Photos By John HoffBack from my road trip "east bound and down" to Kentucky, loaded with cargo and tales from the road, it was no surprise to me that my NoMi neighborhood didn't remain stagnant while I was away but kept changing while my back was turned.
Two of the most notable changes: 416 30th Ave. N. has become a vacant lot. This is the house which once stole my electricity when I owned 3016 6th St. N. As for 3016, which I sold to the City of Minneapolis to assist in the development of the Eco Village cluster project...
Now there is a backhoe parked in the front yard of 3016 6th St. N. and the demolition of the house can be measured in days at the most, but possibly mere hours and minutes. Both these properties are located in the Eco Village cluster project, which was once the most crime-ridden part of the Hawthorne Neighborhood. Now crime there has dropped to virtually nothing and numerous crappy properties have been demolished...a pattern replicated throughout North Minneapolis, a rapidly-revitalizing area recently named the city's hottest "gayborhood" by Lavender Magazine.
The photos above show 3016 6th St. N. awaiting demolition, and 416 30th Ave. N. as a field of gently-laid straw, ah.
Two of the most notable changes: 416 30th Ave. N. has become a vacant lot. This is the house which once stole my electricity when I owned 3016 6th St. N. As for 3016, which I sold to the City of Minneapolis to assist in the development of the Eco Village cluster project...
Now there is a backhoe parked in the front yard of 3016 6th St. N. and the demolition of the house can be measured in days at the most, but possibly mere hours and minutes. Both these properties are located in the Eco Village cluster project, which was once the most crime-ridden part of the Hawthorne Neighborhood. Now crime there has dropped to virtually nothing and numerous crappy properties have been demolished...a pattern replicated throughout North Minneapolis, a rapidly-revitalizing area recently named the city's hottest "gayborhood" by Lavender Magazine.
The photos above show 3016 6th St. N. awaiting demolition, and 416 30th Ave. N. as a field of gently-laid straw, ah.
When does an aggressive house smashing solution have long
ReplyDeleteterm consequences that are
worse than the problem it was
trying to solve?
It's time to look at how many have
been demolished...it's time to look at the vacant lots and the myth of "land banking" and shiny new houses...
And somewhere in the City where
all this wrecking is approved
you've got murmurs of...we've
spent too much money and time
boarding and condemning...and
all the demolition is just
destroying whole sections of
over North... only a small percentage of which may ever be rebuilt while the crime is still active and moving...much of it over to the inner city neighborhoods of Southside Minneapolis...
The problem aint gone. It just moves on.
Who is doing this "murmuring?" I'm not aware of any such murmurs and the city is doing a fantastic job knocking down some really crappy buildings which would ONLY become slummy rentals.
ReplyDeleteYOU can tell the ONLY future for these buildings is as a slummy rental??? Why Johnny, I never knew your psychic hotlines were SO keenly in tune with the future of real estate in Minnesota...
ReplyDeleteSeveral articles have already been written about responsible owners finding treasures buried under layers of rental paint that they purchased as a foreclosure, why should these building be any different?
Demolishing a house is an irreversible choice that:
1.) Destroys the house beyond repair when it could have been restored under proper ownership or supervision.
2.) Adds additional expenses to the tune of 40,000$ in demolition assessments that make it difficult to sell the lot, because then you are almost doubling the price of the lot with the tear-down cost.
3.) All you are left with is an empty lot, and planting seeds does not provide any kind of public housing.
But, I can see from your legendary performance on this blog, how you would think regular ripping down and demolishing everything around
you as "productive". Its your modus operandi...
I guess I'm not sure why anonymous thinks that more public housing is a great idea rather than making the area tolerable for owner occupants. Johnny, you are absolutely right that the homes that are demolished are FAR beyond reasonable rehab costs for owner occupants who would want the finished value to be near the cost of work. Every home that we have worked on that was demolished was a blessing to see go. The only buyers of the houses up for demo are slumlords as no one else will do the work cheap/illegal enough to cash flow a rental. Welcome back!
ReplyDelete