Other artifacts:
"Bomber crate" houses- during World War II a local plant made hordes of giant wooden crates for shipping bomber parts between plants. These were about 12' or so wide, 8' or so tall, and over 20' or so long. When the war ended a bunch of these were left here without further use. Some ingenious folks bought these up, arranged them in various configurations, and made "bomber crate houses" out of them. A friend of mine grew up in one in the St.Paul Park/Cottage Grove area, but they may have ended up in Minnepolis as well.
The Camden shantytown of the depression- My grandparents told me of a settlement that existed between Lyndale and the river along the railroad tracks. This may have begun as an autocamp or railroad workers exercising their contractual right to camp on the railroad's property. This area in fact had water mains and hydrants installed at the time, some are still visible- perhaps the land was plotted but never developed?
looking for other forgotten artifacts,
Dyna Sluyter in Hawthorne
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
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