a v a a a v U U HOusing from 1 more than 13 percent. The jump in the rate has opened doors that had always been shut in students' faces. Tenants were actually in a position to demand - and receive - repairs before theysigned a lease, to negotiate rents, and to work out eight- month leases at reasonable rates. Lan- dlords even began to volunteer new furniture and carpeting to keep old tenants and draw new ones. The landlords say they're suffering irrevocable losses. Some say the new conditions, along with climing costs on. all fronts, are forcing them out of a business they were certain would be profitable. Even though some experts predicted a rise in the vacancy rate as early as the spring of 1980, landlords, tenants, and city and University housing officials were stun- ned when the rate soared to 13.7 percent in 1981. "It seemed like its was almost over night," says Fred Bohl, information manager for the city's planning depar- tment. "For the first time in years, I remember seeing little vacancy .signs on houses." But some tenant advocates say they find the double-digit vacancy rate a lit- tle hard to swallow. "It's virtually im- possible for me to believe that between 1980 and the spring of 1983, the vacancy, rate has gone up six times," says Paul Teich, a lawyer for the University's Student Legal Services who specializes in housing cases. "I think it could be as low as 3 percent." Teich says landlords have strong political motives to inflate statistics when they report their vacancies to the University's Housing Office. Because landlords have an ongoing relationship with the housing office, they want to be seen in as positive a light as possible, Teich says. They use inflationary tac- tics to earn sympathy, he says, because it's to the landlords' advantage if the housing office and tenants think they're in dire financial straits. Housing office officials, however, think it works the opposite way. "If anything, I would think they would in- flate the figure of units rented tomake the picture seem rosier," says Jo Rum- sey, assistant director for University housing information. But even some landlords doubt the accuracy of the overall figure. Dick Vale, owner of Ravalp Management Co., says that when the vacancy rate of 13.21 percent was announced in Sep- tember, he had all but 3 percent of his 175 units rented. By the end of Septem- ber, says Vale, he had nothing left. Even if, as Teich says, the vacancy rate has climbed only from 1 to 3 per- cent, Ann Arbor's rental housing market has experienced a drastic tur- naround. "Money is the biggest (factor) of all," says Rumsey. Most students who come into the housing office today, she says, are looking for the cheapest place they can find. They are willing to sacrifice quality, location, and the luxury of having their own bedrooms to save money. Throughout the '70s, landlords say, the emphasis was on privacy. Students wanted to have their own rooms and they were willing to pay for it. "The economy has reached a point that the parents of the students have set an upper budget, and that's all they have to spend," says Tom Clark, who owns more than 50 units on campus. That means students aren't exactly beating down the doors to get efficien- cies and one-bedroom apartments, which run between $300 and $350. Many are opting instead to squeeze eight or nine people into a six-bedroom house. Others are turning to apartments several miles away from campus. Bet- ween 1981 and 1982, the number of students commuting to the University from such remote areas as Ypsilanti jumped by about 900. "i L'"i':::::.: r::: i::: :v, ::. :::w ::. ::.: :. :: ........................................ .. ...... .., ..... .. .. ... ....... ....... ........ _ _. 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". ...{"r ... . .............. ......................... .......-...............v.........v ...v.. ............... .................... .................................................:.: w ::. :. v...".":v:i: :ii:4:S i7i i:: ::;m , .......v:. .: n:..:i ii vii: ::}}. ;". ......... . ............................... ..........r v. .... ....... ii................... .v ............... ................... v:". : w :w:. ::iii:Ji::'"Ai."::"i;tiSS"::^: ii ii:ยข}i:Qi:?:L:!: ti : i"$:4iY $: "": ". : r:v i..:"...... .............. ...,.,::.::: :"............... ...,.,.,...:."..v8.ti.ti:i callIs Psychedelic Fars Prism Productions Michigan Theatre 8 p.m., Sunday, March 27 I ;,. Landlords: Snowed under insurance rates for rental units and property taxes haven't helped, they say. .At the same time, landlords readily admit they don't expect to make much money on their rents, anyway. The only time they can really clean up is when they sell their property, and even then the market conditions have to be right. "People do not make money renting houses," says Klein, an independent landlord. The money, he says, comes from buying and selling. "In the mean- time, you try to wait it out, keep the property up, keep your tenants happy, and hope you break even." Right now, it's the buying and selling part that's giving landlords a hard time. Although property value in the campus area has stabilized and even 'People houses . . property hope youI do not make money renting . you try to wait it out, keep the up, keep your tenants happy, and break even!' -Perry Klein, independent landlord By Larry Dean Editor's note: All the events and characters depicted in this journalistic investigation are based in reality. The Psychedelic Furs are a modern rock group (electric guitars, vocals, etc.). Their most recent album, "Forever Now," is very entertaining. T HE TELEPHONE is a necessary element in today's society. Without it we would be as isolated from one an- other as shipwrecked sailors on a desert island. No longer can man com- municate by means of a carrier pigeon's wings, or the ancient custom of smoke-signals; even Western Union is out of date. No, it is the smooth push- button precision of Ma Bell that reaches out and touches that special someone a million miles away. Given the assignment of writing an article on the coming of the Psychedelic Furs by a world-weary editor, I was faced with a number of contradicting impressions: how could I, in my solip- sistic state, ever dream of putting down my own personal opinions on the Psych Furs without alienating those members of the populace who scoff at their questionable presence in the musical hierarchy? So, Trimline in hand, I sought my answers over the telephone poles of the United States. Taking the issues to the people, I first called a Mr. Donald G. Furre of Por- tland, Oregon. Mr. Furre answered the phone with a gruff and authoritative "Hello," which was expected, but which nonetheless threw my casual- demeanor off for a moment. As I ex- plained my purpose to Mr. Furre, he listened silently and intently, but his facade of indifference was melting away with each uttered syllable. Mr. Furre professed to never having heard of the Psychedelic Furs, but thought their name was "appropo to many other rock band names." He cited the Mothers of Invention as a band that came to mind in comparison. Furre also said that he found rock bands to be "faddish" and disapproved of the whole drug scene that is so readily connected with the world of the rock musician. Our call concluded with pleasantries 'and a hearty barrage of appreciation from yours-truly that Mr. Furre could speak so candidly to a total stranger. Excited about the prospects of this new method of journalistic in- vestigation, my fingers took me to the Windy City and Mr. John Pavlis, of Furs by John Pavlis, Inc. From the onset, Mr. Pavlis was gen- tlemanly and helpful, addressing me as 'sir' and sincerely mulling over my questions. "I never heared before this kind of group, and I don't like rock music," said Mr Pavlis. "I like soft music.. ." he then tired to convince me that this was because of his age by ad- ding, "I like nice, soft music. We don't like the noise." When asked his opinion on the name 'Psychedelic Furs,' Mr. Pavlis said it meant nothing to him. As our call wound up to a close, ILasked Mr. Pavlis about the weather in Chicago. "We have rain all day long," he sighed. "lousy weather." However, he had to admit that the wetness could not ruin the picturesque beauty of Chicago. I hung up with the feeling that I had tapped into something very right and mysterious with Mr. Pavlis, that he had left me with a cryptic clues to his true feelings about the Psychedelic Furs: rain, dreariness, grey skies-yet the hidden beauty shows through, transcending the murkiness by offering faint hope in things fantastic. When the next callee answered, it was a young lady from Furr's Cafeteria in Santa Fe. Though she was extremely busy, she greeted me with a cheery "Can I help you?" to which I em- phatically answered "yes." She told me she, too, had never heard of the Psychedelic Furs, although their name sounded alright. In fact, it remin- ded her of "somebody eating on furs." I think she'd been working too long. 'taking a moment out to help ring up a customer's bill, the young lady retur- ned to the phone and turned the tables with a question of her own: "What kind of music do they play?" Hard-pressed to give an accessible and semi-concise comparison, I told her that they soun- ded like Roxy Music. "Roxy?" she quipped. "What kind of music is that?"I explained as Dest I couia ana sne ended our conversation by apologising about her lack of musical knowledge. I soothed her bruised ego by telling her how much she had helped me, and gave an upbeat "good-bye" as the sound of a cash register ringing up another bill culminated my encounter with a Furr's Cafeteria employee. Though my calls until then had given me a great deal of input from the collec- tive unconscious of America, I still felt that I had not really broken any new ground on the Psychedelic Furs ex- perience. Undaunted, I consulted the telephone-talkers' bible, the Phone Book, looking under the white pages of a sprawling metropolis: San Francisco. There I found what promised to be my answer: Fur Design Interiors. With shaking hands, I pushed the ac- cording numbers in sequence, being careful not to upset a single one. When a recording informed me that the number had been changed, I almost lost all hope; but seconds later, a new one was given to me, which I called, waiting breathlessly as the phone rang. A secretary answered and patched me through to-the Fur Design Department, where a spunky lass with an Irish ac- cent answered. After the appropriate introductions were made, she asked, "Is it a psychedelic band you're talking about?" I told her it was more a catchy tag then anything absolute. "Then what's 'furs' got to do with it?" she in- sisted, drilling me better than any average Joe Friday-type character. "I think they picked the image because they wanted one that was soft and furry," I said, grabbing for straws. "What?" she responded with astonish- ment and laughter. "It's crazy. Listen, Campus-area landlords, don't like these trends very much, and they're working hard to protect themselves. At- torney Teich asserts that although lan- dlords may be losing money on units that are sitting vacant, they are making a lot of it'back by charging more per person for occupied apartments. For example, he says, if a landlord is ren- ting a two-bedroom apartment to three people, he will often charge the tenants $85 each instead of charging two tenan- ts $100 each. Rumsey, however, says this is a sim- plistic view of the landlords' predicament. "They are making some of (the loss) up, but not as much as they were making before, when they could rent out their whole apartment." Landlords are quick to say they are not making the profits they once did. While rents have remained the same or dropped over the last two years, the cost of utilities for landlords, par- ticularly heat, has skyrocketed. Rising dropped over the last few years, high interest and mortgage rates are making it difficult to find buyers. Ad- ding to this misery, more and more homeowners finding it difficult to sell their houses are renting to students and adding to the supply of available housing. So, the landlords say they're waiting it out, and keeping the property up is becoming more and more important to them in the scramble to attract tenants. Five years ago, students were often lucky if their' landlord fixed a broken window within a week; holes in the walls could go unattended for months. William Yadlowsky, supervisor of the - city's housing bureau, says the economy and stepped-up inspections have forced landlords to dip into their wallets more often. Students know they no longer have to settle for dilapidated housing, he says. "They know they're not stuck like they were in the- old days." Richard Butler: Furs vocalist backstal let me put you on with somebody who'll be able to handle it. It's too much for me to end my day that I can't take it." I agreed, and she passed the receiver on to her boss. "I never heard of Psychedelic Furs!" he burst in with, adding that he name was "incongrous with furs ... They're opposing names. Somebody wants to have an outstanding name, something that's incongrous is a good name." Then he stated: "As far as its logic, it is illogical." Yes! This man had come across something that all the others had not. He had achieved Zen by some means alien to himself and was, even then, using his newfound knowledge to educate those less fortunate. Diverging from our meditations for a moment, I asked him about Fur Design Interiors. He told me that it was a business dealing in fur-covered home furnishings. Immediately I thought of the Psychedelic Furs and how pleased they would be to know that their word and way of life was spreading thoughout the Western World. Back on the track, I gave him a brief A RMY I SURPLUS 201 E. Washington at Fourth OPEN M-SAT, 9-6 OPEN FRI. 9-8 994-3572 ge outline o sonofagu ded: "I c Kiss was where th wild anc thought I him they were "pr ploded it parted v weekends My exr old prove younger: playing. was pick: what was soothsaye and took t him: "D( same roc new ones most wor the boy do his way. put his hc by a rattl 1 ALL A (Ex 12 Weekend/March 25,1983 I