100 images that defined the Ann Arbor area in 2020
Updated Jan 01, 2021;
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ANN ARBOR – 2020 is history.
It will no doubt go down as one of the most unusual years in our city’s - and our country’s - history. Never content to simply be along for the ride, Ann Arbor has taken on every issue that the year presented in its own unique way.
From the eerily quiet streets that characterized the early peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April to the fever pitch of a tumultuous election year, from the isolation of self-quarantine to the vibrant culture that emerged again as we learned new ways to connect through the year, Ann Arbor’s story was written in moments big and small.
The ‘heart of the Treasure Mart.’ Popular store owner remembered as loving, outgoing person
Updated Dec 28, 2020;
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ANN ARBOR, MI On a Friday night in September 1968, Carl Johns met his soulmate.
It was at a party at Michigan State University that he spotted a “pretty cute” woman with a friend. After pursuing the friend, Carl quickly realized there just was no chemistry there, so he asked the “pretty cute” woman to dance.
They hit it off. And Elaine Johns became the woman Carl chased for a date during Christmas break in 1968, and who he eventually married.
Called “the heart of the Treasure Mart” for her longtime ownership of Treasure Mart, the popular, eclectic Ann Arbor resale store, Elaine died on Saturday, Nov. 21, after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was 70.
These Ann Arbor-area businesses closed in 2020, some due to COVID-19
Updated Dec 24, 2020;
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ANN ARBOR, MI Several longtime Ann Arbor-area businesses have closed this year for various reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic.
Businesses flexed their creative muscles to try staying afloat during a year of stay-at-home orders, government-mandated closures and social distancing brought on by COVID-19. Others shut down completely after finding their business was not feasible without daily traffic.
Here’s a list of several Ann Arbor-area businesses that have closed throughout the year.
\aut\ BAR, located at 315 Braun Court in Ann Arbor, opened as a gay bar in 1995. In February 2019, BarStar Group announced it had bought the bar.
and north carolina s legislature turned completely red for the first time since reconstruction. and that, of course, has brought about not only the voting rights role back that has made north carolina nationally famous this year, and the abortion rights role back and the short-lived attempt to establish a state religion in the state. remember that one? it s also been a wildly aggressive approach to budgeting in the state, spearheaded by the guy who made it all possible for the republicans, spearheaded by art pope, the architect of the north carolina republican takeover, but who is also the state s new budget director under republican governor pat mccrory. under republican control and art pope s budget stylings, north carolina has pursued deep, deep, deep cuts in education and unemployment benefits and health insurance for the poor. they ve even gone after preschool in the state, all policies that will pretty directly hit the shoppers at the pope family stores, right? bargain town, bill
pope family stores, right? bargain town, bill s dollar store, the super 10 the super dollar, treasure mart, roses, maxway, all of the dollar stores that are part of their empire, all of the discount dollar stores that have made art pope and his family all of their many millions, which they have now spent to go after the poor in north carolina in a way that nobody has in more than 100 years. today, the state s naacp held a news conference outside the state budget office, outside art pope s office, announcing a campaign targeting mr. pope s discount stores. they re calling it a picketing campaign to educate dollar store customers about what they called the extreme and aggressive policies that they are funding by shopping at stores owned by mr. pope. we want to put a stop to the use of wealth to influence policies in a negative way. that s why it s not a boycott,