Here's Yer Crime "Round Up"

Above, "paint over" of graffiti at 409 31st Ave. N. The Polish lady told me my "paint over" looked "like a bird." I told her, apologetically, I didn't have any gray paint with me, and I would procure some gray paint in the near future and do a better paint over. But at the moment it was important to...

...discourage further graffiti.

The writing on the wall apparently memorialized a guy who used to live in the house who (according to rumor in the neighborhood) died a short while after moving in, gunned down in some kind of incident. He didn't die at the property itself, but that is where individuals have memorialized him. Once there was a big pile of soggy teddy bears until somebody (not me) removed that stuff.

This block, I say, is for the living and for productive (i.e. non-criminal) elements of society.

I removed the single red candle, half-burned, which was left on the doorstep. It will not be wasted. It will be put to good use.

According to the Polish lady, some days ago somebody pulled into the yard behind this house and "sorted through" a truck full of items. When they left, they left a lot of crap in the yard. One more thing to take care of by the people who give a rip and pick up after themselves. And everybody else, too.

Other things which have happened in or near my area of operations, according to a recent crime summary emailed by the Minneapolis Police Department:

* At 6th and Lowry, a 46-year-old white female was robbed of her purse by three 18-22 year old black males, one of which she said took her medication away a few days earlier.

* 31st and 6th Street, Sunday at 3:45 pm. A 911 caller reported a male shooting randomly in the area and one caller reported seeing him with a gun shooting. Shot spotter confirmed the shots. As the only car able to respond was 220 dispatched, was requested to go city wide for squads to respond as it appeared there was an active shooter.

Some males were detained, but no gun was found. One resident said it sounded like a rifle range. Police were unable to determine if it really was shots, or firecrackers.

So, I ask, what were residents supposed to do while MPD was attempting to round up enough units to deal with an "active shooter?" Should we use our own weapons to take him on until police arrive?

I say send one squad--any expletive squad--and let the other squads arrive when they can. I've seen some police are armed with Colt AR-15s. At a minimum, they have their sidearms and the training to use 'em.

Is one squad care really not able to take on a single shooter, and so we have to deal with him by ourselves for a while? Or do police simply have that much confidence in us to handle it ourselves until they can arrive in force?

Defending The Mosque

Photo by John Hoff

About a week ago I was on a "night patrol," driving around looking for 911 situations and armed not only with my phone, but a video camera loaned by Jake and Gabe of "612 Authentic." Near the mosque pictured above...

I saw an intoxicated young black man in an almost-knee length plain white T-shirt staggering toward the door of this mosque, which is on Lyndale Ave. N. He was standing right about where the little boy is standing in this picture, until he collapsed in the doorway where you see many mosque members entering, behind the hedge.

This mosque has mostly Somali members, according to a cab driver I spoke to recently, though there is apparently a mosque on the North Side which has mostly Oromo members. (Addendum: I do not know if the information is accurate. Others are saying this mosque is mostly Oromo)

I called 911 about the (apparently) intoxicated man passed out in the doorway of the mosque. He was, at a minimum, trespassing. Obviously the mosque would not care for a drunken man to sleep in their doorway. It being late at night the police responded quickly, and I even saw an ambulance present. However, one of the officers at the scene told me they simply "sent him on his way."

I was, I confess, disappointed in their response. I may not necessarily wish for a punitive response--even though the individual in question probably just staggered to another property to trespass and sleep off his intoxication--but just playing "catch and release" isn't going to get this man the substance abuse counseling he rather obviously needs.

Calling 911 seemed a waste of time but then I thought, well, it's God's House, after all. And at least I stopped a drunk from desecrating God's House. The very next day I was at Bangkok Market and saw somebody from the mosque--an older man wearing a flowing blue headdress--walk into the store to purchase groceries. I know he was from the mosque because as I was driving by, I saw him return there.

I had never before seen somebody from the mosque shopping at my favorite grocery store so close to my block and--I must confess--I took it as something of a sign.

As you can see, the mosque is a former Christian church. If I had to take a guess--based on the many denominational doors I have darkened in my spiritual journey--I would say it is an old Baptist church. I'm very curious to know what happened with the old stained glass windows.

By the way, the cab driver told me some interesting things. First of all, he said the intersection of 6th St. N. and 30th Ave. N. as well as 4th St. N. and 31st Ave. N. are places he considers some of the most dangerous areas in Minneapolis. Good to know. He also said Blue and White is the only cab company which will work North Minneapolis. Other companies will go there to drop off fares, but they won't work the neighborhood because it is too dangerous.

How well I know this. My father almost died this way, driving for Blue and White.

As I usually do, I tried to convince the driver North Minneapolis is the place where many Somalis should move and buy houses. The driver said there were, in fact, many Somalis in North Minneapolis but they were "mostly single."

"Why are they mostly single?" I asked, thinking perhaps North Minneapolis was the happening place for young Somalis to meet and socialize.

"Somalis don't want to raise their children in North Minneapolis," the driver explained. "Too much crime."

The Disturbing Tale Of Khameron "The Shitter" Lake

Flickr.com photo

With apologies to Peter Teachout, the new chair of the Hawthorne Area Community Council, (HACC) who wants my blog content to be free of expletives so he can share it with (I kid you not) his apparently numerous missionary friends.

But the word "shitter" is integral to this story about Khameron NMN Lake, the scourge of the block...

A resident told me these things over the phone. It turns out--first of all--Khameron has apparently been "banned from the block" in the past. There was a geographic restriction on him at one time (reportedly, and according to this resident) and Khameron more or less followed it. This was a time of relative peace and quiet in the neighborhood, according to this resident, when Khameron was banned.

But now he's not banned--not yet, anyway--and we suffer his pimp and druggie doings on an almost-daily basis while waiting for the system to slowly respond, submitting our community impact statements. (The good news is I have confirmation of at least three statements being submitted, counting my own, and I'm working to "turn pledges into donations.")

In any case...

Some years ago, when Khameron was a druggie but had considerably more brain cells, or so it appeared, this resident actually gave Khameron work which involved--if I recollect the story right--something to do with rain gutters. Even when doing honest work, Khameron is never very far from the gutter, it appears. And--to my amazement, and apparently the resident's amazement, too--Khameron did the work.

"What a fool I was," the resident said. "Letting him on my property."

"Hey," I assured the resident. "If you actually got honest labor out of that crack head, you're a miracle worker. I had no such luck with Worthless Mike Williams."

The resident has long observed the comings and goings of Khameron and learned of his doings. For a period of time, Khameron and his prostitute, Kathy, strung a tarp between two dumpsters and resided there. For a period of time some of the residents at 3119 4th Street North allowed them to sleep in the hallway, but Kathy would conduct her whoring openly in the hallway, and some of the more decent folks were disturbed, so they blew that deal.

Once Khameron had Kathy in a house which had--oh, the luxury!--actual plumbing, but at some point Khameron ripped out the pipes to buy crack. For a long period of time, Khameron and Kathy settled on the scary little garage, the one which has now been torn down.

Near the edge of the resident's property...near the fence and bushes...human excrement began to appear one day. It was not just a little, but a lot. Over time, the place was almost turning into a haz mat site, so much feces was present, and the resident couldn't catch "The Shitter" as she began to refer to her mysterious depositor of doo-doo.

She more or less staked out her own back yard, and one day old Khameron came out of the scary little garage, walked over to the edge of the property to do his business, and was literally caught with his pants down. The resident yelled, shouted, confronted the man who--once upon a time--had actually been his benefactor and paid him wages.

"Sorry!" Khameron said, struggling to pull up his pants. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

He appeared truly chagrined. Even a pimp and a crack head has a little decency left in them somewhere, enough to be ashamed.

After that Khameron stopped crapping at the edge of the resident's yard and found other places to crap. But ever since that day, the resident has referred to Khameron NMN Lake as simply "The Shitter."

"Khameron is too nice a name for him," she told me. "He doesn't deserve a name like that. He should just be called The Shitter."

And, if I have anything to do with it, so he shall be.

Hey, check out the photo of an outhouse I found on Flickr.com. If I'm not mistaken, the roof is made out of a shipping pallet. Clever!

Volunteer Graffiti Abatement (Green Eggs And Ham Nation)

Photo by John Hoff

First, and for the record, let me just say...Ed Kohler, you're my hero. May an army of one hundred Ed Kohlers spring fourth in Minneapolis, and fifty in St. Paul, and 50,000 across this great nation of ours. Ed Kohler...BE LIKE HIM.

In an ongoing tribute to Ed...well, also I was doing it anyway, before I found out about Ed...here is some graffiti I painted over. Let us just say...instead of "graffiti bridge," this is at "graffiti abatement bridge."

I know some folks say you should handle graffiti completely through the 311 system, so the police can track SCARY GANG ACTIVITY. I guess the police will have to find another way to battle the infamous "Green Eggs And Ham Nation" because I painted this (admittedly mildly creative) crap over.

(Do not click "Read More")

Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photo 6)

Photo by John Hoff

While documenting conditions at 416 31st Ave. N. after the eviction, I noticed the yellow rose bush from the Polish woman's yard was poking through the fence into the yard of 416 31st. It was like her orderly "beauty yard" of useful domesticated plants was trying to make inroads into the disorderly and savage"beast yard" of weeds, including some which are seriously noxious.

(Do not click "Read More")

Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photos 4, 5)

Photos by John Hoff

Here is the lawn or, shall I say, "yard" of 416 31st Ave. N.

The word "lawn" implies something a little less (shall we say?) "rain forest-y."

And, yes, I know that's a bumper crop of poison ivy. That's why I took the picture! The kids usually played in the street, though, not the yard...so they weren't in much danger of getting any poison ivy. They pretty much rubbed elbows daily with dealers, hookers and Khameron NMN Lake, the druggie pimp.

In areas of 416 31st Ave. N. where people constantly walked, the compacted dirt featured old "Double A" batteries, corroded pennies (I pried loose, like, five) and little plastic do-hickies from toys, packed into the black, cement-like earth.

Nobody had bothered with beautifying the yard for, it appeared, perhaps a decade.

Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photo 3)

Photo By John Hoff

Detail of a window on 416 31st Ave. N.

The former tenants (or their relatives/associates) didn't leave enough aluminum on the exterior to make a Pepsi can as they scavenged and stripped metal scrap on the way out.

(Do not click "Read More")

Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photo 2)

Photo By John Hoff

The former tenants of 416 31st Ave. N. (or some relatives/associates) were reportedly walking around on the roof to strip off the aluminum frames when finally evicted. Naturally, like so many other vacant houses on the North Side, second story windows are left wide open to permit the entry of birds, weather, or squatters with a ladder.

I see they left the crappy rainbow blanket which served as a curtain.

(Do not click "Read More")

Victory On My Northern Perimeter (Photo 1)

Photo by John Hoff

The saga of 416 31st had, more or less, a good ending...

The tenants (and I hesitate to give them that level of dignity) stripped the aluminum window frames as they were leaving. Somebody in the neighborhood called the landlord to say "They're wrecking your house even more than they already have" but by the time the landlord arrived, the tenants had made off with not only aluminum window frames but (reportedly) copper pipes from the basement.

The Polish woman was up all night, wondering if the house right next door might explode like some houses do when gas pipes are ripped out. In response to being called, the city came out--the very next day, no less!--and inspected the place, and boarded it up.

Later, word came the woman who lived at the property claimed she'd moved out a few days before. Good heavens, she had no idea who the strangers were who (for goodness sakes!) got into the house and made off with pipes and window frames. Yet one of the people involved in the stripping of scrap metal was recognized as the woman's son, well known in the neighborhood as a bad character.

The landlord was reportedly apologetic to at least one neighborhood person who spoke to her by phone, and said eviction hadn't happened more quickly because she was ill, and unable to stay on top of much of anything. Whatever. The landlord has clearly paid a heavy penalty for renting to criminally-inclined people, including the loss of her plumbing fixtures.

The landlord reportedly promised she would get the jungle-like lawn mowed, which featured burdock two feet high when I checked it a couple days ago. Unwilling to take the landlord at her word--convinced she has a history of telling whoppers--I called 311 to report the overgrown lawn.

I told the Polish lady, "One way or another, it will get mowed."

The Polish lady is not entirely excited about the impending mowing. The weeds are incredibly high, and the mower will certainly throw extensive clippings into her carefully-manicured garden. Standing there speaking to the Polish lady, I saw (and, um, ate) a dark purple columbine flower. I'd never seen purple columbine before, let alone eaten one. Her garden is amazing, and all the more amazing because she does so much in so little space.

Oh, in regard to eating columbine flowers...

One doesn't eat the whole flower. You nip the sweet, honey-like buds off the top. My mother taught me to do this when she was a child, and she learned it from her own Czechoslovakian grandfather. When I was a kid, I would sometimes find a big columbine plant and just graze until all the flowers were gone.

The Polish lady didn't say anything about the way I ate one of her flowers but just then I noticed some graffiti on 407 31st, and I said I was going to take care of it, RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT, before I left town to pick up a little money doing a job. I had spray paint in the trunk. So I took care of it, and then I left for a couple days to pick up cargo and visit relatives.

"Bullets In The Stucco" (A North Minneapolis Tale)

Flickr.com photo

I had something to do with "Texas Jim" writing this story of scary gunfire in North Minneapolis, so I'm posting a couple sample paragraphs with a link to the source...

Here is how the writing of the story went down, kind of.

First of all, "Texas Jim" is the unfailingly loyal friend of Thomas Balko of T.J. Waconia and--as regular readers of this blog know---I met Jim in the fiery chat threads of Behind The Mortgage Dot Com. That was actually the first place I used the handle "Johnny Northside."

Jim and I started out very unfriendly but then warmed up to each other in an "agree to disagree" kind of way. I find myself forced to acknowledge some of the points Jim makes, without coming all the way over to his point of view.

For example, YES the prosecution of T.J. Waconia was political as all-get-out. But (I assert) they were still guilty as all-get-out. YES they were not the only ones engaged in questionable and illegal practices and many "little fish" who did a lot of the same stuff are getting away. Maybe even some "big fish" are getting away.

HOWEVER, (I assert) this is not a reason to let T.J. Waconia go free, only an argument that prosecutors should dig much deeper into all the mortgage fraud on the North Side, and let the chips fall where they may.

And, of course, I've raised my idea of "let the punishment fit the crime" and suggested Thomas Balko and Jon Helgason should serve their prison sentences in North Minneapolis instead of Yankton, South Dakota...using their considerable (albeit flawed) skill to improve our neighborhood instead of engaging in illegal activity.

I want to point out that, at one time, Jim helped to manage property for the folks involved in T.J. Waconia. However, there is no indication Jim did anything illegal and, in the course of seminars where Jim teaches about real estate, he reportedly uses what happened with T.J. Waconia as a sort of cautionary tale.

In the course of our discussions, Jim kept telling me how crazy I was to buy property on the North Side with the intention of making my home there. In an email Jim told me about the time he was repairing a house and somebody, like, SHOT AT HIM. I said to him, Jim...Jim, old buddy, old pal, you need to write that story about the "bullets in the stucco" and send it to me for my blog, because it's a cool story.

CORRECTION: Jim, who is very unhappy with me about any number of things, recently reminded me in an email that I asked him to write up and submit his "bullets in the stucco" story to the opinion page editor at the Minnesota Daily, not for my blog. Duly and publicly noted.

Instead of writing it for my blog, (or submitting it to the Minnesota Daily) Jim wrote it for a real estate blog to which he contributes regularly. In his last two examples of writing--this one included--one sees Jim is mad at Minneapolis (no doubt for prosecuting his friend) and he is going out of his way to throw bad publicity in the general direction of Minneapolis.

See, for example, this other article questioning the sense of suing lenders for "predatory lending."

Lately, (much to my mild regret) Jim is mad at me because--with overly-enthusiastic journalistic and blogger cynicism--I questioned the reality of the girlfriend he mentioned to me more than once.

Sigh. I'm hoping to patch things up with Jim and do lunch with him if he ever finds his way to Minneapolis. History shows I'll sit down and have an informative chat with anybody, including the devil.

In the meantime--not as a peace offering but purely because of my involvement in the story and its substantive content, I present to you (drum roll) a sample of the story of the "bullets in the stucco."
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Bullets in the stucco, by Jim Watkins

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed small chunks of stucco were falling about 10 to 12 feet away from where I was on the ladder.

Completely unaware of what was going on I leaned back and glanced down at the material that had fallen to the ground and back up to the area it came from. I didn’t see anything out [of] the ordinary and continued on with the painting...
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For the rest of the story, use the link.

I've heard a rumor of a house on my northern perimeter which may have a few bullet holes in it. If any North Side readers want to send me images of their own bullet holes, I will do my best to get that stuff on this blog.

Dark Humor On The MLS Listings (415 31st Ave. N.)

Fair comment and criticism

This property is the one involved in the lawsuit between CitiMortage and the Hawthorne Area Community Council...

I'm very surprised to see it listed on the MLS, but I figure it's part of the legal maneuvering and the seller is trying to make the record, somehow, about what the property is supposedly worth. Tonight I see the price is $18,500. Ridiculous. There are houses in much better shape going for less.

Once again, we see the delightful "truth in housing" tendency with the MLS photo, if you're familiar with the property and know what you're actually seeing. For example, the door is kicked open. It's not open because the agent was there, checking the place out. No, somebody took a chain saw and cut off the board...then the front door was kicked in.

That was the situation before I boarded it up. Note the tracks to the door. Very likely these were made by Khameron NMN Lake and his prostitute, Kathy, who were well known for hanging out in that vacant property as well as other vacant properties in the area.

The listing says the property was built in 1888. It also says "Beware of mold present." Uh huh. That might have something to do with broken windows on the second story being left open to the weather for, well, certainly as long as half a year, but probably more.

"Property is a fixer upper. Needs many updates, TLC, and cosmetic rehab. Sold as is." To that I would add: buyer must provide own matches and/or backhoe.

No, I have to admit...I'd live in this place. But only in a backwater rural environment where "housing codes are for city slickers." (Most of the State of North Dakota, for example, and I know whereof I write)

The legal description is noted as "lengthy." That's an understatement. This house has become the symbol of how predatory lending has messed over the Hawthorne neighborhood. To "lengthy" add "colorful, sordid and high-profile."

Notably, no mention the place is FIRE DAMAGED but that's fairly obvious even from the exterior, if you walk around what would be the left (east) side in this photo.

Here is some sales history: Sold by warranty deed, 12/31/2002, $140,000. Sold by warranty deed, 7/29/2005 for $102,000. Sold by warranty deed, 4/4/2007, $235,000.

Barely more than one year later, CitiMortgage is trying to unload this turkey for $18,500.

Progress On My Northern Perimeter

Photo by John Hoff

The house at 416 31st Avenue North has been a problem property for many years. Just recently, Charelle L. Davis, 18, was arrested there for possession of crack...

The landlord told me and Jeff Skrenes of HACC that the tenants would be evicted at the end of May. It was, of course, a lie and everybody figured it was a lie the moment it was uttered but I'm not publicizing the name of the landlord--not quite yet--because we still need to work with this person.

But she did lie. And she knows about the crack cocaine arrest at the property, because I personally called and made her aware of it when it came to my attention...thanks to the Fourth Precinct crime updates which arrive by email. The landlord said she was "shocked" and asked me for some details, including the specific spelling for "Charelle." Then something interrupted her, and she said she'd call me back.

She never did--so that's three outright lies I can document. Or two, depending on how you count the first lie. Is it one lie or two if you say the same thing but at different times to two different people? I'll give the landlord the benefit of the doubt and say she is, to my knowledge, only an outright liar on two occasions, to my knowledge.

But the City of Minneapolis appears poised to take care of the problem. Some "official paper" got slapped on the door, saying the house needed a bunch of fixes and if the fixes didn't happen by June 15 or 16 (I can't recall which) nobody would be allowed to live there.

God speed the Ides of June, I say. I was by there tonight and saw more crap being moved...some by the same thin, pretty brunette who helped some people move out of 3101 6th Street North. She appears to be quite a humanitarian. I think I met her, once. She's either a friend or relative of "Little Jane."

One eyewitness says the individuals in this house are taking their garbage and throwing it in the dumpster left at 3119 4th Street North. Well, it's better than throwing it on their lawn. When that house is vacant, we will all breathe a sign of relief.

But there is never long to celebrate before taking on the next vicious battle.

My First Community Impact Statement: May 1, 2008, Thomas A. Banks

Photo by John Hoff, 3119 4th Street North

I have actually been submitting numerous community impact statements via internet since May 1, 2008, racking up (by my reckoning) a couple dozen...

Somebody needs to do it. Somebody needs to show it is possible to stand up to the dealers, prostitutes and drug loiterers who tear down our North Side, and submit one statement after another to the court system at the moment of sentencing, demanding an end to our neighborhoods being held hostage by a relatively small number of, well, scumbags who can be easily overpowered if only the decent people will band together to do so.

The first statement I submitted was on May 1, 2008. I remember it was a busy day, because I had a legal brief to write for a class and at the end of the day I got word from the Polish lady about the board being ripped of 415 31st Avenue North. Again.

But that day I did manage to get my first impact statement submitted via internet, and it concerned a disorderly conduct incident at 3119 4th Street North, the "other" apartment complex owned by Shirley Guevara which (though it couldn't quite compete with 3101 6th Street) had its own consistent issues.

Here is the statement I submitted on Thomas A. Banks.
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The apartment complex at 3119 4th Street N. is known as a place of dangerous social disorder and drug dealing, scary to the decent people who live in the area. I have owned property there from March 31, 2008 to the present day.

The actions of individuals like Banks continue to reverberate today and even to impact me, a new property owner seeking to "fix up or tear down" and make the area better. The actions of the defendant in question, Thomas Banks, have contributed to the notorious and dangerous reputation of the neighborhood, which a few brave and decent people are valiantly struggling to overcome and create an Eco-Village.

I speak as somebody who has purchased property in the area in a conscious attempt to be part of the positive instead of the negative. This individual, Thomas A. Banks, represents "the negative." Therefore he should serve as long as possible so the positive people in this neighborhood will have more time to make the area better, and keep moving forward our dream of an eco-village, before Thomas Banks is inevitably released and--due to what appears to be a life which has taken a certain negative direction--inevitably appears back in front of that very address, doing the exact same thing.

It would be good if a miracle took place and Banks reflected on his crime and the direction of his life, instead of engaging in multiple layers of denial, rationalization, fatalistic negativity and bravado as part of some "gangster" subculture which will only end two ways: long incarceration or the grave.

Since a miracle in this man's life of overwhelming negativity seems unlikely, and the law should not be based upon hope of a miracle, then let Banks serve as long as possible, whether it be incarceration or some form of supervised release, so the decent people struggling to make the neighborhood better instead of worse will be protected from him as long as possible.