Courthouse Square Troubles

continued

At that point, Clarkson became an unofficial spokeswoman for a group of frustrated tenants. She and two other women wrote to city council to complain of poor maintenance and "problem tenants" who, they wrote, "urinate in the elevators, on the carpets, and especially favor the potted plants. In public areas they are too often drunk, profane, passed out."

First Ward representative Sabra Briere responded and met with a small group of residents. But Clarkson, sick of the stress, has decided to call it quits. To the regret of her friends in the building, she's moved out.

Another Courthouse Square apartment has what I've come to think of as the "academic" look: Japanese prints. Books that delve into esoteric topics like ancient Greece or psychoanalysis. Classical music plays in the background.

Like most of the building's residents, the resident of this apartment is single again. After her husband died, she moved from another state to be with relatives in town. "I came kicking and screaming," she says. But she eventually found pleasures here: "I love the liberal feeling of Ann Arbor, the activities of the university."