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Category: arden park
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Move to the city. Yeah, you.
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09/22/08
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12:56 by garrick, Categories: historic districts, living in the city, neighborhoods, indian village, boston-edison, arden park
Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in /home/wayne/public_html/blogs/inc/sessions/model/_hit.class.php on line 689
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Cheers to Detroit, where life is worth living!
The 2nd Annual “Living in the V” Real Estate Open House is this weekend; Saturday, Sept. 27 from 1-5pm. The “V” is for Villages, referring to several of Detroit’s most historic and interesting east side neighborhoods, including Indian and West Villages.
Toast at my new house
The Welcome Center for the event is at the Parkstone Apartments at 1415 Parker in the West Village, from which you can grab a list of houses for sale and pick up coffee and crepes for energy. Several dozen homes from $10,000 to over $1 million will be featured; click here for the official press release [PDF].
This year the event includes a “Lonely Homes” tour of ten bank-owned properties led by a licensed Realtor. These tours start from the Welcome Center at the Parkstone at 1:30 and 3:30pm. No reservations are required for any events. The new website of the Villages Community Development Corporation is a must-see as it is a terrific overview of the area.
This bank-owned house needs your love. (Indian Village, 2008)
For those of us concerned about preservation and the future of Detroit, perhaps the single most powerful action one might take is to live in the city and be a tax-paying resident. I know that many of my readers are already Detroiters and have been for decades, if not generations, and have accomplished much in preserving residential fabric in the city. Living in Detroit, we bind the fate of the city to our own, we are forced to pay close attention to issues of preservation, planning, and policy.
Beautiful porch on house for sale. (Boston-Edison, 2008)
As such, I’m thrilled to announce to my readers that I’ve recently closed on a home in one of these great Detroit neighborhoods; my first home purchase after almost a dozen years wandering through NYC and LA apartments. Watch for more updates in coming months as I share some of my renovation and restoration work with you on this blog (yeah, of course mine’s a fixer-upper!). While I’m not yet in the city full-time, I’m closing down my affairs on the west coast and will soon be voting in a swing state again!
Original detailing, Indian Village house. Sold in the last month.
The deals right now really are amazing, and if you’ve ever considered buying a classic house in a walkable, diverse, and historic neighborhood now is the moment. There are houses in every architectural style, size and condition; from homes that are going begging for repairs to homes where you could receive the Queen of England for tea tomorrow afternoon (should you have the proper connections and decent bone china).
This weekend, take the time to explore the east side, but don’t forget about Boston-Edison, Arden Park, Virginia Park, and any one of many other great and varied Detroit neighborhoods. I can’t believe some of the prices for solid, historic houses. Let’s get them in safe and caring hands before they are stripped or vandalized. The housing crisis has created a lot of pain in Michigan, but if it helps a few more preservation-minded folks buy into Detroit’s future then we can emerge with strengthened neighborhoods and a revitalized urbanism.
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Never again?
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01/20/08
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23:25 by garrick, Categories: streets, vacant lots, landmark buildings, historic districts, neighborhoods, highland park, indian village, boston-edison, arden park
In the early 1990s, when many of us erstwhile suburban types began our rediscovery of the city, we explored for the first time the buildings and neighborhoods we’ve grown to love. At the same time, we were horrified and hardened by what we saw. Standing amidst the collapsing splendor of Brush Park, a neighborhood once home to Detroit royalty, it summoned all our efforts to understand what could have caused such utter transformation. We convinced ourselves that never again would we stand by while a gorgeous Detroit neighborhood falls to pieces.
Highland Park, winter 2007.
Fifteen years have passed since perhaps the gloomiest days in Detroit. Since that time the Detroit preservation community, with ever-improving attention from elected officials and professional bureaucracies, has done much to stabilize a catastrophic situation.
It has become almost a cliche in Detroit preservation circles to express relief that, despite the carnage of the last half-century, we still have world-class historic residential fabric in Indian Village, Boston-Edison, Arden Park, and a few smaller neighborhoods of note. Indeed, many of us are proud to make our homes in these very neighborhoods. Here we see not just lone monuments guarding half-empty streets, but rows of neatly kept homes, seemingly a world apart. We believe almost instinctively that these neighborhoods are a lasting bulwark against decay; a springboard from which to rebuild Detroit.
This weekend’s piece in the Detroit Free Press is a warning shot to all of us who would count these landmark neighborhoods as ’saved.’ A walk through some of Detroit’s proudest streets reveals vacant, bank-owned homes in grave danger of being stripped for precious metals, architectural details, or in many cases, both. In particular danger are homes whose defaulted mortgages reside in bundles now owned by investment groups with no Detroit connection whatsoever.
It may be time to consider how we save what’s already been saved.
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