Photo and blog post by John Hoff
The house at 2700 Morgan Ave. N., which used to be full of whores and crack, has been vacant and boarded for a while and we're so happy about that. But when is it going away? Recently, neighbors thought its demise was imminent because a big construction dumpster was deposited in the back yard. However...
Some weeks ago the dumpster went away, but the house didn't. And now it appears the little detached garage took a hard, damaging blow from a piece of heavy equipment. (See photo) A big pile of what appears to be snowy rubble has been deposited in the yard and, oh, did I mention the house was unsecured around Christmas Day? Yeah, nothing really valuable inside except fridge magnets, I would guess, but some folks really really really love fridge magnets and you never know when the "fridge magnet bandit" will strike.
Sigh. And so the "Salmon House" sits, forlorn and doomed, not really going anywhere but somehow still managing to move in a downhill direction. Even its vacant state represents progress of a sort, but it's a long slow hard painful road to Urban Utopia most days.
Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com
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7 comments:
The prositutes, yes... Crack, well... not really. It was more of a smoking house, rather than a selling house... SWAT hit that place three times with not much more than "paraphrenalia" to show. Least that's how I heard it.
-just a cop
The distinction between a house where crack is SOLD all the time versus a house where crack is SMOKED all the time, and whether "crack house" fits only the FIRST description...
Too finely tuned for a mere citizen such as myself. But I give deference to your distinction, useful in the course of your profession.
First I'd heard of SWAT hitting the place, like, THREE TIMES.
Buddy, I wish you'd get a blogspot profile. You could be just as anonymous and use your own customary nickname, you know.
JNS, Time to get out your camera, there is no salmon where there used to be a house!
Its Gone Baby Gone! I think it went doen on friday.
Capt Jack
Blog spot, no thanks. A "good night" for us means nothing happened... boring for everyone who wants a "hot report". And a "hot report" usually involves a lot of pain for someone. Its not a lot of fun to pass on that sort of pain.
Does anyone care that the last night I worked, we did two jumpouts, where the people lied about their names, where when truth was told we found two felony warrants? We did four traffic stops where we "advised" about a head light out, speeding or failing to use a blinker?
Does anyone care about how this cold weather makes it almost impossible to to jumpouts on the same old crackheads on plymouth? They wear 20 layers of clothing and it's not worth getting cut on a razor blade or broken stem (crack pipe) for a misdemeanor arrest/citation?
If anyone wants to know why we do it, its for each other. Our brothers and sisters slogging away every day and every night. We're there for each other. Every now and then, we actually get to help someone. Despite our tough talk, we cherish those moments. We got into this gig to help people.
We care, we appreciate you, we watch closely every time we see the red and blue lights and we say, not quite under our breaths, "God bless those cops."
Once a year at Thanksgiving some of us get together and throw a little meal at the Fourth Precinct but, really, that's like how we feel EVERY day. Like, every day we should make you a turkey and pumpkin pie because every day you deserve that and so much more.
I'm just glad no police officer will ever again have to enter "The Salmon House" and wonder if some cracked out criminal is waiting inside with a gun.
God Bless the 4th Precinct!
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