Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.
Johnny Northside, this is the Hawkman's gift to a soldier overseas. I was asked to get some photos of what's (not) happening with Keith Reitman's "blue twins" on 26th and Penn. Virtually no exterior work has been done since the tornado.
The northern house,
2522 Penn Ave N, has been registered as boarded since September 1, 2011. My recollection is that it's been in that state for much longer, but the city has been hesitant to penalize owners who were tornado victims. According to
the city's website at the time of this posting, 2522 has had one permit pulled since the tornado, and that's been to repair and replace the roof. That permit was pulled on October 25, 2011. The only possible way the roof pictured in the bottom photo has been repaired or replaced is if Reitman got the houses on the historic registry for their significance at the time of May 23, 2011. A quick check with the HPC confirms this is not the case.
2520 Penn is actually in worse shape. The front porch (which is likely no longer a front porch, as I'd guess the house has been reconfigured to add more bedrooms) has been open to the elements since the tornado. No permits have been pulled on this property since then, it was designated as vacant on November 9, 2011, and put on the VBR list as of February 17, 2012. There is a pending $6,746 VBR fee against the property. Edna H Anderson is listed as the owner on the house (with Reitman as the taxpayer), but I can't tell who that person is in relation to Reitman.
Jaan Properties has their logo displayed on both houses, claiming with no apparent sense of irony that they do "complete remodeling." But the only remodeling these two homes are likely to see will have to come from increasingly more prominent stickers from the city's regulatory services.
