On Fri, 26 Apr 2002, Ralph Walter wrote:

> What is he studying at Tübingen (I have Umlauts-- do you have
> Umlauts?)?

The Ann Arbor area was a big center of German settlement and activity in
the 19th century.  Just a few years ago, there were THREE long-established
German restaurants in downtown Ann Arbor (now all gone except the least
worthwhile one).

The Old West Side historic district (small wooden houses on a grid of
numbered and president-name streets), which Ilene and I have both lived
just outside of, was originally the German neighborhood.  Indeed, the 1990
census showed that Old West Side census tract still had the highest
percentage of German ethnics in the city.  That may no longer be true
today, as ethnically homogenized, affluent yuppies gradually replace
elderly longtime German-American residents, and 600-square-foot cottages
are supplemented with discreetly colossal additions in back.

Anyway, when Ann Arbor decided to get into the Sister City thing some
decades ago, the city which apparently immediately sprung to mind was
Tubingen [I guess I can't make umlauts in email], the ancestral home of
many of Ann Arbor's Germans.  Tubingen takes the Sister City concept very
seriously and sends an official delegation every year; lavishly catered
receptions are held for them.  We even have a street called Tubingen
Parkway.

But Ann Arbor's famously diverse population wasn't satisfied with just one
Sister City.  In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, various groups advocated and
enacted Sister City relationships with Hikone, Japan; Peterborough,
Ontario, Canada;  Belize City, Belize; Dakar, Senegal; and Juilagapa,
Nicaragua.  In all, Ann Arbor has six sisters, which presumably means
Dakar and Peterborough are sisters-in-law, or something.

Each of these sisterhoods has a faction behind it, some more active than
others (some of them have done nothing at all for years).  At one point, I
think the Hikone group got signs installed at all the entrances to the
city announcing proudly that Ann Arbor was the sister city of Hikone,
Japan.  This led to howls of protest from the other five groups.  Pretty
soon the signs were replaced with ridiculous new ones which list all six.

                                 Larry

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
Washtenaw County Commissioner, 4th District
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Ebay Page, http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/potifos/
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106

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