Buyer activity has grown as well over the past 90 days, with the number of property showings up 3% and the number of open house visitors up 20% (certainly influenced buy milder weather compared to last year), which means our spring selling season may get a head start this year! 

Showing activity per listing is up as well in all counties, moving from about 1.8 showings per week last Dec/Jan to 2.0 this past Dec/Jan and 11% increase.

Prices have shown the same upward movement. Values per square foot in every price category have shown positive numbers over the past 90 days. 

Because the 500+ market is small, changes can be volatile so the 10% gain should be looked at simply as positive movement rather than a true 10% rise.

We have the strongest pent up demand we have seen in the past six years going into the spring market. A good share of that pent up demand is being held back until prices rise a bit more, but even a small rise in prices will bring an increase in listing activity. All that said, we are still in the weird stage of counseling Sellers to continue to be aggressive in pricing (since we know statistically 70% of homes are listing above the price that will attract an offer) while Buyers need to be aggressive in their offers since the majority of buyers are all focusing on the 30% of the properties that are priced to market.

House sales and median sale prices in southeast Michigan rose in January compared to a year ago, further signaling that the regional economy might be climbing out of its deep recessionary hole.

Realcomp II Ltc., a Farmington Hills-based real estate service, reported today that home sales in the metro Detroit area rose 7% in January from the same month a year ago.

Meanwhile, median sale prices for houses and condominiums in the Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties rose to $63,150 in January from $60,000 a year before, an increase of 5.3%

In another sign of a market heating up, Realcomp reported that the average number of days a home spent on the market decreased in January by seven days from 96 to 89 compared to the same month the year before.

But the data still contained signs of stress in the market. Of the 4,439 sales closed in January of this year in the entire southeast Michigan region, slightly more than 16% were identified as “short sales,” or sales where the homeowner owed more on the mortgage than the house was worth.

Metro Detroit’s housing market made the list of improving markets for the first time in February, a national home builders group said Monday.

The National Association of Home Builders also included Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Muskegon and Monroe on the list, which is based on single-family housing permit growth, employment growth and house price appreciation.

Michael Stoskopf, chief executive of the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan, said he was pleasantly surprised that metro Detroit showed up on the list.

“We are beginning to hope,” he said. “It’s like when the Lions get to the playoffs and you still can’t believe it.”

And not just any market can get on the list.

An area must show improvement in all three areas for six months before being included on the list.

The list now includes 98 markets.

The index began in September to help track which metro areas are moving out of the housing slump. It measures improvement from the market’s bottom.

Metro Detroit permits have risen 8.6% since April 2009, prices have risen 6.8% since March 2011 and employment is up 2.4% since June 2009, according to the index.

Stoskopf said that while on the upswing, permits are way off historical averages.

For example, last year there were nearly 2,600 permits in Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and St. Clair counties.

That compares with a 40-year average of 10,000 permits a year.

“So we are 26% of the way back,” he said.

Other metro areas new to the index in February were Miami, Boston, Kansas City, Portland, Ore., Memphis and Salt Lake City. Now, 36 states have at least one metro area on the list.

“This indicates that despite the many challenges that continue to drag on a housing recovery — including the tight lending environment for builders and buyers — improving conditions are slowly but surely spreading from one housing market to the next,” said Bob Nielsen, chairman of the NAHB.

Most people realize their credit report will dictate whether they get a loan  for anything from a car to a house, and if so, what kind of interest rate  they’ll pay on that loan. But now, a new kind of credit report, called  CoreScore, contains information that digs deeper than ever into your payment  history. It details things like rental applications and evictions, pay day  loans, auto title loans and rent to own transactions. Even payments to the  electric company. It’s all intended to give a lender a better idea of who is  asking for money and the likelihood of it being paid back. So where do they get  the information?

“From the public records system,” Credit expert John Ulzheimer says.   “Traditionally credit reports only hold three types of public records;  bankruptcy, tax liens and judgements.”

CoreLogic acknowledges the extra information could hurt some people, while  helping others. The company would not agree to go on camera, but in a written  statement pointed out “borrowers who would typically have insufficient credit  history in traditional credit reports could now have new opportunities.” And  Ulzheimer, from  SmartCredit.com , agrees.

“The addition of this type of non-traditional information is going to help  some people have a credit report who have never had a credit report before.”

But attorney Chi Chi Wu with the National Consumer Law Center sees it a  little differently. She’s concerned people who had legitimate reasons for not  paying certain bills will now be penalized. For example…

“If there are mice running around, if you don’t have any hot water, you’re  allowed to not pay your rent under some jurisdictions. Is the new credit report  going to reflect that?” Wu asks.

And what else could be added to these reports? It’s another concern.

“With the push of a button you can aggregate billion of pieces of information  about anything and turn it into a consumer report,” Wu suggests.

Ulzheimer still believes the new reports will help both lenders and  consumers.

“Now consumers who deserve the credit are going to get it. Those who deserve  it at competitive terms are going to get competitive terms, and those who  frankly don’t need to be saddles with that type of debt are going to be  denied.”

As a top contractor in Silicon Valley, Dick Breaux is in a rare position: Amid a national housing slump, he continues to build big and elaborate houses. Projects have included a renovation of a 65,000-square-foot mansion and a 22,300-square-foot redo that required a crew of artisans from England, and he’s currently working on a 14,000-square-foot compound with an amphitheater on 12 acres in Hillsborough.

Dick Breaux, a top Silicon Valley builder of luxury homes, uses his experience to create his weekend retreat for less. Nancy Keates has details on Lunch Break.

Yet for most of his 35 years in the area, Mr. Breaux and his wife remained in their 3,000-square-foot ranch house in the less-pricey town of San Mateo. It was like the cobbler who never has time to make his own kids’ shoes, said his wife, Kate.

The couple still live in San Mateo, but they have built a new house for themselves: a 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom weekend home, in a golf community just outside Sacramento. Finished in late 2010, the house includes many of the techniques Mr. Breaux gleaned from the Bay Area’s better-known architects and designers. It also cost him $340 a square foot to build, compared with the $600-and-up cost of the houses he usually builds for others. Though some of the savings came from lower labor costs, more came from choices Mr. Breaux made to maximize a luxurious look for less, from selecting standard window sizes and less-pricey patio materials to deciding to use off-the-shelf closets instead of a custom made alternative.

Standing almost isolated on a wooded road, in a development mostly populated by French- and Mediterranean-style houses, the Breauxs’s three-story Tudor-influenced house resembles something out of a Grimm’s fairy tale, with a slate roof, gingerbread brown wood columns, a pale yellow stucco exterior, light-green window frames and two stone fountains out front. Inside, the first floor is mostly open—”75% of the houses I do now are all open,” Mr. Breaux said—with windows and glass doors that overlook the golf course.

www.BirminghamRestaurantWeek.org

Birmingham’s favorite dining event is back this year for two weeks. Affordable, gourmet meals will be offered at the seventh annual Birmingham Restaurant Week event from January 30 – February 3 and February 6 – 10, 2012. Participating Birmingham restaurants will offer three-course lunches for $15 and three-course dinners for $30.

The culinary extravaganza offers restaurant-goers delicacies from the area’s top chefs, who create special and unique menu items specifically for the event. Brand new this year, Forgotten Harvest is the official charity partner for Restaurant Week. The campaign is called “5 Feeds 25”; a five dollar donation will provide 25 meals for those in need. Participating restaurants have set out canisters starting before Christmas and going through the event.

“Restaurant Week is a national event that continues to gain popularity throughout the entire country. We’re proud Birmingham was the first city to bring it to Michigan seven years ago,” said John Heiney, executive director of Birmingham’s Principal Shopping District. “This year we’re pleased to partner with Forgotten Harvest. Our goal is to raise $10,000, which will provide 50,000 meals to Metro Detroit families in need.”

The following restaurants will showcase their finest menus during the event:

220 Restaurant – 220 Merrill Street, 248-645-2150, www.220restaurant.com

Barrio Tacos & Tequila (New this year!) – 203 Hamilton Row, 248-593-6060, www.barriomi.com

Big Rock Chop & Brew House – 245 S. Eton Street, 248-647-7774, www.bigrockchophouse.com

Cafe’ Via – 310 E. Maple, 248-644-8800, www.cafevia310.com

Cameron’s Steakhouse – 115 Willits, 248-723-1700, www.camerons-steakhouse.com

Chen Chow Brasserie – 260 N. Old Woodward Avenue, 248-594-2469, www.chenchow.com

Elie’s Mediterranean Cuisine – 263 Pierce Street, 248-647-2420, www.eliegrill.com

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar – 323 N. Old Woodward Avenue, 248-723-0134, www.flemingssteakhouse.com/locations/mi/birmingham

Forest Grill – 735 Forest Avenue, 248-258-9400, www.theforestgrill.com

Luxe Bar & Grill – 525 N. Old Woodward Avenue, 248-792-6051, www.idine.com/details.htm?merchantId=103369

Mitchell’s Fish Market – 117 Willits, 248-646-3663, www.mitchellsfishmarket.com

Peabody’s Restaurant, 34965 Woodward Avenue, 248-644-5222, www.peabodysrestaurant.com

Phoenicia, 588 S. Old Woodward Avenue, 248-644-3122, www.phoeniciabirmingham.com

Salvatore Scallopini – 505 N. Old Woodward Avenue, 248-644-8977, www.salvatorescallopini.com

South – 210 South Old Woodward, 248-593-8133, www.southbar.us

Streetside Seafood – 273 Pierce Street, 248-645-9123, www.streetsideseafood.com

The Rugby Grille – 100 Townsend Street, 248-642-5999, www.rugbygrille.com

Toast – 203 Pierce Street, 248-258-6278, www.ToastBirmingham.com

Townhouse Bistro (New this year!) – 180 Pierce Street, 248-792-5241, www.townhousebistro.com
Zazios – 34977 Woodward Avenue, 248-530-6400, www.zazios.com/home-birmingham

Reservations may be made by contacting the restaurants directly. For more information and event menus, visit www.birminghamrestaurantweek.org .

RECIPES

Petite Veal Osso Bucco with Risotto Milanese and Gremolada
Serves 4-6

In Italy, Veal Shank or “Osso Bucco” is traditionally served with Risotto. You’ll want to
cook the shanks until the meat is falling off the bone and takes a soft silky texture. Serve
with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano – a soft and fragrant wine from southern Tuscany or
a California Zinfandel.

For the Braised Veal:
4 to 6 veal hindshank, 2″ x 1 ½” thickness, or one lb. each
2 ea diced Spanish onions
1 ea diced celery stalk
1 lg diced carrot
2 tbsp garlic crushed
1 cup red wine
6 cups, veal, beef or chicken stock
1 ea veal or beef flavor bouillon
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 ½ cups peeled, seeded and diced fresh tomatoes
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1 tsp fresh Italian flat leave parsley
Olive oil to cook with

Process:
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
Pour olive oil into a large braising pan.
Heat the oil over high heat.
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Add the veal and brown them on all sides, turning often, 5-7 minutes.
Remove the meat and set aside.
Reheat the olive oil (add if needed) in the pan.
Add celery, onions and carrots to the pot and saute the vegetables until the onions
become translucent, add the herbs and garlic and cook until the aromas of the herbs and
garlic comes out. De-glaze with the red wine and reduce the wine by half.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil.
Add meat to liquid.
Make sure the meat is submerged in the liquid.
Cover and place in the center of the oven at 325 degrees for about 1 ½ to 2 hours or until
the meat is quite tender, turning it from time to time during cooking.
Remove the shanks and cover them loosely to keep warm.
De-grease the sauce and reduce by ½ over high heat.
Taste for salt and pepper.
Serve over Milanese risotto and sprinkle the gremolada generously over the top and
serve.

Risotto Milanese

Arborio

rice
saffron
dice onions
hot chicken stock
sweet peas
Parmesan cheese
whole butter( to finish)

Cook the arborio according to the manufacturer directions. Flavor with the saffron and
finish with the peas, parmesan and whole butter.

Traditional Gremolada

2 tsp chopped lemon zest
½ tsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp chopped parsley
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
Finely chop all the ingredients together by hand or in a food processor.
The gremolada will keep for 2-4 hours refrigerated.

From nickel meals to elaborate dinners, Detroit’s restaurants and saloons were the hangouts of their day.

Before the famous Delmonico’s restaurant opened in New York City in 1845, there were no restaurants in the United States as we know them today. There were, however, “eating houses.” Detroit had its share, usually attached to saloons, where food was served, often to encourage more drinking.

This advertisement proclaimed a new enterprise in 1850:

Patrick Collins has opened a new Eating House on Griswold Street. Mr. Collins is a stirring man and of course will be successful. The arrangements are all “tip-top.”

Eating houses featured specialties like “all-you-can- eat” oysters or green turtle soup; they usually announced “a good accommodation for victuals” such as soup, potatoes, beef, ham and so forth. Nevertheless, complaints about the food were common. With the famous French chef and cooking instructor Professor Pierre Blott moving to New York City and becoming America’s first celebrity chef by 1865, Detroit newspaper editorials hoped that students of chef Blott could “relieve the country from the reproach of having but one gravy.”

The earliest restaurants appeared in the 1870s in Detroit, and by 1899 the city had 169. People had come to rely on restaurants for lunch, dinner and throughout the night as night shift workers, many living in lodging houses with no kitchen, began to depend on restaurants as their only source of cooked meals. (Prior to the 1870s, most single men lived in “boarding houses.” A boarding house provided room and food. Later, as salaries in Detroit and the United States overall tightened, single men usually were found in less respectable “lodging houses,” which were simply rooms.)

In 1918, a series of riots broke out in Detroit when William K. Prudden, the state coal director for Michigan, ordered restaurants and all “non-essential businesses” closed, in a plan to save coal fuel during a winter shortage. Thousands of hungry and angry night workers hit the streets, and the order was immediately rescinded.

Restaurants and social class

Detroit restaurants were in many cases categorized by the social class of their customers. Aside from the “first-class” restaurants, there was no menu to choose from; you got what they served that day. On the low end was “a meal for a nickel.” Nickel meals were served down by the docks in the bars where the ruffians and machine shop labor might show up. For a nickel you got a bowl of soup and bread or pork and beans.

Dinner for a dime was advertised in front of restaurants, which many times displayed their offering that day with a sample platter set on a chair or table inside the door. It might include a long-braised cut of beef, sauerkraut and a piece of buttered johnny bread (corn bread). Next to this array was typically a platter of buttered potatoes. Other days the offerings might have been pot pie, corned beef and cabbage, or pork roast. Your beverage choices were coffee, tea or milk — soda pop did not exist yet. Dessert was pudding.

People ate at the bar or at small wooden tables while the food was brought by waitresses who in 1899 were called “restaurant girls.” A bit later they were called “waiting girls” which then became “waitresses.” They worked for salary, no tips; in better establishments, tipping was considered insulting. The waitress uniform began in 1915 in New York City and spread across the country. It started as a plain black dress, white apron and white cap.

A restaurant girl was interviewed in Philadelphia in 1896 and asked what she thought of her line of work.

“Oh, all we restaurant girls think there is nothing like it,” she said. “Of course the work is hard. You don’t get many chances to sit down. … The life is a bright one. … The life of restaurant girls has a change of faces. We see new faces and get new ideas for dresses and bonnets from the women patrons. Of course, the work never changes a jot, but the changing faces keeps us from getting in a rut and keeps us younger and gayer in feelings.”

Moving up the restaurant scale, a meal for 15 or 20 cents got you more choices. They offered two meats, such as corned beef and cabbage or a Detroit favorite, “city chicken,” which was actually cubed pork or veal shoulder skewered on sticks (something to vaguely resemble chicken drumsticks) and braised in sauce. Veal and pork were cheaper than chicken in those days. In addition, you could take tomato soup, beets, pickles and bread and butter. Along with pudding, they offered apple pie.

These restaurants advertised that they used the “card system”: “One can pick out just as much or as little as one wants.”

Stepping it up further, for 25 cents you had a substantial choice. The following was the bill of fare for a quarter at one Detroit restaurant in 1899:

Broiled trout with egg sauce

Roast short ribs of beef. Brown potatoes.

Broiled English mutton chops. Baked potatoes.

Stewed Spring Lamb Petit pois.

These were served with desserts, coffee, tea, cider, beer or ale.

Fine dining establishments

For 50 cents, you could dine in the finest restaurants in Detroit. It might be the Hotel Cadillac Café, the toast of Detroit in 1892. It was very progressive, serving both accompanied and unaccompanied women. You were attended by a waiter wearing a formal dress coat. Dress coats were at times the source for labor disputes for waiters and restaurant management, as the uniform was expensive to maintain in the mandated spotless condition, especially during the winter “off season” after the holidays, when dining traffic slowed and management would cut salaries.

The dinner menu would take a normal patron two hours to get through. It typically began with consommé, then fish, beef, turkey, duck, wild game and shrimp, all with sherbet served between meals. And of course, patrons had many choices of desserts.

In these high-end restaurants, little was subtle or restrained; the dining room appeared plated with gold, bejeweled with crystal or swathed in purple velvet. The Hotel Cadillac Café centerpiece for a reception held for Miss Valerie Etheridge Moran and E. Leydon Ford held in 1904 was an eye-popping example, as reported in the Detroit Free Press:

“The table, twenty eight feet long and six feet wide, was set in the center with a mammoth electrical fountain spraying water from four founts; the basin was ten feet long and three feet wide and was inlaid with red, white and blue electric lights and sprayed water also from its four sides into the center. The lights caught the water and flashed it in many delicate hues, while goldfish in keeping with the colors glided here and there among the varicolored lights in the basin. Around the edges were seashore stones and otherwise the table was a solid mass of costly flowers.”

Ethnic restaurants

As early as the 1860s, advertisements appeared in Detroit newspapers for Italian, French, Greek, Venetian, German and Polish restaurants. However, the most popular were Chinese restaurants. The first Detroit Chinese restaurant, So Ho Tip, seemed to serve only two dishes in 1900: Bird’s Nest Soup and Chop Suey. Another restaurant, the Oriental Café, featured exotic décor described in this review: “The ceilings are painted to represent the blue sky. … Looking up one sees the blue sky and the clouds. In the night the light is furnished from above, but to carry out the illusion the moon and stars shine out in splendor, and some of the electric lights are held in place by birds.”

Detroit boasted of having 12 Chinese restaurants in the early 20th century. Dining at them was an escape from mundane life, with all the ethnic clichés firmly exploited. One restaurant on Larned Street was busted in 1906 for housing an opium den in the basement, where the newspapers reported white women “hit the pipe” in “dark, smutty rooms.”

This 1912 bill of fare, advertised for the Oriental Café, included the following for $1.75:

Mandarin Cocktail

Soup: Bird’s nest Sub Gum

Relishes: Chinese Chow Chow

Fish: Fish Rolled with Walnuts

Entrees:

Spring Wings Peking Style

Sauté of Duck’s Liver with Pickled Egg Noble Fashion

Roast: Emperor Pan Roast Jumbo Squab

Salad

Vegetables

Coffee or Tea

Taverns and inns

Although the term “tavern” was used loosely, it typically meant a restaurant-bar with rooms for overnight travelers outside the city, located on the major roads.

There were Ruff’s place, Buckin’s Tavern, Sheldon’s Tavern and Marsten’s, to name a few. They served travelers, drovers and their crews, teamsters, local farmers, sometimes soldiers and families emigrating to the American West.

A long-time favorite on Grand River Avenue was the Weston Inn, better known later as the Botsford Inn. In 1836, Orrin and Allen Weston built a large family home/inn named the Weston House alongside what would become the Grand River Turnpike. Another of the most beloved by pioneering families was the Old Ten Eyck Tavern in Dearborn, founded in 1826. It was located on the Chicago Road (Michigan Avenue) 9 miles from the city.

Running a tavern was long hours of hard work. The Wayside Inn, located closer to Detroit, served primarily hog, sheep and cattle drovers. A drover was a team of men and their shepherd dogs paid to move 40 or 50 animals on the hoof down the big roads to the city markets or slaughterhouses. In the evening the drovers would arrive at a tavern, where their livestock had to be penned, watered and fed, while the drover team ate dinner and went to bed. Teams kept arriving until 11 p.m. or midnight.

They were a rough clientele. This Detroit Free Press interview was with a retired tavern keep in the 1840s:

“In the house it was worse than in the barns. The drovers and their boys would be awful hungry, and the way they would hide victuals was a whole show. The tables were occupied from early morning to late at night. … All my girls could do was bring more, more all the time. … And it was just as bad with the cooks. The stoves were hot all the time. … By 3 o’clock (a.m.), those drovers who got in early the night before and were abed by 9 o’clock, would be up, stamping around the house, shouting for their breakfast and pounding on the bar for me to come down and give them their bitters. I couldn’t stand it now.”

The taverns went out of business with the arrival of train travel.

Roadhouses and saloons

Roadhouses were located on the outskirts of Detroit in Highland Park, Hamtramck, Royal Oak or Pontiac with such names as La Belle Inn off Woodward, Marquette’s and Crooked Acres at Seven Mile and Woodward. They were outside the city to keep out of the eye of the police, since they were often the source of crime and trouble up through the 1920s.

Anyone could drink at a roadhouse, and they frequently served hard liquor to boys as young as 12. Some had illegal slot machines, hosted “cocking mains” (cock fights) and frightened local farm families with brawls, robbery and gunfights. They flouted the no-alcohol-on-Sundays law and were called by one Hamtramck sheriff “a menace to the peaceable citizens of the village.”

In the city, Detroit had between 500 and 600 saloons in the 1850s to 1860s. By 1915, that number had risen to 1,700. The proportion was described as one saloon for every 50 families. While the wealthy had their clubs and the hotels, the working man had his saloon (where women were not permitted).

They were also a reflection of the society of the times. From the 1850s to the turn of the century, a significant percentage of American cities were made up of bachelor men, as part of the industrialization and geographic expansion westward. Some of the young men came from Detroit families, while others arrived from all parts of the country and overseas.

In an excellent book by John Schneider, “Detroit and the Problem of Order, 1830-1880: A Geography of Crime, Riot, and Policing,” he refers to this issue as a “bachelor transient sub-culture.” Their numbers surged at the end of the Civil War, and the bachelors and their activities began to frighten the established society whose businesses and homes were adjacent to those areas where young men hung out and looked for ways to entertain themselves. Saloons were one activity; billiards, which were introduced in the 1850s, was another, and brothels were a third source of entertainment.

The Detroit Daily of 1871 described a saloon as a hangout:

“Young men comes in and sets around the table talking for an hour yet, and drink only one glass apiece. They don’t seem to want much beer, but they got no other place to go. …”

The saloons and brothels that catered to this group were mostly located along the Detroit River, with a great many in a dangerous slum east of Woodward called “the Potomac.” Just north of Jefferson was another smaller hangout called “the Heights.” These areas were adjacent to wealthy homes and split “Piety Hill,” the wealthy church-lined street which was east Jefferson Avenue. During these decades following the Civil War, the public’s attitude toward these men shifted; as much as they were admired during the Civil War, years after the war they were now feared and referred to as “floaters” or “rootless drifters” who were simply lazy and refused to look for work.

After the Civil War, some men who returned to the city were thought to have psychological disturbances and violent outbursts from their traumatic experiences on the battlefields. There was no police protection until 1868, when the city formed a police department. Detroiters were protected by only ineffectual sheriffs and “ward constables.” Private armed guards were hired for retail shops and businesses. During the 1860s, fear of mugging, burglary and rape was constant, and the saloons were viewed as the source.

A large portion of the saloons were owned by brewers, such as Stroh Brewing. The big breweries would fund a new owner by paying for the saloon, furnishing it and stocking it with liquor. In return, the new owner was expected to sell only the brewer’s brand of beer. But the new owners seldom stayed true, and when a cheaper beer was offered, they switched.

Drama and political hangouts

Saloons were the source of endless maudlin dramas of drunken husbands, deserted wives and broken families. In one court proceeding, the wife declared: “He was a shiftless man who didn’t care what happened as long as he could have his cigars and sit in saloons and play cards.”

They were frequently political hangouts, as well. The Detroit bar Sharp’s was known as “a sporting and political headquarters.” From 1908 to 1917, one notorious saloon was owned by Billy Boushaw in the first precinct of the first ward. Boushaw called himself “King of the precinct” and “foist of the foist.” His saloon and boarding house (actually a flophouse for sailors) were at 111 and 115 Atwater Street; he lived above the saloon. Boushaw helped down and out “floaters” and dock workers in the infamous river precinct and in return got their votes. It was said that he controlled the 1914 Detroit city election. A 1908 newspaper editorial voiced its opinion of Boushaw:

“Probably the most startling thing that would catch the eye of the most casual observer is the condition of affairs in the first precinct of the first ward, where ex-convicts, thugs, thieves and booze grafters swarm the election booth and rule the day. … It is notable that no less than 27 votes were enrolled from Billy Boushaw’s tough lodging house and saloon. … For the most part it is a tough set that frequent the place — scum.”

The Rajah of Swill Point

A whiskey distillery operated at the corner of First and Jefferson in the mid-19th century, where, along with producing barrels of whiskey, it discharged mountains of swill, the grain slurry from making whiskey. Dairy farmers from around the city would line up wagons to load swill for their cows and livestock. The distillery eventually closed, but the blocks surrounding it became known as “Swill Point,” and by the 1870s and 1880s it was one of four notorious slums in Detroit. Police were afraid to go into Swill Point, the Potomac, Kentucky or the Heights.

The streets of Swill Point were described in the newspapers as “badly illuminated at night by the lights of dozens of low saloons.” The saloons had colorful names like the Slaughter Pen or House of Lords. They were owned by characters such as the notorious Dan Hanrahan or Jem Cummerford, called the Rajhah of Swill Point, who always carried a revolver and tended to use it when drunk, which apparently was constantly.

A jolly winter tour of the slums

In the 1880s, as the police began to gain some control on the crime and rioting, it became a fad in big American cities for young people of wealthy families to tour slums, jails, ethnic neighborhoods and generally dangerous places. Like New Yorkers and Bostonians, in Detroit small groups of couples from areas of the city such as Piety Hill would gather on a Saturday night in winter, hitch up sleighs and head down to Swill Point under a police escort. These were young married couples who a newspaper of the day described as “never been more than a stone’s throw from the major thoroughfares or promenades of the city.” They rode in a roomy sleigh pulled by four horses.

One such tour started at the Brush Street Electric Works where the superintendent of the facility gave them a tour and demonstrated how electric light bulbs were made. Then they entered Swill Point and looked into a saloon where a prostitute named Maud Doyle had not long ago committed suicide by poison in Jem Cummerford’s “grog shop.” Then they inspected the “bummer’s rest” or Woodbridge Street Police station, where Sgt. Noble led them to meet fifteen prisoners. One woman prisoner fell to her knees screaming and pleading for help to be let out, with zero effect.

The eager group then was led to the basement to visit the tramps’ lodging, but they did not stay long due to the suffocating furnace heat and nauseating stench. They continued their night at another police station in the Potomac and Heights slums where the women were encouraged to sit in a paddy wagon and toured more cells. Then the police escort called in the guitar and harmonica orchestra for an impromptu concert.

The “slummers” ended up in the German gathering spot Arbeiter Hall. This was the famous gathering hall for Germans in Detroit and through out the state of Michigan for many decades. The hall could get a bit combative politically with union, socialist, communist and even anarchist meetings, but this night there was a party of 300 dancers whooping it up with a big band playing German dance hall favorites. By now it was 1 a.m. and the group was famished. They had pretzels and fragrant Schweitzer Sandwiches (which were not popular due to the stinky German cheese), however, the novel hot Frankfurter sausages hit the spot and they danced for hours, ending up at home at 3 a.m.

A new way to help boost your credit history and score: Factor in your rent.

Last December, credit-reporting company Experian started including rent-payment history in its credit reports, says Brannan Johnston, vice president and managing director of Experian RentBureau, which collects updated rental histories from property-management companies.

Property managers can upload positive rental data, which means payment information for individuals meeting their lease obligations in the last 24 months. That information is then factored into the VantageScore credit score used by Experian. “Individuals [can] build and rebuild their credit by paying rent responsibly,” says Mr. Johnston, adding that 45% of consumers who don’t have a credit score or fall in the lowest VantageScore level can up their score at least 100 points.

Consumers can ask their landlords if they are submitting the information to Experian or ask them to start doing so.

Here’s another option: RentReporters.com , a website launched last fall, which collects rent and lease data from renters, verifies it with landlords and then makes it available to any of the credit-reporting companies.

But the service isn’t free. Account setup is $39 and there’s a $5.95 monthly fee, according to Crispin Luna IV, the site’s president. (The money is returned if the landlord opts not to participate, he adds.) Some landlords will cover the cost as an incentive for tenants to pay on time, Mr. Luna says.

Young adults, college students and military members have benefited greatly from using RentReporters as a credit reference for a home or auto loan, he says, since they may not have a strong credit history or score.

National Foundation for Infectious Diseases launches Are You That Guy? campaign to urge Americans to limit contact with others when flu symptoms strike

BETHESDA, MD, January 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Have you ever ventured out of the house, gone to a business meeting or traveled by air when you thought you might have the flu? If you answered yes, you are among a majority of Americans who fessed up in a recent survey to being “that guy” who goes about his or her day despite experiencing the sudden onset of fever, aches and chills – commonly recognized symptoms of the flu.

As the U.S. flu season peaks, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) has launched Are You That Guy?, a national influenza educational campaign that encourages personal and social responsibility by raising awareness of how easily the flu virus spreads.

According to a recent national poll, almost seven out of 10 Americans (68%) did not realize that flu viruses can travel five to six feet from a sneeze or a cough, and two-thirds (66%) admitted to going about their daily activities despite experiencing flu symptoms.

“It’s easy to downplay the signs of influenza, particularly when daily obligations call,” said Dr. Susan J. Rehm, NFID medical director and vice chairman of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. “While many of us feel we can power through the flu without getting others sick by avoiding shared objects or shaking hands, it’s important to remember that the influenza virus is commonly spread through the air and can travel up to six feet away when someone coughs, sneezes or even speaks.”

“Influenza is serious and highly-contagious,” added Dr. Rehm.

Millions of Americans get the flu each year and it is associated with substantial medical costs, more than 200,000 hospitalizations and thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. Influenza symptoms include sudden onset of fever, aches, chills and extreme tiredness. Colds are usually milder than the flu, come on more slowly and people with colds are more likely to have a runny or stuffy nose.

As part of the Are You That Guy? campaign, NFID released a broadcast public service announcement (PSA) to motivate Americans to take care of themselves and be considerate of others when exhibiting flu symptoms.

The Are You That Guy? campaign and survey is supported by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.

Survey Background

The survey was conducted by Infogroup/Opinion Research Corp. in November 2010. The findings are based on telephone interviews with a national sample of 1,006 adults, 18 years and older. The findings are projectable to the adult U.S. population with a margin of sampling error of ±/– 3 percentage points. Subgroups will have a large margin of sampling error. Interviewing was conducted from November 18-21, 2010. Responses were weighted by demographic factors, including sex, age, geographic region, and race to ensure a reliable and accurate representation of the population.

About the National Foundation for Infectious Disease (NFID)

The NFID is a non-profit, tax-exempt (501c3) organization founded in 1973 and dedicated to educating the public and health care professionals about the causes, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.