Oh and by the way -

I was vacationing abroad when this little nugget found its way to my email inbox, courtesy of a neighbor:

Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 3:26 PM
Subject: Please join us -- Hennepin County demolition initiative for
boarded and vacant houses in Minneapolis
Importance: High

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat would like to invite your office
to a news conference tomorrow morning announcing Hennepin County's
initiative
to demolish boarded and vacant homes in Minneapolis. We hope you are
able to attend. Please forward this message to other stakeholders who
may be
interested, and call or email me with any questions.

Hennepin County to fund demolition of at least 50 blighted properties in
Minneapolis

A news conference will be held Wednesday to announce a Hennepin County
initiative providing $1.25 million in funding to demolish boarded and
vacant
homes in Minneapolis. The county will fund at least 50 demolitions of
properties that are blighted and pose a public safety threat to
neighborhoods.
Since many of the condemned homes have been abandoned because of
mortgage foreclosure, the initiative is aimed at accelerating the
housing market
turnaround and stabilizing and securing neighborhoods.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 18, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: 2914 Dupont Ave. N. in Minneapolis -- a condemned, burned-out
house that will be among the properties demolished by this initiative:
(See attached file: 2914 Dupont North (2).JPG)

WHO: Join Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, other elected
officials and staff from Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis,
and housing
and community organizations and residents.

CONTACT: Office of Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, 612-348-7881

DETAILS: Tuesday the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved a
resolution, authored by Commissioner Mike Opat, to address major blight
and
public safety issues in Minneapolis by demolishing at least 50 vacant
and boarded residential properties.

The resolution includes $1.25 million in Hennepin County funding --
$500,000 from the Environmental Response Fund for environmental
assessment and
cleanup; $500,000 in contingency funding for demolition work; and
$250,000 from the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund for transport and waste
disposal.
Environmental concerns for the properties include the presence of
lead-based paint, asbestos and other hazardous materials.

All of the properties will be demolished by Dec. 31 and final site
activities completed by June 30, 2009. An assessment of $17,500, or 70
percent of
the average cost for assessment, cleanup, demolition and disposal, will
be made on each property, repayable to Hennepin County.

______________________________

_
Phil Essington
Office of Commissioner Mike Opat
Hennepin County
300 S. 6th St., Mpls, MN 55487-0240
612.348.5206, f) 612.348.8701
phil.essington@co.hennepin.mn.us

This makes me feel ill.

Under $25,000 Home Tour

A while back I mentioned that there are a whole bunch of REALLY cheap houses for sale at the moment, many of which are located in North Minneapolis.

Remember? Very good.

Anyway, a couple of lovely gentlemen from Minnpost found this particularly interesting, and asked if they could see a few such houses. I obliged, and they made a video about it.

Here it is:

Victims or Miscreants?

Here's the Strib article.

Here's Johnny Northside's response.

I already have a fully formed opinion on this, but please do read and judge for yourself.

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!

Northside Synagogues Walking Tour!

From the City of Minneapolis website:

Co-sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
Date: May 31
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Place: Mikro Kodesh Synagogue, 1000 Oliver Ave N.
Guide: Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
This walking tour will highlight some of the gathering places of North Minneapolis’s Jewish community in the early 20^th century. Visit a neighborhood with three synagogues as well as the Emmanuel Cohen Community Center and the Jewish Shelter Home for Children. Learn about the architectural history of these buildings and the communities that have – and continue to gather here.

SO NEAT! I'm definitely planning to be there.

Minneapolis Advantage loan program

From the city web page:

"The Minneapolis Advantage loan program is a downpayment and closing cost assistance program to help rebuild the housing market in key neighborhoods that have experienced mortgage foreclosures.

The program offers a $10,000 zero-percent interest rate loan that is forgivable over five years to anyone buying a home in which they will live in these eligible neighborhoods (PDF). Additional assistance offered through neighborhood associations may be available to homebuyers purchasing homes in Harrison, McKinley, Folwell and Webber-Camden."

Loan applications will be accepted starting May 5!

This is an awesome opportunity.

Holy Cheap Houses!

A quick search on MLS Matrix this morning reveals that North Minneapolis currently has:

470 homes for sale listed UNDER $100,000;

234 homes for sale listed UNDER $50,000;

and 36 homes for sale listed UNDER $25,000.


This is mind-boggling.


Here's a photo of one from the third category:


I think it's pretty cute... especially considering the fact that it's about the price of my first decent (used) car.