Ann Arbor CityGuide

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. It is the state's seventh largest city with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000 census, of which 36,892 (32%) are college or graduate students. Ann Arbor is best known as the location of the main campus of the University of Michigan. Much of the campus is adjacent to and intermixed with the city's downtown district. Because the campus and the city expanded side-by-side, there is often no firm divide between the two, with university buildings scattered through much of the city center.

The city's economy is currently dominated by education, high tech, and biotechnology. Average home prices and property taxes are well above the state and national medians. The city is also known for its political liberalism and its large number of restaurants and performance venues.

Over the past several decades, Ann Arbor has increasingly found itself grappling with the effects of sharply rising land values and gentrification, as well as urban sprawl stretching far into the outlying countryside. On November 4, 2003, voters approved a greenbelt plan under which the city government would buy development rights to pieces of land adjacent to Ann Arbor to preserve them from sprawling development. Since then, a vociferous local debate has hinged on whether, and how, to accommodate and guide development within city limits.

Ann Arbor's crime rate was below the national average in 2000. The violent crime rate was much further below the national average than the property crime rate; they were 48% and 11% less than the national average, respectively.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ann Arbor".

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