The street was relatively quiet this morning so I wandered west to see if anything was happening up at Third Way Network's four fourplexes. Well, not much is happening... most of the buildings have been pretty much gutted and I suspect reality has now set in.... It costs more to rehab 117 year old buildings than to build new. Meanwhile, 16 units of affordable housing have been lost and the gangbangers that formerly resided there have moved down the block to terrorize me and my neighbors.
Peace Foundation's plans for the 'hood are similarly deluded. What they have proposed is a classic community "intervention" that might work well in Richfield or Robbinsdale. Sure, they can buy enough picnic supplies for a NNO feed on every block on 26th Avenue North, but unless there's a couple cops on every block the seniors and families will stay locked behind their multiple deadbolts.
Now here in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 nonprofits, they're sort of a protected species. But they should not be above criticism. Third Way Network is failing because it ignored several realities of our housing market- we have a surplus of housing as folks of all incomes flee our violent city so their rehabbed building would have sat empty anyway. They ignored the fact that once you've gutted to the shells of a 117 year old buildings on questionable foundations you may as well build new construction. And they forget that one bad tenant can make life hell for the rest in their four fourplexes, and no off street parking means the tenants cars will be burglarized and vandalized on a regular basis. By now Third Way Network could have bulldozed the buildings and made a couple families homeowners of new factory built homes for less than $100,000 each.
Peace Foundation seems intent on similar nieve dogooderism. They propose to turn loose an army of volunteers in the freefire zone that is 26th Avenue North. Consider that for every fatal urban shooting there are five shootings that will produce lifelong disability, with medical costs and loss of income running into the millions. Hopefully Peace Foundation has good insurance, as it sounds like they're too innocent to issue their volunteers bullet proof vests or even a cell phone.
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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