Guest post and photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman
I was driving through the EcoVillage today and noticed a demo crew in front of the infamous house at 3020 6th St N. A crew was prepping the house for its demolition. This is progress, victory, a statement of power, even, that the days of open-air drug dealing and prostitution in the area are slipping farther and farther into the past. The Hmong family next door was reportedly thrilled to see the house coming down.
Thanks to the arson at the property, largely suspected to have been carried out by Evannor Haymon or an associate, and the fact that the Devil has taken up residence at 3007 3rd St N we know there's still work to do. But this is a victory nonetheless.
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4 comments:
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If I may quote an old movie, "It Happened One Night"
A message was passed on to the rich father at the end of the movie who had been trying to control his daughter the whole movie. The message was,
"The walls of Jericho are coming down!"
And the father finally giving up on that insatiable young woman, his daughter, takes a drink and says:
"Let 'em topple!"
And I say its about time.
The problem aint gone it just moves on.
Demolition is not a solution.
Demolish every house on the Northside
trying to get rid of these guys,
and they'll just move to Brooklyn Park or to South Minneapolis.
All you'll have left over North
is empty land and broken neighborhoods.
@ Anon 4:41 - I agree with you on the comment that demolition is not the answer. Even viable, necessary demolitions when structures are no longer usable (as is the case here) is still something of a loss for the neighborhood unless and until something new is built. Whenever possible, I want to see preservation of existing housing first.
But a demolished structure is far better than the rampant, open-air drug dealing and prostitution and literal terrorizing of the community that was once coming and going from this house. This guy lost his house to foreclosure, then it was burnt. It was a sound, usable house before the arson.
As long as we're on the topic, GREAT! Send 'em to the 'burbs or other parts of the city! I'll work with those communities to share our tactics until these thugs are relocated to prison where they belong. I do hope they turn their lives around before or after the criminal justice system deals with them, but that's a whole other issue.
Suffice to say I am perfectly content to draw a line around my community and get rid of criminal behavior, even if it means the crooks just go somewhere else.
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