The 59th Ann Arbor Art Fair opens to the public on Thursday, and the annual event has a mixed impact on the local business community.
For many, it's a big week of additional business and customers helping the bottom line. For others, well, they close down.
Andy LaBarre is the executive vice president of the Ann Arbor-Ypsi Regional Chamber with over a thousand members. He says each business is impacted in different ways by the four events that comprise the Ann Arbor Art Fair.
"It impacts almost all of our members in some way and almost entirely in a positive fashion."
But, several downtown Ann Arbor restaurants and other businesses close for the week because their bottom lines are negatively impacted. Overall for the city of Ann Arbor, LaBarre says, the pros outweigh any cons.
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu
