"You are honestly INSANE"

I got this email today in the course of a very
involved discussion about the ongoing T.J. Waconia
mortgage fraud saga, and whether Tom Balko and
Jon Helgason are evil criminals or just unlucky and
badly portrayed by the local media. (I lean toward
"evil criminals," but my jury is still out)

Near the end of the discussion, the sender (whose
name I'm keeping under my hat) offered the
following opinion of my desire to live on the
North Side:
________________________________________________________

On another note...

I think you are honestly INSANE for even thinking of 
living in N Mpls.

There is such a high possibility that you could  get shot at, 
robbed, beaten, killed... or all of those things. And that is 
said  with the assumption that no one there will even know 
who you  are!

Maybe you have some wild hair up your ass which  is making 
you see living there as a challenge or something? If you want a  
challenge that bad... 

Why not find another challenge that is equally as hard but 
 much  safer? I don't know.... maybe you could sky dive with no 
parachute. Your  chances of surviving that would be much higher.
_____________________________________________________________

My response: Exaggeration. Hyperbole. Drama.

Give me a break.

However, I am airing this point of view because experience
tells me it is a very common outlook. It's funny, because this
is now people from North Dakota sound when they talk
about Minneapolis.

No, not NORTH Minneapolis. This is the kind of stuff
Nodaks say about ALL OF MINNEAPOLIS.

However, I'm going to ask this guy if I can share the email
he sent me a few weeks about about the time somebody
shot at him in North Minneapolis while he was doing
nothing but repairing stucco. Clearly, that MUST HAVE
some kind of impact on his point of view!

ON ANOTHER NOTE: I spoke to Juley Viger today
and  I'll be closing on a property at the end of the month.
I'm not revealing all the details right now because,
well, it's business and best to have one's business
completed before airing all the details. I'm meeting
Juley tomorrow at Starbucks to sign paperwork.
Then I'll be picking up my 10-year-old son later
in the day for weekend visitation, and telling him
the good news:

Daddy got himself a house in the Twin Cities, so he
can always be near you, at least until you are big
enough to pursue your dream of going to MIT and
studying robots.

Return to North 6th Street--COPPER!!!!!

So I decided to come back in broad daylight to see the house at 3016 N. 6th Streeet. The photo above is actually a house on the same block, 3010, in much better shape. Interior photos show the sink is, like, missing...note holes punched in wall. (Exploring for the copper pipes?) But the wooden flooring in there is spectacular, according to the photos.

One advantage of daylight is I can see broken glass with my eyes instead of hearing it crunch under my feet. Note to self.

In daylight, the house at 3016 N. 6th looked better in some ways, but in some ways worse. I did take an opportunity to explore the immediate neighborhood, walking around the whole block.

More houses were vacant than occupied, and even the houses which weren't boarded up didn't show signs of activity. For all I knew, I might have the whole block to myself like Bruce Smith in I Am Legend. (Charlton Heston in Omega Man before that, a movie much revered in the Hoff family)

I recognized some of the houses on the block from images I had seen on the MLS. I think one of the houses was the place I dubbed "Water World" because of the story the real estate agent told me of copper pipes being stolen, ripped so violently near the water meter that the house had flooded though the water was turned off and, much worse, it was difficult to get the city to do anything.

Try shutting the water main off FROM THE STREET in the middle of a Minnesota winter. How will you thaw the ground? Blow torch? Build a fire on top of it? 100 men all in a row, relieving themselves, ahhhhh?

Ah, "More To Life." I can feel my Twin Cities pride being kindled within me from the recent branding effort, or is that just the thermal underwear I have on?

Walking around the block, I took note of litter...I could spend an afternoon picking that up.

Perfectly good pitcher sitting near the steps in front of a vacant house, like somebody sat there for a long time drinking Kool-Aid, then left the pitcher. I could pick THAT up, too, and then it would be MY Kool-Aid pitcher. MINE! MINE!!!!!

Sidewalks...unshoveled, coated with ice. Well, the army left me with a bad back and leg. This wouldn't be easy. Then again, the docs say I need to do therapy. I could think of it as therapy. I can't stand to exercise without accomplishing some task BESIDES the exercise. Pay me a dollar an hour to pick rocks, and that's fine, but don't make me do freaking push-ups.

The army was different. I always figured "I'm getting paid to do push-ups." And it was different when I was 16. I was motivated to have biceps...

I walked up to some houses to read the notices which had been posted. I figure the notice is there for me to read, so it's perfectly OK to walk up and read it. Besides, the city told us to "adopt" these places, and my "scoping out" is prelude to adopting, like checking out the babies in the Third World Orphanage.

Perhaps I will be ambitious in my adoption, like Angelina Jolie, and adopt my whole block when I find my place on the North Side. I could also adopt the sides FACING my block, since I'd be walking around the block, anyway, and I'd see what was directly across the street.

That would add up to, in effect, two blocks of houses.

I stopped dead in front of one house on 31st, I think it was. A large assortment of ice-caked teddy bears and wilted flowers crowded the front step. There were no candles, though. I figure homeless people thought they needed the candles more than the dead.

A man walked by and I asked him, "Excuse me, sir, are you from around here? Do you know what happened at this house?"

He shrugged and speculated "somebody died," but otherwise had no knowledge.

If you are going to erect such a memorial, I think, make sure there are words so somebody understands what the story is. If I lived around here, I would have to find out the story, and add the words, so the lesson of overwhelming grief-- whatever its source might be, though firearms are strongly suspected--would be clear to the passerby.

Inside the house at 3016, before I left, I found a penny in a closet upstairs.

"Well, what do you know?" I thought. "Johnny Northside got the last bit of copper out of this house."

Heated Enclosed Bus Shelters To Promote North Side (Just An Idea)

My adventure at 3016 N. 6th Street continued a bit at the bus stop.

So cold. Why doesn’t Minneapolis heat and enclose every damn bus stop in the city, and then build more bus stops?

Are they afraid homeless people will linger in the bus stops? Guess what: The homeless people ride the infamous No. 16 all night long in a big circle. Don’t worry about the homeless hanging out at the bus stop. They’re on the bus, baby, and it’s a whole lot more comfortable.

One night I rode the No. 16 all the way to its mysterious St. Paul end point (because I thought the eyes of some wannabe gangsters on the bus were “sizing me up” and I didn’t want to get off at my usual stop) and the bus driver told me the No. 16 was known, among Metro Transit Drivers, as The Homeless Express.

“More To Life,” indeed. Some slogan. Some Twin Cities branding effort. More waiting in the bitter cold, exposed to the wind, eyes eagerly seeking the sight of a warm Metro Transit bus. (I feel a Minnesota Daily opinion column coming on)

I’ve seen people stand on benches to get their faces closer to the rare and coveted heat lamps in some shelters, but it is not warmth. It is the illusion of warmth. One cheek might feel warmth, but the rest of the body feels the wind, because nothing encloses the shelter. Nothing keeps in the heat.

Be hardy, I tell myself. Be Norse. Be a Minnesotan. But at the core of my being, I am still 6 years old and stuck in the Douglas County Hospital for a month with pneumonia. At the end of each autumn, winter’s cold weather brings me the dread of death itself.

Wouldn’t this be a great way to bring new residents to the North Side? If the North Side were the only part of town with—bugles and drums, here—HEATED AND ENCLOSED BUS SHELTERS.

So I stood waiting for the bus, and I remembered the food I purchased at the Bangkok Market. I took out the plum-colored sticky rice cake, peeled back the plastic, and bit into it, full of anticipation.

Huh. There must have been a cultural misunderstanding about the word “cake.” I was thinking of wedding cake, birthday cake, angel’s food cake. I was thinking of dessert and sweetness.

But this was like the “cake” in the phrase “yellow cake,” uranium ore that Saddam DID NOT HAVE from Niger. This was “cake” from the phrase “caked-on dirt and grime.”

But…hmmm…it wasn’t sweet, but the texture was nice. It was filling. I thought how it was plain, humble but nutritious, clearly intended as a starchy staple which might be gussied up by flavors from some meaty or saucy entrée. I thought of the dried squid, and I tried combining the two. That was delicious. That worked.

So I stood there in the shelter, swigging from my 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero, eating my Hmong sticky rice cake and dried squid. I noticed how portable the sticky rice was, how it stayed together. I could wrap this in a leaf and walk with it for miles. This meal of sticky rice cake and dried squid was like something a Hmong warrior would eat.

I chewed slowly to fill up the time waiting for the bus, and sought to find my inner Hmong warrior, if the flavors and textures of food might summon such a thing.

Along came a young woman to wait in the shelter, already talking on her cell phone. The conversation was with a female friend of hers, and it concerned the complex financial and sexual arrangements between the young woman's FIRST baby daddy, and the baby daddy of the child she was NOW carrying.

Baby Daddy Number Two reportedly didn’t care if she continued to sleep around while she was pregnant. This would not prevent him from supporting his child, OR SO HE CLAIMED. (She harbored serious doubts) But, all the same, her feelings were hurt. She WISHED he would care deeply. She WISHED he would be less casual about such a thing, even if he himself could not be prevented from sleeping around.

Indeed, she would go so far as to say she wished, in retrospect, the father of her second baby had been the same as the father of her first baby. Or Andre. His name kept coming up. Andre would make a fine baby daddy.

The conversation continued, oblivious to my presence. Though I have spent the majority of my life in metropolitan areas, at the core of my being I’m still a bumpkin from the outskirts of Forada, Minnesota, population 197.

And, let me tell you, my bumpkin ears were burning.

House hunting on North 6th Street

So I decided to check out 3016 N. 6th Street, partly because I was curious to see the lowest-priced house on the entire MLS.

One day, I thought, I will tell my grandchildren the legend of the 2008 Minneapolis housing market, and the house in North Minneapolis listed at a mere $9,000 with no takers in sight. As usual, it was a “remote showing” where the seller gave me the door code.

Over the phone. On my first call.

By now I’ve become familiar with getting to the North Side from the University by riding the No. 16 to downtown, then waiting downtown in an open, completely exposed spot where there is no welcoming bus shelter, let alone a HEATED bus shelter, for a long time hoping for a “22” bus to appear out of a white curtain of blowing sleet.

This must be what the Twin Cities “branding effort” is all about when they say “More to Life.” More inclement weather, and no place to find warmth and comfort, my back turned against the cutting wind while eons of Norse hardiness rise within me like a hot inner geyser of determination.

It is March. This suffering will come to an end by, say, mid-April. Breathe warmth into the double-layered scarf so it feels good against the face, and hang on until Spring. What else can you do? This is how it is.

There is more than one kind of “22” bus, but so far I’ve found they all run along Lyndale Ave. N. And I’ll say this: even a crowded No. 22 bus has never been as bad as the No. 16 when it’s in Frog Town. Maybe people clam up out of fear, so the bus seems a lot less rowdy.

After so much North Side exploring, when I see the gigantic liquor store at the corner of Lyndale and Broadway, near a Salvation Army facility, I think, “I am not lost. I know where I am.”

I found the place where 31st intersects with Lyndale Ave. N., and I was delighted to see Bangkok Market and Video. Once I found my way there by accident when I got lost, driving around in my rusted 1988 Celebrity, looking for another house. The store is plentiful, authentic to its Thai roots yet also stocked with enough mundane American foods to serve me well enough as a grocery store.

There must be a few thousand Asian movies there, but I bet if I looked through the whole store I’d find two with subtitles. If I end up living near there, I vow to rent a few Thai movies, just for the experience. I will be forced to extrapolate much from those few movies about Thai movies in general, so I hope I make good selections. Maybe I will ask a clerk to help me. Yeah. That’s my plan.

I was hungry, so before striking out from the Thai store to find 3016 N. 6th Street, I went inside to buy some food. I ended up getting a Ziploc bag filled with lavender “Hmong sticky rice cake” and some dried spiced squid, which I long ago discovered is an amazing and wonderful snake food. I’ll eat my fill before it catches on and becomes really trendy and expensive.

There is always a small, exciting moment when you find the house you are looking for amid all the other neighboring houses, and you get your first look. But this “first look” was one of the most anti-climactic in all my experience. If that house had a nickname, it would be “the little house” because all its neighbors are much bigger. The house stands out for its smallness. What were they thinking when they built it?

Or was it one of the very first houses on that block, a pioneering house? Did that house blaze a trail for its neighbors, who later overshadowed it? These are things I’d like to know. Since North Side houses frequently lack abstracts at closing, these are things it might be impractical to learn any time soon.

Even the fence around the place had problems. Where it was chain link, it was broken. In the back yard, the remnants of barbed wire fencing that looked absolutely rural (and I should know) had become one with trees and brush. In some places, the so-called “fence” was actually composed of deliberately-piled pieces of brush

A mature tree in the back yard was spectacular. It was so spectacular, so innocent of the cruel saws of professional tree trimmers, it appeared even a slight windstorm could put those thick, far-leaning branches right into the roof of the house. I walked into some kind of low-hanging line in the back yard. Apparently it was a cable television line, not an electrical line, which was merely a few feet higher and running down the whole length of the back yard

The meter box was nearly inaccessible, because the neighbor’s fence ran so close to the house and a thicket of brush blocked access. Living here would be true pioneering. The first thing you need to do is cut some brush to create a clearing. I actually saw BURDOCK growing in the back yard. I’m a country boy, so I know darn well burdock grows best where there has been a lot of shit for a long time. Pig shit is preferable, but dog shit will do just fine, as long as there is a whole lot of it.

The front door was missing, but the board covering the front was on hinges and swung like a door. Who, I ask you, steals a door? My friend Doug has about 50 used doors in his basement in St. Paul, and can’t find buyers on Craigs List.

The house at 3016 was missing its plumbing, though it was hard to see all the sordid details in the dark. The bathroom upstairs still had a toilet and bathtub, with flower-shaped traction stickers circa 1974, so the dreaded North Side Bathroom Bandits had not yet struck. (Hopefully, they don’t read this blog) Since the house had two windows smashed out and was open to the elements, it was drafty and I couldn’t keep the lighter lit, unlike during my little excursion to 2125 Lydale Ave. N.

It was difficult to determine how long the house had been exposed to the elements because of the broken windows. My feet crunched on broken glass and I told myself this was another good reason to look at houses during the daytime. Upstairs, I nearly stepped in the hole left where a heating grate had been removed, but fortunately the grate was sitting beside it, and I banged into it with my foot before stepping right in the open hole, thank you Jesus.

Before I left, I called my wonderful real estate agent, Juley Viger, and informed her about the situation with the open, broken, unsecured windows allowing anybody who might come by access to the house for sleeping or toilet-stealing.

It was too dark to check out the neighborhood, but I spotted so many empty houses that I vowed to come back and do more exploring of this particular section of the North Side. As I walked to the bus stop, I was salivating in anticipation of the dried squid and the mysterious purple “Hmong sticky rice cake.”

"Small, unstructured gangs" on North Side

As Larry The Cable Guy put it so well: "If your mother gives you a ride to school, pull up your pants. You ain't no gangster."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a portion of an article from the StarTribune, "Victim's mom says son wasn't in a gang," March 3, 2008.

In the discussion of these "small, unstructured gangs," I don't know why the police don't just call them what they are: gangster wannabes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the North Side, Fourth Precinct Inspector Mike Martin said several small, unstructured gangs who aren't fighting over turf are responsible for at least four shootings. One incident involved a downtown shooting near Target Center Feb. 17.

Several of those gang members were present the day before when David Fields, 17, was shot to death in a north Minneapolis home. According to police, a 19-year-old was playing with a loaded gun and accidentally hot Fields in the head, police said. He has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.

A 14-year-old recently told police that several gang members shot at his house six times in two weeks, but nobody had been seriously injured. In the past week, police have seized guns from six gang members.

These gangs harder to track

Such gangs are harder to disband by traditional policing techniques because of their loose structure, Martin said. They often don't use real names, make up gang symbols and change gang affiliations on a daily basis, he said. Most are still going to school, and don't have lengthy criminal histories.

"You have to work harder at gathering intelligence and get the information out quickly," he said. "I wouldn't say we have it under control, but we are tracking people closely."

With traditional gangs, police put together a long-term strategy, document activity and target individual members, he said. The department's Violent Offender Task Force has broken up three long-established gangs in the past two years.

Now, officers will saturate areas where the gangs are active, make traffic stops and monitor probation conditions, Martin said. Residents have also warned police about "things that were going to happen" with gang members, which has helped prevent some shootings and possibly a homicide, Martin said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

How interesting they "don't fight over territory." Much could be drawn from that particular observation.

North Side Story--City Pages

I'd like to say this 2004 story from City Pages is "a little dated," but
all the evidence shows it isn't. Oh, except it doesn't discuss
the zillion vacant, boarded-up houses on the North Side.

Yeah, in that sense it's a little dated. Otherwise it's a very
useful and informative article about the North Side.

http://articles.citypages.com/2004-08-25/news/north-side-story/

North Side Real Estate Queen--One Contender For The Throne

Above are two pictures of my real estate agent,
Juley Viger, or (as I've often described her)
"the only agent who will give me the time of day."

Juley has been great for her friendliness and
flexibility when dealing with a colorful buyer
of modest means (like me) looking at North
Side properties. Don't blame her for the
content of this blog. Juley is just trying to
sell houses in a tough market.

When I had less funds than I do right this minute,
Juley was willing to submit my low offers while
I tried to scrape together slightly more funding.
We worked out, together, what sellers would
be open to hearing my low offers instead of
turning red in the face and seething.

Sometimes I call up real estate agents for sellers and
talk them out of door codes when Juley is busy,
and she has never busted my chops over that,
since I'm open with her about it and I make it
clear I'm not trying to cheat her out of a
commission...there's just times I want to go
look at houses without waiting around for an
appointment, and I feel like I don't want
to waste her time, especially when the sellers
are willing to do that.

Besides, like one seller's agent put it so
well, when I promised to lock up securely behind
me:

"I don't care what you do with that place."

I call this a "remote showing." If you're looking
for a house on the North Side, you might find this
is becoming something of a trend on the North Side,
even if nobody is talking about it very openly.
Well, here you go. The secret is out. I'm sure
most of the showings are still "standard," right
now, but who knows what will happen as this
market drags on?

Imagine if you could provide your ID, maybe
pass a background check, and get a big list
of North Side door codes. Look at houses all
day, on your own. This is my idea. I want
credit, since money is unlikely.

Yes, the idea all began that time at 2125 Lyndale Ave. N. when
Juley didn't want to enter a house known to have
a squatter who repeatedly broke down the front
door but, hey, would you? I told her she could wait
in the car, but considering the proximity to
The Biggest Liquor Store In The Known Universe,
that didn't seem like a good option, either.

But then Juley got the word...there is no door
code because somebody keeps bashing down the door.
So I told Juley "Why would you need to go with
at all?"

Let me tell you, entering that house with nothing
but a big sturdy boardand a flickering cigarette lighter
was not as much fun as it sounds.

(Yeah, I forgot my flashlight that time. Sometimes
when the listing says "bring a flashlight" it ends up
being "well, a cigarette lighter, at least")

Besides, who needs an agent who knows the door
code when the door has been kicked in? You don't
need an agent. You just need a blunt object and
a sense of adventure.

But, really, if you're looking for a house on the
North Side, I'd recommend Juley. For one thing,
she cares about selling people a future home.
She doesn't want to be the instrument of
slumlords or flippers. She's willing to work with
your unique needs, like my desire for a house
with graffiti and bullet holes so I can try my
hand at turning around a neighborhood.

Sometimes I have to tell Juley stuff like "No, really,
that wasn't a joke. Bullet holes are a big plus."

So if she can work with MY unique needs, imagine
what she could do for a NORMAL person.

Judging by the number of houses available on the
North Side, nobody has found a way to dominate
the market as far as being a buyer's real estate
agent. There is no "king" or "queen" of the North
Side, not yet.

But maybe Juley could be one "contender for the
throne."

She looks the part, wouldn't you say?

"Big Stop" column commentary

Vigil at Big Stop, above

MPR Photos by Brandt Williams found online through a Google images search.
Support MPR.

Neighbors, city work to put a 'big stop' to crime

Store owner, above

(Normally, I disagree with most of what Katherine Kersten writes, but I consider her recent columns about the North Side to be "almost on target." Here is her latest, with my commentary inserted)

Neighbors of the Big Stop convenience store in north Minneapolis' Jordan neighborhood finally won their battle to close down a spot that drug dealers used as a base of operations.

By KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune

For almost 15 years, the Big Stop convenience store was a big blight on the neighborhood around 26th and Knox avenues in north Minneapolis' Jordan neighborhood. Drug dealers used it as a base of operations. Trouble requiring the police was an everyday thing, and in 2004, gangsters pursued a young man into the store and shot him execution-style.

(He was 20-year-old Akeen Brown, according to City Pages. Would it hurt to mention him, and maybe cut some of the sentences where people gripe about wilted vegetables?)

"It was a parasitic relationship - the store needed the drug dealers and the drug dealers needed the store," says Deb Wagner, a long-time resident. "When cops would come by, the dealers ... would just duck into the store or hide their stash in the litter in the parking lot. There was almost nothing the police could do."

Good folks began to flee the neighborhood of charming 1920s bungalows, says Wagner. They were tired of the fear, the bone-rattling "boom cars," the filthy, trash-clogged streets. Many mornings, as Wagner walked her daughter to the school bus stop, she stuffed garbage bags with the used pot bags and Styrofoam trays dripping with barbecue sauce that dealers and their customers left behind.

(Salute to you, Ms. Wagner, for helping to clean the place up)

Irate residents deluged City Hall with complaints. "Over and over, I'd say, "Why don't we get a health inspector in there?" says Wagner.

"It's dirty, the produce is always wilted, and the cans on the shelves are dented," she said.

But all she got was temporary fixes. "Every now and then, someone from the city would come out and clean up the litter, but within a day or two it was back to the way it was."

(The tendency of people in poor neighborhoods to litter is incredible. In Frog Town, I once saw a mother TEACHING HER CHILDREN to litter. "Throw that away," she said. "Just throw it down anywhere.")

By 2002, residents launched weekly, sign-waving protests across the street from Big Stop, and wrote a letter to the governor documenting intolerable neighborhood conditions.

Still, nothing changed.

Then, on April 4, 2006, the city shook off its paralysis and revoked Big Stop's license. Overnight, police calls in the neighborhood plunged.

The change didn't stop there. In the next 14 months, the city closed seven more trouble-prone stores in other neighborhoods. Three of the stores together were responsible for nearly 1,600 police calls in 2005. In 2007, those three locations had 53 calls.

Wagner and her friends owe their newfound peace to a revolutionary city initiative - the Grocery Store Task Force. The Task Force grew out of a high-tension meeting between North Side residents and city officials in early 2006, which sent shaken officials back to the drawing board to examine the link between crime prevention and livability issues in a new way.

Rocco Forte of Regulatory Services explains the fundamental insight behind the Task Force. "We quickly figured out if a store had 400 police calls, there's a nexus between that and other problems there," he says. "We decided to find out all the reasons the property was a magnet for crime, and deal with them in a single comprehensive action."

The city stopped dividing responsibility for problems like exposed garbage, torn fences, expired food products and structural defects among many isolated departments. "In the past, we'd have 10 interactions by different departments over 10 years, then slap the owner on the wrist and nothing would change," explained Burt Osborne of Regulatory Services. Today, a trouble-prone property such as Big Stop is viewed "as a city crime and livability problem, rather than a series of departmental problems."

The Task Force serves as a powerful crime-fighting team by using its regulatory and licensing authority and bringing together staff from four departments: police, fire, regulatory services and the city attorney's office. It sends a phalanx of inspectors to a problem store to check for everything from fire code to food safety violations. It also pulls together records of police calls and past license violations.

With this wealth of data at their fingertips, staff members meet with a store owner and present a list of changes to stay in business. If he or she fails to comply, the city revokes his license.

At Big Stop, for example, the city required the property owner to enclose a dumpster, mend a fence and close a curb cut to prevent drug buyers from circulating through the parking lot. When he failed to do so, the city had grounds to shut down the business.

(Hooray for Kersten. Dumpsters belong to the people, not the corporations. There is no need to capitalize "dumpster.")

Elsewhere, the Task Force has required owners to stop selling drug dealer supplies, such as single cigarettes and metallic scrubbing pads like Chore Boy used as filters for smoking crack. It has mandated security cameras and earlier closing times. Police and inspectors check frequently at stores being monitored to assess compliance.

(I'll give you the Chore Boys, but I think some places sell single cigarettes because they are reaching out to the "homeless and broke" market. I once saw a place in Pioneer Square, Seattle, that sold single disposable razors by breaking open a bag and selling the razors individually for, like, 50 cents I think it was. )

Increasingly, convenience store owners are policing themselves. "Within one week of closing Big Stop, we had over two dozen owners calling us to set up meetings, asking 'What do we need to do?'" said Forte. "They don't want to get on our list."

(Yeah. OK. Now how about going after the DRUG DEALERS instead of the stores? When will the "phalanx" show up to deal with the DRUG DEALERS?)

Today, other cities are calling to learn the secret of Minneapolis' crime-fighting success. Toledo, Ohio, for example, recently launched a program modeled on the Grocery Store Task Force.

(No doubt the company that manufactures Chore Boys is quaking in fear, and worried about the broadening trend)

Wagner is overjoyed at her neighborhood's newfound peace. "The day the city closed Big Stop, our neighbors just emerged from their houses. I actually saw a woman planting flowers. All this past summer, we celebrated in our front yards."

(I must pose the question of where the dealers went and, really, where did they come from in the first place? I don't think they get on a bus and ride to the North Side from Brooklyn Park. I think they live in the same neighborhoods. See my other post...put their names, faces and addresses up on a website)

Another "remote showing"

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon of
"remote showings." My real estate agent has been
busy and so I called up a seller's agent to see if
I could procure a door code and do my own
"showing," as it were.

I couldn't get in touch with the seller's real
estate agent, but the office assistant felt she
had enough authority to give me the door code,
on my own say-so of who I was.

"Remote showings" seem to be--increasingly--
the standard procedure for house showings on
the North Side. Well, I say standardize it.
It would be so much more efficient (and fun)
if a buyer could just tour house after house,
on their own--no real estate agent, no
pressure--with a big list of door codes.

On another note...why doesn't the MLS
listing have "neighborhood" listed?
This is really useful information, since
the neighborhoods have different
reputations and the different
neighborhood associations have a
lot of variation. Info like "subdivision"
is useful...yeah, if you're a geek who
loves reading abstracts. (Guilty)

But I really think the MLS could be
a lot more useful if the "neighborhood"
of each property (Hawthorne, Jordan,
etc.) were also listed.

Amazing North Side price drop!

I have been watching the MLS since about November,
but yesterday I saw something I had never seen
before: the price of a house dropped below four
figures.

Specifically, a 3 bedroom house missing its
plumbing was for sale for a mere $9k.

Incredible. My friend Shiva, who has made a
fortune in real estate, swears the market will
go even lower.

TJ Waconia linked properties--Definitive List

I am trying to create a definitive list of properties linked to
the TJ Waconia scandal, pulling in information from all over.

So here are the properties I have pulled off a recent City of
Minneapolis "Findings of Fact" involve revocation of
rental licenses.

3243 6th Street N.
4335 Knox Ave. N.
3447 Oliver Ave. N.
2934 Queen Ave. N.
2639 Girard Ave. N.
3234 Humboldt Ave. N.
1207 Knox Ave. N.
(I had this one earlier from
my "television list" that I managed
to "freeze frame" from a news
report)
3229 Humboldt Ave. N.
3306 James Ave. N.
3240 Sheridan Ave. N.
3235 Vincent Ave. N.

Here are the properties I managed to pull off the
"freeze frame" of a news report on T.J. Waconia.

1000 Upton Ave. N.
1012 39th Ave. N.
1124 5th St. N.
1207 Knox Ave. N.
(Also appears in the "findings of fact" so it is a link
between the two lists) (I'm not sure why that
fascinates me)
1430 5th St. N.
1505 Russel Ave. N.
1526 Upton Ave. N.
1625 Irving Ave. N.
1631 Washington Ave. N.
1643 Sheridan Ave. N.
1643 Upton Ave. N.
1651 Sheridan Ave. N.
1706 Vincent Ave. N.
1710 Queen Ave. N.
2315 Jackson St. NE

Quite arguably, it was that moment that created Johnny
Northside and gave him his special blogging powers
to expose evil doers and help the valiant citizens of
the North Side achieve a dream of urban utopia.
(Pose with fists on hips, cape blowing in the wind,
square-jawed cartoon superhero grin, helmet
shining like the sun) (Or a divorced dad who needs
to lose 20 pounds and pay more attention to his
haircut but can type like a madman, take yer
pick)

Here is the list I got from the "TJ Waconia victims
blog" when somebody came on there and said,
"Here is a fairly comprehensive list. Do with
it as you will." Later I was told, "this is about
half the properties."

1651 SHERIDAN AVE N
3739 DUPONT AVE N
5139 39TH AVE S
3300 EMERSON AVE N
3554 ALDRICH AVE N
3546 HUMBOLDT AVE N
1706 VINCENT AVE N
7079 139TH AVE NW (Anoka Cty)
3322 RUSSELL AVE N
3346 NEWTON AVE N
3442 COLFAX AVE N
3706 DUPONT AVE N
3911 ALDRICH AVE N
3635 BRYANT AVE N
2626 TAYLOR ST NE
1703 LINCOLN ST NE
4417 VAN BUREN ST NE (Anoka Cty)
7077 139TH AVE NW UNIT 78 (Anoka Cty)
7094 139TH AVE NW UNIT 64 (Anoka Cty)
7084 139TH AVE NW UNIT 53 (Anoka Cty)
7057 139TH AVE NW (Anoka Cty)
7074 139TH AVE NW UNIT 56 (Anoka Cty)
1259 TAYLOR ST UNIT 13 (Scott Cty)
3434 MORGAN AVE N
1033 DWANE ST (Dakota Cty)
2623 LINCOLN ST NE
3323 GIRARD AVE N
3219 WASHBURN AVE N
7077 NEWBURY RD (Washington Cty)
8533 CARDIFF LN
7075 NEWBURY RD
7080 ARTHUR DR (Washington Cty)
3551 COLFAX AVE N
1259 TAYLOR ST UNIT 2 (Scott Cty)
8500 CARDIFF LN
6892 E CRAIG CT (Dakota Cty)
3946 LYNDALE AVE N
6830 E CRAIG CT (Dakota Cty)
2934 QUEEN AVE N
3330 NEWTON AVE N
129 COMO AVE (Ramsey Cty)
3927 DUPONT AVE N
4735 FREMONT AVE N
3443 JAMES AVE N
3319 RUSSELL AVE N
1259 TAYLOR ST UNIT 12 (Scott Cty)
8523 CARDIFF LN
8518 CARDIFF LN
8535 CARDIFF LN
3558 HUMBOLDT AVE N
3914 74TH ST E (Dakota Cty)
2639 GIRARD AVE N
3431 JAMES AVE N
3731 NEWTON AVE N
3301 LOGAN AVE N
3934 COLFAX AVE N
4154 SHERIDAN AVE N
1710 QUEEN AVE N
3638 COLFAX AVE N
3844 CHICAGO AVE
3742 ALDRICH AVE N
3638 WASHBURN AVE N
7076 139TH AVE NW UNIT 57 (Anoka Cty)
1279 TAYLOR ST UNIT 3 (Scott Cty)
1279 TAYLOR ST UNIT 9 (Scott Cty)
3518 EMERSON AVE N
3611 ALDRICH AVE N
3851 VINCENT AVE N
3435 EMERSON AVE N
4042 HUMBOLDT AVE N
3623 COLFAX AVE N
3318 GIRARD AVE N
3350 COLFAX AVE N
3240 SHERIDAN AVE N
3630 RUSSELL AVE N
3658 EMERSON AVE N
1207 KNOX AVE N
3454 KNOX AVE N
3823 QUEEN AVE N
5209 WASHBURN AVE N
3223 VINCENT AVE N
3926 COLFAX AVE N
4014 DUPONT AVE N
2654 UPTON AVE N
3415 NEWTON AVE N
3359 UPTON AVE N
2323 SHERIDAN AVE N
3527 KNOX AVE N
650 STEWART AVE
3354 WASHBURN AVE N
3947 LYNDALE AVE N
3234 HUMBOLDT AVE N
8579 CARDIFF LN
8577 CARDIFF LN
3411 KNOX AVE N
3600 COLFAX AVE N
1625 IRVING AVE N
3410 IRVING AVE N
3707 SHERIDAN AVE N
5229 COLFAX AVE N
4614 ALDRICH AVE N
8540 CARDIFF LN
8538 CARDIFF LN
8506 CARDIFF LN
8578 CARDIFF LN
8573 CARDIFF LN
8558 CARDIFF LN
8554 CARDIFF LN
1269 TAYLOR ST UNIT 16 (Scott Cty)
14630 CHROME AVE W (Dakota Cty)
14765 S CHILI AVE (Dakota Cty)
1269 TAYLOR ST UNIT 15 (Scott Cty)
3359 BENJAMIN ST NE
3518 GIRARD AVE N
3339 JAMES AVE N
3710 MORGAN AVE N
3415 EMERSON AVE N
3812 PARK AVE
3229 HUMBOLDT AVE N
3255 VINCENT AVE N
4827 FREMONT AVE N
1505 RUSSELL AVE N
3507 KNOX AVE N
3915 COLFAX AVE N
1643 UPTON AVE N
3649 LOGAN AVE N
3714 EMERSON AVE N
8560 CARDIFF LN
1259 TAYLOR ST UNIT 8 (Scott Cty)
3546 OLIVER AVE N
3631 EMERSON AVE N
1269 TAYLOR ST UNIT 2 (Scott Cty)
1279 TAYLOR ST UNIT 15 (Scott Cty)
13389 DAFFODIL PATH (Dakota Cty)
3622 LOGAN AVE N
3018 NEWTON AVE N
3214 GIRARD AVE N
501 WACONIA PKWY N (Carver Cty)
8502 CARDIFF LN
3257 MORGAN AVE N
1299 TAYLOR ST UNIT 8 (Scott Cty)
3438 LOGAN AVE N
3326 EMERSON AVE N
4838 FREMONT AVE N
17076 TRILLIUM LN (Sherburne Cty)
3731 KNOX AVE N
4131 IRVING AVE N
3539 UPTON AVE N
3919 DUPONT AVE N
3222 LOGAN AVE N
3450 JAMES AVE N
5147 JAMES AVE N
3350 JAMES AVE N
3543 DUPONT AVE N
3300 DUPONT AVE N
8504 CARDIFF LN

As I learn of more properties linked to TJ Waconia, Universal
Mortgage and other mortgage fraud scammers (alleged)
I will keep adding the properties here. So much additional
information can be had by feeding the property address
into websites for the City of Minneapolis and the County
of Hennepin.

In fact, as these homes hit the market (and they
inevitably will) actual pictures of the homes and
other information--like whether they have
plumbing or if the pipes have been carted off
to fund crack cocaine--will be easy to turn up
if your fingers do the walking on what George
Bush calls "the Internets."

What is not so easy to find out is which houses have
squatters. Really, the only way to find out that
information is to go there and see for yourself
while obeying all state, local and especially
federal laws.

ADDENDUM, OCTOBER 2, 2008, "The List of 17."

These are properties which were, back in 2003, linked to "T.J., LLC" and a former partner named John Stenroos, but may not be caught up in the current mess.

577 D. Woodduck Drive, Woodbury, MN 55125
2527 West 87 1/2 Street, Bloomington, MN 55431
101 West Branch Street, Princeton, Minnesota, 55371
109 West Branch Street, Princeton, Minnesota,55371
117 West Branch Street, Princeton, Minnesota, 55371
2315 Jackson Street Northeast, Minneapolis, MN 55418
1013 Dayton River Road, Champlin, MN 55316
4016 80th Ave. N., Brooklyn Park, MN 55443
8951 Duwayne Ave., Lexington, MN 55014
8953 Duwayne Ave., Lexington, MN 55014
3726 3rd Street, Columbia Heights, MN 55421
609 Wells Street, St. Paul, MN, 55101
4253 McCleod Street, Columbia Heights, MN, 55421
2930 Sheridan Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55411
11425 Elmwood Ave., Champlin, Minnesota, 55316
11330 Quince Street Northwest, Coon Rapids, MN 55448
1012 39th Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55434

Vacant house fee increase is INSANE

I just put an offer down on a house on the North Side, and I told my real estate agent to add the following contingency:

"Buyer may withdraw offer prior to closing if the Minneapolis City Council changes the vacant house fee prior to closing to any amount over the current $2,000."

I don't think I need to get into the reasons for this very much. The proposal to increase the vacant house fee to $6,000 is beyond crazy. These North Side properties aren't moving NOW, so what happens when the fee gets increased to--in some cases--half the list price? Crazy piled on crazy, with half a gallon of crazy syrup poured on top. STOP THIS INSANITY BEFORE IT
IS TOO LATE.

"Representing" the North Side

Here is some further conversation that took place after I
told the sender of that email "you make great points. You
should submit a guest piece to my editor."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks John -- good idea, I think I'll do just that! I didn't
know where the article Alan Kwong posted came from when I
responded. I was defensive though, I know that ... it happens
all the time. There are a great many things worth saving in
our community and I can't stand idly by watching any of them
be destroyed. So I jump into Ninja Northsider mode.

I hope you can see how your summation of Northside activities
spurred my defense mechanisms. And telling us we've created our
own bad rep .... wow, that one really got me. It's the media and
the bad eggs that are doing that. The rest of us are fighting
to overcome that negative stereotype everyday by
telling our good stories, picking up trash, helping our neighbors
keep their homes up, working with landlords to screen for decent
tenants, etc.

As for the cop, I don't doubt the accuracy of your story. I don't
know why, but I expect the cops to be ambassadors as well as peace
keepers and maybe that's asking too much. But I get asked all the
time "Why do you say here?" [sic, must mean "stay."]

The answer is simple ... it's my home.

And as for buying a home here, the Northside Home Fund
and Greater Metro Housing Corp have money to help.
Call the Folwell Neighborhood at 612-521-2100 and
they can get you in touch.

Also, last fall when so many homes went on the auction block,
I had an idea. I posted to craig's list that I'd be willing to
help acclimate newcomers to the restaurants, parks, stores,
art sites, neighborhood groups, etc. so I'll
extend that offer to you, as well. As a life-long Northsider,
I feel it's my duty. I might even know something about the
neighborhood you're considering buying in ... I HIGHLY
recommend Old Highland, of course, but with all
areas, there are some pockets that are better than others.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to add something here. It must be very frustrating for
North Siders who do so much work to help their neighborhood,
and then something happens like a nice older woman being stabbed to
death and people say, oh, there's your North Side, there.

However, who "represents" the North Side? Is it only the people
who work tirelessly to do good? Unfortunately, it isn't. The
woman who beat the child to death, the dealers standing on
the corner as home buyers drive through to seek out
their first impressions of the North Side, all these folks
also "represent" the North Side.

When the tagger called "Kill Bill" puts his tag on a
vacant house, and adds the words "North Sides Finest"
(yes, he knowsnothing of possessive apostrophes)
is that tagger not REPRESENTING the North Side?

Ask the tagger. He would say he is "representing."

Having ice cream socials and art is nice, but if
the North Side wants those vacant houses filled up,
a very robust and stern new chapter needs to be written
THROWING THOSE DRUG DEALERS THE HELL OFF THEIR PUBLIC
CORNERS.

And I'll add something else: those dealers are not being
trucked in from Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center every
morning. They are from the North Side, they are locals, and
their families might be some of those "three generation"
families who get mentioned so often when the highlights
of the North Side are trotted out for discussion.

Being around for three generations doesn't mean you've
been doing good for three generations. Each individual
case should bear individual scrutiny. Being around for
three generations doesn't give anybody a free pass if it's
three generations of committing crime.

Who "represent" the North Side? Those who are doing things
good or bad to create the cumulative reputation of the
North Side. You can plant flowers all you want, have
ice cream socials, but when open air drug markets thrive
and children are beaten to death, it's not going to be
the flowers and the ice cream getting all the attention.

The media is not to blame. Everybody knows when there is
death and murder, the media will cover it. The people
who do the bloody, terrible things that rates the media
coverage are the ones to blame, not the media. At the
end of the day, the North Side creates its own rep,
and the "bad apples" are just as much part of the
bunch as the good apples. Hard to hear, yes.
Frustrating, yes.

But one should never tire of doing good.

(If you do an image search on Google using the terms
"north side" and "Minneapolis," the picture at the
top comes up among the images. It comes from a
City Pages Story about another day on the North
Side.) (Click for link)