3020 Demolition Starts New Dance Craze!

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman. Video footage from John Hoff and the Hawkman, respectively.

Okay, so there's a REASON why John and I are hula-hooping in front of the demolition of 3020 6th St N. It all started in the spring of 2008...

The apartment complex of anarchy was foreclosed upon, and its tenants were evicted (click here for the full story). Even though the tenants and their friends/associates were a large part of the drug-dealing and prostitution problems we faced AT THE TIME, they managed to call Channel 5 news and the Strib and play the victim. The neighborhood went into full damage-control mode and we told the Strib and Channel 5 what REALLY happened.

Channel 5 reported it almost exactly wrong, showing the "woe is me" tenants without mentioning that they were engaging in criminal behavior, that they had stolen their own copper piping long ago and were willfully living in sub-human conditions of their own making, and had ignored numerous attempts by the neighborhood to attempt to help them find new housing. The Strib at least ran a balanced story, even if the story should have been unbalanced in our favor.

Well the one neighborhood quote Channel 5 used was of Joyanne Teachout, wife of then-board chair Peter Teachout. Joy and Peter still own property in the EcoVillage, although they now live just a few blocks north because their family is too large for that house. Thank God for great neighbors like the Teachouts, who stuck it out through the BATTLES we had to fight over this neighborhood - even to the point of having their truck set on fire (which happened after the apt. complex of anarchy was vacated, and was suspected to be associated with 3020 6th St N, which in case you have forgotten, is the original topic of this post).

So in the midst of all this hoopla, Joy lets out a burst of glee that a horde of bad actors were being forced out of the neighborhood in one fell swoop, and she said to Channel 5, "I'm so happy I could dance the hula in the street..." A whole lot of other substantive things were said by residents, but this is what they ran with to spin the story the way they wanted.

In honor of the Teachouts and their contributions to our neighborhood, John and I danced the hula while 3020 was being demolished.