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About Ann Arbor, Michigan - was founded in January 1824 by John Allen and
Elisha Rumsey, both of whom were land speculators.
Ann Arbor later became the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827, and was incorporated as a village in 1833. The town set aside 40 acres (16 hectares) of undeveloped land and offered it to the State of Michigan as the site of the state capitol, but it lost the bid to
Lansing in 1836. In 1837 the unused land was sold to the
University of Michigan, forever linking Ann Arbor and its history with the university. The town became a regional transportation hub in 1839 with the arrival of the
Michigan Central Railroad. Ann Arbor was chartered as a city in 1851.
During World War II,
Ford Motor Company's nearby
Willow Run plant turned out
B-24 Liberator bombers. The population of Ann Arbor exploded with an influx of military personnel, war workers, and their families.
The city gained a reputation as an important center for liberal politics over the course of the
1960s and
1970s. Presidential candidate
John F. Kennedy unveiled his
Peace Corps proposal in 1960 at the University of Michigan, and in 1964 President
Lyndon B. Johnson first called for a "Great Society."
Over the course of the ensuing fifteen years, a plethora of
countercultural and
New Left enterprises sprang up and developed strong constituencies within the city..
The economy of Ann Arbor underwent a gradual shift from a manufacturing base to a service and technology base over the course of the 20th century, a shift which accelerated in the 1970s and
1980s. At the same time, the downtown has transformed from one dominated primarily by retail establishments dealing in staple goods to one comprised mainly of eateries, cafés, bars and clubs, and specialty shops.
Over the past several decades, the city 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 2,
2004, voters approved a
greenbelt plan under which the city government would buy up the development rights to large swaths of land adjacent to Ann Arbor in order to prevent sprawling development. Since then, a vociferous local debate has hinged on whether, and how, to accommodate and guide development within city limits.
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