Anyone out downtown tonight?

[Redleg81]

I love the ammount of people the hoedown brings to the neighborhood. But they are the worst visitors we get. They trash the place more than any other visitors. They trash our parking lot, our sidewalks. They even trash the elevators in my apartment building. Friday night they threw bottles out our garage onto the street, and the pissed out of the garage onto people on the sidewalk below. They harass our neighrborhood homeless people. Trash the people mover and basically show no respect for anything down here. This crowd is worse than the fireworks crowd by far. And none of the other riverfront festivals bring this kind of crowd. It's too bad, because I really do love the numbers, and the general buzz of activity.

Not to thread jack, but I have the same problems with EMU's "best and brightest" here in Ypsilanti-- The absentee owner of the home next door, after failing to sell her property in this down market [[she is now in California) last year decided to rent her home out to a mass, or should I say, mess of students. Results? Party city. I now have had the weekend joy of picking up red plastic cups, replacing burned fence boards [[from dumped still-hot charcoal) and the topper: Repainting the side of the garage where numerous rowdies pissed through the chain link fence discoloring the existing paint and worse, it actually started it to peel, not to mention the "funky" smell..... GRRRR!

[1KielsonDrive]

Not to thread jack, but I have the same problems with EMU's "best and brightest" here in Ypsilanti-- The absentee owner of the home next door, after failing to sell her property in this down market [[she is now in California) last year decided to rent her home out to a mass, or should I say, mess of students. Results? Party city. I now have had the weekend joy of picking up red plastic cups, replacing burned fence boards [[from dumped still-hot charcoal) and the topper: Repainting the side of the garage where numerous rowdies pissed through the chain link fence discoloring the existing paint and worse, it actually started it to peel, not to mention the "funky" smell..... GRRRR!

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. The rental phenomenon is happening everywhere, even in middle class and upscale neighborhoods. I guess students and crack houses might be among the worst results. In my neighborhood, due to economic stress, condos are rented out to whomever they can get in. We, as co-owners, have a right to enforce association by-laws, but have no say about who rents the unit. Once the shit hits the fan, we have to spend an inordinate amount of time watching, documenting, and calling police. Yeah, there've been a bit of both here - student parties and getting high on the lake and in the parking lot. I find it interesting that an area [[I'm very near you - on Ford Lake) that was recently so middle and upper-middle class, has now been sliding downward as condo's become rentals. I have great neighbors, I love my neighborhood on the lake, and we're not going down without a fight.

[Neilr]

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. The rental phenomenon is happening everywhere, even in middle class and upscale neighborhoods. I guess students and crack houses might be among the worst results. In my neighborhood, due to economic stress, condos are rented out to whomever they can get in. We, as co-owners, have a right to enforce association by-laws, but have no say about who rents the unit. Once the shit hits the fan, we have to spend an inordinate amount of time watching, documenting, and calling police. Yeah, there've been a bit of both here - student parties and getting high on the lake and in the parking lot. I find it interesting that an area [[I'm very near you - on Ford Lake) that was recently so middle and upper-middle class, has now been sliding downward as condo's become rentals. I have great neighbors, I love my neighborhood on the lake, and we're not going down without a fight.

One of the reasons that I'm happy to be living in a coop community, rather than a condo development, is that owners can not rent out their units at will. In my particular coop, at most, only 1 in every 10 units could possibly be rented and then only for a maximum of 1 year. Any prospective tenant would need to be vetted by the coop board the same way a prospective owner would be. Certainly their tax returns and sources of income would be checked. Also residents are not permitted to have unauthorized roommates in their TH.

Another factor that works in our favor is that prospective purchasers must have a 10-15% down payment [[and be able to document its source). Nobody is moving in for "$249 down & no closing costs." That means that all owners have significant equity in their unit right from the start.

On one hand, this might seem to be overly restrictive; but this policy has worked greatly to our benefit over the past 50 years, particularly during the recent general housing meltdown.

This could also be cross-posted to:
A lottery winner killed the Detroit landlord from Australia...

Freddie Young and his daughter, and their ilk, would not be moving into Lafayette Park.

[English]

Man, I missed everything! I caught a nasty cold while moving during the first weekend of May and was down for the count all last week. Ventured out once on Friday, only to head back home where my tissues, soup, and NyQuil are...

...and of course, this week, when I'm fit as a horse, it feels like November. Go figure. Well, I've got my first out-of-town, overnight guest this weekend, and then after that, it's my first PW Saturday and the Forum Picnic. Despite all evidence to the contrary, summer *is* coming!

[English]

I love the ammount of people the hoedown brings to the neighborhood. But they are the worst visitors we get. They trash the place more than any other visitors. They trash our parking lot, our sidewalks. They even trash the elevators in my apartment building. Friday night they threw bottles out our garage onto the street, and the pissed out of the garage onto people on the sidewalk below. They harass our neighrborhood homeless people. Trash the people mover and basically show no respect for anything down here. This crowd is worse than the fireworks crowd by far. And none of the other riverfront festivals bring this kind of crowd. It's too bad, because I really do love the numbers, and the general buzz of activity.

That's sad! I usually attend at least one day of the Hoedown, since I usually happened to be in the city that weekend during my grad school years [[my monthly sorority meeting's always that same Saturday). I was sorry I missed it last Friday, the only really fine weather for it. I didn't know that those fairgoers act so country-ghetto, which is a term I haven't used since attending my HBCU 12 years ago... but an observation we often made in the region...

My favorite festivals, by far, are the International Freedom Festival and the River Days. I miss some of the ethnic fests that have moved out of the city, such as the Polish and Italian festivals...

[Gistok]

Man, I missed everything! I caught a nasty cold while moving during the first weekend of May and was down for the count all last week. Ventured out once on Friday, only to head back home where my tissues, soup, and NyQuil are...

English, for as well educated as you are I'm surprised you haven't heard of ZICAM... it comes in lozenges and nasal spray. ZICAM is homeopathic, and over the counter at your local pharmacy.

What it does is release zinc ions [[incomplete molecules) into your upper respiratory tract. When those molecules attach themselves to cold viruses, the viruses can no longer reproduce, and then they die.

So athough there is no cure or prevention for a cold... ZICAM reduces its' duration to as few as 2 days. I got all my friends and family to try it... and we all swear by it.

The key is that you HAVE to take it "on time"... ie... don't skip an application or your cold virus count will just jump back up again...

My brother and sister [[both teachers) have to take it several times a year due to being infected by the students. But it works!!!

Why be miserable for a week or more taking medicines that mask your cold, when you can take something that reduces its' duration and severity...

[Happie]

I was looking for a business a few weeks back. i got turned around in a hood in either Livonia or Redford. A huge garage sized Confederate flag with "IT AINT COMIN DOWN" at the bottom.

Lovely communities we got here.

Speaking of civil war flags, here's my favorite:



These were the guys who won the Stanley Cup back in 1865, figuratively speaking. Everybody loves a winner, and everybody hates a sore loser.

[English]

English, for as well educated as you are I'm surprised you haven't heard of ZICAM... it comes in lozenges and nasal spray. ZICAM is homeopathic, and over the counter at your local pharmacy.

What it does is release zinc ions [[incomplete molecules) into your upper respiratory tract. When those molecules attach themselves to cold viruses, the viruses can no longer reproduce, and then they die.

So athough there is no cure or prevention for a cold... ZICAM reduces its' duration to as few as 2 days. I got all my friends and family to try it... and we all swear by it.

The key is that you HAVE to take it "on time"... ie... don't skip an application or your cold virus count will just jump back up again...

My brother and sister [[both teachers) have to take it several times a year due to being infected by the students. But it works!!!

Why be miserable for a week or more taking medicines that mask your cold, when you can take something that reduces its' duration and severity...

I took ZICAM faithfully every 2-3 hours [[although granted, I didn't have any in the house at onset, and didn't get to it until 12-16 hours after onset of symptoms). Teaching in an old, dirty city school -- and contracting environmental asthma as a result -- is a you-know-what. It's not the cold that's so bad; it's my breathing. It was also a stressful week at work, which didn't help.

I used to swear by Airborne when I was teaching and in my early grad school years, but the vitamin overload can make you sick...