Room For One More

Room for one more

So much for the U.S. prohibition against travel to Cuba. Now Ann Arbor residents can say they are visiting a relative.

Last week, the Ann Arbor City Council added another member to the family of sister cities with the approval of ties to the Cuban city of Remedios, a community of about 28,000 on the north shore in the middle of the island, about 160 miles east of Havana.

The city attorney’s office told council the relationship wouldn’t go against any federal laws, even though the United States and Cuba do not have diplomatic ties. Another 17 American cities have sisterly ties to Cuban towns. The resolution was approved on party lines: The council’s two Republicans voted against it.

In the past, sister-city ties mean delegations go between the two cities every few years, and in the case of Juigalpa, Nicaragua, Ann Arbor sent a new garbage truck down.

In addition to Remedios and Juigalpa, Ann Arbor’s sister cities are Belize City, Belize; Hikone, Japan; Tubingen, Germany; Dakar, Senegal; and Peterborough in Ontario, Canada.