Who We Are

Thoughts on a community's character

by Robert Faber

posted 4/25/2009

A proud liberal, I moved from an East Coast factory town to Ann Arbor in 1954, sure I would find a compatible political atmosphere. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mayor Bill Brown, a Republican stalwart, was elected to his sixth term shortly after I arrived, and there were ten Republicans and a sole Democrat on city council. In 1957 U-M professor Sam Eldersveld won the mayor’s seat as a Democrat, but that insurrection lasted only a single term.

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