Photo By John HoffI've written before about 1716 26th Ave. N., click here, and how this property was at the flashpoint of the "Jordan Riot," more properly known as the "Gang House Riot."
So that's what I'm going to begin calling it. No more Jordan Riot. That term is dead to me.
It is now the "Gang House Riot."
The house, owned by slumlord Gregg Johnson, now has a...
...red "condemnation" sticker on the front door. Actually, it appears the sticker went up August 20, but I just didn't get around to writing about it until just now. It's hard to even keep up with the massive, permanent changes in NoMi brought by the foreclosure crisis which--oddly enough--has a silver lining when it comes to bad actors like Gregg Johnson.
Little by little, without moving an inch, this house appears to be inching toward the abyss. In some ways, that's too bad. Imagine what a success story this house could be if some good and decent neighborhood "revitalizers" moved in, right next to the lovely Jordan Garden?
It would be great if somebody offered Gregg Johnson a nominal sum for the house, and poured money and effort into making it nice, but one suspects Gregg isn't really in a position to sell. The banks do their thing, the city does its thing, the financially overextended slumlords do their thing. Who suffers?
The 100-year-old houses suffer. And the neighborhood suffers, if we destroy irreplaceable classic housing stock that really could be saved. As Realtor Connie Nompelis puts it so well: OF COURSE this house can be saved. The only question is, who is going to save it?
(Oh, by the way: Nompelis is pronounced No-buhl-iss. It's Greek)
The NOMI Squirrel Says:
ReplyDeleteI remember the day all hell broke loose on that street corner. And I also remember dera old Gregge's response to the raid on that property. That he couldn't understand why MPD was there serving a narcotics warrant because he had been there just a short time ago and actually ate supper with the tennants and saw absolutely nothing wrong.
Maybe he should have checked in the Burger King bag on the porch where officers serving the search warrant found both a loaded handgun and narcotics packaged for sale. But of course, it was all an honest mistake.
The irony to this whole sad ordeal is that it was the accidental wounding (by police) of a young child living at that house that sparked the riot. Yet, hand that same young child got ahold of the loaded handgun from the burger king bag and blown his (or another child's brains-out), there would not have been a riot of any kind.
ANON 3:02 AM, I anticipate a response to this..
The NOMI Squirrel
From a list of tax assessments, 2008, some names associated with this notorious address.
ReplyDeleteService Address: 1716 26TH AVE N PID:0902924340054 Ward: 5 Taxpayer: GREGG K JOHNSON
Account: 1711027311 Past Due Balance: $633.52 Billpayer: CYNTHIA D BAKARE
Account: 1711027312 Past Due Balance: $187.99 Billpayer: WANDA PATTERSON
Account: 1711027313 Past Due Balance: $90.00 Billpayer: WANDA PATTERSON
Account: 1711027314 Past Due Balance: $871.49 Billpayer: CHASTITY DONNELL-LOTTS
Total Assessment Amount for Property: $1,783.00