Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A DIY Tip for Vacant Lots

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Several months ago, two houses on 26th and Lyndale were demolished and since then, some residents had been reporting vehicles driving onto the vacant lots to do what looked like drug deals.  Neighbors claim this wasn't happening before demolition, and only started up after the houses were down.  It's also possible that the deals were happening for a while and were just obscured by the houses.  In either case, the vacant lots have not led to such activity disappearing from the corner.

The problem is that "someone's driving/parking on a vacant lot" is really not a priority call for 911.  And unless the parking happens for an extended period of time, 311 is probably not going to make much of a difference either.  What to do?

So I was walking home and saw the parcels when I had an idea about the silt barriers that really aren't needed anymore.


And I thought, "Those aren't going to be used for anything over the winter."  I dragged the things over to the driveway cutouts, and presto!


Drivers can still jump the curb if they want, or drive over these puppies.  But it should keep at least some of the illicit activity away, and one can always dream of a sporty car, low to the ground, getting stuck on one of these.  Who knows, maybe the city can adopt something like this to cordon off other vacant lots?

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