On Writing, and Remembering "Andy Fantastic"

On March 7th 2014, Andy Golebiowski, known on Johnny Northside and North by Northside as "The Artisan of Meat," and nicknamed "Andy Fantastic" among friends and family, passed away.  Andy was a proud husband, father, and grandfather, and that fierce pride carried over into everything Polish.  He and his wife Valeria, aka "The Polish Lady," have been pillars of the Hawthorne community for well over forty years.  Even before my own grandparents passed away, these two wonderful folks had become somewhat like my adopted north Minneapolis grandma and grandpa.  (It's not clear who adopted who; maybe that part got lost in a few rounds of drinking Polish vodka.)

The Golebiowski home on 31st Avenue North was, for a long time, the only occupied property on that block.  You'd never know it by driving through the area now, but at one point literally every other home on their street was foreclosed, boarded, vacant, arson-damaged, or some combination of those three.  It's no stretch to say that the Hawthorne EcoVillage would not be the success story it is today without Andy and Valeria.

Valeria attended most of the meetings, and came out for press conferences, dinners, galas, and gatherings with various politicos who were supportive of the development.  But Andy was no less invested in the community than she was.  He just showed that investment in different ways, like constantly peppering me with questions about the next big thing, who new home owners would be, when the bad actors would be leaving, swearing, bragging about Polish (fill in the blank), drinking Polish vodka, sharing his home with community members, more swearing, celebrating each small neighborhood success with Polish sausage, and then some vodka to top it off (Polish, of course).

The celebratory Polish sausage was at first a pleasant surprise, then a way to sustain revitalization efforts, and eventually a tradition of sorts.  I'll always remember the first time that happened...

Equity is More Than Just a Buzzword

Invoking the word "equity" is a lot like talking about Heaven.  Everyone likes to describe it, but nobody seems to do what it takes to get there.  Or worse yet, the word gets tossed around with no meaning whatsoever.  It's become the trendy thing people have to say they want.  And yet I struggle to find any meaningful incorporation of its principles into actual policy.  When it does make its way into political decisions, equity seems to be applied only to giant, broad initiatives like raising the minimum wage or anti-bullying legislation.  When the word is bandied about at community meetings, it doesn't seem attached to any specific actions at all. 

To me, putting equity into practice means being intentional about closing gaps based on race, gender, class, and other barriers.  For instance, Minnesota consistently ranks near the nation's top in home ownership rates (currently #3) and yet we are also near the top when it comes to the gap between white and minority home ownership rates.  Applying a lens of housing equity to a project like redeveloping Penn Ave N would raise this question:  the Penn Avenue redevelopment initiative is likely to add more rental units than home ownership units through its rehab and new construction efforts.  In context with Minnesota's home ownership gap, what does an equitable Penn Avenue plan look like when it comes to housing?  Or are there other initiatives that should be coordinated with the Penn Avenue redevelopment as a result?

Equality tends to be the end result of large or statewide proposals.  I submit, however, that equity...

Broadway Proposal Not Exactly a Pinnacle

Post  by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photos by Scottie Tuska

West Broadway needs big ideas.  The stretch along the south side of Broadway, from around Bryant to Emerson, needs comprehensive investment and change (as does Lyndale to Bryant, and almost every other segment along the corridor).  Those two needs, however, do not unilaterally go hand in hand.  At a West Broadway Coalition presentation tonight, Tim Baylor's Pinnacle Management group exemplified that specific dynamic.

Pinnacle's proposal, called Satori, is to take every building on the south side of West Broadway from midway along Bryant (commonly referred to as "The Prayer Center Building" even though that tenant is long gone) all the way to Emerson, and tear almost all of it down.  In its place would be first-floor retail, second-floor office space, and 2-4 floors of luxury apartments.  The plan has its shortcomings, but I could still support it if it were on the north side of the street.

First, the shortcomings...

Conservation Districts Don't Do Enough for North Minneapolis

The newly-proposed conservation district ordinance should excite me.  Either the preservationist in me should leap for joy that neighbors may have another tool available to preserve the character of their community, or the libertarian in me should bristle at the prospect of fewer property rights.  Instead, I'm left shrugging my shoulders and responding with a resounding "meh."

At the very first meeting when the idea was first rolled out, I had one question that would shape my assessment of this ordinance moving forward:  How would a conservation district help north Minneapolis?  And more to the point, how would it help "level the playing field" between neighborhoods where it's already easy to preserve houses and features vs. neighborhoods where doing so is continuously an uphill battle?  Could a conservation district be used to slow or stop certain demolitions?  And to bring it home to an area in need of preservation a block away from me, could a conservation district help The Endangered Dutch Colonials of Oliver Avenue North?

The answer back then was essentially...

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...

Valentine's Day Fire Forces Tough Questions

When the fire at 4425 Aldrich Ave N--owned by the infamous Mahmood Khan--broke out several months ago, a common refrain was relief that everyone was able to escape in time.  Many wondered what would have happened if circumstances were just a bit different.  If the fire had started somewhere else, or if it spread just a bit faster, would we be mourning deaths instead of sighing in collective relief?  Tragically, we don't have to wonder "what if?" because the unthinkable has happened.  Five children are dead, and a family is torn apart.

When news spread about the Valentine's Day fire at 2818 Colfax, plenty of northsiders' first words were, "I bet it happened at a property owned by _____."  That blank had one of about five well-known landlords in it, and Paul Bertelson was among them.  Initial investigative results are already pointing away from foul play and indicating the fire was an accident of some sort, making the next question obvious:  How could we have kept this from happening, and how will we keep something like it from happening again?  We shouldn't need a senseless tragedy like this to cause us to ask some tough questions around housing in Minneapolis.  But it's happened and we better take a hard look at how and why.

1522 Hillside Cleaned Out - "Forty-One People in Forty-One Minutes"

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photo by Blong Yang.

On Saturday, dozens of people from across the Twin Cities--and possibly beyond--converged on 1522 Hillside to do a volunteer clean-up.  Growing up in a farming community, the trash-out of the house held similarities to good, old-fashioned barn raisings.  What would have been a job taking up at least a full day's work was instead completed in less than an hour.  "Forty-one people in forty-one minutes" was how Nicole Curtis described the task.  Most participants had expected to work for a few hours, and others arrived late under the assumption that there would be plenty to do all day long.  The final tally was eighty-nine people who came to help.

I got to see the interior of the house for the first time, and it's quite the labyrinth.  The old house lovers did get to "geek out" a bit as we meandered through..