The idea was to drive down to the Huron/Seventh Street intersection and try to figger out why the changed traffic pattern was so confusing (mainly to people complaining on next door neighbor). Our city council has spent the last few years changing traffic patterns all over downtown. One-way streets now two-way. Badly designed bike lanes (arguably, some people like them). Most of the work happened during COVID…

We’ll talk about all that some other day (or not). This particular intersection I was really curious about because our first apartment on the Planet Ann Arbor was about a block away from it on North Seventh. In other words, I traversed that intersection ALL THE TIME! It has always been a funky intersection in that North Seventh St. and its counterpart South Seventh St. do not line up at all so you have to make a big jog when you cross Huron. I have long been accustomed to navigating this intersection but it is a busy one and people are apparently confused by the “new” signage (or not). Mainly that there is a new “no left turn” sign but a big left arrow remains painted on the pavement. Which is correct? And if there’s no left turn, why didn’t the city paint over the pavement arrow?

Anyway, this is a fairly recent picture of the old place where we occupied the second floor. It had some good points. I loved hanging out on the porch, it was a quick walk through West Park to downtown, and the landlord was friendly. But it was small and ragged and after a couple years walking on the roller-coaster floors I started feeling a little seasick, figuratively speaking at least.

When we got married (1982), we moved to a sturdier upper flat maybe six blocks west and then two years later when the first beach urchin made her presence known, we bought the Landfill. No more landlords and a sizeable back yard with a woods behind it. The first time I walked in I thought, “Yes, this is my house.” It still is.

Even though I have driven N. Seventh a couple times in the last few months, it wasn’t until last evening that I noticed our old apartment was NO LONGER THERE!

I texted this pic to my cousin who ALSO lived there for a while. I took the flat and her partner’s landline number over when they moved out of state (662-2983, a good old Planet Ann Arbor phone number). My cousin’s guess is that because of the green grass nothing will be built there. She may well be right but I have a hard time believing that in this affluent little city something new will not be built. Detroit might be another story although there is much more renovation work there now than like 20 years ago or whatever.

The GG said that he had noticed some earlier renovation work on the old building during various peregrinations around town. Maybe whoever owns it now decided it was too far gone for renovations or couldn’t afford them? Sad if that’s true. I dunno what’s next for that lot but I will be keeping tabs on it. I hope the city doesn’t let some developer shoehorn a big ugly multifamily thingy in there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.