ArborUpdate (or "AU") (May 25, 2004 - February 2, 2009) is a local news blog that has become generally well-known and respected(?) around Ann Arbor. It is descended from the blog Goodspeed Update, and run by a loosely organized group of about a dozen contributors. It started in 2004, and in 2010 the editorial collective decided to put the site on hiatus.
Arbor Update was launched in June of 2004 by Rob Goodspeed and a selected crew of writers; most of these were bloggers who were already writing on local issues and/or students whom Goodspeed knew through on-campus progressive groups. The group experienced some membership turnover during the first year, generally moving away from the campus issues that Goodspeed focused on and concentrating on urban planning and labor issues.
AU experienced a flurry of activity in late summer of 2004 over the proposed porch couch ban, but the largest expansion of readership came in early 2005, in discussion over the DDA's proposed Three Site Plan and the Allen Creek Greenway concept. As a result of conversation on these and other policy topics, ArborUpdate (and Ann Arbor is Overrated) gained recognition as valuable and legitimate fora for community discussion.
The site shut down in 2010, with an exit post that noted that it was to be demolished and replaced with student housing. [1]
See also: Arbor Update Publication Calendar