Ann Arbor is Michigan's most intellectually lively city — a university town that has grown into something more than a university town. The University of Michigan, one of the great public research universities in the United States, defines the place: it employs a significant chunk of the population, fills the streets with students, and funds a cultural life that includes a world-class art museum, a film festival, and a music scene with real range.
The city has a strong progressive, independent streak. Downtown is walkable, with good bookshops, record stores, and restaurants spread across a compact grid. The neighborhoods around campus have the kind of density and character that most Midwestern cities lost to sprawl decades ago. People chose to stay here — after degrees, after careers — and it shows.
The winters are serious, as in all of Michigan, but Ann Arbor in football season is something to witness: the University of Michigan stadium holds over 100,000 people and fills reliably. If you are here on a home game day, plan accordingly — the city is transformed.