What follows is our official exit interview with Merritt Bankes, who just recently left Ypsilanti, headed for Tecumseh. MARK: Can you please state your full name for the record? MERRITT: Merritt Bankes. MARK: OK, let’s start at the beginning… What kind of kid were you? MERRITT: Feral! A free-range chicken! [Laughs.] I didn’t even wear […]
Tag Archives: Green Room
Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interview: Merritt Bankes
Posted in Michigan, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti Also tagged Argus Farm Stop, art school, Chicago, Columbia College, Diet for a New America, drugs, Elbow Room, EMU, environmental activism, environmental protection, exit interviews, feral child, Janet Kaufman, John Robbins, loneliness, Merritt Bankes, music, onions, poaching, porch shows, porches, priorities, self harm, substance abuse, Sustainability, Tecumseh, Tom Waits, vegetarianism, We The People Growers Association, Woodruff's, Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interviews 4 Comments
OK, Ypsilanti, let’s talk about gentrification
In a text I received today, someone I know referred to Depot Town as “little Ann Arbor.” My sense, given the ensuing exchange, is that he didn’t intend it to be a compliment. He asked me if, since I took a stand way back when about the Quizno’s that had opened in Depot Town, I’d […]
Posted in Ann Arbor, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti Also tagged 209 Pearl, accountability, Babo, Bee Roll, Beezy's, Curtis Sullivan, Depot Town, economic development, Elbow Room, Emergency Manager, Frieghthouse, gentrification, little Ann Arbor, looming receivorship, Ma Lou's, Quizno's, Vault of Midnight 79 Comments
Would it be feasible to have a cooperative bookstore in downtown Ypsilanti?
A few days ago, I posted something here about the City having shut down our local used bookstore, Cross Street Books. While acknowledging that there were certainly issues with the peculiar, little store, which has always been both painfully crowded and comically unsafe, I lamented the fact that, without them, our Ypsilanti would be without […]