Categories
Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Kinder Blogs, V-logs on Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act Proposal

by Michael R. Allen

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has a blog entry with video:
Revitalizing Our Cities Can Happen If We Work Together. The blog entry and video address the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act, part of the economic development bill vetoed by Kinder’s supposed cohort and fellow Republican Governor Matt Blunt.

Kinder’s video includes footage of buildings on Chouteau Avenue that are already under renovation, as well as dramatic shots of him looking over a parapet apparently at Vin de Set.

Categories
Fire North St. Louis Old North

The Strength of Old North

Some neighbors in Old North went through a kitchen fire on Saturday. The fire did not do major damage to their house, but did take out their power lines and ability to occupy the house. However, the response to the fire was classic Old North. I was at an event when I received a message from my neighbor Barbara telling me of the damage. Immediately, I left the event to help my neighbors. I arrived to find a crew of neighbors already tackling the job of gutting the fire-damaged areas. My neighbors were in good spirits.

Barbara immediately turned her attention to the job of boarding up the damaged doorway and windows on the first floor of the rear wall, where the fire was most extensive. Another neighbor who is a general contractor was set to handle the matter after visiting the prisoner he is mentoring, but we decided to give him a good break. Barbara and I joined neighbors James and David to frame our the affected openings and to cut and screw in playwood. When we all left, the house was secure and its residents could focus on other tasks at hand. The board-up took less than two hours, due to the knowledge of the group — all of us had framed our board-ups before.

Only in Old North? Perhaps not. The response nonetheless demonstrated the unique talents of my neighbors, our get-it-done attitude and the prevalent concern for our neighbor’s needs. Ours is a strong neighborhood spirit, and one on which to count when times are tough. We take the communitarian spirit of a village and add the know-how and street smarts of a city. This is a great neighborhood!

Categories
Brick Theft St. Louis Board of Aldermen

Bosley Wants to Get Strict With Brick Dealers

Alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr. (D-3rd) has introduced Board Bill 232 to increase the regulation of brick recyclers in the city of St. Louis. The bill has two aims:

– To require that brick dealers videotape all transactions on their yards, keep the tapes for thirty days afterwards and make tapes available to the police department.

– To limit the hours of operation of brick yards so that they close at 6:00 p.m. on Fridays and do not reopen until 5:00 a.m. on Monday.

Bosley’s bill imposes the punishment of fines not to exceed $500.00 and imprisonment not to exceed ninety days for each violation of the bill by a dealer.

These measures are practical and seem to be effective steps to combat the rising tide of brick theft that is decimating vacant buildings in St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou and Hyde Park. While the theft occurs at all hours, theft is increased during late night and weekend hours, and most thieves lack storage space and money, and thus quickly sell the stolen goods to yards. Late-night sales are not uncommon at some yards.

While the bill does not harm dealers in the suburbs who are also buying stolen brick, perhaps it will inspire ordinances in St. Louis County and other areas where dealers operate. The punishment called for in Bosley’s bill may also not be severe enough to serve as a major deterrent. However, the provision for use of cameras will no doubt have a major impact on the incomes of those who profit from dealing stolen bricks.

Hopefully, the Board of Aldermen will swiftly pass Bosley’s bill.

Categories
North St. Louis Preservation Board The Ville

Thirty-Nine Demolition Permits in The Ville on July Preservation Board Agenda

The preliminary agenda for the monthly meeting of the city’s Preservation Board (to be held Monday, July 23) contains many demolition permits:

For preliminary review:

4232 and 4234 Aldine; 1707, 1709, 1711, 1717, 1820, 1824, 1825 and 1826 Annie Malone; 1922 Belle Glade; 3950, 4320 and 4448 Cote Brilliante; 4547 Cottage; 4409, 4411 and 4417 Garfield; 4549, 4551 (front) and 4551 (rear) Kennerly; 4402 Maffitt; 4147, 4153,
4220, 4224, 4234, 4446 and 4649 Dr. Martin Luther King; 4357, 4446, 4617 and 4559 North Market; 4364 St. Ferdinand; 1825, 2510 and 2512 N. Taylor; 3013 Vine Grove, all in the Ville historic district.

On appeal:

Residential buildings at 3911 and 3961 Blair Avenue in the Hyde Park historic district;

A two-and-a-half-story storefront and apartment building at 4635 Martin Luther King Drive in the Ville historic District;

A two-story storefront building at 5286-98 Page Boulevard in the Mount Cabanne/Raymond Place historic district;

A two-story rectory at 4716 Vermont Avenue in the Central Carondelet Historic District.

Also on the agenda are five nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.

Categories
Clearance Housing North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Pruitt Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe Demolition as Seen in "Koyaanisqatsi"

Someone has posted a long segment from Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi that includes the famous aerial footage of the vacant housing project and the explosion-based demolition that took down the entire complex between 1972 and 1974.

The Pruitt-Igoe sequence begins at 2:49.

Thirty-three acres of the originally 57-acre Pruitt-Igoe site at the southeast corner of Cass and Jefferson avenues remain vacant to this day.

Categories
Historic Preservation JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

One Lovely Storefront Building in JeffVanderLou

This beautiful corner commercial building stands at the southeast corner of Glasgow and St. Louis avenues in JeffVanderLou. (The mansard-roofed tenement to the east is also worthy of appreciation.) The date is likely some time in the 1880s. The front elevation on St. Louis is clad in white Missouri limestone over a cast-iron storefront and under a galvanized sheet metal cornice. One charming detail is the recessed, chamfered storefront entrance that creates one of those delightful corner triangular stoops found on many local commercial buildings. The limestone wraps the corner on Glasgow, but after one window bay the wall is brick. Overall, the stylistic effect is Italianate.

One detail that mesmerizes me when I look at this building is on the side elevation, where the galvanized cornice ends. Here, brick corbelling continues the cornice line. However, the classical formalism of the bracketed cornice gives way to abstract masonry, where all angles are right and nary a curve can be found. The tenor of the cornice line changes sharply, but the line itself extends so that even the secondary elevation has an articulated crown. The different treatments only give the eye yet one more different element to look at — one more demonstration of the expressive qualities of 19th century architectural vernacular.

This building is large for a corner commercial building, with ample space on the upper floors for residential or office uses. It is located just two blocks east of Grand Avenue. At the corner of Grand and St. Louis, the even larger Grand-St. Louis Building, recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is about to undergo renovation. While blocks south and east of the corner of St. Louis and Glasgow are marked by open land and vacancy, the blocks west and north are mostly occupied and well-kept. This building is at a pivotal point in JeffVanderLou, and its future reuse is both feasible and meaningful for the neighborhood.

The building is owned by VHS Partners LLC, a holding company controlled by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. as part of his large-scale north side redevelopment project. Hopefully its preservation is part of his plan; he is fortunate to own such a unique building with amazing potential.

Unfortunately, according to records on Geo St. Louis, the city Building Division condemned the building for demolition on May 8, 2007. A separate two-story alley building behind this building has also been condemned for demolition, although given the fact that brick thieves have removed nearly two whole walls, the condemnation is more understandable. The storefront building at the corner is in sound condition.

Categories
Bohemian Hill South St. Louis

State Funding Brownfield Cleanup for New Housing in Bohemian Hill

From Mark Bohnert, President of the Red Brick Community Land Trust:

Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority Awards $15,000 to Red Brick Community Land Trust for Environmental Cleanup of Soulard Brownfields Site

The State Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) has selected the Red Brick Community Land Trust to receive $15,000 to address petroleum related contamination of a Soulard brownfields site.

The EIERA will make the award to the RBCLT in a public ceremony at the property location, 1805 S. Tucker Street, St. Louis on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. (Rain Site: 2020 S. 12th St.)

The Red Brick Community Land Trust will use the money to remove petroleum-related contamination enabling a residential development to proceed on the property in the Bohemian Hill neighborhood, part of the Soulard area. Red Brick Community Land Trust was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization that secures permanently affordable housing for low-income St. Louis metropolitan residents.

“Affordability in Soulard remains problematic, thus the Bohemian Hill property is an attractive location for this proposed project,” said Jerome Govero, a member of the EIERA Board.

A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

The EIERA received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to capitalize the Missouri Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund that will provide loans and subgrants for cleanup of sites contaminated with petroleum and hazardous substances. The EIERA works with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Brownfields Voluntary Cleanup Program to support brownfields cleanup activities so
that redevelopment and reuse of properties can proceed.

For more information, contact the Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority at (573) 751-4919 or Red Brick Community Land Trust at (314) 621-1411 ext. 102.

Categories
Hyde Park Mortgage Fraud People

US Attorney Indicts Doug Hartmann

by Michael R. Allen

Today the US Attorney’s office announced that it is indicting mortgage fraud artist Doug Hartmann for bank and mail fraud. Hartmann’s scheme involved nearly 250 properties, including scores of historic houses in the city of St. Louis and the Nord St. Louis Turnverein, which burned last July under Hartmann’s ownership.

The Post-Dispatch has the story here.

Categories
Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North

Burse’s Response to News of McKee’s Plans

by Michael R. Allen

Old North St. Louis Restoration Group President John Burse drafted a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding Paul McKee, the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act and the site assembly experience Burse has gained working on projects in Old North.

For some reason, the Post chose to publish other letters on these matters, and never published Burse’s eloquent letter from the front line.

But you can read it here.

Categories
Brick Theft LCRA LRA North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Pruitt Igoe St. Louis Place

Latest Brick Rustling Casualty in St. Louis Place

by Michael R. Allen

In the last two weeks, brick rustlers have reduced this Romanesque Revival two-flat at 2318 Howard Street to the tell-tale mess of sagging floors supported by internal walls. The four brick walls are completely gone, with the bricks taken to one of the yards that gladly fence bricks stolen from the north side. Some veneered McMansion in the Phoenix suburbs could end up with a thin face of brick taken from this house to raise money for rent, crack cocaine or any number of other needs and desires. I took the photograph above last summer; the building was remarkably intact

The building stands (barely) on city block 2318, bounded by Howard on the north, 25th on the west, Mullanphy on the south and 23rd on the east. This is two blocks north of the former Pruitt-Igoe housing project site in an area of St. Louis Place that resembles

The ownership pattern on the block is rather strange:

2346 HOWARD ST BLAIRMONT ASSOCIATES LTD CO
2344 HOWARD ST PIE
2342 HOWARD ST PIE
2336 HOWARD ST PIE
2334 HOWARD ST LRA
2326 HOWARD ST PIE
2324 HOWARD ST N & G VENTURES LC
2322 HOWARD ST PIE
2320 HOWARD ST PIE
2318 HOWARD ST PIE
2316 HOWARD ST L C R A
2314 HOWARD ST PIE
2312 HOWARD ST BLAIRMONT ASSOCIATES LTD CO
2308 HOWARD ST BLAIRMONT ASSOCIATES LTD CO
2306 HOWARD ST BLAIRMONT ASSOCIATES LTD CO
2304 HOWARD ST LRA
2300 HOWARD ST PIE
1617 N 23RD ST LRA
2305 MULLANPHY ST PIE
2321 MULLANPHY ST SIMS, OTHIA L & LUCILLE D
2323 MULLANPHY ST BELK, OLIVER L & KATHALEEN
2325 MULLANPHY ST MOBLEY, IDA N & JOYCE MCCALL
2327 MULLANPHY ST MOBLEY, IDA N
2329 MULLANPHY ST 1615 N 25TH ST LLC

In addition to one LCRA holding here we have the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIE), Land Reutilization Authority (LRA), N & G Ventures LC and Blairmont Associates LC, two of Paul McKee’s companies, and a smattering of private owners.