Update: MinneAppleseed House In The Hawthorne Eco-Village

Photo By John Hoff

I've written before about the plan by MinneAppleseed to put a passive energy house in the Hawthorne Eco Village, but the plan has been modified slightly, in a positive way...

MinneAppleseed was interested in the property at 3119 4th St. N., one of the two "apartment complex of anarchy" buildings, which was recently demolished and leveled. And good riddance.

The lot at 3119 4th St. N. was the group's No. 1 choice, but it turns out that property is needed for commercial development of the Lowry Corridor. So, as announced at December's Housing Committee Meeting, MinneappleSeed will be going with their No. 2 ranked property, which is still a fine choice. It is the former site of the house with the burned out, "scary little gang garage," a place where Khameron D. Lake spent so much quality pimpin' time with Kathy the Prostitute, click here.

But Khameron and Kathy haven't been seen in the area for a long time, and thank goodness, except for a brief sighting of Khameron on Election Day, click here.

It appears the MinneAppleseed people will be drawing up some pictures of the proposed house, and presenting them to the Housing Committee, on which I serve. My stated position is that I will leave the aesthetic judgments to other committee members who care more strongly about such things. My main concern is the valuable political symbolism of putting this ulta-modern, super-green house in the Eco Village.

There was an important comment made at the meeting, and it highlights the need to emphasize cluster projects like the Eco Village. In the experience and observation of MinneAppleseed, projects like this are only successful as part of a bigger cluster project. You can't expect one demonstration project house dropped in the middle of an urban dystopia to change the whole area. That's why they are so keen on being part of the Eco Village, because in their experience success depends on a collective, clustered effort.

Personally, I would add some caveats to that...I've seen the "revitalization commando" model work, most notably with my friend Chris Gilmore in the Central District of Seattle...but that effort involved not only an extensive restoration of his particular house, (a lovely, abused Victorian) but intense "block watch" efforts deliberately geared toward transforming the surrounding area.

In any case...MinneAppleseed moves forward, and I'm glad. The Hawthorne Neighborhood is HAPPENING.