Restaurant Review: 2.5/5 stars (fair, satisfactory)—Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the reviewer’s reaction to food, with ambiance, service and price taken into consideration, as well.

The Original Cottage Inn

512 East William Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Hours Mon-Fri 11:00am-11:00pm Sat 11:00am-12:00am Sun 11:00am-10:00pm

(734) 663-3379

Reservations suggested

In December of 2011, the Washtenaw County Health Department noted that The Original Cottage Inn was “under new management,” and that improvements in the restaurant’s cleanliness and food handling were “tremendous.” In October of 2012, the State of Michigan revamped its health inspection terminology. Violations went from easy to understand (i.e. “noncritical” and “critical”) to ”core” and ”priority foundation.”  To read the definitions of the new restaurant health inspection lingo, click here. The Original Cottage Inn was last inspected in December of 2012 and cited for two “core” violations, both related to food storage unit upkeep. In short, the violations are nothing to get your knickers in a twist about.

The service? It made reviewers on Yelp.com downright cranky:

“The service is spotty…”

“The wait staff is always ever-changing (it IS a college town after all) so the level of service is always ever changing….”

“The wait times for service are horrible and servers tend to become very careless when they see that you are ordering nothing but a personal pizza….”

“This paired with the waitress who (although she did her job in taking our orders and getting the food to us) gave off the impression that she *really* didn’t want to be there made for a negative experience.”

My experience, alas, was similar.

You don’t usually make reservations at a restaurant and then expect to wait over 30 minutes for your table, but at The Original Cottage Inn they had some very different expectations. My group arrived at about 6:55 p.m. for a 7:00 p.m. reservation. There where 13 of us so we’d order the food in advance as well as made a reservation (usually a good move when the idea is to speed dinner along). Unfortunately it did not work as well as planned. We weren’t seated until 7:35—all of us significantly hungrier than when we’d arrived. When we finally did get seated, our salad was already at the table, which was very nice, but there were no plates. The waitress finally appeared and brought some plates, but immediately disappeared before we could order drinks.

The décor of Cottage Inn is supposed to remind one of a rustic Italian home. Unfortunately from the unclean bathrooms to the rickety tables to the frying cheep carpet on the stairs leading to the second floor, Cottage Inn feels more like a ruin of ancient Rome. Noise levels are loud, making conversation difficult, and the evening I was there the restaurant felt like an overheated box—though this certainly could have been the result of a temporarily turned up theromostat, or some other temporary problem.

The Greek salad was very tasty. However, the salad was populated by some roughly cut vegetables (huge chunks of carrot and onion) and massive cubes of feta. The dressing was very flavorful and savory and the lettuce mix was crisp and fresh. The salad also had some nice fresh olives and tasty beets, which leant some nice flavor and color to the plates.

While waiting for the pizza to show up some of us wondered if perhaps they had they had called out for delivery. When the pizza did finally appear it was without its escort, the plates. The plates after being requested from a staff member where disappointingly small and could only hold one piece of pizza max and the ends were dangling off the side like they were sitting on the edge of a cream colored ceramic dock. The pizza itself was not a disappointment at all and almost, and I stress almost, worth the wait. The pizza although a little on the greasy side, had not too much sauce and seemed to be fresh when it finally appeared at our table steam rolling off, available in a multitude of different crust types the pizza is quite filling. My party got four pizzas for 13 people and that was quite enough. The pizza at Cottage Inn should be a focus of their menu but does not appear until the end of the 8-page behemoth. Also it has a high base price $13 for a regular larger and $20 if you want to add more than 5 toppings. You can also add any number off additional toppings for $2 each.

Cottage Inn also has a verity of Italian dishes and a “make your own” pasta section. This section of the menu is not one to be frequented and if at all possible to be avoided. When I went another time we all ordered non-pizza items which proved to be a huge mistake. The dishes took a very long time and two of them had to be sent back mine because it was so salty I could not eat it and another one because the salmon in the grilled Atlantic salmon ($15) was undercooked. Mine, the portabella mushroom ravioli ($13), had to go back a second time because it was stone cold and almost to hard to eat. When they managed to get my ravioli to an eatable state it was under seasoned and did not have much actual mushroom flavor. The pasta itself was gummy and overcooked, which was a disappointment for a restaurant that claims to import its pasta (I suspect it might be from Kroger).

Yelpers collectively gave the Original Cottage Inn a 3.5/5. They attributed this to good pizza and some good dishes with huge portion sizes, but also did note spotty service, loud noise levels and unpleasing décor. I would be remiss to not to mention that while at Cottage Inn I did see the entire University of Michigan women’s gymnastics team, they came in after us while we where waiting and got seated immediately along with about six or eight other parties who came in after us.

As one person I talked to said about Cottage Inn it is “a great place for U of M alums.” This I would have to agree to, there are some far better alternatives in this city and many within the price range or cheaper. Cottage Inn is a great place for pizza but not for much past that. Just remember to make you reservations far in advance for large groups or be a young attractive female collage student.

In 2010, A2Politico posted this in a piece about Ann Arbor Restaurant Week titled, “The Politics of Food: Ann Arbor Restaurant Week Hype? Caveat Emptor, Epicurians”:

In case you haven’t noticed, January 17-22 is Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, an event put on by the Main Street Area Association. It’s the second Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, and 26 joints are participating, according to Lisa Allmendinger’s piece in the A2Journal. The participating venues will offer “a $12.00 lunch and some restaurants are offering two-for-one pricing.” A three-course dinner during the week at participating restaurants will set you back $25.00. This year, the event organizers talked several sponsors out of money (Lord only knows why Frog Holler Produce needs to sponsor such an event) so that the Main Street Association could “create a web site, which lists all of the participating restaurants and other information,” according to Allmendinger’s piece.

So, am I just a cheapskate, or is $25 bucks for dinner per person way too rich for your blood, as well? If we take the tots (crazy, I know) that’s $100 for dinner for four during Restaurant Week. I wrote in an earlier post about eating at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California last summer and how Alice Waters’ restaurant made me painfully aware of exactly how over-priced and badly cooked meals in our local restaurants can actually be. Chez Panisse completely destroyed my ability to rationalize paying $17-$30 for an entreé at any local restaurant in our town.

In 2011, A2Politico posted this in a piece about Ann Arbor Restaurant Week titled, “The Politics of Food: Ann Arbor Restaurant Week — The Sequel”:

Ann Arbor Restaurant Week is baaaaaaaack and runs from January 16-21. I last wrote about the first annual Restaurant Week in Ann Arbor on January 15, 2010. The title of that entry, “The Politics of Food: Ann Arbor Restaurant Week Hype? Caveat Emptor, Epicurians,” could be the title of this entry, as well. The hype is the same: “One Price Dining, One Week, Several Options.” Ok. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s when we get into the small type that the used car salesman hard sell kicks in:

“Extraordinary three course dinner menus and prix fare lunch menus from Ann Arbor’s best restaurants. Experience cuisine that delights your palate and defines the art of dining in Ann Arbor. Now is your chance to discover new restaurants and enjoy favorites at a discounted price.”

It’s the “discounted price” part that sticks to the roof of one’s mouth, much like a big bite of a peanut butter sandwich on Wonder Bread. The Main Street Area Association members, and marketing gurus are already stretching it big time by calling a burrito or tacos at Sabor Latino “extraordinary” food. Pasta at Argerios?Definitely not extraordinary by any stretch of the imagination, unless one considers canned tomato sauce worth the $12.50 entreé price charged by the restaurant for a serving of manicotti. The pizza is better, chewy crust, topped with real mozzarella cheese, but the gnocchi are shameless impersonations of what Romans do with their leftover Wednesday potatoes. (Thursday is gnocchi day in Rome.)

It’s 2013, and Ann Arbor Restaurant Week is upon us once again. It runs from January 20-25. The Main Street Area Association describes the event thusly this year: “Extraordinary three course dinner menus and prix fare lunch menus from Ann Arbor’s best restaurants. Experience cuisine that delights your palate and defines the art of dining in Ann Arbor. Now is your chance to discover new restaurants and enjoy favorites at a discounted price.” The cost of Ann Arbor Restaurant Week lunch will set you back $15.00 and a three course dinner is now $28.00. In short, the prices have been jacked up since 2010. The cost of a Restaurant Week lunch is 25 percent more than it was in 2010, and the cost of dinner is up 12 percent.

Remember this: Except, perhaps, in the world of high-class courtesans, paying more does not guarantee high quality, just as the number of hours worked does not guarantee a job well done. In the world that is Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, a fool and her/his money are soon parted.

Before the recession, the average American ate 52 percent of his meals out of the house, or from take out, in 2006. In 2011, the number dropped to 45 percent, according to Zagat. AnnArbor.com has a page where diners can grade their Restaurant Week experiences. There is also a survey which asks respondents to spill the beans about how often they go to downtown Ann Arbor to eat out. The results demonstrate quite clearly why the Main Street Area Association launched Restaurant Week. The majority of those who cast votes (46 percent) said they go downtown to eat out less than once per month. In the comment section, one diner writes:

Went to R.U.B. last night. Did the math on the regular menu prices and found that the restaurant week “menu” had no savings over just picking off the regular menu.

As A2Politico has counseled would-be epicurians in past, $25.00 for a single three-course dinner in Ann Arbor is not a deal, and neither is a $12 lunch. Thus, this year’s $28 dollar dinner and a $15 lunch are even less of a deal. Beware, because at several of the participating Restaurant Week establishments, the “discount” is somewhere between $.50 cents and $1.00 off of non-Restaurant Week menu prices. Offering a $.50 cent discount on a $15.00 lunch and calling it a special deal is just plain sleazy. Several restaurants, in addition, have raised prices for Restaurant Week. Amadeus, for instance, is offering a two-for-one $15 lunch. That’s nice. Of course, the restaurant routinely offers $6.95 lunch specials. On the other hand, the restaurants offering two-for-one pricing (at lunch), and those that have decent ratings (3.5 stars or higher)  from reviewers on Yelp.com should get your business during Restaurant Week, if you are inclined to go out for a meal. Here’s a list of Restaurant Week joints offering two-for-one pricing at lunch that is actually a discount over regular menu prices. Remember to do the math; check out restaurant menus online, and stick with the two-for-one lunches. A2Politico recommends you call ahead, then visit the following spots with a luncheon companion:

The Blue Nile (spotty, slow service, but the food is worth the wait)

Conor O’Neill’s (always friendly service and good pub grub)

Frita Batidos (irksome hipster service, but two for $15 lunch is a great deal for good Cuban sandwiches)

Grizzley Peak (generally good service and reliably good food; spring for a beer)

Old Town Tavern (surly service and one of the best burgers downtown)

Seva (slow service, but reliably good vegetarian and vegan food; spring for a drink from the Juice Bar, and for heaven’s sake be adventurous)

Remember to tip generously (when the service merits it), check back and leave a comment. Let us know where you ate, how you enjoyed your meal, the service, etc…

Restaurant Review: 3.5/5 stars (good, reliable)—Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the reviewer’s reaction to food, with ambiance, service and price taken into consideration, as well.

Great Plains Burger Co.
1771 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Hours 11:00 am–10:00 pm Mon-Sat, Sun 11:30 am–9:30 pm
Ph (734) 769-6900

No reservations needed or taken

by Richard Saunders

Mo Farha wanted Great Plains Burger Company to be the epitome of Americana. ”I have a great passion for the American hamburger. For me, it’s a source of American pride,” the Ann Arbor native said in a 2009 interview. “I have a true burger, fries and shakes passion. These things go together.”

Farha is the manager and a partner in the Plymouth Road restaurant across from University of Michigan North Campus that opened in 2009. Gary Staub, son-in-law of Tom Monaghan is one of Farha’s partners in the venture the concept for which was developed after two years of study. Great Plains Burgers hamburger meat is Michigan-grown and ground fresh every day. You don’t usually think of higher quality restaurants as being located beneath student apartments and in a strip mall, but Great Plains Burger Co. is the exception that proves the rule. Great Plains Burgers serves up a great local burger and fries. All the menu items are made fresh and cooked to order including the fries, which are made from the 1,200 pounds of potatoes stacked in the dining room on any given day. Great Plains Burgers also offers fresh hand-crafted milkshakes and a wide selection of soft drinks and other beverages.

Great Plains Burgers is housed in a modern and airy building, which can lead to some heating issues, and I found the restaurant a little to cold for my tastes. One corner has the feel of a brightly light sports bar, with a flat screen TV mounted over a stainless steel bar area in the corner near the kitchen. Even though the volume is on as opposed to having subtitles, it is not too loud at all and doesn’t interfere with conversations. The fore mentioned kitchen is open completely to the restaurant (they use the space meant for an enclosed kitchen as a storage room), which is not unpleasant at all, and in fact lends a lively feel to the space as the workers bustle around making sandwiches, whipping up shakes and hand-cutting potatoes for french fries.

I have been to Great Plains Burgers more times than I can count, but the most recent time I went with my family for the purpose of reviewing the restaurant. We got there at about 6:15 in the evening, just about prime dinner time, and the restaurant was about half full. We reached the counter and two young women came over immediately and took our orders promptly. We ordered two chicken sandwiches ($5.69), a single burger made of 1/3 pounds of Black Angus beef (at $4.89 it’s the smallest burger on the menu). We also ordered a double 2/3 pounder (at $7.59 the largest burger on the menu). Each sandwich was laden with a wide variety of toppings—from the classics, lettuce and tomato and cheese to green olives and perfectly grilled jalapeño peppers. We also ordered a basket of fries to share ($4.49). Be warned, the large basket of fries is enough to feed a small army (4-6 people), and a side of fries will satisfy 2-3 eaters easily.

Suffice it to say Great Plains Burgers goes big on portion sizes when it comes to almost everything. The paper sauce cups, into which condiments are pumped, are on the small side.

Once we ordered we selected a table in the dining area, and went to go sit down. The table and my chair had not been wiped down, and there were a few small chunks and smears of food on my chair. We decided not to make a fuss and switched out a chair from an unoccupied table. A worker  quickly came over the wiped down the table when asked. My family and I made conversation for only a short time before our fries arrived, piping hot and fresh from the fryer. The fries were perfect—golden brown, crispy, hot and perfectly salted. We dug right in dipping them into the four house made special sauces available at Great Plains, including truffle mayo and Kentucky bourbon sauce. No matter which of the sauces the fries were paired with they tasted great.

We worked on the fries for a short time before the sandwiches arrived. My burger was the double and quite the imposing structure; when topped with tomato, cheese, lettuce, green olives, pickles, mayo, ketchup and my favorite ranch it was almost impossible to get my hands not to mention my mouth around. Somehow I managed and it was well worth it. The meat was well-seasoned and the toppings where fresh and not wilted. The bun, which can almost be called the most important part of the burger, was toasted to perfection, which makes all the difference.

The chicken sandwich that I tried the most recent time was well-seasoned and perfectly cooked.  When cooking a kind meat with a lack of natural piquancy, such as chicken breast, how it is seasoned can make all the difference: the good people at Great Plains Burgers know how to make a well-seasoned and juicy chicken breast every time. My only complaint about the chicken sandwich is that on a few ocassions the bun has been a little bit soggy, but that could also be the result of combining sauces and grilled veggies.

In my last review, I wasn’t enthused about the fact that fries had to be ordered a la carte. Those fries were frozen, but good. While fries must also be ordered a la carte at Great Plains Burgers, here a single burger in $4.89, is not anywhere near as expensive as the $8 burger I ordered at Sava’s. In fact, add an order of regular fries to a 1/3 pound burger at Great Plans Burger Co., and you’ll still spend less than $8 (and get a generous order of fresh cut fries to boot).

I have saved the best for last: milkshakes. Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Pick one. Pick them all. The hand-dipped shakes are made to order, topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Each shake costs $3.79, and you’ll have to wait while it’s made. Wait. Gladly. These simple treats are, without a doubt, some of the thickest, tastiest milkshakes in town.

The most recent Washtenaw County restaurant inspection of Great Plains Burger Co. was on October 2012. There were no violations. Yelpers have given Great Plains Burgers a combined 3.5/5.They raved about the fries, but some did find the burgers a little on the greasy/messy side. In all I think that Great Plains Burger Co. is a great northside neighborhood joint, and the concept has solid potential going into the future. When the restaurant opened in 2009, Mo Farha said he and his partners intended to open up more locations. Thus far, the Plymouth Road restaurant remains an only child. My few concerns (wipe off the tables and sweep the dining room floor more regularly, guys) are far outweighed by the many great sandwiches, sides and shakes they sell. I would suggest Great Plains Burgers for any night of the week when you don’t feel like making dinner and want a tasty alternative. It’s a great kids restaurant, and perfect for a casual date, as well. Just don’t go with anyone who shouldn’t see you with ketchup on your chin, and remember to grab a pile of napkins.

Restaurant Review:  *** (good, reliable)—Ratings range from zero to five stars and reflect the reviewer’s reaction to food, with ambiance, service and price taken into consideration, as well.

Sava’s
216 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Hours: 8 a.m.-midnight daily
Ph: 734-623-2233

Reservations suggested for Sunday brunch.

Trying to find the door to a restaurant and almost walking into a research lab is something I have never done before, except at Sava’s. Once you get inside, the first thing you notice is a cramped waiting area with a few benches with more room for the maitre d’ than for customers waiting on a cold Sunday morning, most on their feet, for more than 30 minutes if you forget to make a reservation at least one week in advance. If you were informed enough to make a reservation, you are seated in the middle of what seems like a busy road where customers and wait staff alike bustle up and down the narrow restaurant to reach the extremely popular Sunday breakfast buffet. The décor of the restaurant is 50 shades of gray with wood accents. The noise, when the restaurant is full, is ear-splitting, and this makes conversations difficult even with the people sitting next to you.

The Sunday buffet costs $16 per person, plus drinks, tip and taxes, is actually what it’s talked up to be. There is a full table of hot prepared foods such as pies, potato dishes, corned beef hash, corned beef (other guests commented that the corned beef was a little too salty) and a plethora of egg dishes, including poached eggs. Each of the dishes on the buffet was hot when it was supposed to be hot; cold when it was supposed to be cold, and all the house made pastries—excluding the bread and bagels— were delicious. Pastries, in fact, were uniformly the perfect combination of “ooie” and “gooie.” The homemade poptarts are flaky-amazing, and the fruit-filled poptarts come highly recommended from a fellow brunch diner.

After that brunch I was anxious to return. I went for lunch. The restaurant, which had been bustling and full on the weekend when we were last there, was empty and quite quiet except for staff members who were lurking around and chatting among themselves.

The restaurant has an exposed ceiling, wood floors and a second floor indoor balcony area that, while charming, amplifies the noisy first floor. When I visted for lunch, Sava’s was a winter wonderland and decorated with oversized Christmas ornaments covered in glitter and an immense Christmas tree also covered in glitter and fake snow. My fellow diner and I sat down at a high-backed booth with padded seats and a wooden table. The server came promptly over and took our drink orders—a Coke for me, and a sparkling water for my guest. Usually it’s a bad sign when you server starts your meal by bringing tonic water (used in the making of mixed drinks) instead of the sparkling a.k.a. soda water requested, but the server apologized quickly, when found, and brought the correct drink.

We ordered an appetizer at the same time as our food, and fell into a deep discussion about, of all things, Punnett squares. The conversation was pleasantly interrupted when our appetizer came (spinach and artichoke dip). We tried to dig right in but found, when an entire castle keep of pita chips is stacked around the dip, it can make it slightly difficult to find the food. When we did make it in, we found that perhaps the pita chips, which themselves where very crisp, warm and tasty, were placed in the castle like formation to stop you from drowning in the copious amounts of oil in the roux. The dip was a disappointing mixture populated with huge chunks of tinny canned artichokes and bits of wilted spinach. Once we dismantled the pita chips, found a small amount of the roux devoid of artichoke chunks and were able to taste the flavors themselves, they were actually quite good.

Our entrees came as soon after we were finished with the spinach and artichoke dip. Our main courses consisted of a steak sandwich with regular fries that I had selected and a burger with sweet potato fries for my companion. The fries, which come in small portions and are a la carté, make a pricey lunch pricier—$3 for regular fries and $4 for sweet potato. Both the regular and sweet potato fries were served hot and perfectly crispy. While sandwiches themselves were good, the steak in my flank steak sandwich ($10) was bland, and the meat in my companion’s burger was also in need of a bit of salt and pepper. In my steak sandwich the horseradish sauce (which appeared to be grated horseradish mixed in with a small amount of mayonnaise) overpowered the meat. When combined with the wilted arugula and balsamic braised onions there was simply too much going on—as if the sauce would cover for the meat.

The burger ($7) on the other hand was cooked perfectly medium well, had very fresh vegetables and a snappy sauce made with mayonnaise and hot sauce—the same sauce served with the sweet potato fries.

We concluded our meal with dessert even though a dessert menu was as hard to find as the door to the restaurant (we had to locate our server and request one). We tried the peanut butter cheesecake, cooked by Sava’s in-house pastry chef. The cheesecake was silky smooth and extremely chocolaty. While it was called peanut butter cheesecake, the peanut butter flavor was lost in the layers of chocolate. I’m not complaining; I love chocolate. If you’re looking for the taste of peanut butter, you’ll get it from the crumbled peanut butter cups that surround the square of cheesecake. The peanut butter cheesecake had a layer of peanut butter cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of chocolate cheesecake. All of this was perched on a double chocolate Oreo crumb crust. Alas, the crust was slightly soggy, but you won’t notice.

Yelpers, collectively, give Sava’s 3.5 stars. On Yelp.com, multiple reviewers praised the sweet potato fries, and panned the noise levels. While our service was good both times, more than a few Yelp.com reviewers commented on what they considered spotty service at Sava’s. All in all the food, ambiance, service were, for the most part pleasant, but not worth the $52 some dollars we paid for lunch, (including drinks and tip). Sava’s is a great restaurant for Ann Arbor, but I wouldn’t rush there. If you do decide to find your way to Sava’s, put it on your calendar for brunch with friends. Just remember to go the Sunday after payday.

by P.D. Lesko

In July 2012 Deb Polich (pronounced Polick) was named the new executive director of the Ann Arbor Arts Alliance.

In August, says Polich, “We—the Arts Alliance Board and myself—had a meeting with Mayor Hieftje and Council members Taylor (Christopher Taylor, Ward 3) and Lumm (Jane Lumm, Ward 2), and we told them that a ballot proposal to fund the Percent for Art program with a millage was not a good idea. We just didn’t have enough time, or enough data to put together a good campaign.”

Despite her professional misgivings, Polich became co-chair of the ballot committee that urged Ann Arbor taxpayers to “B For Art.” Polich is the wife of Downtown Development Authority Board member (and Michigan Theater Executive Director) Russ Collins. Critics of the Percent for Art funding mechanism, including City Council members Marcia Higgins, Stephen Kunselman, Sally Hart Petersen, Sumi Kailasapathy and Jane Lumm have repeatedly alleged that the program is illegally skimming money from utilities and capital projects, including the city’s road repair fund.

In 2007, Hieftje was the lone sponsor of ordinance that funded pubic art projects, in large part, by skimming 1 percent from capital projects, including water, sewer and road projects. He modeled his ordinance after the one in place in Seattle—an ordinance that had been found to be illegally using money from utility projects for art. Two years before Hieftje sponsored his Percent for Art resolution, Seattle residents had sued their own city, and officials were forced to return millions to the utility funds. In their lawsuit against the Seattle Percent for Art program, plaintiffs led by Rud Okeson argued that city officials used City Light (a city utility) as a “cash cow” and charged it for a variety of expenses that were illegitimate, including some art projects.

After the August 6, 2012 primary election which saw Kailasapathy and Sally Hart Petersen replace long-time Hieftje allies Sandi Smith and Tony Derezinski, Hieftje and his remaining Hive Mind Collective faced the humiliating prospect of having the high-profile Percent for Art ordinance repealed. Lumm, Petersen and Kailasapathy have been vocal in their support of local art, but insistent that funding safety services take priority and that road and sewer funds not be used for art projects.

The ballot question committee CITIZENS FOR ART IN PUBLIC PLACES was formed on August 30, 2012, three weeks after Kailasapthy and Petersen won their respective elections. The address of the group on filing papers is 1100 North Main Street Ste. 106B—the address of the Ann Arbor Arts Alliance. Hieftje, his political allies and supporters, took the question of supporting the use of public dollars for art directly to the Ann Arbor voters. A ballot committee to support a millage proposal to fund art through property tax dollars was formed, Polish co-chaired the committee, and Proposal B was off and running.

Deb Polich’s influence looms large in the local arts community, but her office is modest. There is barely enough room for a desk, a book case and two chairs. Her first floor windows, however, overlook Argo Pond, opposite Argo Park; it’s a room with a view. Polich (pictured right) is a Libra, she says, and the best way to describe how she often sees issues is in 50 shades of gray (not her exact words, but you get the gist). During the course of a discussion about the failure of Proposal B, Polich leans across her desk and says, “The only thing I can say definitively about the Prop B vote is that the proposal was defeated. What that defeat means remains open to interpretation.”

That response is infuriatingly familiar to the no-frills-before-roads proponents who want to see the back of John Hieftje’s Percent for Art program, and money re-allocated to roads and other necessary services. Some suggest that the outcome of the vote was a definitive answer from the voters: no public money for art. Others, like Polich, and newly-elected Ward 2 Council member Sally Hart Petersen, are less sure. Petersen’s Ward 2 Council colleague Jane Lumm, however, immediately put forward a resolution to terminate the Percent for Art program based on the outcome of the vote. At a November meeting of City Council after Proposal B was defeated, Lumm said, “Funds used for public art would be better used for street repair, parks or other city expenses. Art pieces funded through the Percent for Art plan have had less than universal acceptance.”

“I’ll admit there were times when small, local vendors had to wait to be paid, but I never left anyone hanging,” says Polich.

It’s not hard to see why Polich had problems paying Artrain’s bills. Between 2008 and 2010, Artrain’s end of year tax returns indicate that the organization finished it fiscal year in deficit. The organization lost more than $1 million dollars in total, and overall revenues plummeted from $950,000 per year to $237,000. In 2008, Artrain owed $1.3 million dollars to two local banks, and a member of the organization’s Board, 78-year-old Lambert Althaver, loaned Artrain $165,000. By 2010, when Polich boarded the Arts Alliance Express, Artrain owned Lambert $182,000, though the organization’s bank loans had been paid down to $337,625 by selling off $1.06 million in investments and other assets. Total debt was still $586,255.

In many ways, by moving to the Arts Alliance in the middle of the battle over the city’s Percent for Art program, Polich went from the frying pan and into the fire.

Despite recommending to Hieftje that City Council back away from putting Proposal B on the November 2012 ballot, Polich and her Board of Directors promptly ignored their own advice. Polich was asked to co-chair the  CITIZENS FOR ART IN PUBLIC PLACES and said yes. She threw the Arts Alliance into the battle, as well. When asked why, she doesn’t exactly answer the question, “We advocate for the arts community.”

The tiny non-profit Arts Alliance (revenues were under $130,000 in 2010) plowed over $7,000 into the  CITIZENS FOR ART IN PUBLIC PLACES. In total, Polich provided 40 percent of the ballot committee’s total cash and in-kind donations from a single source, the nonprofit she runs. This use of donated funds to support the political pet projects of the Hive Mind Collective was duplicated by the Board of the Friends of the Ann Arbor Public Library. The Board of that nonprofit, without a member vote, donated $25,000 to the ballot proposal PAC formed to support the passage of a millage for the construction of a new downtown library. In 2011 the Friends of the Library organization lost money, as well, and the $25,000 donation amounted to a whopping 15 percent of the group’s $169,267 in revenue.

“But art is good for the economy,” says Polich, her voice rising, arms out-stretched, palms upright.

She is incredulous that taxpayers don’t see the obvious. Local critics would say Polich is out-of-touch. Those critics have an ally in Dr. Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton University who teaches bioethics. In 2009, Singer published The Life You Can Save, a book about charitable giving and the use of public money to fund non-profits. Singer argues that philanthropy for the arts or cultural activities is “morally dubious.” While Polich points out that one of the Arts Alliance’s major initiatives is Arts Education, Dr. Singer has refuted such arguments thusly: “I can see how that would be a worthwhile thing to do. But I’m not sure how well it compares with saving kids from dying from diarrhea or malaria.”

In the face of Singer’s brutally logical ethical arguments, whether art in Ann Arbor should be funded with public money suddenly becomes a very small, selfish, insular debate. For a laugh to break the tension, watch a 2009 interview with Dr. Singer by Stephen Colbert.

Despite the efforts of Polich and others, the smell of smoke from the spectacular crash and burn of Proposal B still clouds the air around Hieftje. Cornered, and notoriously incapable of admitting his mistakes, Hieftje appointed a committee of Council members to “examine” the Percent for Art program. Political insiders suggest that Polich had no choice but to throw the Arts Alliance, its money, and its good name in front of the speeding train that is the public’s intense dislike of the Percent for Art program—a program which has become the ugly poster child of the public money for public art movement.

A political insider offers one possible explanation: “John Hieftje is incredibly vindictive. Had Polich and the Arts Alliance not played ball, it’s entirely possible when Russ Collins’s appointment on the DDA was up, Hieftje would have tossed Collins off the DDA Board, and out of the shrinking Council Majority’s inner circle. It’s still the place to be for political players. For the moment, at least. That’s changing. Watch how many people on Council talk to Hieftje at breaks versus, say, Jack Eaton, when he’s there.” Eaton ran against Hieftje ally Margie Teall and came within 18 votes of unseating her.

Hieftje and his long-time Council ally Margie Teall sit on the Board of the Michigan Theater, where Collins has been the CEO for three decades.

When asked what, if any, political payback she expects the Arts Alliance to reap from its support of Proposal B, Polich shrugs and provides the perfectly politic answer. “I’m not a politician. I really can’t tell you what other people might be thinking.”

That Polich can’t say “what other people might be thinking,” might be precisely the problem. Christopher Taylor, Hieftje and the many local politicos and Hive Mind supporters who threw their endorsements behind Proposal B, as well as the Percent for Art program, often have no idea what people other than their friends are thinking, or worse yet, don’t care to know.

“I believe the proposal failed because we didn’t have enough time to mount a successful campaign. We needed a year, 18 months…some ballot proposal committees take two years to plan and execute successful campaigns,” says Polich with a sigh. “Washtenaw county residents support art.”

The question remains why, then, the Percent for Art program has succeeded in doing little more than seriously irritating taxpayers and voters who respond to surveys that they love art?

“It’s the whole Hive Mind thing,” says A2Politico reader Dave D. in an email, “people want the roads fixed. Read my lips. Fix. The. Roads. People want police and fire. People want their damn leaves picked up and it’s become obvious that Hieftje and his people don’t care what taxpayers want. Tony D. went down with the Percent for Art ship, as did Rapundalo. Her support for the Percent for Art hit Margie Teall real hard. She came to losing. AnnArbor.com doesn’t have a lock on what’s “news” anymore. People read A2Politico, A2Journal, Detroit papers, Twitter, blogs, national news stories about transit, about Ann Arbor even. A2Politico writes about the “Hive Mind Collective” and it shows up in comments on AnnArbor.com stories about how great local government is doing thanks to Hiefje’s leadership. There’s some serious reality checking going on.”

For better or for worse, the Arts Alliance and Deb Polich represented one side of an argument that, in retrospect, only added fuel to an already raging political fire. Will the Arts Alliance get burned?

Despite having her professional opinions ignored by the pols involved, and despite the fact that Polich believes the Percent for Art Program has a “horrible PR problem,” she and her Board members chose to embraced the ballot proposal, and the Arts Alliance came out in favor of using public money to fund art in Ann Arbor. When asked if embracing the unpopular Percent for Art program was a tactical mistake, in true Libra form Polich gave two answers. At one point in the conversation she repeated her mantra: “We advocate for the arts community. It’s what we do.” At another point in the discussion when asked whether backing the millage proposal flew in the face of public opinion, Polich displayed a bit of bravado. “If my involvement with Proposal B, if my support of the Percent for Art program takes me down…so be it.”

She does worry about her professional reputation.

She is convinced that the public’s intense dislike for the Percent for Art program is the result of “failures” on the part of  politicians, members of the “hard-working and dedicated” Art Commission Board, and even failures linked to the art projects themselves (the $1 million dollar rain garden and fountain in front of City Hall—a sculpture that, one could argue, has elicited more derision than appreciation in the comment sections of local news blogs).

“How do we change the public perception of the Percent for Art program?” Polich asks. “What we need is more positive media coverage.”

That’s easier said than done on the Arts Alliance’s modest annual budget that supports Polich and three staffers. Turning the tide of public opinion in favor of the Percent for Art program “would take a fortune and several years,” says a U of M PR staffer via email. “It would be better to kill it, bring it back and call it something else…anything else. And even then, it would be a tough sell. Bottom line? Public opinion matters. That tiny bronze sculpture that people refer to as a ‘phallus’ in front of that immense City Hall are two concrete reminders that elected officials in Ann Arbor don’t care what people think.”