided by U-M or EMU Inc.