City-Owned Vacant Properties Made Available for Purchase

Several days ago I received notification from the city that they were making available for sale several dozen boarded/vacant structures as well as a far larger number of city-owned vacant lots.  The City Planning and Economic Development arm (CPED) took out an ad in the Star Tribune to notify potentially interested parties of the offer period from February 10th through the 21st.  The act of seeking out and engaging private developers instead of fast-tracking houses for demolition is a huge step in the right direction for our city.  Quite a few staffers and council members put in a lot of work to get us to where we are today, and that deserves recognition.

But there are a few ways this rollout could have been better, and a few questions still unanswered.  Such as...

Christmas at the Sheltering Arms House

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from the Minneapolis Journal.

Sure, it's nowhere near Christmas.  It's not even July yet, so we have at least a few days before major retailers start putting Yuletide decorations out.  But a friend of mine sent me this link that tells a little bit more of the history of The Sheltering Arms House at 2648-2650 Emerson Ave N.

For newer readers, The Sheltering Arms House is a boarded and vacant fourplex that was purchased by the City of Minneapolis with the intention of demolition and land banking.  Before that could happen, I did some research and found that the house was likely the first or second Sheltering Arms orphanage back in the 1800's, and was the precursor to the Sheltering Arms Foundation.  Back when this was an orphanage, it was run by a board of twenty-five Episcopalian nuns, who were committed to serving orphaned children without regard to race, color or creed.

Given that the historic contributions of women and minorities are woefully under-represented in our fair city, the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council supported a historic designation study to determine whether this property could receive such a status.  To date, that study has not been completed.  In the meantime, little nuggets like this keep popping up:

Minneapolis Journal Dec. 25th 1906:

Old fashioned Christmas customs were in vogue at the Sheltering Arms, 2650 Emerson Ave N, where thirty homeless children are tenderly cared for. Thirty stockings were hung up last night in gleeful anticipation and this morning there was a lively scramble all over the place. The tree celebration was planned for 3 o'clock this afternoon for which an interesting program had been arranged by the matron, Miss F.B. Hynes.

Saving "Fat City" - Comparing Preservation in San Diego and Minneapolis

Post and above photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Other photos/images from www.dsoderblog.com, used with permission.


Part 4 of 4 housing policy/wonkish posts.  Click on the links for part 1, part 2, part 3.

I spent a week this summer helping Bryan Thao Worra become a former Hawthornite.  He moved out to the LA area, and we drove across country in a moving van, sampling ghost peppers along the way.  Once we hit the ocean, we bombed around Los Angeles, San Diego, and whatever other cities there are along the sprawling coastal metropolis area.  In San Diego, I came across this sign and snapped a photo to remind me to go back and research what they were doing to save a potential historic site from demolition.  What could Minneapolis learn from other areas?

It almost seemed I was destined to look into this more.  "Fat City" is a nightclub located along the historic Pacific Highway, with Hawthorn Street as the nearest intersection.  Like Fuji-Ya here in Minneapolis, Fat City was the beneficiary of a pioneering Asian-American businessperson, Tom Fat.

The nightclub was originally called Top's Nightclub, and was owned by a Russian immigrant, Yale Khan.  Top's became a central point for the San Diego nightlife, drawing star performers such as Nat King Cole, Shelley Winters, Nelson Eddy, Van Johnson, Don Ameche, Susan Hayward, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.  In 1977, Tom Fat took over the property, restoring and improving the site.  The crown jewel of his addition was...