I was director of the Jordan Area Community Council between 1988 and 1993. I can tell you that the drive for taking down boarded houses came not from city hall but from the blocks in Jordan.
The big long term cause of loss of housing in Jordan was because of lack of maintenance. Lack of maintenance was a more common problem on rental property because people could make money by buying houses on the cheap, milking all the rent they could out of it, and then simply walk away when the maintenance costs got too high. This caused boarded houses to spring up in Jordan like mushrooms. A lot of boarded houses came down in Jordan because neighbors wanted them down. And people were willing to use condemnation as a tactic of last resort in getting rid of drug dealers. Here's why: Scenario 1. Let's say you live on a block in Jordan, and you have a boarded house as a neighbor. That boarded house is doing a lot of damage to your block. It's an eyesore It hurts the value of your house. Maybe it is unsecure and vagrants or teenagers are hanging around inside. You are worried that someone could set it on fire, and that the fire could threaten your house You have the chance to get the property torn down within a short period of time. Or you can hope that someone with very deep pockets will come by and rehab it and bring it up to code. But there are no immediate prospects. You go with the sure bet and get the house torn down. Scenario two. YOu live on a block in Jordan, and you have a drug house next to you. The street is a parking lot. Maybe you have had a run-in with the people there. You are scared to let your kids outside. And this house has been a revolving door of drug dealers and problem tenants for the past 5 years. Police did a raid, but the drugs got flushed down the toilet and the police could not bring any serious charges You are offered an alternative way of getting rid of the drug dealers: condemn the house. You feel guilty about the children getting thrown out along with Mom and Pop Pusher, but if the alternative is continued drug dealing, you choose to condemn the house. While I worked at Jordan, we did a Dirty Thirty campaign to target absentee landlord properties. Half the properties chosen at block meetings were already boarded. Many ended up coming down. And the neighborhood often threw impromptu block parties when the bulldozers came in. We also ran a Block Out Drugs campaign that knocked out 50 drug houses in 18 months. Hundreds of families helped, and sometimes when nothing else worked condemnation was used as a tool. And people were so happy with the results that we had a parade every year with hundreds of participants that went past the drug houses we had closed down. So at least in Jordan, don't blame Cramer, Cherryhomes, Yanisch, or anybody else from downtown. Boarded houses came down because that was what the neighbors wanted. Jay Clark Cooper _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
