City of Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 114,024, of which 36,892 (32%) are college or graduate students. Supposedly named for the spouses of the city's founders and for the stands of trees in the area, Ann Arbor is best known as the location of the main campus of the University of Michigan, which moved there from Detroit in 1837.
The city's economy, which was once noted for production of agricultural implements, carriages, furniture, pianos and organs, pottery, and flour, is now 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 well known locally as a destination for dining out and entertainment, as it contains a wide and eclectic variety of restaurants and performance venues.
The University of Michigan is the dominant institution of higher learning in Ann Arbor, providing the city with a distinctly college-town atmosphere. 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.
Other colleges and universities located in the city are Cleary University, a private business school; Concordia University, a Lutheran liberal-arts institution; and Washtenaw Community College. Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic institution established by Domino's Pizza cofounder Tom Monaghan, opened in northeastern Ann Arbor in 2000. There were plans to establish Ave Maria University on land occupied by Domino's Farms. However, due to conflicts with local zoning authorities, the new campus is under construction near Naples, Florida.
The Ann Arbor Public School District – which enrolls a total of 16,885 students (2004/2005 September head count) – consists of twenty-one elementary schools, five middle schools, and five high schools (two traditional, Pioneer and Huron, as well as three alternative schools: Community High, Stone School, and Roberto Clemente). The district operates a K-8 open school program, Ann Arbor Open, out of the former Mack School. This program is open to all families who live anywhere in the district. Ann Arbor Public Schools also operates a preschool and family center with programs starting as early as birth for at-risk infants and other programs for at-risk children before kindergarten. The district has constructed a new preschool center to open in September 2006, with both free and tuition-based programs for all preschoolers in the district.
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