QR codes in Ann Arbor tell the story of Allen Creek

EVAN PRATT: "So, back in the day in the 1920s, they had settled Ann Arbor for almost a hundred years, and they had started causing some of those problems that human causes. And what I understand from reading the records and the history is there were two-fold problems. One was an incredible loader. All urbanized areas all over the world have used water courses as their sewers for a long time. So, that means industrial waste, animal waste, and of course, human waste and house discharges. But there were also flooding problems. So, in about 1924, about 80% of all the residents along the stem of Allen Creek, historically in Ann Arbor, petitioned the county water resources office to enclose that creek or to fix it, I guess, and fixing it meant piping it.

JENNIFER LAWSON: "So, it's a really cool story about some of the forgotten infrastructure or the underground infrastructure beneath our feet. As we walk through Ann Arbor, a lot of people just don't realize all of the cool things that are underground. And so much of the landscape that created Ann Arbor was the river and Allen Creek as it flows through the old west side. Last year, the City of Ann Arbor celebrated its large anniversary. And one of the questions posed to city staff was, how can you celebrate this 200-year anniversary? And one of the things that really came to mind for me was what did the landscape look like 200 years ago? And to me, the way I look at the landscape of Ann Arbor is really these creeks and rivers that made up so much of the landscape for the city."

STOCKWELL: "Are these now permanent when they were out? Will they be replaced or is this kind of like a one-and-done or don't you know?"

JENNIFER LAWSON: "You can actually think of this as a temporary art installation. So, we put it out in the summertime to try to get people to explore the Allen Creek creek shed. But these will be removed probably in the next two months or so as we get into our winter months."

STOCKWELL: "I'm going to go test it out right now. Let me walk over here. Okay. There we go. Oh, hello. Just scan any QR code. All right. Let's see. Okay, my phone camera is on. I'm above the Allen Creek QR code that is here on the sidewalk. My phone camera is on. Boom! There we go! All right; the web address has appeared. I clicked on the link. Hey, and there we go! It works! I’m now looking at historic Allen Creek the QR code led me to, and I can scroll down and find about the history. I can find a map. I can find all kinds of things. That was fantastic! It really works, and, as far as I can tell, each QR code goes to the same place: the main historic Allen Creek website. All right!"

EVAN PRATT: "Allen Creek, of course, like all our rivers, lakes and streams, were here before people. And like most other things, the more people you have, the more problems you end up having. And so, Allen Creek drains about a quarter of Ann Arbor's land area, about 25%. So, it's very important to some of the earliest settlement and the west side of Ann Arbor. But it has been enclosed in a pipe for quite some time for a variety of reasons."

EVAN PRATT: "The health of the Huron River is dependent, of course, on all the inputs to it. Allen Creek is one of, I'm going to say, upwards of 25 or 30 creeks that end up discharging into the Huron River that have major watersheds. And, you know, a drop of nasty stuff in Allen Creek is going to zip right to the Huron. You know, something in the old Kmart parking lot would be there within three or four hours on a rainy day."

EVAN PRATT: "There's two functions right of a creek that's been piped. One is to deal with the flooding, and the other is to deal with, you know, the contaminations and this, that, and the other. So, there's regular maintenance done on it, the city and the county partner on it."

JENNIFER LAWSON: "We have some really amazing public work staff that inspect, clean, maintain over 200 miles of pipes that are underground just in the stormwater system. Fun fact: we have actually over 500 miles of conveyance of stormwater in the City of Ann Arbor that we maintain and manage."

EVAN PRATT: "I'd say the Greenway wouldn't really have any sort of negative impact, as long as there's not you know permanent structures going on or what have you, but I'd say if there was an interest or desire in having you know a slight positive impact you know signage about the creek you know things like this project with information, and QR codes are really helpful. And if it was at all possible as the Greenway goes in to do any infiltration of stormwater, which means giving it a place to soak into the ground some places that means a rain garden, some places that means porous pavement, but there are many other ways soaking water into the ground is the best way to get back to the way things were."

STOCKWELL: "Tell me where are we right now."

EVAN PRATT: "Right, John. we're a little further downstream. We're standing pretty close to the main stem of Allen Creek that parallels Chapin Street. But what we're standing on here is actually one of the branches that went to serve the west side. It breaks into two forks by the time it gets to the other side of West Park."

STOCKWELL: "Where are we standing now? We ventured through the woods. Where are we?"

EVAN PRATT: "Yeah, sure. So, we are about in the middle of the park at a literal fork in the road of the old two legs of Allen Creek that meet in West Park. And they meet just on the west side of a pond that was reconstructed with that project I mentioned to you a little while ago in the 2010s to restore some of the original ecological functions of West Park while also giving people an opportunity, you know, to enjoy a little bit more of an environmental presence that isn't mowed to the quick all the time."

STOCKWELL: "If somebody says, 'Why don't we just bring the creek back?' It's not that easy."

EVAN PRATT: "The pipe's about 15 feet deep here to bottom of pipe. And that means if you were to excavate it and open it up and try to make it creek-like with the kind of side slopes, you'd want to have that people, you know, could actually get out of if they somehow slipped down the creek, you'd be talking about something that's 60 to 80 feet wide from bank to bank on the top. And that's a pretty big swath or scar to put through the landscape. If people were up for it, when I was commissioner, I'm always willing to try to do what people are willing to pay for, but it would also be really expensive to do that."

STOCKWELL: "One, at that point too, a huge chunk of the park is gone. The baseball field might not be here or anything."

EVAN PRATT: Exactly. It would negatively impact the baseball field, the walking paths, you know, all sorts of things that are valuable and important to people. And the city has a great process for periodically, you know, getting public input, especially on the major parks of how's it going, what do you like, what do you not like, what do you wish you had, what do you got to keep and all that kind of stuff."

STOCKWELL: "What have residents been saying? What kind of feedback do you get?"

JENNIFER LAWSON: "I've had a few anecdotal stories that have come across my desk. A lot of people that didn't know and they were very surprised, and they wanted to know more. They knew of Allen School, or they were familiar with the term "Allen," but they didn't realize that we have Allen Creek that flows under our feet under the old west side. I've had a lot of people ask for a map of where all of the locations are, and I told them, 'Well, it's a treasure hunt. Go find them.'"