by Michael R. Allen
2611 Howard and 2615 Howard (McEagle-owned)
2621 Howard Street.
2625 Howard Street (McEagle-owned) and 2623 Howard Street (privately-owned vacant building).
Here is one side of the 2600 block of Howard Street in JeffVanderLou. The block face is missing a few buildings (one fell in 2006) but is still retains five solid, sound historic buildings. As you can see, this is not an easy block to overlay within a large new development. This block needs strategy for resident retention and home repair, historic preservation and building stabilization awaiting eventual development of the vacant properties.
Take this block times one hundred and one sees the difficulty of trying to make development sense of St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou — and how much potential there is if the existing neighborhood is enhanced rather than supplanted. This is a huge challenge requiring smart planning. The starting point is a redevelopment ordinance that makes as much sense for blocks like this as it does for the wide expanses of Pruitt-Igoe. Is that ordinance possible?