4th Avenue in Ann Arbor

The Ann Arbor News is very excited about all the new businesses on 4th Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor.

4th Avenue is notable, at least to the News, because it was once Ann Arbor's "red light" district as a result of being home to one (1) adult bookstore and (1) of the wink-wink nudge-nudge sort of massage parlors. As is usual in Ann Arbor News discussions of that era, the reader is left to wonder how these businesses persisted so long when apparently everyone in town wanted them closed. This set of cool old pictures also reveals just how discreet and non-threatening the red light district was (and shows the old Montgomery Ward store too).

I also find it entertaining to read about 4th Avenue being "undiscovered". Ann Arbor's downtown is, even with a pretty generous definition, about 40 city blocks. Is it really possible for a bunch of them to go missing and require rediscovery?