Mel is exactly right. The "Pilot Cities" program in the '60s considered alley houses as "sub-standard" and strongly encouraged/required their removal or demolition. Phillips had a number of them, but because a second house had been built on the lot, almost all were torn down if they were unsuitable as a garage. Other neighborhoods "less developed" where alley houses remained the only structure on the lot managed to escape the impact, so they're seen south of Lake Street. I suspect a small house on 11th Ave just north of 24th St might be a relocated "alley" house, but haven't verified it.
As the City seems poised to jump on the "affordable housing" bandwagon and re-consider this idea (although Jim Graham's experience might be instructive), Mel's question of "What has changed?" needs to be addressed. Maybe the "developer-friendly" zoning proposals aren't in the best interests of most people in the city. Maybe the current building codes in the city unnecessarily increase costs, particularly of renovation of older properties, without providing basic health/safety benefits to the housing stock. My suspicion is that the "affordable housing crisis" is past its peak, as shown by "for rent" and "for sale" signs sprinkled through most City neighborhoods. Now that there is some equilibration in the market, I'm leery of "changes in the rules" to justify a new round of "taxpayer-assisted" affordable housing development to increase density. It must be time for the most-favored developers to reap a new bounty of redevelopment dollars, so Minneapolis is off to the races again. When will the City focus on core competencies- public safety and infrastructure- on a long-term basis? Mel's reply to Barb In the early 60's alley houses were considered so bad that the city required that they be torn down, if there was another house on the lot. Now they want to do an 180 and build them again. Maybe someone should ask why if they were bad before how can they be good now? Mpls needs to get back to basics, and begin providing public safety and taking care of the public infrastructure. Anything else just drives people to the burbs. Sue Anderson Phillips/Fridley _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
