Photos and blog post by John Hoff
With improvements happening at
Connie Nompelis' $7,900 house almost every day, neighbors are starting to sit up and take notice. In fact, word is the house next door--which has an identical layout and, for the past several years, has been beautifully painted--will soon be listed on the real estate market. Improvements include a brand new boiler just installed days ago.
Yay! New boiler.
No, seriously, things like that get me excited.
Clearly, the presence of good neighbors instead of 1.) a vacant house, 2.) a vacant lot, or 3.) yet another slumlord rental right next door has played a positive role in allowing the "house next door owners" to ask for a decent price instead of a "just give the damn thing away" price.
A couple nights ago, friends gathered in the backyard of Connie's house to have a barbeque and bonfire. The pictures and captions which follow are from that event...
Here is the house next door. Soon, the paint job on Connie's $7,900 house will look just as good, and the two classic homes will compliment each other and the neighborhood. Which will make MORE people move in and be good, revitalizing neighbors. It's like a positive domino effect.
Above, some of the guests at the party arrived in a limo, in the middle of a bachelorette party. This is usually a family friendly blog, so nobody look closely at the little tan objects in the young woman's veil. Every day, Connie's $7,900 house accumulates new layers of revitalization history. The bachelorette party was one of those new layers.
Here is the front porch of Connie's house, paint removal in progress.
So, a couple days ago, I was in my small semi-rural home town, visiting relatives, and I did something I hadn't done for a number of years: visited my father's grave. I cleaned the gravesite, including removing these weathered pieces of wood which once held Memorial Day flowers.
Wanting to do something special with the old wooden pieces instead of just tossing them away, I brought them to North Minneapolis to be part of a bonfire. This turned out to be the bonfire.
My father was a taxi driver in Minneapolis, often plying his trade here in North Minneapolis. It was that last cab robbery in North which made him quit, the one where he nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning, locked in the trunk of his cab by three, possibly four armed robbers who punched and pistol whipped him for a small amount of money.
The Minneapolis Police Department saved my dad's life that day, and though it was probably a relatively routine incident, perhaps even forgotten by the officers that participated, I have never forgotten the debt I owe MPD.
Well, anyway, the wood was very dry and blazed up nicely.
I'm hoping the "No Copper" sign will soon disappear from the house next door. For the record, the reason it has "No Copper" is because the pipes are plastic Pex. Also, note how the letters themselves are copper-colored. I love that thoughtful little touch. You don't see slumlord Keith Reitman doing anything that creative with his Sharpie marker.
Cooking up chicken at the barbeque, Raymel was styling with his zipper pockets. Jordan Neighborhood super citizen Megan Goodmundson is the hand model.
It seems like when you go to a party in NoMi, there's always some new and different food or beverage. This is Dutch chocolate wine, which I'd never seen before. I could have consumed the whole bottle. It reminded me of Bailey's, only not as potent so I could drink a lot more.
Every weekend is a party here in NoMi for those who are hooked in tight with their neighborhood association and neighborhood activism. We work hard to make this place better, and then we party hard, celebrating our success.
