Originally Posted by PerfectSpiral
Quote
As both business and people use the work at home formula, banks are stuck with buildings half empty.

So maybe they could help the poor and homeless with truly affordable homes. Nah.


Though not specifically addressing your point, I'm going to use this moment to share something really cool that's happening in my neighborhood. It's literally a 10-minute walk from my back porch, and I pass it every day on my way to work. An American story of people trying something new, with no guarantee of success... just the will to make something positive happen. Start small. Grow, if you can. Take a chance. Try something- anything... because the opposite of anything- is nothing.

I'm a fan of this idea. 100% all-in.
I took a side stroll up this street, on my way home from work. Until last year, it was a paved side street that bisected empty lots on both sides. For as long as I've lived at my current address, Bluff St. was a 2-block long 'thoroughfare to nowhere.'

This is what I found, not more than 3 days ago.

Introducing: Bluff Street Village

My workplace is in the heart of the city I've called my home for more than 30 years. When it was time to buy our home, She+Me moved from the suburbs, and invested in the neighborhood(s) that surround the city's cultural arts center (half the orch at any given time has lived in the Old West End/Whitney Hills enclaves). This housing initiative is totally in keeping with the culture that permeates these neighborhoods. It is now extending positive cultural influence into previously dead real estate. Ownership from nothingship. Here is a report from the early days.





I don't post in this forum as often as I once did. That is by choice.
But every once in awhile, I feel the need to drop something into the stew that lets Dawgs see that stuff really is happening.

Bluff Village was once an empty lot across the street from the Methodist church that acts as the cultural anchor for much of the neighborhood.
Now, that once-empty parcel of dead real estate is the site of 7 new homes, with small green yards, a driveway, potential property rights- and a step up into the American consumer class.
Those 7 houses are on one side of Bluff St. The opposite side of Bluff is to be developed next.

I read these PalPol threads regularly. A consistent theme pops up: "What are cities doing to fix their own problems?"
That question is usually asked by someone who doesn't live here. Because, if they did live here, they wouldn't have to ask. The stories are all around us- and they write themselves.

For those people who still need to ask, I offer this post (and links) as a partial answer.


My neighborhood is the s#.
And it's populated by good people of every race, creed and stripe.

You can see who we are by the things we do.