I'm not familiar with enough of the school buildings that were targeted for closing to say whether they could be directly converted into housing.
Another option, however, might be to replace other uses that were lost as a result of new housing developments. For example, in NE Minneapolis, there have been some housing projects in recent years that displaced artists' work spaces. From what I recall of Holland Elementary when I attended it 20+ years ago, I don't think it would be very feasible to convert it into particularly attractive housing, senior or otherwise. But I'll bet many of those classrooms would make pretty good work spaces for artists. And if those spaces were leased rather than the building being sold, then they would still be available as future classrooms again if population trends demanded it, And it would make a lot more sense to hang on to that 30-some year old building than to someday have to figure out where to build a new school in that area of NE. Another idea might be to re-use the school buildings as incubators for start-up businesses or other small organizations. I don't know this for certain, but I believe the U-Tech Center in Dinkytown (1313 5th St SE) was at one time a school building since it sure looks like one. Now it houses a bunch of little non-profits and some other small-scale ventures. Mark Snyder Windom Park On 3/10/04 2:07 PM, "David Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Interesting, non-Mpls-specific story in the Strib today about how, > statewide, the number of preschoolers are dropping while the number of > oldsters is rising. > > http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4654710.html > > It brings up a natural re-use for soon-to-be-shuttered Minneapolis > schools: as senior housing, or mixed housing with a large senior > component. > > My sense is that many city neighborhoods don't have enough workable > alternative housing for seniors who wish to remain there. Is it logical > to suggest that many schools could naturally help solve this problem? > > David Brauer > Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
