Category: Uncategorized

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Not an update on the neighbor who failed to heed my advice. But concerns next door. I think they’ll be renting. My gut tells me the owner is in slumlord mode, so I won’t expect any high quality tenants. Regardless if they are high quality, or not, there are things that need to be done, that I wouldn’t expect any renter to do. For example, the bricks over the window look as if they are on the verge of falling out. A minor problem, which I can remedy. The owner had the house painted a color close to mine, before it had been a dark shade of purple red. Before the color of my house jumped out as it was a light house between two dark colored houses. Now, at night the colors blend together. That pissed me off. I took a good amount of thought in picking out the color. The last problem, which actually isn’t my problem as it is the other neighbor’s problem, overgrown weed trees.

Before I thought they were going to sell. But rumor had it he wanted $300K for the house. The house is not going to sell for $300K. The house with the basement and the big backyard on our block sold for $300K. This house has no basement and there’s a poor job done on the roof and he wasn’t going to put any top of the line appliances in. Although they did a decent job inside the house, it doesn’t look like a $300K house. Maybe a $220-$250K but not $300K. Heck the house across the street was listed at $400K and that DEFINITELY was not worth that much. Sunny worked on the house first. G-d in heaven only knows what mistakes still lurk in the walls, despite the other people brought in after him.

Gentrification and me issue 1

I have been collecting a bunch of websites that talk about gentrification. What I hope to do, since I know a few people besides myself look at this site is talk about what is covered. My own feelings are mixed. I am part of the gentrification process simply based on my income (now and future), education and home improvement status. However I do have some sympathy for groups threatened by the changes. As an African-American I do feel bad about the fact that I moved into a predominately black neighborhood that is becoming more of a white neighborhood.

First, my favorite I’m the Enemy a Salon article where the author aknowleges that she’s part of the San Francisco gentrification problem, but in away points out the problems of some of the people organizing against gentrification. Maybe I like it because I identify with the author. Although I am not a long term resident. For a while I was poor and (I am still) Black, the same type of folks who are being pushed out of gentrifying areas. The author works in the Arts field, where artists are known for being poor and starving. I work in the library/museum field, not known for being a high paying line of work. Like the author, I figured out how to cash in on my talents (okay a lot of it luck) and save up and buy a house before prices got insane. The author is describing and anti-gentrification meeting, one of several she has attended. The question become who is the “they” , the enemy, that is spoken of in the meetings? The “they” described seem a lot like her, despite the other attendee’s assurances that no, she’s different. Another problem the “poor people”. She describes how some minorities, as the anti-yuppie argument can get race based, have cashed in. A Salvadoran who bought when the prices were rock bottom sold for a nice profit. This is something that is hinted at, but which I thought about after reading this was the tendency of white anti-gentrifiers to turn the minority population, who are typically hurt by this, into their ‘noble savages’. Nobel savages are your Tontos, your Fridays, or other moral dark skinned character who is put down by white society but is good and uncorrupted by the bad white man’s ways. The author points out that given the chance, the Salvadoran in this case, lusts and chases after the same thing the big bad yuppie does and the noble savages, in this case the Salvadorians, given a chance will gladly move into the yuppie middle class. It is the white bohemians who have chosen a more imporverished lifestyle and who are seemingly trying to impose it on their non-white neighbors.

Gentrification: Gen….What?

Kim Tate is the author and teenager in this article about the changes in her neighborhood. In this her family is selling the house in a gentrifying neighborhood. She seems to be trying to make sense of what is going on around her. Her view of the changes are slightly negative. I say slightly because it lack some of the very angry rhetoric I’ve seen on other sites. To be any angrier might condemn her parents for even daring to sell their house. There is sadness, but also the same sort of sadness you might find from any teen reflecting on leaving their home. A good thing is at the end of the article there are resources for folks in the Atlanta metro region who are threatened by gentrification.

This old house

Maybe it’s shows like This Old House that give people the wrong idea. Or maybe it’s preserved historical houses. I don’t know but people believe that because my house is over 100 years old it’s all neat and historical with architectural details that only need to be uncovered.

No. It is not neat, or quaint, nor does it have any of those quaint neat details. My house has been rental housing for the black working class for the past 100 years. Rental housing, landlords don’t invest a lot in rental housing and it shows.

The floors. Might be hardwood. But for the time being are hidden under carpet. What I have seen so far under the carpet and on the other side of the floor is not a happy sight. Under the carpet there are shriveled up tiles of some sort (asbestos maybe?) and some dark gunk on top of dark colored wood. I know it is dark chocolate in color from looking at the underside in the basement. It is sawn rough. Even if it could get sanded smooth I don’t think I would want the color. The house doesn’t get enough light and it’s small, dark colors are bad, last thing I want to do is spend good money on a floor that will make the place look smaller and darker.

Walls. I hate the walls on the upper floors. One runs right into the window frame. All except the bathroom they have textured paint. As I later discovered this was slapped on to hide all the cracks in the plaster underneath. The renovator Sunny (evil evil) said it was to prevent stains on the walls that kids (what kids?) make. My only hope was to skim the walls with joint compund because our friend ‘asbestos’ could be in the paint. Don’t get me started on the lead paint.

The whole structure. My house, just my house is crooked in such an obvious way. Settling.

There is one good thing. Radiators. I love them. Now that it is getting cold, and hoping the boiler doesn’t explode, I can enjoy warm things I can put my bottom on, or warm robes draped over. Heaven.