WE'RE MaKINÜ IT1 . . . Some of the rece...

WE'RE MaKINÜ IT1 . . . Some of the recent changes he points to are very visible. Wood siding, which was described in a city inspector's report as "not resisting the weather adequately" when the units were only two years old, is being covered over at the builder's expense with more durable wooden siding painted in brown and green shades. More than 200 trees have been pur:hased and planted by the cooperative - ' mostly red maples and blue spruces - to ' replace original shrubbery which died because it was planted with plastic bags still around the roots. More trees are coming, including willows which will [ créate a shaded picnic área along the portion of Traver Creek that crosses the cooperative's 40 acre site. Other environmental aspects of Arrow-; wood Hills are not as obvious, but they might be envied by some other local neighborhoods. A rule permitting each occupant to keep two dogs if they wished has been replaced, as a result of noise problems and damage to grass, by a rule forbidding new occupants from bringing any additional dogs. Motorized minibikes, which cannot legally be operated on ariy public street or sidewalk in Ann Arbor, really are effectively banned from Arrowwood Hills, according to Davenport. Arrowwood Trail, like the private roads at some othe local apartment complexes,.: cöntains rumble strips to slow down cars and motorcycles. But theese are only the physical changes. Not so long ago, recalls four-year resident Michael McKiven. the cooperative :ud "a bad reputation" becaus "a itttlí ■ bit of prostitution and a little bit if ' trything you can think of" vwas tarried on by what he describes a.s un tiesirables." "A lot" of those who contributeö to w cooperative's unsavory reputation, he declares, were ass.igned to Arrowwood by the city's emergency housing office. Most, he and Davenport add, have been evicted for nonpayment of monthly charges ($125 for one-bedroom units, $142 for two bedrooms, $158 for three bedrooms, $174 for four bedrooms). The cooperative's "bad reputation" really doesn't exist anymore, as far as Pólice Chief Walter E..Krasny is concerned. He calis Arrowwood Hills a place that has "very definitely improved" during recent months, to a point wheré it no longer stands out sharply from the rest of Ann Arbor in terms of complaints re-! ceived by his department. "The self-, policing helps," he adds. "We can choöse and piek members,'? Davenport explains. "The board of direcors has assumed responsibility for screening applicants. The things we coniider are credit rating - we check tha( is many ways as we can - and length oi :mployment, and number of children." McKevin poiat; out that residents in each cluster of lownhouses around Ar: rowwood's parking lots periodically elect I a "court captain" who serves as a local ombudsman in smoothing out disputes over such things as overly loud stereos or unruly children. McKiven is a "court I captain," and states that serious problems among neiihbors are rare - an as[.sessment agreéd on by one of his b'rs, Steve Eisenberg. "Most people," Davenport comments, I "tiiink the'only people wHo live in co-ops I are poor and black. We have a good mix. I People from India, África, and Chícanos, I and from Europe and South America, I live here. About 15 per cent of the 1 bers are students. The University's I Campus Housing Office has us on its I referral list." i i lío one is claiming Arrowwood Hills no I longer has problems. ■ Davenport and maintenance supervisor I Ashford can speak at length of latent I iects - such things as sewer lines located elsewhere th'an shown on the sitê plan, odds and ends of lumber and trash buried during constructiön and now ' ;erfering with efforts to maintain lawns. "There are things I've found, in plumbing and electricál connections, that there's no way the city inspectors shoúld have passed," says Ashford. Addington comments that the maintenance crew is "doing work that should have been done two years ago, things iike replacing screens and fixing notes in walls. Now that people knöw we are fixing things, we're getting work orders that are not current." She expresses confidence, though, that "it's turning around." She and Davenport explain that HUD has helüed the cooperative to accumulate I funds for catehing up on maintenance work, and !oï adding improvements, by illowing rrowwood Hills to make I monthly payments only on interest for I [he development's 40-year mortgage, I while deferring payments on the 1 ple. This arrangement has been in effect since last July. No deadline has been set by HUD for resuming payments on the principie. Those payments, when they do resume, wil) be about $7,000 monthly. Payments on the interest, and on the cooperative's local property taxes, are more than $31,000 monthly. Davenport expresses doubt that all local officials realize that housing cooperatives do pay regular property taxes, a respect in wtiich they differ from public housing, for which HUD allocated payments in lieu of taxes. Eisenberg and McKiven sháre that doubt. They suggest that lack of awareness of the cooperative's status as a taxpayer may have something to do with the fact that Dial-A-Ride buses serve ! wood only after 6 p.m., and then come only to the community building rather than door-to-door. "If there's any place that needs DialA-Ride, this is it," contends Eisenberg. Uee pictuhes on nïsxt age)