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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Ann Arbor, Michigan

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Ann Arbor, Michigan

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I got the ball rolling towards improving this article, and since then other users, notably fellow Ann Arborites, helped with its expansion and improvement. The question now becomes: is this article ready for featured status? Pentawing 22:57, September 6, 2005 (UTC)

  • Support, but I have one concern - if "popularly known as" names are given, why leave out "West Ypsilanti"? Sure, it's meant as an insult, but it's only only "other" name I ever heard for the city. Guettarda 23:30, 6 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • Unfortunately, from my time here, I have never heard of Ann Arbor ever being referred to as "West Ypsilanti." I'll try to reword this, though the passage concerns well-known nicknames for the city. Pentawing 23:37, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
    • Well, in my seven years in Michigan I never heard the other nicknames. Of course, it isn't what Ann Arborites call their city, it's what other people who think that Ann Arborites are too full of themselves call it (yeah, I was at the other Michigan school). Guettarda 00:06, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
      • We'll keep it with officially recognized nicknames, or nicknames that locals call the city (in tune to most city articles). Pentawing 00:34, September 7, 2005 (UTC)
  • Support Tlogmer 00:05, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. (Minor note: If the first set of nicknames is in italics, should "Ace Deuce" and "The Deuce" also be italicized rather than in quotes? Or is this different for a reason?) Ropcat 00:47, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • I standardized the font formats for all nicknames in the introduction. Pentawing 00:52, September 7, 2005 (UTC)
      • Thanks, Pentawing. Another very tiny anomaly is that in the demographics section, the Imperial measures are in parentheses, while in the rest of the article the metric measures are in parentheses. I'll take another glance at this tomorrow. Ropcat 05:11, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
        • I've addressed the measurement unit issue, though I should note that the information was inserted by Rambot, a script which was designed to place (and update) such information. Pentawing 23:25, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
          • Thanks Pentawing! Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was blaming you for the incongruity. This article would never be in such good shape without all your hard and meticulous work. Ropcat 23:28, 8 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Pentawing and others did a fine job improving this article, and I only wish I could've been involved with it more. Fully support, it's among the finest of the city articles on the 'pedia. One thing: Image:Annarbor_southU_winter.jpg doesn't show much except the asphalt and a washed-out sky. It also does not show us what should be the main focus of this image: the shops along South U. Sure, they're there, but you can barely see them. Although the area is popular and an image of South U. would be great, this images' removal would improve the article. Right now it just seems distracting. I would've cropped the image myself but I don't want to tamper with the original creator's work. This is, of course, a very minor qualm that I have with this exceedingly comprehensive article. Gsgeorge 04:46, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • Full support – I've put Pentawing through the grind, and he has been kind enough to execute all my suggestions. Good luck! =Nichalp «Talk»= 05:55, September 7, 2005 (UTC)
  • Minor oppose on a few little points, I question some more of the image choices like Image:Annarbor tree.jpg which is artsy but doesn't demonstrate anything about the city and Image:DSCN4776 annarbormhouse e.jpg which would be better replaced by a more general pic of the campus. I think in the economy section should come before the education section. I'm working on an article similar to this myself and I really question the use of ===h3's=== for very short paragraph, like the sister cities section. The sister cities section wouldn't look as bad if this section was expanded by a few sentences to include cultural activites that arise in the city from the relationships. --nixie 06:20, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • I replaced the two images in question with images that I have taken recently (with the aim of getting a more general overview of the city). I also moved the economy section up and expanded some short paragraphs. As for the sister cities, I moved it into the government section (based on what I have seen at the San Jose, California article). Pentawing 21:35, September 7, 2005 (UTC)
  • Support - nice article.--Cyberjunkie | Talk 04:54, 8 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support - Great article, it flows very nicely, great work Pentawing! -- PRueda29 11:21 8 September 2005 (UTC)
  • Support. But disclaimer, I've lived in AA and I've contributed a little to the article. I'd be more concerned about the low number of book and other high quality references if I couldn't personally verify most of the material. I'll try to pick up a book this weekend and use that to improve anything possible. I'd say we should add that AA generally thinks of itself as the nicer town and looks down on Ypsi if that could be done in any reasonably NPOV way. I'll see what I can find. - Taxman Talk 21:05, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
    • Re: your addition: "This is the first google result for a blog, and does more to speak of AA's status than any pro-AA site could." Yeah, the "Ann Arbor is Overrated" blog was on there for most of this article's life. I think it got pulled only recently when an "outside" peer reviewer recommended pulling all the blogs from the "External Links" in order to advance to FAC. Pentawing, what do you think? Ropcat 21:34, 8 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
      • It is probably best to only list official and other "established" websites (e.g. municipal websites, area guides). Blogs, in my opinion, do not really fall under that category. Also, this is to set a precedent since if any website is listed, every website imaginable will be listed (which is best left to a search engine). Pentawing 21:56, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
        • Ok, I'm sympathetic to that problem. We could end that with a top 20 google result criteria though. An I also like that one for balancing the POV. But if the blogs are yanked, yank all of them. Another thing I thought of is we should mention more than just in the lead the city as a draw to the restaraunts. I think the quoted stat is AA has one of the highest restaraunt per capita in the US. I'll try to dig up something if you can't. - Taxman Talk 22:31, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
          • See article talk for more on this. Pentawing 22:39, September 8, 2005 (UTC)
  • Comments. There are no 'notable natives' to mention? No bodies of water other than Huron River worth mentioning? Ann Arbor is never mentioned in fiction/literature/song/whatever? Might want to see if there are any other ideas at Talk:Seattle,_Washington#Comparison_of_topics_and_size_with_other_city_Featured_Articles and/or AA's 'what links here'. Niteowlneils 04:14, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • Nice list. This article compares against it very favorably actually. Most notable people and literature/film etc are associated with the university, not native Ann Arborites. Though I hope not to offend anyone if I'm uninformed. Bob Seger's Main Street, is based on Ann Arbor, but I'm not sure that's important enough to mention. He's not from AA. There is really no other body of water, unless you count pools. A quick look at a map or satelite view would confirm that. I suppose crime should be mentioned. The libraries are good, but just your average small town variety, not sure they're notable enough to mention. Finally there are no towns generally considered suburbs. Saline and Dexter are called that once in a while, but I don't think that's standard. - Taxman Talk 17:07, September 9, 2005 (UTC)
      • Niteownneils - The "Ann Arbor in Literature" section was moved to the separate "Culture in Ann Arbor" article a few weeks ago, since the main article is getting pretty long. Taxman's Main Street song reference should probably go in that article, too. I agree with Taxman that the libraries probably shouldn't get mention in the main article; but I think they're a bit better than the "average small town variety": the AA District Library did win the national Library of the Year Award for 1997-98; and various other national awards (for example, the 2004 diversity award from the American Library Association, etc.). Thanks, Niteowlneils, for suggesting doing a "What Links Here" search. I've been searching "Ann Arbor" as a key word on and off, and I've added a bunch of stuff to the "Ann Arbor, Michigan" category (though not the actual article) based on this. Ropcat 19:43, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]
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