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Old 01-18-2011, 09:15 PM
 
93 posts, read 227,540 times
Reputation: 53

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Quote:
Originally Posted by cl723 View Post
Theoloham, the thread was about what you didn`t like about SD and I answered. There is no need for your attitude,DUDE! Keep it to yourself....
No attitude, just thought it was a silly criticism of San Diego inasmuch as the same comment could be made of any city.
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Old 01-18-2011, 10:40 PM
 
169 posts, read 857,196 times
Reputation: 84
Quote:
Originally Posted by kettlepot View Post
Yes SG, I coined the "Hovel" part of the term "Huffman Hovel". Thank you for giving me credit. However, the "Huffman" part is well known to people within the development and land use community of San Diego.

The design was popularized by Ray Huffman, a San Diego developer of the Mid Century period. Ray Huffman himself, has been made infamous, notorious even, because of what he wrought on our city's urban landscape.

What you will find is that in North Park Huffman's are mostly located on north/south streets such as (Texas, Hamilton, Oregon, 35th) rather than east/west streets (Meade, Monroe). The lots on the east/west radials were slightly smaller than the 50x100 plots going north/south so the Huffman 8-pack design couldn't legally be built on the east/west roads. This protected those houses from being bulldozed, but still decimated the core of the neighborhoods of North Park, University Heights, Hillcrest, Normal Heights, City Heights, and parts of Kensington, Talmadge and Mission Hills.

As for the Dingbats, they are a Los Angeles design, and while the Huffmans are very similar, there are differences. Mostly, what I've noticed is that San Diego's Huffman's have no front 'overhang' over the parking in the front easement. If you see enough of the two different types, you will see that there are points of difference.

Besides their cheap, shoddy construction, Huffman's denuded the urban landscape of vegetation by paving over front yards and putting in curb cuts from lot line to lot line. This created an auto-centered, pedestrian unfriendly urban streetscape that encouraged street crime by taking eyes off the street and facing windows into the apartment side courtyard.

Also, Huffman's lacked adequate parking to accommodate the people that lived there. A common 8-pack, or 7-pack with a laundry room, would have 7 (8) apartments, 14 (16) bedrooms, and probably generated 14 (16) or possibly more cars. There would be 5 spots in back, 5 spots in front, and a curb cut that eliminated all parking in front of the building. The extra 4 cars, and any visitors had to find parking on the street, along with all of the other surplus cars from all of the other Huffman style buildings.

Another consequence of Huffmanization was that the powers-that-be assumed only young, childless adults would live in them. Therefore, neighborhoods that were Huffmanized for decades didn't build adequate schools and parks to accommodate all of the children from low income families which now grow up in them. At one point, nearly 40% of the children living in City Heights had to be bused elsewhere in the city for lack of school space. In the early 2000s, at least 2 elementary schools were built in City Heights alone to accommodate the population that the Huffman's squeezed into the area. City Heights is the most densely populated area in San Diego.

In regards to park land, the solution back when the city had some money, was bulldoze entire blocks of buildings (probably the remaining single family homes) so land could be acquired for park space (Colina Del Sol Park).

And finally, the owners of Huffman's are some of the most negligent apartment owners in the city. These 8 pack complexes usually aren't big enough to support on-site apartment management so that when graffiti occurs it isn't removed, when trash in dumpsters spills out, alleys are littered, and when food falls out of bags placed in dumpsters the detritus becomes an incubator for hordes of flies. These areas in the summer time are positively 3rd World.

So I proudly proclaim myself to be progenitor of the term "Huffman Hovel!"

Ray Huffman - wear your Blighted Badge of Courage proudly!

- end rant -
wow, great post, I always wondered who came up with the idea for those type of developments and how they came about

and as someone who grew up in these ****holes everything you just described about them is 100% the truth
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Old 01-19-2011, 01:09 PM
 
1,963 posts, read 4,967,205 times
Reputation: 1456
theolohaman, it was definitly an attitude...Not everybody likes a city with tons of people. Why do you think some people live in small communities? It`s because they prefer that, rather than living in a rat race all of the time..
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Old 01-19-2011, 02:36 PM
 
418 posts, read 1,307,388 times
Reputation: 392
It is near impossible to find a nightclub or dance hall where they do the Hokie Pokie in S.D. I suppose it never really caught here. Also, the women are all so thin. Where did all the big women go? Not all men like anemic looking model-types. You would think they posted signs on the beach that said "No Overweight Women", since I can spend a whole weekend cruising the beaches and can't even see one large woman like I would be attracted to.
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Old 01-19-2011, 02:55 PM
 
Location: Florida
2,011 posts, read 3,539,091 times
Reputation: 2747
It's not north of L.A. It just bugged the hell out of me having to drive through L.A. traffic for 2 hours in order to drive to many of my favorite northern locales. Replace Oxnard with San Diego and you have a perfect city.
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Old 01-19-2011, 04:21 PM
 
26,680 posts, read 28,579,455 times
Reputation: 7943
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentoo View Post
Remember 52 goes right through a park (Mission Trails) as well.
No, I don't believe it does. The 52 runs along the north edge of Mission Trails Park; it doesn't run through the middle of it.
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Old 01-19-2011, 04:33 PM
 
Location: San Diego
50,070 posts, read 46,625,795 times
Reputation: 33912
Quote:
Originally Posted by kettlepot View Post
Yes SG, I coined the "Hovel" part of the term "Huffman Hovel". Thank you for giving me credit. However, the "Huffman" part is well known to people within the development and land use community of San Diego.

The design was popularized by Ray Huffman, a San Diego developer of the Mid Century period. Ray Huffman himself, has been made infamous, notorious even, because of what he wrought on our city's urban landscape.

What you will find is that in North Park Huffman's are mostly located on north/south streets such as (Texas, Hamilton, Oregon, 35th) rather than east/west streets (Meade, Monroe). The lots on the east/west radials were slightly smaller than the 50x100 plots going north/south so the Huffman 8-pack design couldn't legally be built on the east/west roads. This protected those houses from being bulldozed, but still decimated the core of the neighborhoods of North Park, University Heights, Hillcrest, Normal Heights, City Heights, and parts of Kensington, Talmadge and Mission Hills.

As for the Dingbats, they are a Los Angeles design, and while the Huffmans are very similar, there are differences. Mostly, what I've noticed is that San Diego's Huffman's have no front 'overhang' over the parking in the front easement. If you see enough of the two different types, you will see that there are points of difference.

Besides their cheap, shoddy construction, Huffman's denuded the urban landscape of vegetation by paving over front yards and putting in curb cuts from lot line to lot line. This created an auto-centered, pedestrian unfriendly urban streetscape that encouraged street crime by taking eyes off the street and facing windows into the apartment side courtyard.

Also, Huffman's lacked adequate parking to accommodate the people that lived there. A common 8-pack, or 7-pack with a laundry room, would have 7 (8) apartments, 14 (16) bedrooms, and probably generated 14 (16) or possibly more cars. There would be 5 spots in back, 5 spots in front, and a curb cut that eliminated all parking in front of the building. The extra 4 cars, and any visitors had to find parking on the street, along with all of the other surplus cars from all of the other Huffman style buildings.

Another consequence of Huffmanization was that the powers-that-be assumed only young, childless adults would live in them. Therefore, neighborhoods that were Huffmanized for decades didn't build adequate schools and parks to accommodate all of the children from low income families which now grow up in them. At one point, nearly 40% of the children living in City Heights had to be bused elsewhere in the city for lack of school space. In the early 2000s, at least 2 elementary schools were built in City Heights alone to accommodate the population that the Huffman's squeezed into the area. City Heights is the most densely populated area in San Diego.

In regards to park land, the solution back when the city had some money, was bulldoze entire blocks of buildings (probably the remaining single family homes) so land could be acquired for park space (Colina Del Sol Park).

And finally, the owners of Huffman's are some of the most negligent apartment owners in the city. These 8 pack complexes usually aren't big enough to support on-site apartment management so that when graffiti occurs it isn't removed, when trash in dumpsters spills out, alleys are littered, and when food falls out of bags placed in dumpsters the detritus becomes an incubator for hordes of flies. These areas in the summer time are positively 3rd World.

So I proudly proclaim myself to be progenitor of the term "Huffman Hovel!"

Ray Huffman - wear your Blighted Badge of Courage proudly!

- end rant -
Is this one?

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Old 01-19-2011, 05:33 PM
 
Location: 92037
4,630 posts, read 10,240,478 times
Reputation: 1955
The fact that the City is still 'Enron by the Sea' in regards to its finances.
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Old 01-21-2011, 11:59 PM
 
Location: Tijuana Exurbs
4,525 posts, read 12,344,434 times
Reputation: 6268
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer View Post
Is this one?
Yes, from what I can see this meets the criteria for a Huffman Hovel, whether or not Ray Huffman himself built it.

The front is completely concrete; the parking is front drive-in; and the curb cut is virtually lot-line to lot-line*. Plus, like a true Huffman, it has a flat roof line.

The 4 real windows, (the two bathroom windows don't really count) are a bit more than some Huffman's have, but less than others, and fewer than what you see on post-Huffman urban infill projects.

And like I said, unlike the Los Angeles style Dingbat, there is no front overhang for parking.

*And you will notice that the actual sidewalk in the public right of way is now a sloped surface, designed to accommodate cars, not people. This misses the entire point of being in an urban neighborhood. A design like a Huffman, says "we know you (like everyone else) would prefer to live in suburbia, but you are too poor," rather than saying, "you really WANT to live in an urban neighborhood, and we will build to accommodate the urban experience you desire."
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Old 01-22-2011, 12:04 AM
 
Location: San Diego
5,026 posts, read 15,245,350 times
Reputation: 4887
Tourists. Everything else is great! They not only fly them into there, they drop them off by the boatful! At least other cities have a tourist season, ours is year-round!

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