There Goes The First House I Ever Looked At In NoMi...

Contributed Photo

It seems many years ago, though it wasn't that long. So much has happened in such a short time, as NoMi (North Minneapolis) seems to be changing overnight, transforming, revitalizing and somehow--by accident, fate, design--this blog has ended up right in the eye of the storm.

It was a small white house on Penn Ave. N., not too far from a gas station where scary people hung out selling drugs on the corner. On a kitchen counter inside the house, I found a skanky red thong with rhinestones...

So many times I've driven by that property, and I always took note of it. A few days ago, however, me a member of the JACC organization were driving around--looking for hookers to photograph, if you must know the truth--and you must--and I saw the humble little white house was now nothing but a vacant lot, black dirt covered in straw.

And, off the top of my head, I don't even know the address. Unlike 2125 Lyndale Ave. N., I can't even properly remark upon its passing.

Every day, Northside neighborhood activists work to make the scary people get off the corners, so that part of the Jordan Neighborhood can be revitalized. Some of the worst housing is being sacrificed to The Backhoe of Doom. And I'd have to say the little white house with the red jeweled thong...well, that one needed to go.

As my Realtor Juley VIger would have expressed it so well: What must the REST of a person's life be like if they had to leave their red rhinestone thong on the kitchen counter of a vacant house? Ewwwww.