Keep it Closed

After a year that kept me away from local issues more than I would like, I've been trying to reengage. To get started, I've been sorting through pictures I took that never seemed to make it onto the blog. Here's the first batch.

I've been driving around midtown daily for almost six years now, looking at its visible problems.  Increasingly the sore thumb is the number of buildings open to the elements.  Is there a way for city codes to prioritize by infraction?  Specifically, can we insist, baring everything else, that property owners keep their buildings closed to the elements?  Yeah, I know codes can barely keep on top of everything.  All the more reason to prioritize.

There are other issues. Aside from the obvious fact that closing buildings would discourage drug addicts from taking up residence, it would also slow the deterioration of the buildings, meaning they would cost less to rehab.  Commercial buildings in particular should be closed.  Jane Jacobs thought that un-rehabbed buildings were a boon to economic development because they provide cheap real estate for start-ups and mom-and-pops.  I have yet to find a study supporting this view but it seems reasonable.  For it to happen, the buildings need to be in better shape than what we have and the city needs to loose the habit of taking them by eminent domain and smashing them, or forcing property owners to tear them down for parking.

I make this all sound simpler than it really is. For this to be a viable plan we should have started this fifty or more years ago. Unfortunately for some buildings it may be too late. Examples include the two brick buildings (shown in the top photograph) on Main street across from Office Max and an apartment building (the middle photo) in Columbus Park.  (Click on the photos to view larger versions of them.)  One of the worst examples is in the last photo.  This apartment building at 40th and Troost is one of a kind.  Hundreds of colonnades have been renovated in recent years while this one crumbles.

Previously: Save the Cosby, More Destruction?