Corruption In Kalamazoo
From James Donahue's Journal
Before we could move to Kalamazoo we needed a place to live. I do not remember why we chose not to rent. We contacted a real estate agent and began looking at homes to buy. After several days of traveling over hill and dale, looking at various houses in the city and in the country, Doris and I chose to purchase a large house at 360 Prairie Ave. It was located on top of a hill in the heart of the city. In my mind it was going to be a business venture.
The house was a massive, three-story structure with a full, walk-in basement, which gave it four floors of living space. It was an older home, designed much like the large place we called Mogg Hall during my college days in Mount Pleasant. The back yard abutted a small shopping mall that included a grocery store and Laundromat. The house was located just two blocks from Kalamazoo College, and within easy walking distance of Western Michigan University and downtown Kalamazoo. We saw it as a perfect place to convert into a single bedroom apartment complex for college students or young married couples. After my experience remodeling and restoring the house in South Haven, I came to Kalamazoo with thoughts of putting my knowledge to work.
My plan was to convert the basement and first floor as a home for our family. Then we wanted to put apartments on the top two floors. Once completed, we saw it as a great place for us to live and a source of additional income. I laid out my plan for the work I wanted to do and visited the building department at City Hall to make sure my plan was workable. I was told there would be no problem and I was given the green light to go ahead. I trusted the person I spoke with but failed to get anything in writing, however.
I hired electricians to rewire the house and plumbers to convert a main floor walk-in closet as a bathroom, to run plumbing for a third floor bathroom to be added later, and to install an extra large hot water heater in the basement furnace room to handle the demand from as many as three apartments. After this, I planned to do all the carpentry work. We moved in, making a large room in the walk-in basement our living room. The furnace room lead off from the living room and a third large room contained shelves for canned foods so was perfect for our use as a storage room.
On the main floor, we could easily close off the entrance way and the staircase to the second floor by closing sliding panel doors to the room that was designed as the living room. We shaded the windows and used that room as a bedroom for our children. The dining room behind that, also separated by sliding panel doors, was the bedroom for Doris and me. Behind this was the downstairs bathroom. A doorway opened from this room into the kitchen which was large enough to house a table and chairs. Behind the kitchen was a laundry room. It was make-shift living at best, but we decided to live this way while the upstairs was converted for apartment use.
When the plumbing and electrical work was completed, I went to the building office to get my permit to start the construction work. That was when I discovered just how corrupt city governments can be when controlled by local business interests. After I filed my application, I was at work one day when Doris called. She said the building inspector had just been at the house. He told her we could not do what we wanted to do with the building. I rushed home to confront him. After receiving a verbal approval, and after investing heavily in the electrical and plumbing work, this is what I was told.
--The city building code prohibited anyone from living on the third floor of a wooden frame building, so our plan to have an apartment on that floor was ruled out.
--The city building code prohibited anyone from living in their basement. Even though this was a walk-in basement, with large windows and doors opening to the lower part of a sloping yard, we were prohibited from living in our basement. This left only the first and second floors for apartment conversion, with no room left for us to live. The rent from two one-bedroom apartments would not begin to cover our investment.
--Even though it was entirely covered in pea-gravel and large enough to allow up to five or six vehicles to park, we were told that our back yard was not adequate for a parking lot for an apartment building. It had to be larger.
--The soil pipe connecting our second bathroom could not also be connected to the old bathroom on the second floor. We had to have a new one installed. If we ran it on the outside of the house, which was about the only way we could install it, the pipe had to be surrounded by a wooden enclosure.
Before he was finished I was so enraged I ordered the building inspector off of the property and told him that I never wanted to see his face there again. I realized that I had been set up for a royal screwing by city hall. What I quickly learned after a few months of gaining new and trusted contacts through my work on the paper was that there was a powerful organization of people who controlled the housing in and around the colleges. Outsiders were not allowed in. To assure this, they drafted codes and ordinances making it impossible for anyone to convert a city filled with large old three and four-story houses into apartment units for college students and compete against the rental units they controlled.
Doris and I moved into the upstairs bedrooms and restored the main floor of the house for use as a conventional home. Despite what we were told, we put carpeting on the floor of the big room in the basement and made that the family television and playroom. The kids liked that arrangement. Later I secretly finished a room on the top floor that we rented out to a student. He was a young man from China who was attending Western Michigan University to study aeronautical engineering. He was an extremely bright man who we enjoyed having in our home.
This was only going to be a temporary arrangement, however. We never intended to make this house our permanent home but found ourselves forced to do so until we got our feet on the ground.
From James Donahue's Journal
Before we could move to Kalamazoo we needed a place to live. I do not remember why we chose not to rent. We contacted a real estate agent and began looking at homes to buy. After several days of traveling over hill and dale, looking at various houses in the city and in the country, Doris and I chose to purchase a large house at 360 Prairie Ave. It was located on top of a hill in the heart of the city. In my mind it was going to be a business venture.
The house was a massive, three-story structure with a full, walk-in basement, which gave it four floors of living space. It was an older home, designed much like the large place we called Mogg Hall during my college days in Mount Pleasant. The back yard abutted a small shopping mall that included a grocery store and Laundromat. The house was located just two blocks from Kalamazoo College, and within easy walking distance of Western Michigan University and downtown Kalamazoo. We saw it as a perfect place to convert into a single bedroom apartment complex for college students or young married couples. After my experience remodeling and restoring the house in South Haven, I came to Kalamazoo with thoughts of putting my knowledge to work.
My plan was to convert the basement and first floor as a home for our family. Then we wanted to put apartments on the top two floors. Once completed, we saw it as a great place for us to live and a source of additional income. I laid out my plan for the work I wanted to do and visited the building department at City Hall to make sure my plan was workable. I was told there would be no problem and I was given the green light to go ahead. I trusted the person I spoke with but failed to get anything in writing, however.
I hired electricians to rewire the house and plumbers to convert a main floor walk-in closet as a bathroom, to run plumbing for a third floor bathroom to be added later, and to install an extra large hot water heater in the basement furnace room to handle the demand from as many as three apartments. After this, I planned to do all the carpentry work. We moved in, making a large room in the walk-in basement our living room. The furnace room lead off from the living room and a third large room contained shelves for canned foods so was perfect for our use as a storage room.
On the main floor, we could easily close off the entrance way and the staircase to the second floor by closing sliding panel doors to the room that was designed as the living room. We shaded the windows and used that room as a bedroom for our children. The dining room behind that, also separated by sliding panel doors, was the bedroom for Doris and me. Behind this was the downstairs bathroom. A doorway opened from this room into the kitchen which was large enough to house a table and chairs. Behind the kitchen was a laundry room. It was make-shift living at best, but we decided to live this way while the upstairs was converted for apartment use.
When the plumbing and electrical work was completed, I went to the building office to get my permit to start the construction work. That was when I discovered just how corrupt city governments can be when controlled by local business interests. After I filed my application, I was at work one day when Doris called. She said the building inspector had just been at the house. He told her we could not do what we wanted to do with the building. I rushed home to confront him. After receiving a verbal approval, and after investing heavily in the electrical and plumbing work, this is what I was told.
--The city building code prohibited anyone from living on the third floor of a wooden frame building, so our plan to have an apartment on that floor was ruled out.
--The city building code prohibited anyone from living in their basement. Even though this was a walk-in basement, with large windows and doors opening to the lower part of a sloping yard, we were prohibited from living in our basement. This left only the first and second floors for apartment conversion, with no room left for us to live. The rent from two one-bedroom apartments would not begin to cover our investment.
--Even though it was entirely covered in pea-gravel and large enough to allow up to five or six vehicles to park, we were told that our back yard was not adequate for a parking lot for an apartment building. It had to be larger.
--The soil pipe connecting our second bathroom could not also be connected to the old bathroom on the second floor. We had to have a new one installed. If we ran it on the outside of the house, which was about the only way we could install it, the pipe had to be surrounded by a wooden enclosure.
Before he was finished I was so enraged I ordered the building inspector off of the property and told him that I never wanted to see his face there again. I realized that I had been set up for a royal screwing by city hall. What I quickly learned after a few months of gaining new and trusted contacts through my work on the paper was that there was a powerful organization of people who controlled the housing in and around the colleges. Outsiders were not allowed in. To assure this, they drafted codes and ordinances making it impossible for anyone to convert a city filled with large old three and four-story houses into apartment units for college students and compete against the rental units they controlled.
Doris and I moved into the upstairs bedrooms and restored the main floor of the house for use as a conventional home. Despite what we were told, we put carpeting on the floor of the big room in the basement and made that the family television and playroom. The kids liked that arrangement. Later I secretly finished a room on the top floor that we rented out to a student. He was a young man from China who was attending Western Michigan University to study aeronautical engineering. He was an extremely bright man who we enjoyed having in our home.
This was only going to be a temporary arrangement, however. We never intended to make this house our permanent home but found ourselves forced to do so until we got our feet on the ground.