The Month That Was - September 2023

The passing of September makes me 63 years old.  It's a birthday of no consequence.  No boundary has been crossed.  No symbolic meaning.  No great revelations.  At least 62 had the significance of me being able to apply for Social Security, even though I'm not going to.  64 has the significance of being in a famous Beatles song.  But 63 -- I got nothin'. 

In fact I have little to report at all.  I've been doing nothing but rolling along with my life, lost in my habits. In the past I would have felt as though I'm missing out, but now I welcome a stretch of routine and normalcy.  With a warmer than normal winter predicted, I'm pretty content at the moment.

[Music] Changes in Gratitude

[TV] Streaming Stories

[Cars] Whatever Happened to Ten Years Ago

[Music] Changes in Gratitude

I guess you could call me a Jimmy Buffet fan.  I wasn't always.  As a sneering, snarky youth I scoffed at his silly songs which I passed off as some kind of limp country pop.  I probably came to like him in my late 20s as I lost my hard edge and I fell for the simple catchiness of the tunes that would earworm their way into my brain.  

The more I listened, the more I appreciated it.  The big thing about Jimmy was always his beach bum persona; the carefree, sun-drenched, margarita-sipper in the aloha shirt, representing everything you long for as you pound your head against your office cube wall and shovel the snow from your driveway.

Here's the thing, I have had more than one opportunity to live that sort of life.  The dirty secret is that, like many fantasies, it gets boring real fast once the novelty wears off.  You can spend only so many aimless days in a lounge chair sipping fruity drinks and devouring beach books.  And you would be stunned how fast you gain weight from margaritas.  The plain fact is that we all need something to do.  If I truly found myself on a beautiful tropical island with little to do except chill, I would probably be drinking bourbon nonstop and obsessively gambling on Draft Kings.  That said, it's fun for a week or two at a time, so in that sense, Jimmy nailed it.

I think what most people miss about Jimmy is that there was more to it than that persona.  The celebration of inebriated slacking would wear thin in short order, but ultimately, that wasn't the underlying theme he brought to the table. Considering his entire oeuvre, I would sum up his mission in one word: Gratitude.  Sorrow and joy, pleasure and pain; ultimately we appreciate it all.

• Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way

• Wrapped myself around a Ma Bell telephone pole…Life is just a tire swing  

• Everyone here is just more than contented to be livin' and dyin' in ¾ time

• Roll with the punches…made the best of whatever came his way

• Survivors of tidal waves, Children of former slaves…They'll be changing channels, always will

• There's a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us

• We all know, just how lucky we are

All these lyrics and so many others convey gratitude for life and humanity, with all defects and difficulties that come with it.  That is the truly enduring message.

Beyond that, I also think Jimmy is very underrated as a songwriter, again by those who pass him off as nothing but a fantasy persona.  Bob Dylan called out his admiration for his songs, as has Paul McCartney, yet for some reason he doesn't seem to get looped into the greatest songwriter conversations.  His ability to construct clever rhymes is really second to none, he has a great variety in meter and, of course, he can compose a hook as well as anyone.  Let me just link some of my favorites (Links to YouTube):

That's What Living is to Me -- a call out to Mark Twain, this is wonderfully crafted and perfectly sung.  If I had to choose one song to describe Jimmy Buffet music it would be this one. Marvelous character images, a great hook, the contrast of happiness and sorrow -- "In the far off regions, the foreign legions keep the thieves and the predators at bay" vs. "stories from my favorite books still take on many different looks".

Changing Channels -- Another one with a strong sense of gratitude for the life we are given. The quiet poetry of the mundane.  The beauty of the everyday.  A truly lovely ballad. 

The Ballad of Skip Wiley -- Characters from a Carl Hiassen beach read.  Swanky horns like an old school caper.  A good example of his use of meter.  It also contains what might be my favorite rhyme in all the universe.  "With a pirate's persona / he snatched the gridiron madonna".  Too much fun.

And if I had to pick a favorite album I'd start with Fruitcakes wonderful infectious songs covering the gamut, call outs for the title song and Delaney Talks to Statues, a beautiful song for his daughter, or more correctly about his love for his daughter.

Another connection I feel for Jimmy is his love of, and call outs for, Florida, a state you can only appreciate if you can take the yin and the yang, the blue skies and ultra-violet rays, the riches and son-of-a-bitches.  Rarely does an album go by without a Florida reference I recognize and have experienced.

As I have aged my sense of gratitude has grown and Jimmy's music has certainly helped that along, and in turn fed my gratitude for having been able to enjoy it.  No question my Jimmy Buffet playlist will be in heavy rotation to the last.

Thank you, Jimmy.

[TV] Streaming Stories

I ran across this list of the top 15 streamed programs last year.  I have no reason to doubt it.

1. Stranger Things 

2. NCIS 

3. Cocomelon 

4. Ozark 

5. Encanto 

6. Grey’s Anatomy 

7. Criminal Minds 

8. Bluey Disney+ 

9. Gilmore Girls 

10. Seinfeld 

11. Supernatural 

12. Wednesday 

13. Heartland 

14. Cobra Kai 

15. The Simpsons

And I can't let it slide without commentary.  First, I'm glad to see Stranger Things on top. It is a high quality, well written show that young people can enjoy and dodges so many of the culture war pitfalls that causes so much TV to be really bad.  Seen it.

I would have suspected the only reason to watch NCIS or Criminal Minds was because you were stuck with old school cable.  Formulaic, expository, arch -- the continued existence and popularity of shows like this is baffling to me. Still, can't argue with success.

I gather Cocolemon, Bluey, and Encanto are the hot kids shows of late.  Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any, but maybe when I see the (de jure) grandkids on Thanksgiving.

Ozark is intriguing, but it also sounds like a minefield for potential crime adjacent TV clichés.  Still I like Jason Bateman so I should probably check it out.

I wonder who will die first, Grey's Anatomy or me.

When I saw Gilmore Girls I thought it must be a reboot of the old series.  Nope.  Not as far as I can tell.  Pushing a quarter century and people are still watching it?  I never watched it; what am I missing?

Now, Seinfeld I can understand. Thirty-something and still in the top ten.  That is correct.  It's the GOAT sitcom and nothing before or after can touch it.  It is still fresh in the current TV landscape.  Seen it.

I confess I had never heard of Supernatural until now. A show about monster hunting. My first thought is to hope Darin Morgan is one of the writers (IYKYK).  It has had 15 seasons on Netflix, so maybe they are doing something right.  May try.

Wednesday was a big hit.  It was all over social media for a while and it looks like fun.  I might give it a shot.

Heartland is another one I never heard of.  A Canadian family drama, presumably more Waltons than Succession.  Unless Shoresy shows up and starts chirping, I'll pass (IYKYK).  Still, a "Canadian family drama" up that high is impressive.

I occasionally stream Cobra Kai -- I think I'm on season 3 -- and it's really good fun.  Tightly written, doesn't take itself too seriously, and Macchio and Zabka are great together.  Seen some.

The presence of The Simpsons makes me wonder how many people are just rewatching the early classics or is there a big audience actually trying to stay current on all 35 seasons.  Seen some.

One knee-jerk conclusion I could draw is that generational variance isn't that great anymore.  I mean, look at the #1, it's new, but set in the 80s with a classic Spielberg flavor to it. All this assumes that the popularity of the shows listed above runs across generations, but that wouldn't surprise me, it's kind of always been like that. I was a fan of Cheers in the '80s, but I also loved the Twilight Zone from the '60s.  In the '60s I loved The Monkees, but I also watched The Three Stooges from the '30s.  Now folks like Wednesday, but maybe they also like Seinfeld.  I see YouTube videos of teens and twenty somethings covering Classic rock.  I grew up in a time of the "Generation Gap".  Seems that gap has closed.

[Cars] Whatever Happened to Ten Years Ago

Sometimes I have good timing -- I bought my house at the absolute bottom of the market in 2010. Sometimes I don't -- I bought southern headquarters near the top.  Regarding cars, it looks like my timing is bad again.  The good ol' Acura (2014 TL) is still driving strong, but I have reached the 9 years / 170k mile point whence I traditionally buy a new car.  Sadly the auto market right now is in complete chaos.  

Firstly, prices are outrageous. To give you some idea, my car was a year old with 15k miles when I bought it.  I don't remember the exact figure, but it ended up around $25k.  The equivalent car now would be a 2022 Acura TLX.  That car would run me about $35k.  Now truly I can't complain too much about that because it approximately corresponds to the overall rate of inflation but, damn.  That's a big chunk of change. I think I'm outraged because between the time I sold my last Camry and bought the TL inflation was about zero I was able to move into the near-luxury market for a tiny premium.

Laugh if you must but, for reasons I won't go into, my ideal car at the moment is a 2023 Toyota Sienna hybrid.  I could get a used one for just shy of 50k.  Assuming I get 10k for my trade in, that's 40 Large out of pocket.  For a minivan.  Never have I ever pictured that happening. 

All this started with Covid and famed supply chain issues.  Autos only just started to recover, and then only some makers. The U.S. big three are in good shape inventory-wise, Germans and Koreans are close to recovering, but the big two Japanese are still in short supply -- especially Toyota.  Now there is no telling what is going to be the effect of the UAW strike, but it's hard to see it not constraining supply even more.

Bottom line: I think the ol' Acura may have to last me another year, which is a larger ask than it would have been previously, given that I am pouring miles on it going back and forth to southern headquarters multiple times per year.  Still it's holding up well and generally being a good advertisement for buying another Acura.  Too bad they don't make a minivan.

BTW, one of the best sources for info about the back and forth of the auto retail trade is Car Dealership Guy.  Interesting podcast, email sub, and twitter feed. You can really get the detailed low down of what's going on in the industry.  A fascinating behind the scenes.  One point he makes, auto loans are in meltdown.  Non-performing loans are at record levels and numerous leaders have left the market.  You would think that the inability to get a loan would lower demand and prices would react, and while that may be happening, it's happening very slowly as people seem to be resigned to accepting older cars for price reasons and because pretty much all cars are a good deal more durable than they used to be.  If you have even a passing interest in market economics, it's a very cool follow.

The Month That Was - August 2023

Storms -- we had awful storms, high winds, tornados, power outages.  I can't remember a wetter summer.  Correspondingly it's also been a greener summer than I can remember.  Whenever I travel down to southern headquarters I am reminded of what a lush, verdant state Michigan is.  It is a thing I will miss if I leave.

I say "if" because I had the SO and daughter up for extended time in the mitten.  We visited Saugatuck and Traverse City and they were very impressed.  It's hard not to be impressed with Michigan when the weather cooperates.  It kind of re-opens the door to staying up here and simply snowbirding down south when it gets cold.  

As a strange surprise, my Michigan income tax return was held up for review this year with the result being they found a larger refund than I calculated.  Which is mind blowing because, a) they did it at all and, b) I'm pretty good at taxes and I'm pretty sure I did them correctly.  Now I'm concerned they will find it was a mistake and ask for it back.

Maybe I should spend it quickly. 

Content this month is light.  Visitors and travel have been a big distraction.  More next month, including my eulogy for Jimmy Buffet.  

[Rant] Tell You of my Dreaming

[TV] Unjustified

[Travel] Parks Outside the Box

[Rant] Tell You of My Dreaming

For the bulk of my life I thought I didn't dream.  In time I came to understand that I did dream but I had no recall of the dream. My dreams were completely ephemeral, vanishing on waking.  The story in the past few years has gotten more complicated.  Lately, the memory of the details has lasted longer although I still don't retain them for more than a few seconds, I am left with a very distinct impression of the tone of the content.  Not the details of the dream but the underlying theme of it.  It's all very strange. 

Literally every dream I have had in recent years has involved me wanting, planning, or needing to perform some activity or action and not being able to do it.  It could be some innocuous task and I keep getting distracted, or it could be a crucial activity and I'm roadblocked, but whatever the case, as soon as I start to realize I'm being stymied, I wake up.  Within seconds the details are gone, but the impression of the essential motif remains in absolute clarity.  

None of this is in focus, of course.  It's in dreamtime so there are shifts in perspective and rules and behaviors that are irrational, but I can't emphasize enough how clear the underlying message is.  Not just clear, the theme and the memory of the associated frustration is persistent, like actual memories, not a vanishing sensation.  This is very new for me.

These are not recurring dreams.  They are never the same.  It is only the sense of frustration at being unable to complete the task and the anxiety over the failure that is recurring. 

I really don't know what to make of it other than I am acting out comparable real world emotions.  In all likelihood that's all it is, just my anxieties manifesting during sleep.  The odd thing to me is not that I have anxiety dreams -- on more than one occasion in my life I have woken up shouting in panic. The combination of the common theme and persistence is what makes me think it is a meaningful development.

I have no idea what to do with this information. I am merely documenting it. I hope this new journey will lead to something.   But realistically, I expect, be an unsolved mystery.

[TV] Unjustified

I mentioned this last month but it merits repeating: the follow up mini-series to my beloved Justified is truly awful.  Normally I wouldn't give much of a hoot beyond simple disappointment, but this is border-line offensively bad.  This is an entirely emotional reaction on my part.  I really loved Justified.  I thought it had about the best writing a TV show ever has had.  Although for high concept and stunning dialogue it is topped by Deadwood, for effectiveness in the TV genre Justified was unsurpassed.  On more than one occasion I have been told that I have a demeanor similar to Deputy U.S. Marshal Rayan Givens, which is a great, and probably undeserved compliment.  A rewatch of a season is a go-to for me to purge the blues.  I don't know who is involved in this follow-up but it has no good qualities at all.  It is truly a first to worst scenario.  I have to admit I've stooped to hate-watching at this point. Of all the disappointments in television of recent years, this one really pissed me off.

I can't help but think somehow they realized what a disaster it was because, in the post-script we get to see the return of Boyd Crowder and a hint of some of the old energy.  It's as if they were saying, "Sorry about this pathetic mess, we'll do better next time."  I would love to see that follow up, but only if it's handed to a team of writers who respect the source material and can actually, you know, write dialogue.  And a showrunner who knows how to manage pacing and tone.  I won't hold my breath.

[Travel] Parks Outside the Box

I've spent a fair amount of time in National Parks.  They are wonderful places and I'm glad I saw so many before the deluge. I have visited many of the places mentioned in that article and can confirm the mass increase in visits.  A few years ago when I visited Zion to hike the Narrows I literally walked right in from my hotel just outside the park and hopped the (mostly empty) first shuttle of the morning to the river trailhead. I set off almost in complete solitude and maybe encountered 10 people along the 10 mile river route.  There is a picture of that trailhead in that article and it looks like Woodstock.  The first time I ever went to Arches National Park in Moab, I casually showed up and explored without a second thought.  Now, I believe you need a reservation.

Yelling at clouds aside, I really hope the Park Service manages to find a good way to maintain control of this without making it too onerous to visit. The article seems to blame this on Instagram or other social media, but that is, after all, the purpose of the parks.  To present natural beauty and generally cool stuff -- things you will want to take a picture of to share and remember. 

And while you may have second thoughts about visiting some of these more popular parks, I can assure you the less visited ones are also filled with visual delights.  Here are 13 good ones from Outside Magazine.  I can vouch for Everglades with its 13-mile loop through gator country.  Death Valley, the largest park in the lower 48, with great views, bizarre landscapes  and one of the best lodges in a National Park, the Inn at Furnace Creek, which has one of the best pools I have ever swum in.  I was just recently in Sleeping Bear Dunes with its challenging dune climbs and pseudo-California style views of the coast. I have Isle Royale on my bucket list.  And for getting yourself turned into a missing person statistic, Canyonlands has some of the most remote hiking you'll ever dare attempt.  Outside my comfort zone are the huge parks in up state Alaska that you have to be flown into.

So, yes, the big names have traffic issues, but think outside the box and you can be on the cutting edge of Instagram.

The Month That Was - July 2023

One thing I have not been able to do this summer is swim in the lake.  Between trips to Southern Headquarters and fire ant sores (see below) I haven't got out to the lake yet. Also I was late getting my sprinkler system started up and we hit a dry spell that pretty much killed my lawn.  Then as soon as I got it going the rains came and made it irrelevant.  I haven't turned them on since.

You could title the above paragraph Summer Problems of a Lucky Man.  Every summer like this is a gift.

[Nature] Ants of Fire

[Ann Arbor] Ann Arbor Backslide

[TV] Toob Notes - Partial Impressions

[Nature] Ants of Fire

So I had my first encounter with fire ants.  Down at Southern Headquarters I was simply wandering the back yard and I must have stopped in proximity to a nest. Now, I have a vague memory of a childhood trip to Florida and getting stung by ants but I don't recall any terrible reaction other than a brief owie.  This time I had a bad reaction.  A couple of the bites ended with small blisters but one was particularly bad and blistered at least an inch and a half across.  All bites were on my feet thanks to open-toed sandals.  The pain went away in a short while but the blisters, which were painless, lasted for days.

The real problem was the swelling.  My foot and ankle swelled greatly, which was a little scary to me.  After about a week of getting worse, I headed to urgent care where I got a steroid shot, antibiotic pills, steroid pills, antibiotic cream, and steroid cream. Yes, it may have been overkill. Now I'm going to talk about gross stuff.

The word on blisters from all sources is do not pop them.  I have come to disagree with that.  The reason you don't poop a blister is because it offers a bit of protection against bacteria getting in the wound.  Well, that's easy to manage with nothing more than neosporin and a bandage.  Popping (or at least draining) the blister can also allow your shoes to fit.  Also if the blister gets very large when it does finally break a huge swath of skin beneath it can be scarred and irritated.  That is in fact what happened to me. I left alone a small blister on my ankle and it grew and grew and then when it did pop it left a raw patch of skin, which is in fact painful.  Also, the doctor I saw at urgent care said popping a blister is fine if it makes you more comfortable and you are not going to anything to get the underlying wound infected.  So… lesson learned. 

Sorry for the grossness. Anyway, still not fully healed from it all.  So fire ants need to be eliminated from the face of the earth.  One encounter with the tiny little buggers has disrupted me for three weeks and it's not completely done yet. Chemical warfare was employed in the backyard, but I'm told even that is only temporary.  Resolved: While at Southern Headquarters each day will commence with a scan of the backyard for the savage critters and death to any I find.  I also need to wear thigh high boots at all times.

Thank God I'm a Northern Boy.

[Ann Arbor] Ann Arbor Backslide

Last month I fretted over the comparatively minor crime spike and, when coupled with some anti-Police legislation, wondered whether it was a bellwether of Ann Arbor being on the road to Portland or San Francisco-style degradation.

The usually inept Ann Arbor News has even caught on, cataloging the wave of 11 homicides in the area.  I will not make any observations about the character of these crimes; you can do that for yourselves.  I will point out that only half of them were perpetrated in what I would consider good, relatively safe places in the area, one was even out near and to the south of Dexter.  The rest were in points east (Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, Superior Township) where such occurrences are much more to be expected.  There is a sarcastic localism that anything east of US-23 is Detroit, but maybe Detroit is reaching further west.

The jury is still out about degradation.  If we start seeing headlines like this --Double amputee shot in back of head is among ‘rash of panhandler victims’ in Detroit -- we'll know it's time to bail.   On the other hand, if police blotters veer in this direction -- Northern Michigan woman attacks man with toilet cleaner -- we'll know we're going in the right direction.

Possibly related: Perennially one of the top ten places to live, Ann Arbor has slipped to #65 in this survey.

[TV] Toob Notes - Partial Impressions

Ted Lasso - I had temporary access to Apple TV when down south so a Ted Lasso binge was in order.  Season 1 was a delight.  Terrific ensemble acting, flawed characters who somehow find their way amidst loss and degradation.  Funny as hell.  Then Season 2 went in the toilet and turned into a weepy chick flick.  This was a series that was aching to follow the Seinfeldian principle of "no hugging, no learning" and they went opposite into a "get in-touch with your feelings, especially you toxic males" format.  Tremendous let down.  Season 3 (of which I only saw the first 3 episodes before I had to leave) seemed to get somewhat back on track, although I reserve judgment until I see it through.  My advice: watch Season 1 and feel free to bail at any point after that.

Justified: City Primeval - I was truly psyched to see Raylan Givens ride again.  Timothy Olyphant's portrayal in Justified was truly one of the greatest extended performances of all time.  For me, it's right next to pantheon level work by James Gandolfini, Ian McShane, and Bob Odenkirk in Sopranos, Deadwood, and Better Call Saul respectively. In short, City Primeval (through the first 4 episodes) is a big let down.  Gone is the great ensemble cast -- no Tim, no Art, no Duffy, no Constable Bob --  replaced by a set of personality-less interchangeable Detroit cops.  And while Boyd Holbrook does decent work as the big bad, he's no Walton Goggins, and his character, Mansell, is no Boyd Crowder. Worst of all, it's no fun.  The relationship of Raylan and his daughter gets a lot of time and while occasionally poignant, it's a bummer. The repartee and sparking dialogue is gone, replaced with standard cop show blather.  It's also harmed by its setting in Detroit, which is just depressing, although it does capture the dinginess of both the city and its leaders quite well. What does that say about Detroit, that it's more dire and bleak than Harlan, Kentucky.  

Marvel's Secret Invasion -- It is astonishing how Marvel has gone from doing no wrong and breaking box office records at will to having pretty much destroyed every property they had.  A tell-all book about the rise and fall of Marvel Studios needs to be written.  I canceled my Disney+ subscription some time ago, but they provided Amazon Prime with a preview of the first three episodes of their latest TV series, Secret Invasion. The plot here is that an aging Nick Fury has to work to stop a group of shape shifting aliens from exterminating the human race.  The first three episodes weren't offensively bad, which is an achievement for Marvel these days.  It suffers from what a number of late Disney/Marvel products suffer from, things happen for no other reason than somebody wrote a scene that said it would, whether it is internally consistent or not is unimportant.  They thankfully left the gag-laden self-parody out of it, but they also left out the fun. It was just kind of "meh".   Needless to say, I felt no urgent desire to renew my Disney+ to finish it out.  Neither should you.

The Month That Was - June 2023

I'm surprised I haven't heard more Smoke on the Water jokes. You've seen the pictures from New York.  It was actually worse in the Detroit area for a while.  Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada have darkened the skies over Michigan and the expectation is that it will continue until October.  Part of the reason for that is the scope of the fires is enormous.  Another reason is that Canadians don't seem to feel a sense of urgency about it because many of the fires are in remote regions with little threat to life or property.

I spent four days out in Orange County for work.  Sadly, I didn't get to do anything other than work, but I was put in mind why, throughout the last century, people rushed to live in California.  It was simply the best weather I have ever experienced; sunny and 70s with a wonderful sea breeze. Irvine, where I was specifically, is walkable and filled with outdoor plazas and dining.  It was a reminder of the times when Cali was associated with chill.  From the OC down to San Diego it can still shine like the days of old.

Returning to Michigan we are in the midst of 90 degree heat, stifling humidity, dark skies, and unbreathable air, and recommendations to stay inside and mask up.  These fires are going to destroy our beautiful Michigan summer.

[Rant] Death Watch: San Francisco

[Rant] A Moment of Gratitude

[TV] The Bear, Season 2

[Rant, Ann Arbor] Death Watch: San Francisco

Speaking of California, the opposite of the state of OC is the state of San Francisco.  I declared Portland dead last month.  San Francisco is in the ICU:

Hotel rates are up everywhere but in San Francisco.  Time was, San Francisco would top the 10 best places to visit list.  Now it's on the downswing.  In a remarkable example of understatement: "Conventions—previously a major driver of group travel—have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels, a problem some attribute to a decline in street conditions and worries about public safety."  Lol, ya think?

If visitors are fearful, imagine what it must be like for residents.  This story of Eli Steele getting his car broken into is remarkable.

And of course, we have the well known dynamic of business exodus (Nordstrom, Old navy, Whole Foods, Westfield Mall) and related population exodus (tech focused).

None of this is surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to urban dynamics since the turn of the century.  What I will never understand is how deeply people delude themselves about it.  Everybody speaks of it as if it were temporary, just a downturn that will correct itself with maybe a clever policy machination or two.  It won't.  I'm from Detroit; a dying city doesn't turn around.  At best you might manage to cordon off a small downtown segment -- sports team complex, a casino, a key museum might attract some short term visitor money -- and keep it going as a lifeline.  If smart attentive people are elected you may tread water for a year now and then.  But in no way will the city ever recover.  Smart, attentive people have already left the city, so electing smart, attentive people gets less and less likely.

My advice to you: Have no delusions, your city is not coming back. Get out while the gettin' is good.  Your life will be better for it.

One of the best decisions I ever made was to settle in the Ann Arbor area. A mid-size city that is buoyed by the enormous University of Michigan and has been fairly recession proof, Ann Arbor has grown from about 200k when I first moved here in 1978 to about 330k today.  It is statistically very safe, especially for residents who all know where the few points of low income housing are and know where to avoid the homeless. It is also wealthy, which has kept the undesirables from the east priced out of living here.  (That was tongue-in-cheek.  The city immediately to the east is Ypsilanti, which is not particularly safe.  Further east is Detroit.)

But there are concerns.  Recently there has been a spate of violent crime.  Broadly speaking, what little violent crime there usually is in Ann Arbor centers around the aforementioned low-income housing spots and the homeless.  The homeless are a particular problem in Ann Arbor because downtown we have something called the Delonis Center.  Delonis is, to put it glibly, a five-star homeless shelter. Most homeless shelters are horrible places and can be outright dangerous in themselves.  Homeless come from far and wide to shelter at Delonis, and that gives Ann Arbor an outsized portion of crazies in the streets.  It is kept somewhat under control because if they are caught committing crimes or harassing people they can get booted out of Delonis and have to go back to some hellhole, so there is incentive to behave, but let's face it, your standard homeless guy is not a rational actor.  Delonis has been a source of controversy over the years and the balance of wanting to do good and be humane versus public safety and commerce has had its share of challenges.

Being good, woke, liberal folks, the city council has responded to this by forbidding the police to stop vehicles for minor offenses like a broken tail light or tinted front windows (forbidden in MI) because that's racist.  (Evidently today is the day for me to glib.)  It sounds appealing on the face of it.  I mean, I've been pulled over because some cop thought my license plate was too worn and old to be read.  But having seen what well intentioned efforts to curtail police power have done over the years -- from New York City to Portland to San Francisco -- one wonders whether the frustration of a penny-ante annoyance may not be the lesser evil.  Maybe this is a one time thing and Ann Arbor is not going down the road of reacting to crime by just letting it happen, like San Francisco has.  But I worry.  Ann Arbor leadership is full of righteous demagogues just like San Francisco.  It's filled with activists who will happily watch things be destroyed in the name of their deluded notions of fairness.  Maybe, just maybe, it's a coincidence that it coincides with a crime uptick and it's not a baby step toward degradation.

But like I said.  I worry.