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Monday, February 21, 2011
The 1522 Hillside Controversy
6:27 AM | 
Posted by
The I.I. |
This blog thread posted by the Irving Inquisition uses some explicit language, as well as depicting some aspects of life in North Minneapolis that some readers may find objectionable. Reader discretion is advised.
The 1522 Hillside Controversy
Feast your eyes on 1522 Hillside Avenue North, Minneapolis MN. 55411. This one particular property has become a divisive lightning rod of controversy amongst NoMi residents over the years, and now it’s clear that the brewing tension over this address is boiling over.
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| You can tell this place has seen better days. |
Twenty years ago, 1522 was licensed and rented out by a Robert E. Lindahl Jr. Six years later, somebody by ne the name of Theresa Bolger assumed ownership of it. She rented it out for a while under that name for several years until the license’s name changed to Theresa Gubrud. Since the contact address was the same, I could only assume that there was a marriage or divorce that played a role there. In Y2K, Aaron Ormiston assumed rental responsibility of this property, and was licensed to rent it out through 2004.
In the thirteen years this property was legally rented out, it was chopped up, turned into a boarding house, had massive quantities of its original woodwork and glasswork stripped, and for lack of a better word; was essentially raped.
Years later in 2008, the property was officially registered as being a vacant building. In 2009 it was condemned. Since that time, 1522 has simply sat there; boarded, ugly, dilapidated, and hopeless.
At this point one may be asking where the controversy begins. That’s an excellent question in my humble opinion. This victim of slumlord mismanagement has been in the target reticles of Hillside residents for years. On the other hand, some preservationists identified this property as a place to save because it’s considered to be historic and a mansion. The crux of the controversy is essentially this: a group of people want this property demolished, and another group of people want this property spared from demolishment and restored.
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| Not quite a view to a kill. |
Suppose the property were to be spared, what would it cost so revitalize it to something approximating its original glory? I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea. Urban Homeworks took a gander at it, and said no way. (That’s probably for the best anyway) Somebody else commented that it would take upwards of $400,000.00 to restore the property. Some individuals commented about the faulty structural integrity of the foundation as a source of terminal damage. Yet some experienced preservationists suggested that the property could be restored for significantly less than $400,000.00 and also challenged the notion that the foundation was compromised.
Interestingly enough, the varying view points of view on this subject are internal, mainly NoMi residents. Clearly this is a problem that North Minneapolitans aren’t singing Kumbaya on.
If you’ve read this far into the post and you’re wondering why any of this even matters, consider this. If the money existed to repair the house, it probably would have been done. Yet the fact remains is this; the money doesn’t exist, plain and simple. Demolishing the house will cost thousands. Rebuilding the house will cost hundreds of thousands.
So what’s the next step? Well, I think the next step is to have a paint-ball fight on the property. I can think of at least a dozen people in the Jordan neighborhood that I’d love to shoot in tender areas with an automatic paintball gun… Alas, I digress… back to the next step about 1522 Hillside.
Me personally, I don’t particularity have an opinion on the fate of the 1522 Hillside house. I’m far too invested in carrying out the purge to curtail slumlords and thuggery. Yet this blogger has been sucked into the fray and here’s why. Some anonymous blogger left me a complaint stating the following which I will quote verbatim, errors and all:
“Eric Johnson, vice president of the JACC council, I have been trying to get an answer to the question but Jeff Skrens seems to not be publishing my comments. So the question is why did you target the house in question for demolition when people experienced in the subject say that this house has potential? So why is it recommended by the JACC for demolition? Thanks for answering my question. http://north-by-northside.blogspot.com/2011/02/100-abandoned-homes-pictorial.html”
I’ll be more than happy to answer that comment, ANONYMOUS 2/19/11. First of all, I’m not a vice president… Vice presidents get paid big bucks! I’m the Vice Chair; which means I volunteer for free and serve as a punching bag. Also, you misspelled Jeff’s last name, its Skrenes, not Skrens. To answer your question; last month I sent a communiqué on behalf of JACC, where I volunteer at, recommending that 1522 Hillside be seized due to tax forfeiture. Tax forfeiture is of course the inevitable result of not paying your property taxes. 1522 was but one address on the list we were working with. If the city wants to revitalize or demolish the house once they assume ownership, that’s their business. In terms of that house having potential… yeah, I’m not so sure about that.
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| The back side of 1522 Hillside. |
I would like to welcome everybody’s opinions regarding this subject; Irving Inquisition is going to take the Switzerland position on 1522 Hillside. Obviously this is a very polarizing subject, as it affects me personally due to the fact that I’m close friends people that fall in on both sides of the fence for this issue.
What do you think??
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27 comments:
You also neglected to mention that Jeff Skrenes works for the Hawthorne Neighborhood, and not JACC. Jeff is not the "go to" person for Jordan neighborhood concerns. Just because he misleads people with the intro to his blog stating that he is "your friendly neighborhood housing director" does not mean that he works for or is responsible for the entire northside. As a matter of fact, several people wonder what the Hell he actually does as Housing Director to improve NoMi besides blog, as no one will answer the question.
@ Anon 11:16,
I didn't "neglect to mention" anything. The nature of the comment that I was responding to was about a question directed at me.
You're proceeding from a position of bad faith to say that Jeff is misleading anybody. I think you have a personal grudge against him because it's obvious that you are going out of your way to say contrary things about Jeff. Furthermore, Jeff or anybody else for that matter, is entitled to express an opinion on anything he wants.
As for the last sentence in your comment. You guys appear to have an unhealthy obsession with Jeff's function at HNC. What has he done to improve NoMI?.... More like what have YOU done to improve NoMi???? You don't even have the courage to comment as yourselves; you've got to slam a perfectly nice guy anonymously on somebody else's blog.
I say tear that dump down. From the back it is clear it has had a number of "add ons" over the years, which are hardly ever good. Bigs dumps aren't worth anything over North any more!
II wrote:
" If the money existed to repair the house, it probably would have been done."
Please explain to me how this sentence makes any sense at all. Is money somehow now like water, flowing to the all the poor, dried out condemned homes in our city through natural course?
The fact of the matter is that this property has not be available to anyone who might be able to restore it until RECENTLY. So don't go insinuating that nobody wants it or they'd have got it and rehabbed it by now. That's just crap.
Oh hey and by the way, look what the City of Cincinnati does (among many things) for degraded buildings:
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/pages/-41030-/
Why, they ask for help from the private sector!
Ranty,
Money is everything. Money is where all home improvement resources are derived. Even if you gave the house away and got all volunteer labor to fix it, you would still have to pay for supplies.
As I mentioned before, the house was seized due to tax forfeiture. Maybe the city could be persuaded to sell / give it up to somebody. How about you get on that and let me know how that works out for you. Before you do that though, talk to the next door neighbors and see what they think. I'd be surprised if you got any response nicer than somebody rolling their eyes.
II:
I will not fight for this house. I don't wish to force revitalization through preservation down the throats of unwilling and short-sighted neighbors. I hope they enjoy the empty lot and whatever new box is built after it's mowed into the ground.
I'm glad that everyone on Hillside -as well as every blogger I know- is such an expert and predicting the costs of home renovations. In fact, some are so incredibly talented that they can predict to a hundred-thousand dollar mark... without EVER even having been inside!
Personally, as you well know already, I would like to see this house acquired by the city and either given away or sold for a dollar to someone who is willing to rehabilitate it.
But I'm not going to hold my breath, and I'm not going to fight my fellow Northsiders over it either.
I do feel very strongly about this issue, but I also know what my time and psychological well-being are worth: more than this house.
The county has remodeled some of the tax forfeiture houses thay have taken. Check with them to see if they will do the rehab!!!
Ranty,
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an expert on what rehab costs are. I can speak from my own experience as a home owner... A home owner that's sunk 50K+ into my own home.
That being said, today may be your lucky day. A certain somebody we both know has taken an interest in the process of real estate acquisitions of this kind. I suspect there might be some interest there in revitalizing properties such as 1522. Besides, the City Council hasn't voted on this yet.
I confess I'm confused about your position where you stated that you won't fight for this house. The preservationist camp has been all over this property like flies on shit.
Me personally, I would rather see every old house restored... but... There's gotta be takers for the task, they've gotta have the money, and definitely no slumlords.
Thank you for your reply.
The question is NOT what have I done to improve NoMi. The question is, and a very reasonable question I think, is what is Jeff paid to do?
It is a very simple question, that has been asked, and no one will answer.
Jeff is paid by HNC as the housing director. What is the housing director's function? What goals does that position have? Have those goals been achieved?
Public funds are being used. The public has a right to know. I don't expect you to address these questions as you volunteer for JACC.
But the questions have been directed to the proper people and no one will answer.
That gives the appearance that someone is screwing the pooch.
My position is that the house should be offered for sale by whatever government entity possesses it or will possess it. And that it be offered for rehabilitation, not demolition.
That is my position. But just because I hold it doesn't mean I'm going to scream and cry and agitate like I've done for other houses in the past, especially when it puts me at odds with so many Northsiders.
I've put a lot of time and energy in trying to "save" various properties, along with some of my past neighbors and good friends. We've had a few successes, and a few failures. What I am saying is that I don't want to go through that draining process again, and certainly not when it puts me at terrible odds with folks I would otherwise consider friends.
It pains me to write that, but I don't see anything changing, and I'd like to put my energies to better use.
@ Anon 11:16,
Hey man, you're going about this the wrong way. If you really want to know the HR side of Jeff's job, just call HNC and ask. Kicking up dirt on my blog is a waste of time, and it makes you look petty. This is common sense stuff, you should know that.
I just want to add that I agree with Ranty 100%. I don't believe enough has been done to explore preservation options, and that also means we likely don't have all the tools we need at our disposal for preservation of housing.
But yeah, good friends over on Hillside; I think they're wrong about most of the houses they want to demolish, but let 'em destroy their block if that's what they want. I'd love to save most of the housing in that area though.
Hey H.H.
What sort of work did you do to explore the preservation options over there in the Ecovillage and why didn't you want to save most of the houses over there where they bulldozed whole blocks at a time?
Anon 5:15, Much of the "whole blocks" being bulldozed happened just before I began working for Hawthorne, so it's hard for me to have an opinion one way or another about that. Along 31st, where much of that block was demolished, there were at least four houses that were victims of arson and were beyond repair.
Furthermore, my views on demolition and preservation have changed from when I initially started here, and I now lean more towards preservation. If you want to have a more detailed conversation about why, I'd be happy to talk over coffee.
Finally, one big difference I see in the demolition in the EcoVillage vs. much of the demolition elsewhere is that in the EcoVillage there is a plan for what to do with the vacant lot post-demolition. In many other cases where a house is torn down, there is no plan for what to do other than to have the city or a partner sit on the lot until...well, that part isn't exactly clear. Granted, this keeps the Paul Koenigs of the world from slapping up another round of Dream Homes, but I still think there's a better way to approach the issue. (Like by tearing down a lot fewer houses, to start)
I realize I hadn't really answered your question though. There are two houses PPL has acquired and rehabbed in the EcoVillage, with at least one more to begin work shortly. Sometimes those properties sat vacant for a year or more while funding streams and politics worked themselves out. We've helped three other existing residents with rehab projects on their homes. Habitat has rehabbed four houses in and around the EcoVillage, and they are demolishing and building new in several other cases. And we are still looking to acquire and fix the brick house on 30th and 6th.
1522 Hillside has been for sale for the last 5 years, and empty for the last 7 after a shooting at that converted brothel/crackhouse.
Last time I checked, the owner was trying to unload it on Craigslist for $15,000.
An 8-plex for $15,000 and no one jumps at it? Slumlords, revitalizers or otherwise?
Seems like an awfully great deal... unless the cost of rehabbing the structure is obscenely prohibitive.
There have been ample opportunites to tour the inside, (legal and otherwise) and most who have lament its complete degradation... including those that would have LOVED to rehab it.
Why would Urban Homeworks say that rehabbing the property would cost hundreds of thousands when it wouldn't? What is their motivation? Are they consistantly wrong in their assessments of properties? If so, I would like to hear about it.
What is the true cost to rehab this property? I hear people dismissing the "hundreds of thousands" figure, but have never heard another estimate besides "much less than that". OK, so how much? The building can be had for $15,000. So $30,000? $60,000? $99,999? Even at the latter, it sounds like a steal to have 4500 square feet for $114,999, missing woodwork or no.
So why has no one done it?
I'm not married to tearing this property down, I've never advocated it, and a lot of other Hillside residents feel the same way. So do something about it.
Buy the property, rehab it for pennies and make a shitload of cash. Prove those that want to tear it down wrong. Prove Urban Homeworks wrong.
Or tell Urban Homeworks what the true cost of rehabbing the property is. Or Habitat. Or the Pohlad Foundation. Or Catalyst. Or Paul fucking Koening for all I care.
If it is such a great deal, SOMONE will want to do it, right?
The city would MUCH rather collect property taxes than own a vacant lot. I'd rather see a beautiful old home brought back than a vacant lot.
But no one is stepping up to do it. Why?
And for the record, TWO houses have been torn down on the street in the last decade, and only one, 1564, was advocated by the neighbors
Vs how many in the EcoVillage?
P.S. I don't see how a disagreement like this would jeopardize any friendship I have with anyone. The only thing that might is if they did something egregiously asinine like root for the goddamn Red Wings.
Tear the big piece of crap down!!! I was in it 2 years ago and the bones are no good now, so it should be torn down!
Why hasn't this property sold for $15K? Because that's only a partial cost.
The property also had $25K+ of assessments and several years of back taxes.
The City allowed this structure to be turned into an 8plex. (Who could have seen that becoming a problem?) So the investment to return this to single family will be extensive and must be completed under an impossible time frame.
Is the neighborhood stable enough yet for someone to make this kind of an investment?
Will destroying this structure and replacing it with several non-profit low-income homes really take the community in the direction they want to go?
The iconic architecture of this home projects the aesthetic and cultural values that increase the image of a stable community. Over time, the investment in preserving homes like these will increase the value of all other properties in the community.
My recommendation would be to mothball this home while committing community funds (6-9K) into the facade restoration. This would benefit the entire community and set the tone for further community development while increasing the properties value and the potential for it to be purchased by someone with the assets to renovate the interior.
I will bet anyone that if this action were taken this home would become the poster child for local community development with huge media coverage highlighting the improvement happening in NoMi.
Actions like these are needed to bring homesteader investments back to our vacant properties. If we don't think our community is worth investing in - why should anyone else?
If the house was available for $15k, that's news to me. But then, I don't typically search craigslist for home listings - I search the MLS. I believe most qualified buyers and their agents do as well.
So I stand by the position that this house has not been properly marketed in quite some time. And back when it was for sale, it was horrendously overpriced. Just because something is overpriced doesn't mean it doesn't have value.
If the city wants to offer it for sale, it should be placed on MLS. And I'd be happy to market the hell out of it to my own network, free of charge. Believe me.
Also, as an aside, some of you may know that the way this property has changed hands over the last few years was, er, let's say "interesting." The rights to the mortgage lien were actually TRADED for a year's worth of advertising in an online publication.
HH, your answer is seriously flawed.
-You might not have been around for the beginning of the demolition but you've for sure been working there for most of it.
-I've personally heard Chris Wilson of PPL talk about how great the demolition has been for the Hawthorne neighborhood. With my own ears.
- You speak as if there are solid plans in place for every lot in the Ecovillage. That is an outright falsehood. At best there is a conceptual design and plan, and PPL scrambling to find funding for making something happen.
- You tried to list forth a whole bunch of rehabs, most of those are outside the Ecovillage, but whatever.
- You always pull some point about there is no plan in place for lots where houses are demolished or might be demolished. That is not true, there are often just as strong of a plan as what you've got going over there in the Ecovillage: the plan is "this will be a lot where no slum house will stand. A lot that will hopefully be a nice new house with a nice decent family to occupy it. Or perhaps we'll put a tree nursery or a vegetable garden. But it will not have a slummy vacant house to attract thugs and vagrants and crapify our block. That is the plan for this lot when we are done tearing down that crappy house".
Just because MLS has a monopoly on listings doesn't make non-MLS listings like Craigslist or non-MLS sales any less legit. I would hope that my realtor would be looking at all sources of homes for sale vs just tossing in a search in MLS and saying here are your options.
@Geektopia, I'm writing this from Minneapolis, days after my cousin and I went to St. Paul and watched the Red Wings beat up on the home team. It was the best I've seen the Wild play against Detroit and it still wasn't enough. Take that!
You know, this issue is such a sensitive one for many of us that it is reassuring to hear you say it doesn't affect friendships. So thanks for the reminder that the revitalizers in NoMi stick together even when our opinions differ.
Most of what I'd say in response, Ranty already said. I do appreciate your context regarding the small number of homes demolished on Hillside. Frankly though, and I know this is not you, the Hillside Chronicles blog essentially advocated for the demolition of a property because of something as asinine as snow not being shoveled from a sidewalk. HC is a good friend of mine too, but that was about the dumbest thing I've seen on the demo/preserve issue, and it propagates the notion that Hillside residents are overly demo-happy. So thanks for the reminder things haven't happened that way.
To answer one other point Geektopia made, there have been, by my off-the-cuff recollection, thirteen demolitions within the confines of the EcoVillage since I began on staff. Two of those were the apartment complexes of anarchy, where drug-dealing occupants literally ran the properties into the ground. At least four houses were arson victims. Three lots have already had new construction built on them post-demolition. Another two will definitely see new construction in the spring. And another lot is being proposed for new construction, with the partners hoping to have enough funding to break ground on that lot (plus two additional ones that were demolished prior to my arrival) this summer.
Yes, Chris Wilson has spoken about how demolitions have been good for the EcoVillage. So have I. That doesn't make demolition a cookie-cutter response for every block, house, or development project.
The anonymous commenter contends that my answer is flawed, and I disagree. I also submit that the "this will be a vacant lot, thank God" line of reasoning is, if not flawed, then woefully incomplete and short-sighted.
H.H. was doing okay until he talked stuff 'bout the Wild. It's on now. I will put a voodoo curse on the city of Detroit...never mind,it's been done already.
@anon 8:24 I didn't say that non-MLS listings or non-MLS sales aren't "legit."
But from a marketing standpoint, withholding a listing from MLS is bad for the seller, as it greatly limits their property's exposure.
Tear it down. The residents of Hillside Avenue have demonstrated themselves to be quite short sighted. They deserve more vacant lots, not historic architecture that has actual transformative potential.
It is being restored by Nicole Curtis the Rehab Addict
This is very interesting. I grew up and still live in North Minneapolis and just today learned on seeing my long deceased grandfather's burial records that this is where he lived with his 2nd wife in 1956. It was only the two of them, so I'm guessing that it was an apartment or boarding house at that time. I only wish I could have seen it "back in the day" when I'm sure it was very beautiful. How sad that anyone would strip away it's beauty.
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