"The Artful Agent" Inside 420 31st Ave. N. (Photo 2)

Photo by "The Artful Agent," Still Life With Steel Reserve

"The Artful Agent" also shared the story with me of why he had been researching Minneapolis boarding policy in the first place. He was not a happy camper...

According to "The Artful Agent" (and I'm just saying it the way he said it) one of his properties at 42nd and Queen had a single broken window. The city contractor decided it was prudent to board every door and window on a nice house. Are they paid by the opening, he wondered?

(Yes, it's my understanding they are, and quite handsomely, I might add!)

Screws went right through the new vinyl siding. "Strange (he says) how city resources can be used to destroy (his) listing in a decent area but we wait 35 minutes on a Sunday morning to get a police escort into a break-in."

To this I say: what do you need with a police escort? Get yourself a sturdy blunt object, man up, go inside the house and secure your listing from the crack heads.

But, OK, yeah...we're all kind of dismayed about police response times on the North Side. I hear ya. AND I AM CRAZY ABOUT YOUR PICTURES. Keep sending the pictures and the stories.

I suspect this arrangement won't last long, however. "The Artful Agent" will rocket to fame and get his own show in an art gallery, and then it will be so long, Johnny Northside.