I only act rude and insulting to strangers, obviously - my bad!

So today I was taking the dog (one of them) around the block for a quick potty break (he's geri[p]atric and can't really hold it very long,) and I happened upon my neighbor to the east, sitting on her stoop drinking a beer. #NTTAWWT

Out of habit (admittedly) rather than sheer friendliness, I said hello to her as I passed. She looked up at me and stared for a moment.

And then she said: "Oh, I apologize for the other night. I didn't know it was YOU who asked us to turn the music down."

****flashback****

On Saturday night, the backyard of the property in question was filled with revelers from about the hour of 6PM onward. #NTTAWWT At some point, the stereo got turned up LOUD. Like, REALLY LOUD. Outside. Across the alley from me. From where I was stooped over in the yard, weeding.

And, I must say, it wasn't the delightful and slightly-relaxed R&B that had theretofore been playing... no... it was some song whose refrain included the word "B*TCH no less than three times per sentence.

So, I went over and did a charades move over the fence, indicated my hand turning down the volume. A guy went to turn it down, and as he did, no less than three other people reacted immediately with things like:

a) "Aw HELL NO,"

b) "Did that b*tch just tell you to turn it DOWN???

c) "Man, turn that sh*t UPPPP!!!

****/flashback****

So, what was most interesting to me about the situation (besides the fact that, blessedly, the music did in fact stay down for the rest of the evening and we had no other issues,) was the fact that the owner herself was one of the people yelling (it would seem,) and, that she realized that it's not okay to talk to a NEIGHBOR that way.

But I guess anybody else is fair game.

Or something.

But, she did apologize!

#NTTAWWT = not that there's anything wrong with that

Random Thoughts Roundup

1. I have a new tenant moving into my little cottage. Huzzah! He seems fabulous, and is really excited about the house and the area.

2. The house on one side is for sale. I don't really like the building, but the yard is FANTASTIC. Too bad it's overpriced, and therefore I'm not buying it.

3. The house on the OTHER side is foreclosed and has a lockbox on the door. No listing as of yet, but it'll come on soon. I'd seriously consider this one if it were priced right. The deferred maintenance is crazy (and it has all of ZERO curb appeal,) but I'm confident that I could transform it. It's got great bones.

4. I toured a $20k Victorian today, a couple blocks away. It's actually not on the demo list, nor the chapter 249. (Dang, if only I were a millionaire NOW... I'd buy ALL these places!)

5. The sunset over Theo Wirth Parkway is PHENOMENAL.

6. Only one more day until the election. Thank heavens... I want this to be over. (Though I think it's pretty cool that the old Bean Scene on Penn/Bro is currently serving as an Obama campaign office.)

Northside Home Tour THIS SATURDAY???

****BREAKING NEWS****

I just found out about this today - YIKES!

But in-between your Art-A-Whirling, I heartily encourage you to jog west just a smidge and check out the home tour that's going on this Saturday, May 17 on the Northside!

I have a flyer, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to link it here. (It's a PDF)

Email me for the details and/or if you want to school me on PDF-linkage...)

And I'll see you North/Northeast this weekend!

So much for nobody wanting homes over north

Yes yes, I knowwwwwww, if you read the Strib or surf the web or talk to just about ANYBODY on the street on a given day about real estate, I KNOW they will mention the foreclosure rates in North Minneapolis.

Yes yes, mm-hmm. Indeed.

We've all heard... From Old Highland to Victory; from Willard-Homewood to Webber Park, there's a bootload of inventory, and price has crashed like some overweight ice-dam in a torrential spring rain. We've seen the google-maps, with their bazillion merging red dots.

But wait - let me tell you something you may not know:

In the past couple of months, I've gone shopping with several buyers in North Minneapolis. While we found the very inventory we expected, we also found something else: fierce competition.

Ye gads!

You mean somebody ELSE actually wants these homes? Not just us crazies?

You bet.

In fact, in the past week and a half, one particular buyer of mine (bless her poor, disheartened soul) has encountered multiple offer situations on no less than FOUR CONSECUTIVE HOMES on which we've written offers.

Coincidence?

Bad luck?

I think not. In fact, I think that as aggravating as this may be for my clients, it actually points to something very GOOD.

I think we're on the rebound...

Peace Ball 2007

This Saturday is the Peace Ball!

I heard that Councilman Samuels is going to do some singing...

Lost Neighborhood?

While hanging out at the Hennepin History Museum last week, I randomly browsed several books about Minneapolis History.

I am now kicking myself for not taking better notes.

I read something, somewhere, in some book or other about a "lost" neighborhood which lay roughly under the Minneapolis Farmer's Market on Lyndale.

I think it was called something like Oak Lake? (Oak Park? Lake Oaks?)

ARGH! Why didn't I write that down??????

Has anybody ever heard of this neighborhood????

Holy Crap.

I don't even know what to say about this.

I mean really, where to begin???

Peace Across the Northside, and a little bit of irony too

Look at the little cuties!

I want to say this is a Hmong performance they're doing, but honestly I'm just guessing...








Dude on stilts.











Penn/Bro.









More Penn/Bro.











Ranty incognito.












John the Juggler.











And this was pretty cool...










...then I noticed which house it was painted in front of!!!

(2717 Penn)












I guess it would have been more ironic if this one was in front of that house, but hey...




Cynicism aside, it was a fun event. I'm glad we went, even though the Good Scientist and I were beat and dripping from adding tier-two to the front yard retaining wall.

It's nice to see Northsiders venture out from the safety of their homes and celebrate together.

And nobody got shot! Whoohoo!

Ahhh, children

Jada and Jasmine live in the house next door. Jada is three and I think Jasmine is around seven or eight. They're cute, talkative, and most of all, VERY inquisitive about everything going on on the block.

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that they have ZERO stimulation in their lives aside from Jasmine's school-day. Other than that, Jada sits on the stoop (or follows me around when I'm outside) almost ALL DAY, and Jasmine does the same as soon as she returns home from school.

Today I was trying to paint my front porch (which has no door, sadly) and they would not leave me alone. The stood on my steps, peeking in, and asked about every single solitary move I made.

What's that? (caulking gun)

What are you doing? (cleaning the walls)

Why are you doing that? (so I can paint)

You gonna paint?! (er, yeah)

What you gonna paint? (um, the walls)

Why? (because I want them to look pretty)

Can I pick some flowers? (NOOO!)

Why not? (because then there won't be any pretty flowers to look at)

My cousin picked some yesterday when you were gone. (Fuck. Oops, I mean... don't let him do that!!)

Seriously, after a few hours of this, I wanted to kill them both. I feel bad about gettting angry at them, because it's not their fault that they have nothing to do. It's not their fault that their parents are gone off to who-knows-where, and their grandmother/guardian is too lazy to play with them and basically sees me as a free babysitter when I'm working in the yard. (Who lets a three-year-old hang out alone in the yard with no fence in North Mpls for God's sake??)

Anyway, they run all over the place with no supervision, and I'm totally paranoid about it. Specifically, today I watered the boulevard garden before I left. The girls were quite interested in the hose, the spigot for which is unfortunately located on their side of my house. I did not think to remove it and bring it into the (fenced and padlocked) backyard.

Now I'm worried that they're going to turn it on and flood the yard in my absence.

Shit.

Four Months Over North

Alright, I think it's time for a recap:

It's been four months since I began work on the house in North Minneapolis. In fairness, I know that's nothing. In further fairness, I will divulge that I have yet to sleep one night there. I'm still living on the south side, mainly due to the fact that the house continues to lack: a toilet; a bathtub; a stove; a fridge; and furniture.

I'm working on that.

At any rate, I still want to say that it's NOT THAT BAD, PEOPLE. I mean, I admit that I'm not there so much at night, but I have yet to have one negative experience, at least not compared with life on the south side. (In other words, yes there's trash and a few broken down cars and lots of unemployed people, but it's no worse -actually it's better- than the Whittier hovel in which I currently reside, just a quick walk from the esteemed Lyn-Lake.)

Don't get me wrong - Willard-Hay(Homewood?) is no Linden Hills. These things are best evaluated on a block-by-block basis though. There are good and not-quite-as-good blocks in most neighborhoods, and I have to say that my NoMpls block is BETTER than my Whitter block. When compared to my previous Powderhorn and Phillips blocks, I'd say that so far it ranks about even.

Of course, when I buy and fix up the houses on either side of mine, it will surpass even Linden Hills - just you wait... :-)

Ranty Hills.

I like the sound of that.

$425,000 House for Sale over North!

Yes, that's right folks, and it's only a few blocks away from my place!

This kind of renovation (click the top listing, I couldn't permalink for some reason) sort of makes me feel like a hack in comparison... but that's alright. Their success is my success, since our property values impact each other by virtue of proximity.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

So I contacted the two organizations which operate in vicinity of my new digs: Willard-Homewood and Upper Willard-Hay. Technically I think I'm in Upper Willard-Hay, but the groups seem to work together, and they share an email list-serv.

I have to say, the emails I've received so far are unlike those of any other neighborhood org. I've been involved in. (And it's been a few.) People are soliciting casseroles for a couple who just had a baby, offering the use of a roof-rake in the wake of our snowstorms, and sending mass-invitations to a rehab-completion-party.

How cool is that???

I just had to share the warm fuzzy...

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.

Oh my...

North Minneapolitans quoted on Overheard in Minneapolis.

Yikes.

And in our neighborhood news...

5th Ward City Councilman Don Samuels is causing a stir again with his comment in Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine about 'burning North High down.'

And of course Nick Coleman was quick to snap up an easy opportunity for ridicule here.

I can only imagine how this could swell to ridiculous proportions by virtue of people hearing about Samuel's statement without actually reading it in its context. (Such as if they read about it in Coleman's article, or worse, if they hear about it through North High gossip channels.)

I can see it now, with mothers at a NH PTA meeting:

"Did you hear what Don Samuels said?"

"No, what?"

"He said to BURN OUR SCHOOL DOWN!"

"Nuh-uh, for real?"

"That's what the Soc teacher just told me!"

"What an asshole. Who does he think he is??"

Oy Veh. His point as I understood it was that he has no reverence for so-called community institutions if they are in fact failing the community. (These are my words, not his.) His criticism did not stop at North High, but extended to some local churches as well, asking why they did nothing to combat crime which occurs right outside their doors.

CM Samuels made a political mistake with his phrasing. He should not have said "burn it down" because he should have been saavy enough to anticipate the scores of teachers, parents, students and alumni that it would piss off.

The underlying sentiment, however, was spot on, in my view.

I wonder if the squirrels pay rent too?

Slumlord alert!

(Right next door.)

Ugh.