ann arbor is overrated.

We really appreciated all the nice comments over the last week. Come visit us at our new digs, the newly launched This Blog is Overrated, where we will be extending the concept of overratedness far beyond the boundaries of the Mitten State. Although we can’t promise we won’t blog about Ace Deuce there.

For all of you who disparaged the design choices that may have made AAIO a little hard to read — the new one is black type on a white background!

Click below to see how much we’ll miss Ann Arbor:

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Ann Arbor style cheesecake? “The cheesecakes are made light and fluffy using the famous Ann Arbor air of superiority!” writes Leighton.

The latest concern about the hundreds of liquor licenses that could potentially become available: a possible crime wave. “I don’t think we have a police force that can enforce potentially a hundred or more new bars,” worries current license-holder/newly-minted temperance advocate Roger Hewitt.

Ann Arbor may be overrated, but the state of Michigan as a whole has generally been rated more or less correctly. Except for in Iraq. “When Iraqis talk of going to the U.S., Michigan often is the place they want to see … Recently I made a trip to check it out for myself. Michigan is definitely a nice place, but it was over-hyped back home,” writes Sarmad Ali in The Wall Street Journal. “Michigan is quite suburban, at least the parts I saw (and I realize that I saw just a small part of the state), and I still prefer New York.”

But enough about us; what does the News think about us? Fortunately, we were not asked to pose waiflike on a bed with a laptop cord. “Lame and small-town,” by the way, was just supposed to be a hyperbolic description of what was running through our mind soon after moving to Ann Arbor. A2 is definitely medium-town.

There are a couple things that somehow have never come up here on AAIO. Our real name. Whether or not we’re willing to bathe in a rain barrel as a political statement against the Old West Side Association. So check out our interview on Teeter Talk for these and other unedited facts.

Business Week is also excited about the potential for continued housing unaffordability in A2, “a college town in the southeast corner of Michigan known for liberal marijuana laws (many residents and students take part in the annual Hash Bash) and intense loyalty to Wolverines football.”

Ann Arbor Business Review columnist Paula Gardner expresses her hope that housing in Ann Arbor remain unaffordable. (Credit for the wording of this post goes to Dean Baker.)

“I think it will change the whole feel of downtown … Every little space in this town, people will try to sell liquor,” laments a community member. Is it Joan Lowenstein or one of her crypto-prohibitionist fellow members of Campus Community Conversations? Nope, the concerned citizen is none other than the owner of the Arena, who’s not thrilled about the 800 liquor licenses about to become available in A2. Similarly, we were very upset when we learned that just anyone can go to Wordpress or Typepad and start a blog.

“Whereas in Berkeley two City Council districts contain the majority of the student population, in Ann Arbor students are distributed centrally throughout the city, said Ann Arbor Councilmember Joan Lowenstein,” reports the Daily Californian in a story comparing students’ involvement in local government in the two cities. Isn’t it actually the districts that are distributed throughout the city in order to dilute student influence?