Another House Bites the Dust

I am delighted to see a blogger over at the Star Tribune's Buzz.mn has taken up the subject of house demolition.

This is a serious issue for Minneapolis, as several commenters on his post have noted. Demo-ing old houses does NOT fix a problem neighborhood, but in fact makes things worse as we eradicate our neighborhoods' history and replace it with modular shit which elicits zero pride and furthermore breaks up the continuity of the housing landscape.

At least that's my view.

Perhaps we need to re-enact the "dollar house" program, and encourage rehabbing. In addition to preserving quality, craftsman architecture, it would also provide psychological benefits as neighbors AND outsiders see that some people actually CARE enough to invest in North Minneapolis.

Oh, and it could be profitable too.