"The Apartment Complex Of Anarchy" (3101 6th St. N.) Goes Down, Story In Pictures, PART ONE

Photos By John Hoff and Jeff Skrenes

In the top photo, a single forelorn blue plastic clothes hanger is visible in the corner of a room as the Backhoe of Doom does its merciless work. At one point a guy in a silvery car pulled up and spoke to Jeff Skrenes, saying, "That used to be my kitchen."

"That's crazy!" Jeff said, agreeably, and avoided saying anything like, "What did you cook up in that kitchen? CRACK? Because that's why this place is coming down, and good riddance" or maybe "how much did you get for the copper pipes out of your kitchen?" or...or...

Sympathy is in short supply, here. No, rather, IT'S TIME TO DANCE THE HULA. 

Second photo, the attic crawl space is exposed. In the third photo, the backhoe is halted due to a broken hose, which caused liquid to spurt all over the scoop. The little boy is named "Jevin" and he is the son of the guy operating the backhoe. In the bottom photo, Jevin (age 2) stands with his dad. Though quite young, Jevin already knows what he wants to be when he grows up: a maker of fine-quality toothpicks. 

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BREAKING NEWS: 3101 6th St. N., "The Apartment Complex of Anarchy," Is Partially Demolished. Job will reportedly be finished tomorrow, starting 8 am.

Photo By Jeff Skrenes Or John Hoff

There was no champagne handy, but we managed to toast with hot cocoa, which seemed appropriate given the weather. As of tonight, about 1/3 of 3101 6th St. N. is in a state that could only be described as "toothpicks." The rest is reportedly going to come down tomorrow, starting at 8 am.

Pictures, story to follow soon.

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Jordan Controversies, More Information Sources

In the course of covering the ongoing JACC controversy, I was made aware of something called the "Jordan Livability" blog. This blog...

...doesn't put out enough content, often enough, to develop much of an online following but shows real potential because all the posts are high-quality, exclusive, detailed information about events in the Jordan Neighborhood. Click here for a link to that Jordan Livability blog.

More Info On Past Al Flowers Controversies

Additionally, I've been doing some digging to find out information about Al Flowers, who has thrust himself to a lead role in the Jordan Neighborhood controversies. (Or, shall I say, PUSHED HIS WAY TO THE FRONT, ha ha)

Here's an article from IBBN, click here, that talks about Al Flowers and some very large amounts of money which--the IBBN blog appears to be asserting--can't really be accounted for fully. This other article from the Spokesman-Recorder, click here, has a different take.

Minnesota Daily Coverage Of Flowers Lawsuit Superior To Star Tribune Coverage

It should also be noted the Minnnesota Daily covered the Flowers lawsuit, click here for article, and I'd have to say their article was far and away better than the one in the Star Tribune. (I won't link to Star Tribune articles, as the links are scheduled to go dead)

The Star Tribune mentioned Councilman Don Samuels didn't comment, which is standard when city officials are served a lawsuit. But Minnesota Daily dug deeper, and managed to get commentary from witnesses at the scene. (Of course, Minnesota Daily had a little help from, um...an old Minnesota Daily columnist who was contacted on the phone, ha ha)

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Text Of Al Flowers Lawsuit Against Don Samuels

Photo By John Hoff

The Minneapolis Mirror has the text of Al Flowers' lawsuit against Don Samuels, click below for that information:

http://mplsmirror.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=477&Itemid=1

Here's a few comments about the allegations in the lawsuit:

First, "New Majority" JACC Secretary Anne McCandless told me--with others present--she was the one who called 911. If Councilmember Don Samuels called 911, I was not aware of it.

Second, the lawsuit mentions "witnesses" who said Samuels was the problem, and not Flowers. These witnesses were hardly objective bystanders, but could be fairly characterized as individuals with an axe to grind. Interesting how the names of these witnesses are not mentioned in the complaint.

Third, the lawsuit says Flowers "complained" about the behavior of Samuels--namely the alleged elbowing and toe-stepping. Anybody can watch the video and see what Flowers was complaining about: Samuels daring to stand in front of him. No mention of Flowers' precious toes or the alleged sharpness of Samuels' elbows.

Notably, there's no mention in the lawsuit of Flowers shoving Samuels in the back from behind. That's OK. It's on video.

Fourth, the lawsuit has some odd italics, random single quote marks and, in one instance, seems to substitute the word "took" for "told." Didn't anybody proofread? Or is this how the miserable thing was MEANT to read?

Last, the lawsuit gets into detail about the oh-so-finely-wrought political questions Flowers was supposedly there to ask. Clearly, that stuff was written by the lawyer. I doubt if Flowers could successfully memorize that much intellectual verbiage for an exam. This is a guy who says "medium income" instead of "median."

Anybody who watches the tape sees how Flowers was expressing himself: shouting the same stuff over and over, like a person of limited intellect--such as a child--throwing a tantrum.

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More 311 Fun! Houses Must Have House Numbers!

Photos by Jeff Skrenes,
Hawthorne Housing Director

Even people who frequently call 311 aren't always aware of this little factoid: Houses must have house numbers. If they don't...

...it's a housing code violation. House numbers are important to have for calling 911, or utility companies, or just to keep people from driving around in circles unable to get some kind of geographic clue. HOUSES MUST HAVE (EXPLETIVE) HOUSE NUMBERS!!!! (Click here for a fun and illustrative link)

Jeff took this picture of a house without a (complete) house number on the 3000 block of Lyndale Ave. N., to document its vacancy status. You can tell a house is vacant when it has one of those big honkin' locks hanging off the doorknob, see top photo.

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Owner Trying To "Save Face" Over 416 31st Ave. N.

Photo By Jeff Skrenes

It seems like there's always a low-intensity soap opera happening with 416 31st. Ave. N. in the Eco Village, and the last couple of weeks were no exception...

I wrote all about my little tour of the place after it hit the real estate market. Well, a few days after that happened, a resident who lives in the Eco Village called me and asked if I was POSITIVE it was still for sale. See, this resident had talked to the owner of the building, "Nimmi," and Nimmi was claiming the house wasn't for sale. That she wasn't ready to sell it, yet.

I thought to myself, "Did Nimmi yank it off the market right after she put it on the market?" I actually wondered. I should have known Nimmi was lying, because Nimmi constantly lies. She lies about how she's going to do something about low-quality tenants that live there, then she does nothing, even when the low-quality tenants steal her aluminum window frames. Or, as somebody recently told me, "She tries to pass herself off as such a victim of circumstance, when she's the one who puts these (expletive) quality tenants in her building."

Sorry. I'm venting.

Anyway, I called up a real estate agent, just to double check. I managed to confirm, rather quickly, the house was still on the market. It was still for sale at the "Dream On Price" of 150K, but at least they'd finally corrected the photograph and it now showed the correct house.

So here's what I think happened, and I told my friend this: Nimmi was trying to "save face" in that conversation. In fact, she's hard-pressed, economically, and trying to hock the house. But she doesn't want to say so, in a face-to-face conversation.

Nimmi. Your secret is safe with me.

And everybody who reads my blog.

P.S. Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes gave me a copy of this picture of 416, but he's not actually responsible for this content.

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3020 4th Street Boarded! YAY!!!

Photos By Jeff Skrenes,
Hawthorne Housing Director


So, a few weeks ago I was pitching a virtual fit over the slow, bureaucratic process in getting 3020 4th St. N. boarded and secured...

Well, I'm happy to report...

...the house is now boarded. In fact, it was boarded a week or more ago, and the "Holding Pond" blog actually reported this first, click here, and credited my publicity efforts.

Well, I don't know if blogging about an individual property speeds up the boarding process, but I've never known it to hurt. However, when the city gets a property secured, it's only right that I should say so after griping about it. I would have said so earlier, but obviously the ongoing Jordan Soap Opera has pre-empted a lot of my prime time broadcasts, so to speak.

Above, a picture taken by Jeff Skrenes, our housing director, as he surveyed the Eco Village on Friday.

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