933 S. State Street

933 South State Street in Ann Arbor was the center of my college experience. This is the story of that house and my time there.
 
The house was built around 1910. For the first few decades of its existence, it looked right over the entrance to Ferry Field. Sitting on the front porch it would have been possible to hear the crowd cheer as Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in the span of 45 minutes in 1935.

This picture would have been from the driveway

1940 Census shows the house was occupied by the famed artist Carleton Angell who created many sculptures on campus and around Ann Arbor, including the famous Pumas flanking the entrance to the Ruthven Museum. He lived in the house with his wife Gladys and their three children.

A parade during WWI turning in front of the house

1950 Census lists Reuben Hartman, a bricklayer tender and his wife Gertrude, a waitress, as the occupants, along with 8 lodgers.
 
Sometime in the decades that followed the house began being rented exclusively to students. One time some guys from the class of 1982 came by and said they had lived there.
 
In 2001 a group of friends who lived there began the infamous BOX house along with some friends in nearby houses. The BOX house was founded on the principals of friendship and novelty. Very soon after the house earned a reputation on campus, which lead to ESPN the magazine including a write-up of the BOX house's famous keg rolling across State St. during football tailgates. The house was then passed down to new generations of BOX house inhabitants along with the traditions, stories and lore.

By the time I encountered the house it had been student-proofed. The original hardwood floors were replaced by white tile on the first floor and berber carpet upstairs. The kitchen had been renovated with builder-grade finishes. What originally was likely a single bathroom on the second floor was split in two and several vanities (pee sinks) added to bedrooms. The siding was white vinyl and the doors were hollow. Any trace of craftmanship was eliminated. The house itself was a dump, but the things that occurred there were the stuff of legend.

My first encounter with the house was at a party during my Freshmen orientation when I got so drunk on the front porch on a warm June night that I slept on a bathroom floor and missed signing up for classes the next day. When I came back to Ann Arbor in the fall I knew exactly where I would tailgate. While my dorm roommate spent his freshmen year football Saturdays as a servant to fraternity brothers that he was desperate to impress, I was immediately accepted in a wide friend circle, no doubt thanks to my older sister who was friends with everyone there.
 

Freshmen Orientation

During my sophomore year I lived in a house 2 blocks away from the BOX house. We would always tailgate at the BOX house, and during that fall the guys living in the house told me I should put together a group to rent the house since they were planning to graduate in the spring. So a few of my roommates and I put together a bit of a ragtag group to rent the house for my Junior year.
 

Tailgates are better with live music

In August 2007 I moved into 933 S. State Street and became part of the next generation to carry on the BOX house tradition. I lived in the back room on the third floor, and upgraded the futon I had my sophomore year for an actual bed. We had 6 guys and 2 girls in the house. Halfway through the year we picked up two more roommates when Brick and Andy were thrown out of their frat and moved into tents in the unfinished basement.

6 of 8 of the 2007 crew before Brick and Andy moved in

The following year was my senior year and the two girls and two of the guys moved out. The two basement dwellers moved into rooms and Paul, Matt and Zola moved in. Zola did a "pledge semester" in the basement, and then moved into a room for winter semester. Matt dropped out of college in the fall and for most of the year we had 9 guys and one hamster inhabiting the house. It was a raucous environment where people would just show up to hang out at any given time. The tailgates that fall were some of the most fun days of my life.

The house oozed patriotism

Living at the BOX House carried with it a certain cachet on campus. Most of the student body was aware of the house and our tailgates. I’d say that more than once I told a girl that I live in the BOX House and she suddenly found me more interesting and/or disgusting. It seemed like everyone had a story about the house.

We may have made this one up

If they hadn’t been there personally they may read about the house as we were mentioned on MGoBlog, College Humor, and a write-up in the Michigan Daily. After I moved out in the summer of 2009 the City Attorney for Ann Arbor sent us a Cease and Desist letter to the house to try and stop the tailgating that they said had gotten out of hand. This lead to some bemoaning in the media and student led protests of the city’s attempts to limit tailgating.
 
While my time in the house had ended, several of the underclassmen roommates continued to live at 933 and then next door at 1001. The BOX house carried on until eventually there was no one left to carry on the tradition and the house reverted back to a regular student house. With that, the BOX house was no more, but the physical house remained.

The house in 2018

When would think about the things I would do if I won the lottery, I always liked to daydream about buying the BOX house and turning it into the most incredible student house. I’d open up the first floor to a big open space with couches and TVs, I’d build bigger porch and 2^nd story deck above, install a great sound system and generally nicer finishes. I’d then rent it out way below market value on the condition that they always host a great tailgate that me and my friends could join in at. That was my dream, but it will never happen.

The house is now fenced off and slated for demolition along with the houses to the north up to Packard. The city has approved a 14-story high-rise between State and Packard and these houses are all being demolished. The front porch where I spent so many hours will be gone, the living room where I watched countless hours of Gettysburg will be no more, the bedroom where I studied and had other significant life experiences will also disappear. In its place only the memories will remain until they too will be forgotten.

The house prior to demolition

 
But I’ll cherish the memories, and wanted to write down some of my favorites since that will leave this on a happier note:
 
Favorite Tailgate Traditions:
Du Hast
We would always start a tailgate Saturday by setting the house sound system (my childhood Gateway computer with WinAmp connected to speakers) to play Du Hast at 5:30 in the morning to wake up the residents, any overnight female guests and half the neighborhood.

Tailgate

Thunderstruck
I think this has gained in popularity in the past 15 years, but the BOX house was well known for circling up when Thunderstruck came on to take turns drinking at each mention of the word “Thunder”.
 
Keg Laps
Typically the Keg was on the porch, so a common game was to drink directly from the key and then run across State St., then across Hoover Ave., and then back across State St before running up the steps and kicking the keg. Miraculously I never saw anyone get hit by a car, but there were some very close calls.

Ann Arbor's finest multi-level tailgate

The Field Goal
Another fun tradition was going out in the street during a tailgate and trying to kick a field over the metal arm holding up the traffic lights. I usually was the holder, and then a few students would be on the other side of the light to return the kick. If it went over the metal arm the whole street would cheer the successful kick. An important thing to note is that we did this in traffic, usually before the cops would come and start directing traffic around 10am.
 
Keg Rolling
Only the most skilled could logroll their keg across State Street, turn it around and roll it back without falling off. I could never do it, but damn if I didn’t try. By the end of tailgate season we would have 20ish empty kegs in the basement so there were plenty of opportunities.
 

Keg Rolling

Favorite non-tailgate traditions:
Fall Foliage Month
During the fall, I think usually in September someone would declare that it was Fall Foliage Month and then we would go out and collect leaves and branches and in one case an entire tree and drag them into the living room. It really spruced up the place for a few weeks.

Fruit in the Street
This was one of the best activities in the house. We would take all the rotten, uneaten fruit from the kitchen/fridge and put it in the middle of State Street. Then we’d sit on the porch and wait for cars to hit it. It was truly joyful game. Eventually the game branched out and the definition of fruit expanded to any food or destroyable items. When the question of “wanna play fruit in the street?” was raised, I never recall anyone ever saying no.
 
Gettysburg
The movie Gettysburg played on constant repeat in the house on a TV dedicated to playing Gettysburg.

Your intrepid author

Hey Ya!
Anytime the song Hey Ya! came on during a party or tailgate everyone in the house would run out to the street for an impromptu street dance party.

Drunkest Man in America
At any given time, someone holds the title of Drunkest Man in America, there was a good chance that man resided in the BOX house, so after a trip to Goodwill there was always someone in possession or challenging for the title of Drunkest Man in America. When the trophy would inevitably get destroyed, we would take another trip to Goodwill.

A typical representation of earning the DMIA title

The Masters/Old Crow Challenge
During the Masters the house would hold an annual beer can golf tournament and try to drink as much Old Crow as possible. There was probably more to it than that, but I was pretty drunk for the whole thing on account of the Old Crow.
 
Friendsgiving
Each fall before departing Ann Arbor to return to our families for Thanksgiving we would host a Thanksgiving dinner for all our friends. We would dress up, and people actually worked hard to prepare a legitimate Thanksgiving feast. It might have been the most “real-life” think we did. But it was always fun and probably the classiest think that we would do.

Christmas Party
The BOX House Christmas Party was always a great way to end the Fall Semester. Besides tailgates, it was probably the most packed the house would get. When Zola lived in the basement he reported that the floor joists would bend and creek with the weight of 100 people on the first floor.
 

All dressed up

Christmas Party

Etcetera
So many little memories. Playing drinking games, Paul’s feud with the street sweeper, watching girls come down the stairs on a Sunday morning looking very confused, Paul’s eating challenges, the house hamster, drinking challenges, and playing through. Many of those small memories are documented by the BOX House blog at https://boxhouse933.blogspot.com/

I'll miss this shithole deeply

Saying Goodbye to my Childhood Home

My parents sold my childhood home and moved to North Carolina. Granted, they've been talking about moving to the mid-south or Carolinas for about 10 years. And for the past year they've been building a house in Charlotte to move into. So I've had time to process this, but still, they've gone and sold my childhood home. The bastards.

This is the only home I've ever known, having lived there from the age of 1 to 18, and then coming home to visit for the next 17 years.  This is the place where all my childhood memories are most associated. Where countless hours were spent, tears shed, grasshoppers captured and sleepovers held. Every Christmas morning for 25 years was at that house. And now some stranger lives in it.

It's now a house I can only drive by and view from the outside. Never again will I enter her warm bosom of nostalgia and be reminded of the joy and agony that accompanies childhood. Frankly, I'm not sure I ever will drive by. My parents moving likely means I will have no reason to visit my hometown. Why would I go, and if I did, I'd have no place to stay. My youth is now a fleeting memory, and I, a middle aged man.

My parents however seem to have no qualms about departing the house they have inhabited for the past 35 years. Perhaps they've spent the past 10 years processing the impending change. They bemoan the loss of good friends, but friends are always transitory. How can they not grieve a house they have nurtured, and the memories contained within?

As a child I was always in awe of my grandfathers house. It was built immediately after the civil war. A stately home built for a county judge with 10 foot ceilings, a large porch and a sun-room. My grandfather lived there for 50 years, and my uncle has lived there for 25 more. But someday that house, a house that is the centerpiece of my father's family, will pass on to a new family. I've thought about this a lot over the past 20 years, and for some reason it always saddens me. Even though I was just a visitor, it's the place where most of the memories of my grandparents are tied to.

I wish I knew why I (and I suppose most people) tie so many memories to the physical houses. I certainly still hold an emotional attachment to our house in San Diego where we lived, even if only for 7 years. Perhaps it's because we put so much work into fixing up that house, perhaps because that's a house where our family sprouted, perhaps it's the pride of the first house I owned and cared for. I really don't know, but the song The Old Apartment by BNL always hits me in the feels.

I'm excited for my parents new chapter. I always knew my childhood home wouldn't be there for me to visit forever. I think knowing that it's gone is just the close of a chapter in my own life that I wasn't quite prepared to have end.

One Week in California

It seems like so much has happened in the 2.5 weeks from my since my last post. I've gone from not ready to move at all to being comfortably settled down here in California. So here is a catch-up of what I've been up to.

I was pretty busy getting everything ready up in Seattle. Carly is going to move down here eventually once she finds a new job, so I left most of my possessions in Seattle and we will move everything down at once. My plan was to bring just what I would need for a few months, mostly whatever clothes I could fit in my Camaro.

Picture I took on my walk this morning

I also got my Jeep back running so it would be ready to move down. I also realized that southern California will be the perfect place for the Jeep and an ideal locale to drive it to the beach and such. I ended up having to take it in to get a new carburetor put on it since the old one was worn out beyond repair. I left it with Tyler along with some other things that don't fit at Carly's place.

On Friday the 11th, I left Seattle and drove down to San Francisco. It was a long drive and it gave me ample time to reflect on leaving Washington and about what to expect once I got to California. In San Francisco I stayed with Jello who said he wanted to join on the drive down to San Diego and do the Pacific Coast Highway. I'm always down for a traveling partner so I let him "saddle up" in the Camaro. The drive down CA-1 was terrific. Everyone says the drive going south is better than the one going north. It was breathtaking. We bedded down for the night in Santa Barbara and then finished the drive the next day.

I had set up a place to stay for a week on AirBnB for when I first got down here. So I moved into a room in a house for a week and the other guy who lived there was super cool. He was able to give me some advice on places to live and some cool local things as I looked for a place.

This past Monday I started my new job. It took until Thursday afternoon to get computer access so the first part of the week was a little slow. I read a lot of documentation. But once I got computer access I was able to start doing stuff. Which was mostly training. But I did get to meet most of the people I will be working with and was able to familiarize myself with the new organization. It definitely helped coming into this job with a background in how the Navy works, especially how Naval facilities work.

My new place is in Sunset Cliffs

Each day after work I tried to check out a new part of the city while looking for a place to live after my AirBnB ran out this weekend. After spending many hours on Craigslist I finally found the perfect place on Wednesday. I was looking for a furnished place that was short term and relatively cheap. This was not easy, since most everything was either not short term, not cheap, or not furnished. But eventually I struck gold. I saw a post for an ideal place, and I jumped on it. I moved in on Saturday.

My new living area

The place I'm in now might be one of my favorite things I've ever done. It's up there with being born, seeing a boob and experiencing the miracle of human flight. I'm in a what I guess would be called a Mother-in-Law apartment, or a secondary suite. It's an apartment behind this beautiful house in Ocean Beach. It has its own separate entrance and has everything I need. Whoever built it, really outdid themselves. It has a small but beautiful kitchen and bathroom, a walk in closet, washer and dryer, and a nice sized living/bedroom area with a wall mounted TV. It also has an outdoor patio with a nice grill for me to use. This place is perfect for me.

The kitchen and bathroom

Best of all though is that it is less than 300 feet to the ocean. I can see the water out of my window and can hear the waves crash at night. It's so choice, and surprisingly within my means. I checked the price and the the house sold last fall for $1.5 million. So I'm basically living in a quarter of this 1.5 million dollar home 300 feet from the beach and I'm only paying $1400 a month. That includes all utilities, internet and cable along with a bi-weekly cleaning service that she pays for. The owner is a super nice lady who is in her 40's or 50's who lives in the main house, and I can see the Koi pond from my front door. It's really the perfect set-up for me and I couldn't be happier.

Outdoor grill yo!

I'm also really digging Ocean Beach. It's kinda an interesting little beach neighborhood. There is a fair amount of run down little cheap beach houses with the typical beachy/druggie population, but there are also some beautiful homes like the one I'm staying in. There are a bunch of bars by the beach and some little restaurants. It's really a cool place.

The ocean is about 20 seconds away

I've been getting settled in these past few days and I've been enjoying the weather by getting out and walking or jogging around the area. Overall I think I'm going to be really happy in California and I'm excited to get everything else down here and have a more permanent home, although I'm not sure I ever want to leave this place that I have.

The Sunset from Sunset Cliffs

Moving Again

Last Thursday night I finished moving for the 9^th time in the last 8 years. My favorite move was when I moved from State and Arbor to State and Hoover in college. The entire move was only about 200 yards, and I took most of my stuff to the new house via my childhood wagon. An amusing aside, while moving my clothes a cop pulled over my wagon and searched it thinking I was hiding a keg underneath the clothes.

The new house with the Jeep

I lived in my last residence for 2 and a half years, the longest I’ve lived in the same place since I moved out of my parents house when I was 18. It was a perfect townhouse for someone coming out of college and wanting more space than an apartment, but not ready for a house.  My roommate on the other hand is 4 years older than me and ready for the house. After much procrastinating he bought a house a few miles away from where we lived. It has a lot more space, an acre of land and a garage. It's not the house I would have bought, but he seems happy with the purchase. It means that I can no longer walk downtown or to the post office. It also means that I had to move from a large bedroom with its own bathroom and walk-in closet to a much smaller room with a shared bathroom and no walk in closet.  But the rent I’ll be paying to my roommate is such a good deal, that it wasn’t worth it to move somewhere else or pay rent in the townhouse by myself.

I spent the last two weeks slowly moving things from one house to the other. I went up to Mt. Baker last weekend so I had to do most of the moving during the weeknights. It really made me think about the things I need vs. the things I have.  It went from things I needed for the next 2 weeks, to things I needed for the next few days, to the next night, to the next couple hours. I eventually went full opium den with just a mattress, computer, change of clothes and a towel.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be living in this house. It’s not exactly where I envisioned myself spending my middle 20s. I realized just how much stuff I have that I don’t need and I’m considering just keeping some of that stuff packed away unless I need it. On one hand, it’s nice accumulating the stuff that you always wanted but on the other it’s relieving being able to live with just what you need and little more. In college I only owned what I could fit into a bedroom and moving was easy. Those days are gone and every move I make from now on is going to be a pain in the buns.

Putting down roots?

Every summer for the past 6 years I've packed up everything I owned and moved. I found that a yearly move pretty much shaped my mindset on materialistic possessions in two ways. First, everything I owned had to fit into the back of a car. Second, I couldn't ever become attached to anything. Everything I owned was temporary and I only owned what I needed.

This is the first summer since I was 17 that I won't be moving. It's a strange feeling knowing that I can purchase furniture and expect to still own it in 5 or 10 years. In my parents house they still have furniture that my dad owned when he was in college. It's a little bizarre thinking that some of my possessions could follow me that long.

I think that at a certain point people become so bogged down by what they have that they can never escape. It's more than just furniture and shit on the walls. When people stop moving and settle into a house, a job, and relationships they eventually become bound by the same things that make their lives comfortable. Item by item, paycheck by paycheck, date by date they slip into the routine.

What scares me is that I can see myself slowly falling into this settled down life and it scares me. Yesterday I bought an ice cream scoop. I don't even have any ice cream in my house. It just makes me think of a scene from the wire where Dennis "Cutty" Wise goes to The Deacon. He sits down and says "I've had this feeling for a long time and it's like I'm standing outside myself watching me do things I don't want to do." Now he was probably talking about murdering people and whatnot. But I see my life falling in this rut where 20 years from now I'm sitting in the same office, driving down the same roads home and wondering how despite all having everything I want, why I still feel like my life was a little too predictable.

Before Cutty says that line above he starts out the conversation by saying "The truth is I don't know what I want. I know I'm looking for something but I can't even tell you what it is." In a certain way that's how I feel. I have a good job, lots of nice things and a pretty awesome girlfriend. So it bothers me that I feel like I'm not living this life to the fullest. Last weekend when Dave was here he told me that I'm going through a quarter life crisis. I don't know about that but I think I need to keep mixing it up before it's too late.

Where Should I live?

I'm moving to the Seattle area in about a month and I still don't have a place to live. I'm planning on figuring that out once I get there, but I would like an idea of the location. So I am going to use some of my Industrial Engineering skills to figure out where I can live that will minimize transportation time and cost.

I figure that I have three destinations and their corresponding weekly round trips:
Work (5)
Supermarket/Shopping (1)
Downtown Seattle (.5)

I have a few towns that I could live in:
Bremerton
Bainbridge Island
Silverdale
Seattle
Poulsbo

Here is the breakdown of total weekly transit times in minutes for each location based on Google Maps directions:
Bremerton - 324
Bainbridge Island - 464
Silverdale - 183
Seattle - 660
Poulsbo - 244

I also want to look at the cost of transportation. This is the weekly cost of gas and the cost of riding the ferries:
Bremerton - 26.87
Bainbridge Island - 33.50
Silverdale - 13.44
Seattle - 74.20
Poulsbo - 18.71

This all assumes that the housing in each location is similar. It appears that Silverdale will minimize weekly transportation times and costs. The one downside of Silverdale is that it will make the weekend trips to Seattle a rather long trip.

VICTORY!

Hi Brian

Maintenance confirmed that when they repaired the side door it was operable and could be opened at the time.

FYI, maintenance provided us with another picture which was taken back in September 2008 before the door was repaired. However, as a gesture of good will, we will credit your account for the legal fees and repairs to the broken door in order to foster good relations and in the hopes that the house will be treated more kindly in the future.

Thank you.

Yours Truly,

Michelle

Note how they never admitted that they were wrong. Like they were doing us a favor by not charging us their legal fees. Either way I'm very pleased that I won. But it wasn't without the help of my free lawyer Gayle "The Hailstorm" Lawyerlady who referred to my emails as "brillant". This calls for a celebration tune.

I hate my landlord

Wilson White like all property management companies are evil, soulless and unethical. Recently Wilson White attempted to evict us because we refused to pay for some damages that we didn't cause. When we showed up in court their lawyer said that they had decided to drop the case. Then Wilson White tried to charge us for their legal fees even after they dropped the case. This lead to a few emails which I have presented below.

Hi Brian

After reviewing the inventory checklist (dated 2007) and deliberating with the owner, it has been determined that you are responsible for the damages to the doors as the inventory checklist states that it was in good condition at move-in and the house has renewed since then. However, he is willing to meet you in the middle concerning the charges once the legal fees have been paid. Attached is a transaction listing for you to view.

Please let me know if you accept this offer.

Thank you.

The damages were there when we moved in and I talked to the old guys who lived here and they agreed. Since I knew I was in the right I decided to play hard ball.

Michelle,

I thought I was pretty clear when we discussed the door. Let me reiterate, the door was functioning when we moved in but soon after stopped working due to pre-existing damage. I have discussed this with the previous tenets who have confirmed that the door frame was damaged while they were living there. Since we did not cause any damage to the door frame we will not be paying for the repairs.

As for the legal fees, it is absurd for you to think that you can charge us for your legal fees. You attempted to evict us and then dropped the suit without reaching an out of court resolution. We have no responsibility for your legal fees and attempting to get us to pay your fees shows a lack of ethics on behalf of Wilson White.

We will be paying our $4,350 in rent this month and we expect that both the charges for the door repair and the legal fees will be taken off of our account.

I thought this would be the end of it and they would drop the charges but:

Hi Brian

Let’s be clear the reason why the case was dismissed in court as rent was paid and we eventually received the signed mediation agreement that brought your balance down to $9.69. Please see the attached transaction listing and mediation agreement.

We have also attached the pictures concerning the door and door jam. The charges in question refer to both the front and side doors we repaired. Referencing image, “IMG00140.jpg”, with regard to the cracked side door of the house; the deadbolt and the strike (the means by which to lock the door) is missing which can only be caused by blunt force trauma. Referencing another image, “IMG00139.jpg”, with regard to the door jam at the front of the house; a strike plate is missing and three of the four 6 inch screws have been ripped out that would normally be screwed into the house. And again, the only time we seen this is because of brute force and not normal wear and tear as you claim it to be. If, however, we accept your assertions as true we don’t understand how a door that cannot be locked or stay closed for the entire time that you have lived there and is noted as in “good condition” on the inventory checklist would not have risen to a level of importance before now. Again this just seems mystifying to us that over summer, winter and any other breaks that this would not have been an issue before now.

However, we are willing to meet you in the middle with regard to the repairs once the legal fees have been paid. Per lease agreement points 5 & 6 and also by law, we are charging you the statutory legal fees which we are entitled due to that the rent was not paid in full by the fifth.

Thank you.

So I guess they thought that I wouldn't be able to come back from those harsh blows. But I don't take no shit from no one and I had a few punches of my own to throw.

Michelle,

Any attempt to argue that Wilson White dropped the case cannot be attributed to us not paying rent. The transaction listing clearly shows that our rent was paid on or before the fifth every month since the first of the year. The only exception to this being April when the fifth did not fall on a business day. The issue of the damages to the door was never resolved and therefore you dropped the case of your own freewill and thus we are refusing to pay your legal fees.

As for the side door. The damage to the side door was caused during our tenure at the house. Instead of fixing the side door your maintenance staff simply made the door inoperable. Currently the door cannot be opened from the inside or outside of the house. As a side note, I am sure you realize that this constitutes a violation of building code with regards to the minimum number of emergency exits per livable floor, and should be fixed prior to our upcoming housing inspection. Since the door still doesn't function we are refusing to pay for repairs that never took place.

In regards to the front door, your assertions that the damage was caused by blunt force trauma could very possibly be correct. We don't know how the door was damaged because we didn't live here at the time. Upon move-in the piece of the door frame that was missing was filled in with wood putty. Eventually due to the cold and the fact that wood putty isn't meant to be used in that manner the filling popped out of the doorway. This lead to the deadbolt only being held in place by the piece of metal which subsequently was dented because there was no wood behind it to support it. Because of this we spent a year without a locking front door. We put in numerous calls to Wilson White over the course of 2008 to have it repaired and I still have emails between the members of our house in which we discuss having Wilson White repair our door. In an email dated January 7, 2008 one of the roommates sent a inter-house email with the following quote "I went down to Wilson White today and put in a repair request for the deadbolt on the front door (again -- since apparently they didn't fix it the first time)" So it is quite clear to me that this didn't just rise to a level of importance it was an ongoing issue for over a year. What mystifies me is how your maintenance staff could apply the same ineffective solution to the door frame numerous times until I had to instruct them on how to properly fix the door frame. Perhaps you should discuss with the maintenance staff why wood putty would not be a robust solution to a large hole in a door frame. Now you should be able to see why we feel we are not responsible for your maintenance staffs shoddy work.

In summation, we refuse to pay your legal fees because you chose to drop the case without resolution. We refuse to pay for repairs to the side door because the door is still not functional. We refuse to pay for the front door because the damage was pre-existing and the damage was only exacerbated by your maintenance staff's inability to preform their jobs. Please send out a transaction listing with the legal fees and door repair fees removed.

Brian

So this is where we stand right now. I'm pretty much pooping all over them. I was about to ask for an apology for wasting so much of my time but thought that might be over the line. Plus, if anything I should be apologizing for tearing them a new asshole. I'll post with any new juicy emails.

Brian Joins the Politcal Process

In high school I took alot of video classes to pass the time. Part of the classes involved assisting with the district TV stations coverage of everything from woman's softball to school plays. It's how I got my first sportscasting gig, doing the color commentary for woman's basketball. I also got to spend some time with the Shulkinator when we covered the school board meetings. I would usually sneak out of the broadcast booth to steal refreshments and to make public comments. I like making public comments because you can pretty much say anything you want until they cut your microphone.

Tonight I went to the Ann Arbor City Council meeting to voice my support for the development of 601 S. Forest. Unfortunately the developer caved under pressure and turned a great project into an average one. You should already know my opinion on the matter.

I got up and spoke about how it is a win-win-win for students, residents and the city. At the end I assured the council that despite MSA being against the project, students were in favor of improving off campus housing. It was at that point I stared down the MSA contingent. To be honest, why would MSA be against a project that would increase student off-campus housing? Wasn't part of your platform to improve off-campus housing? Do you honestly think that installing those 3 streetlights at East U. and Oakland counts as improving campus housing? A few minutes later the student body vice president came up and said "With no disrespect to Mr. Russell, no one has ever voted for him". He went on to talk about how MSA takes student input very seriously. Does that contradict itself?

I was quoted in an article in the Daily about it.

Anyways I better go back in two weeks to voice my concerns about the AA Chicken Ordinance being anti-student, pro-residents who don't live in the student ghetto.

Welcome to the Polk House, Fatass

After living out of the trunk of my car for the past 5 days, I have finally moved into a place for the summer. It is the second story of a 3 flat in the heart of Wrigleyville. Big Nasty named it the Polk house because I once referred to it as the dark horse candidate for living arrangements, much like James K. Polk's 1844 candidacy for the presidency. I am living with 2 dudes who are in there twenties, and are cool guys. To give you an idea of how awesome the location is consider this map:I live at the green arrow.

1: Wrigley Field. I can see it from my place and can hear the roar of the crowd. I can also see the W or L flag for wins and losses. 570 feet. That's less than 2 football fields.

2: Addison Red Line Station. The el is literally at the end of the street. This is important because I work downtown and that's where it goes. 415 feet.

3: 7-11. This is where you buy slurpees. 530 feet.

4: Nearest bar. It's the Harrey Carey Tavern. I'm guessing its a Cubs bar. 350 feet. Actually every bar here is a cubs bar.

5: Liquor Store. Conveniently placed between the El and my house. I get to pass every day coming home from work. Even better it's on the way to work. 400 feet.

6: Bars. The nearest bar to my house in Ann Arbor is 2350 feet. Within half that range in Chicago there are 20+ bars. They are marked with red dots.

The other good news is that my furniture has been donated to me by the benevolent Nasty and Tobais. To bad I still don't have a dresser or a chair. I am going with the opium den style ala Fritz highly successful 2006-2007 "Bring Girls Home to the Mattress on the Floor" Campaign. But my room does have 1 piece of decoration, a 10 foot American Flag.

Also parking around here sucks, and I am glad that I won't have my car here for the rest of the summer. But today I managed to parallel park my car into a space with 6 inches behind me and 4 in front. That means the space was only 10 inches bigger than my car and I didn't tap the car in front or behind. I was really proud of my accomplishment and I let people know by letting out a "Whoo-Hoo, I still got it" in the middle of the street. I don't really have to parallel park often, because I don't own a car, but after driving a bus for all of these years I have watched tons of people fail and learned from their mistakes.

Brian Writes A Letter to the Editor

Today was my first communication with The Daily since the crossword war of 2007. I wrote the editor in response to this article in The Daily. Surprisingly it wasn't The Daily I took issue with, it was the landlords off Ann Arbor. They only allow three hundred words but I would have liked to have put in more. Here it is:

I would like to respond to yesterday’s article on the planned apartment building at S. University and S. Forest. It appears that most of the “more than a dozen” people that spoke against it were landlords. Of course they are against it, as long as they can get away with charging exorbitant amounts of money for sub-standard housing why wouldn’t they be?

Why should they care if there is enough demand to fill the proposed apartment complex? All that would equate to is cheaper rent and the more affordable housing they themselves seem to falsely desire. The notion that “The University is not adding 1,400 people to enrollment just so these people can fill up University Village, It will come from rental properties that constitute the neighborhoods stretching down State and Hill and other streets.” What, supply and demand? Competition? By the way, enrollment for Fall07 was up over a thousand students from Fall06. While at the same time no new large-scale housing projects were completed.

Personally from the large number of BMW’s I see around campus and the parents paying $50,000 a year to send their kids to school I think there is a demand for nice housing close to campus.

Last year residents were complaining that students were moving too far south down State Street and now when a practical solution comes along they call it “absurd.” What is absurd is that one of their major concerns is the pizza delivery. Yeah, cancel the project because of the unsolvable pizza delivery problem.

This building would only make Ann Arbor a better place. Perhaps if built, this project would give landlords incentive to improve their properties or stop charging such heinous rent.

Brian Russell
Engineering Junior

P.S. There are 3 pizza places within 2 blocks of the site.

I hope this isn't a fire hazard...

I remember last summer when a bunch of guys came back to Ann Arbor and were staying at Zach Warlicks 1 bedroom apartment. His little asian landlady showed up in the morning to find 20 guys sleeping on the floor of Zach's empty apartment and demanded to know "How long you been camping here?" Despite Zach's pleas the landlady refused to believe that he either paid rent, or had only been there 1 night. That's how I feel Wilson White would react if they ever came in our house.

Legally our house is zoned for 6 occupants. This semester we will have 10 people living here. That is 166% capacity. There are 6 bedrooms, and Ross and Pete share the downstairs one. Al lives in what is technically a storage room and now Brick and Andy just moved into our basement. Yes, we have 2 kids living in our unfinished basement. They were cleaning it up before they moved in and found a dead mouse. It is cold and damp and has been peed on by everyone. That also means that we have about 1 piece of silverware per person. I want nothing more than Brick or Andy to bring a girl home and take her down the basement.

If the housing inspector comes I don't think we stand much of a chance convincing them that its just the 6 of us here.