The Last of the Green Homes North Demolitions

Post and photos by The Hawthorne Hawkman.

After two recent posts on Green Homes North, my borderline obsessive-compulsiveness drove me to visit every single parcel on the program's eligible property list.  I wanted to see if there were other houses that could be saved, or if the questionable demos only popped up in or near the Jordan neighborhood.  Out of the remaining lots in the Camden, Folwell, McKinley, Victory, Cleveland, Lind-Bohanon, and Harrison neighborhoods, there were only two recent demolitions left.  Clearly it's possible that more houses were torn down in the first round of the program, but that's speculation at this point.

The bottom two photos are of 4238 Fremont Ave N, which appears to have been torn down within the last few weeks, given the fresh piles of dirt.  A Google street view search is not terribly revealing, as the trees on the property obscure the house almost entirely.  It was blue, that's about all I can say.  And since it was in the path of the tornado, I'll reserve judgment on whether this particular house was salvageable.  If anyone has information one way or another, please share.

The other property, shown in the top photo, is 3504 James Ave N.  Google shows us some detail on this one.

The knee-jerk preservationist in me wants to say this one shouldn't have been torn down.  All the same, it really doesn't look like much.  And I do have a friend who holds similar preservation views who lives on this block.  He didn't object to this demolition, so I'll defer to that opinion.

And that rounds out the Green Homes North potential and actual demolitions.  Several properties will hopefully be saved thanks to the work of northside housing activists and a major bump in publicity from the Nicole Curtis Facebook page - 2637 Emerson, 2046 James, 2114 Irving, and 2934 Queen Ave N, with the last one being in the most precarious position.  I would also argue that 1915 Penn Ave N should not be torn down until a developer comes along with a proposal that would require demolition.  But if a developer would want to rehab that one, it's a little late to do so when the house is a bundle of sticks in a landfill.

The next time a housing initiative gets rolled out for north Minneapolis, I'll be looking forward to a process that's more intentional about preservation first and demolition only when all other options have been fully exhausted.

The Demolition Problem

Post and stock photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Last summer I was asked, as a Jordan resident, what I thought about a house at 2637 Emerson Avenue North.  It was a vacant property on the MLS for a song, and the City of Minneapolis was contemplating acquisition for demolition.  I maintained that the built form of the house was intact, that the interior wasn't beyond repair, and that the block already had four vacant lots and would not be improved with a fifth.  My position as a resident was that this house should be purchased to keep it out of the hands of a slumlord, but that it should not be demolished.

I was not entirely surprised to see that CPED moved forward with acquisition and began the demolition process in spite of my recommendations.  It wouldn't be the first time, and nicer houses have been torn down.  I was pleasantly intrigued though, when Nicole Curtis the Rehab Addict, made a public push to make the backhoe go away.  That move has revealed a few problems with the demolition process, not the least of which is the demolitions themselves.

But the process overall is wrought with inconsistencies that don't serve anyone well.  Stopping a demolition at the last possible moment is stressful on any preservationist.  Having to undo the demo contract can't be pleasant for city staffers.  And losing out on a contracted demolition is fundamentally unfair to the crew that just showed up to do a job.  But as more and more good private market developers are coming out of the woodwork in north Minneapolis, they are proving one of my long-held beliefs:  there is a market for these homes, if they are marketed correctly.

The devil, as always, is in the details though...