The National Community Reinvestment Coalition has released a study on racial disparities in high-cost home mortgage loans from more than 219 metropolitan areas. The report is based on 2006 data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The 2006 data is the latest available data. Here is the press release about the study and the full 64 page report.

Today’s Ann Arbor News reports that “Ann Arbor ranked fourth among metropolitan areas in the United States for the most pronounced racial disparities in home mortgage loan prices."

The methodology of this report may receive more scrutiny than the methodology of the more positive rankings the city has received.

According to Cresson Slotten, Senior Project Manager, City of Ann Arbor Systems Planning Unit: “Highest point is off Maple Road, near where it hits Pauline Blvd…at 1015 feet above sea level…the highest point is not right at that intersection but at the Grace Bible Church, which sits about a hundred yards to the west of Maple.” “Second-highest point in the city, at 1000 feet, is in the northwest corner of town, atop a hill at the city water treatment plant off Sunset Road.” Source: Ann Arbor News, August 30 2004, page B-1, Geoff Larcom, “How to Get Your Head in the Clouds”.

Tree Town IS AARP The Magazine's Healthiest Hometown in America. With the mayor and other dignitaries on hand at Nichols Arboretum Education Center today, July 23, AARP made the announcement. Arb walking and Border-to-Border biking definitely put us at the top of the list.

A stroll through the Arboretum's lovely Peony Garden (which should bloom within the next couple weeks), will take you past the Reader Center on Washington Heights, formerly the Nathan Burnham house, built in 1837 and previously located at 947 Wall Street/940 Maiden Lane. More information on historic buildings around town (including another house that's moved from one location to another) can be found among the 200 images in AADL's Ann Arbor Architecture Archive. The archive includes text from the book Historic Buildings, Ann Arbor, MI, which is also available to check out or browse online.

More than 60 environmental indicators for Ann Arbor are tracked in the City's State of Environment report. The report is packed with data on topics like air quality, landfills, creeks, sidewalks and renewable energy. This interactive site lets you see the relationship between the goals we, as a community, have set and where we stand in achieving those goals. Don't forget that you can begin positively impacting Tree Town's environment today by walking, biking or busing to work during Curb Your Car Month.

submitted by Wystan Stevens

While I was doing a Google search on John L. Burleigh, I noticed an item about him in the online pages of Stanley Wertheim's A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia (1997), where he is referenced (p. 43) as being "probably an apocryphal character invented by Elbert Hubbard." Nay, it is not so.

Col. John L. Burleigh got his law degree, and his start in politics, in my home town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Early histories of this area contain references to his activities, especially as the founder in 1878 of a weekly newspaper, the Ann Arbor Democrat. Two years later, it was noted that Burleigh had sold out his interest in that publication to a business partner and left to seek opportunities in Chicago. From Chicago he evidently migrated to New York. The New York Times on January 9, 1895, posted a reference to him as an attorney practicing in NYC:

A Washtenaw County (Michigan) history notes that Burleigh had been an alderman in Brooklyn. Burleigh's death notice (no obit, alas) appeared in the NYT on May 10, 1909, a day after his demise. His death notice in the New York Tribune (again, no obit) stated that the funeral would be held on May 11 at the Church of the Redeemer, in Brooklyn.

In 1877, Burleigh participated in ceremonies at the laying of the cornerstone of the Washtenaw County Courthouse in Ann Arbor (1881 History of Washtenaw County, p. 346).

Add another accolade to Ann Arbor's cap: Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association named Tree Town as one of the 10 Best Walking Cities in America. According to the judges, our parks, mass transit system, dynamic Downtown and Kerrytown, 400 miles of sidewalks, 22.5 miles of shared use paths and a population that loves to walk all add up to a walking wonderland.

Genealogists have long placed old city directories at the top of their wishlist of books to be digitized. And now it's happening! The Google books project already includes a few local directories and the Books section of our Heritage Quest product includes Ann Arbor and Washtenaw county directories from 1886-87, 1888-89, 1909, 1914, 1915, and 1916. For those of you who prefer perusing the original print editions, you'll find them in our Local History room on the second floor of the Downtown library.

Here are the local directories available through Google: Cole & Keating’s Ann Arbor City Directory for the year 1872; Glen V. Mills Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti City Directory 1892; Polk’s Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Washtenaw County Directory, 1916(7)

view from Cedar Bend Drive, ca. 1900-1919, Making of Ann Arbor

Little did I know that each time I trudge up Spring Street to Hunt Park, I pass by Pardon Street (formerly Walnut Street), which now lies buried under the grass and trees of lower Hunt Park. In his July 2002 Ann Arbor Observer article, "The Lost Streets of Ann Arbor," former AADL librarian, Don Callard, takes you on a fascinating historical tour down Ann Arbor's lost streets -- past Lulu's Court, down dangerous Chubb Street, over to Bowery Street and across the river to California Avenue. You'll find this article in our Streets and Roads binder on the second floor of the Downtown branch. Meanwhile, we've posted a handy list of former Ann Arbor street names and their current counterparts under the new Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County - History link from our AADL Select Sites.