Courthouse Square Troubles

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The retirees agree--but they also say that sharing a building with street people wasn't what they signed up for when they rented their apartments. One time, a male ex-con allowed a female crack addict to move into his apartment in exchange for sex. (He eventually moved out; whether he was evicted is unclear.)

Still, some residents say the problems are overstated. George Wieland, a retired academic, is writing a history of Ann Arbor's German population (the September Observer published an excerpt). "Living here, you have to get used to all kinds of people," Wieland says. But the only "crime" he's experienced personally was that someone used to swipe his copy of the Ann Arbor News on football Saturdays.

Wieland admits he's felt "a little scared" sharing elevators with drunks. Mostly, though, he doesn't worry about the other tenants and enjoys the perks of living downtown, such as the easy walk to the library and the new YMCA. "But I can understand how women would feel different," says the six-foot-two-inch, solidly built retiree.

Karen Swanagon, though, bristles at any suggestion that Courthouse Square might be a less-than-ideal living place. "Those people telling you that, they're not minding their own business," snaps Swanagon, a restaurant worker whose husband, Chuck, organizes musical "jam nights" in the former hotel ballroom. "Don't listen to them! We love it here."