Zoned Out in Gopher City

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a conference on “Building the Urban Utopia: A Blueprint for the Competitive Global City.” The featured speakers were part of a contingent from Gopher City, MN:  Phillip Space, internationally renowned architect and author of “Den$ity for Dummies,” Gopher City Council Member Malcolm “Mal” Feasants, and city planner Uriah Heep IV.

MAL FEASANTS: I’m delighted to be invited to speak on the wonders of the high-density urban neighborhoods we’re rebuilding in Gopher City. The first step in this process is clearing old buildings, old people, bellyaching minorities, and the financially disadvantaged out of these neighborhoods to make way for new mixed-use commercial buildings and high density housing. It’s easy to do--We just ignore or crush any obstacle that gets in our way, like zoning ordinances or small-area plans. If a developer needs a variance or a zoning change for a new project, we just do it. That’s the beauty of being the government. As chair of the Gopher City Zoning and Planning Committee, I control what goes down and what goes up. The voters gave us a mandate, and we’re doing what’s good for them--even if some of them don’t appreciate it.

URIAH HEEP IV [M.A.,Ph.D. Stalinist Planning and Architecture]: The Gopher City Planning Department is proud to be part of the private-public partnership. We are pleased to assist any and all new development by providing the rationale needed to argue for bypassing regulations. We’re the go-to agency for developers. Who knows the city and its buildings better than we do? Who knows better how to spin the rhetoric, using all the buzzwords: “green”, “transportation nodes”, “bike-friendly”, “affordable”, and so forth? 

 The Chinese know how to do high-density development. Complete government control, planner paradise.“Harmonious Society! Long Live the People!”

PHILLIP SPACE [A.I.A., S.O.B.] May I take a moment to brag about a new project I’m designing, a six-story hotel that developer Hy Density has proposed for Gopher City’s Ro-dense Zone? It’s cheap, it’s right on the bus line, it’s easily accessible to downtown. Who cares if the current zoning doesn’t allow a hotel next to two-story-family housing? Who cares if it doesn’t suit the Ro-dense Zone small-area plan? Who cares if building it requires a conditional use permit and a floor area ratio variance? it’s what the City needs, and Mal, here, knows how to get past these pesky ordinances and get the thing built. We’ll put a bike rack for guests by the lobby entrance. No need for parking spaces. Cars are so 20th-century.

 MAL FEASANTS: One important undertaking we GC CM’s are working on is eliminating every way that citizens can comment on projects. We’re cutting out citizen review boards that allow residents free rein to bitch about what the City is doing or not doing. We still have tiresome hearings which can’t be scrapped--yet. BOR-ING. I would go out of my mind if I didn’t have my smart phone in my lap so I can tweet and look at Facebook posts while these old NIMBYs are cranking away. When they won’t shut up, I just cut the mic. The new Gopher City, love it or leave it. 

Gopher City Council Members at public hearing.

It's essential that we rid our cities of these old knee-jerk jerks who don't appreciate the Brave New World we're fashioning in the old neighborhoods. The time of these superannuated losers has passed and so should they. The new neighborhood belongs to the developers and the young and hip. If someone isn't fit enough to ride a bike or walk to a bus stop, they should be harassed into going somewhere else to die. 

PHILLIP SPACE: Hear, hear, Mal. That reminds me. I must tell you about a brilliant scheme my firm has developed to deal with both senile senior undesirables and our supporters who can't afford the rents in the new buildings. Let me announce the latest in minimalist urban pads: Troll Holes. These young male internet trolls don't have jobs, don't have friends, and don't have lives, so they don't need all the amenities required of hipsterdom. They live online. So we've designed small, windowless one-room underground units with high-speed internet access, so they can spend all their time launching anonymous attacks on the recalcitrant NIMBYs who are such a thorn in the side of the City and developers. The City can subsidize  rents in these Holes, for these young wits are providing an important service to local government. 

We've already cleared the neighborhood of annoying minorities who are always protesting for some lame reason or the other. In the big scheme of building the great metropolis, their lives certainly don't matter. And the poor? They're already on the streets or out in suburban ghettoes. Everyone else can pay up or move out.

 A-hole online in a Troll Hole

URIAH HEEP IV: Great plan, Phil! Now, I’d like to congratulate Minneapolis on the fine job the government has done in converting antiquated cow-town Uptown into a wonder of urban planning. Uptown is very much like our awesomely hip Ro-dense Zone. Thirty years ago we threw out all the bozo small businesses there.  We used tax increment financing and got subsidies by selling the Feds on how the area was blighted. Man, what suckers! It’s taken 30 years, but now we have exactly what we wanted: a place for hipsters, yuppies, bros and suburbanites to party till they puke.

PHILLIP SPACE: Well, friends, it's been fun, but we gotta run. I need to check out several building sites to be bulldozed, and I trust that Mal and Uriah here will keep up the good work running interference for us architects and our developer employers. [Applause]  And remember, as a famous German once said, "The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."

                 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
                                             Praise be to Nero's Neptune.
                                             The Titanic sails at dawn.
                                              Everybody's shouting,
                                              'Which side are you on?'
                                                      --Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row"  1965

                                                   
                             With a tip of the hat to Harry Sinclair Lewis of Gopher Prairie, MN.                                                   

--T.B.

Condominium Disequilibrium

Wedge housing has gone through a lot of changes since the neighborhood was platted in the 1880s. The first major change came after the Columbian Exposition of 1893. The "White City" of Colonial Revival style buildings made the fanciful, ornamented Queen Anne style unfashionable. By the early 20th century, the fairly new, large Victorian houses built along the streetcar lines in the Wedge were being abandoned by their original owners for newer homes in newer neighborhoods. Large apartments became the rage for upwardly mobile Minneapolis residents. On and around Hennepin Avenue, handsome brick apartment buildings starting going up. Many of these apartment buildings still line Hennepin, sharing the street front with commercial buildings.

In the early  20th century, two smaller apartment buildings were built on Emerson Avenue South near the corner of 25th and Hennepin: 2417 in 1905, and 2421, in 1907. 2417 contained eight units, 2421 had nine units. When new, they were the homes of the affluent. But as the years passed, the units grew shabbier, the maintenance minimal.  By 1970, the year that LHENA was founded, 2417 and 2421 had been made into one dwelling unit each, split up into 24 rooms with shared baths and kitchens, the equivalent of large rooming houses. The buildings had fallen into a serious state of disrepair with substandard living conditions for the numerous tenants.

2417-2421 Emerson Avenue South in 1978

In 1977, the two buildings were condemned. The next year, Kreisler Companies acquired the buildings and began rehab under the HUD Section 8 program for low-income housing. Each building was separated into a mixture of one-bedroom units for the elderly and two-bedroom units for families. A small children's play lot was added. The wooden fire escapes in the back were replaced by elevators. In 1979, applications were taken for low-income tenants, and the buildings became homes once again.

Twenty years later, when the condominium market was red hot, the buildings were converted into condominium units roughly the size of the original apartments. In 2000, units in the newly renovated buildings went on sale. Today, the units in these buildings are valued in the low-to-mid-$200,000s. For example, a 1800-square-foot, three-bedroom condo in 2421 recently sold for $246k ($135/sq.ft.).

2417-2421 Emerson Avenue South today

The Wedge has quite a few condominium units in a range of housing types from older duplexes and apartment buildings, to nearly-new construction. Currently, Zillow shows 9 comdos/townhomes for sale in the neighborhood. Five of these are pre-1970 construction; four were built after 2000. Two of the four newest condos are in foreclosure.

A 2bd/1ba, 950 sq.ft. condo in this building on Lyndale is listed at $175k

The least expensive condo ($99.9k) for sale in the Wedge is a 1bd/1ba 568 sq.ft ($176 sq.ft) unit in a 1959  2-1/2 story walkup on the 2700 block of Aldrich. Nearby on the 2800 block of Bryant Avenue is the most expensive at $450k. Built in 2005, this top-story 3bd/2ba, 1700 sq. ft. condo has been on the market for nearly 10 months. The price has been lowered by $15k since it went up for sale.

Listed for sale at $450k: The upper unit in this 2005 condo building .

Why is this condo so slow to sell when the housing inventory in Minneapolis is at its lowest since 2004?   For one, if a buyer can afford a home in the $400-450k bracket, there are some potentially more attractive options. For example, in nearby Whittier neighborhood, a 1912 foursquare house with 4bd/1.5ba, 2300 ft./sq., went on the market a few days ago for $410k. They are very different kinds of housing, but they are priced similarly, of similar size, in similar condition, within walking distance of each other.

You can bet that the Whittier house will not be on the market for nearly a year. One reason that the house will sell fast while the condo won't is the difference in lifestyle and taste of potential buyers. Condominium buyers can find similarly priced units in quieter, less congested areas of the city. Another important reason is value. The condo at 2421 Emerson of similar size mentioned above sold for $200k less than the Bryant condo. The 1907 building and the 100-year-old house in Whittier with original woodwork and appointments are simply more inviting to many than a modern minimalist apartment.

Dining area in the 2005 modern condominium

Formal dining room in the 1912 house.

Then there is the comparative cost of ownership. Monthly expenses for the condo will set a  new owner back about $2600 a month, not including utilities, whereas the house would cost about $1800--assuming similar down payments and mortgage interest rates.

When the housing the market tanked in 2008 after the global banking crisis, the real estate market went cold. It's gradually recovering, but is inhibited by the big banks' disinterest in lending money to individual homeowners when they can make so much more lending to corporate developers. The banks that were "too big to fail" are backing big, new developments, like apartment and condominium buildings and hotels.

According to Broker Sandy Loescher of Sandy Green Realty, another factor in the slow recovery of the housing market has been the effect of the banking crisis on those middle-aged people who lost their investments and homes at that time. Parents who once could afford to help their children with down payments for real estate and help paying off student loans now need financial help themselves.

One can't help but wonder in this volatile economy where all this is going. How long will the banks and government keep promoting the big and corporate over the small and individual? As long as the current group of officials remain in office.

 --T.B.

Once Upon a Time

. . .there was an old streetcar suburb located just beyond downtown Minneapolis. It began its life in the 1880s with the arrival of Thomas Lowry's public transportation system, the horse-drawn streetcar lines. In 1884 new tracks were laid from the urban core southwards, past Lowry's mansion on the east slope of what is now known as Lowry Hill, down Lyndale Avenue, turning west onto 27th Street, then south onto Dupont Avenue.

A Minneapolis horse-drawn streetcar.

With the streetcar line came a host of builders who began platting and developing lots on and around the tracks. Before that, farms and fields filled the landscape east of the swamp that was later dredged to form Lake of the Isles. The building frenzy that ensued in the mid-1880s and ended with World War I filled the neighborhood with middle- and upper-middle-class homes. The designs of these large, handsome houses reflected the changing architectural fancies of the time: the playful Queen Anne, the decorous Colonial Revival, and the scaled-down, cozy Prairie School.

Victorian houses on the 2100 block of Hennepin Avenue South in the early 1900s.

The Depression brought major changes to the housing stock of the neighborhood. Some large, old residences became boarding and rooming houses; single-family homes were often occupied by multiple generations. In 1963 the City rezoned the neighborhood to allow the construction of two-and-a-half-story walkup apartment buildings. Scores of houses were wrecked; gardens and orchards became parking lots. The north-south streets were made into "paired one-way commuter corridors" to allow downtown workers coming from the south to speed through the neighborhood.

2747 Dupont Avenue S., a typical Wedge walkup apartment building of the 1960s, now condos.

A number of  residents, both established and newly arrived, grew alarmed at these City-made changes affecting all aspects of neighborhood life. The neighborhood took on a new identity as the Wedge. In 1970 these residents banded together to form the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association (LHENA) as a forum for discussing neighborhood concerns, a vehicle for solving problems, and a means of promoting community life.  As a result of their efforts, the core of the neighborhood was down-zoned to R-2, allowing only new single-family and duplex apartments. The one-way racetracks were turned back to two-way streets, with direct access from Hennepin Avenue cut off.

But the periphery of the Wedge remained zoned commercial or multiple-unit housing (R-6). Forty years later, with the encouragement of the City, developers again turned their attention to the Wedge. The entire commercial corridor along the former railroad tracks was cleared, the old buildings replaced with luxury condos and apartment buildings. When that area was filled, developers began eyeing the residential area zoned R-6. Aided by City Hall, the wrecking began.To date, five Wedge houses have been demolished. with another one slated to go down soon.  In the R-6 area, many properties are worth more as vacant land than with the buildings sitting on them. Predatory investors are buying up these hot Wedge properties in the expectation that they will be continue to get the backing and variances from City Hall they need to put in new higher-density luxury housing. This process will continue as long as developers own City government and/or the luxury housing market in Minneapolis tanks.

An ad welcoming "tarts" to the new Lime apartment complex on Lyndale Avenue South, 2013

For me, the most unfortunate part of the transition has been the loss of community spirit in the Wedge. LHENA meetings have become tense, filled with factional disputes. High-density advocate trolls make vicious ad hominem online attacks against those who don't agree with them. Citizens who speak critically of  development proposals at City Hall get ignored, or worse yet, sneered at. Forget dialogue.

The frenzy and debate surrounding the current candidates for president underscore for me just how weary Americans are becoming of a political process that seems rigged for the Establishment. From both right and left, American voters are speaking out against the business-as-usual which is part of every level of government.  We can't change the past, but we can make changes for the future.

Owner Sheldon Strom removing the asbestos siding on 2116 Bryant Ave. S., 1976

By telling the story of how residents came together four decades ago to make a decaying urban neighborhood into the sassy, funky Wedge, I hope to spur vigorous discussion about how we can best manage change in Minneapolis neighborhoods. It certainly won't be done by wringing our hands and talking about the Good Old Days. And it won't be done by getting involved in the so-called "citizen participation process."

Do we sit around and watch the march of the faux-urbanist developers, or do we stand up and get cracking? Time will tell.

“Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.”
―Jean Vanier, "Community and Growth"

 --T.B.