Why don't they demolish the old buildings? (live, wife)

[moorlander]

Demolition isn't the answer in my opinion.

[trythisON]

I live three blocks from that group of buildings in the pictures. My neighborhood discusses them weekly. some are preservationists, some would be happy to see them bulldozed. The point is the neighborhood is aware of the eyesore and how they make our community appear. I was afraid to move anywhere in St Louis before I found my neighborhood because of those very buildings. The irony is I found my neighborhood later and from the opposite direction, near Crown Candy Kitchen. I didnt realize where I was until later 8-D.

I have been through the buildings and seen what it would take to re use them.
The commercial buildings have a major problem. They only have 9 legal parking spaces. Finding a use for them where the city would approve of only 9 parking spaces is not realistic. The largest is a money pit, the other two are structurally fine, but they do not qualify for historic tax credits, so tearing down the historic property to use the ugly two just does not make a lot of sense considering the historic tax credits available (state and Federal). They were also storing huge electrical materials, probably with PCB's in them, so EPA issues can come into play.

The house you are looking at that has since lost the top floor of the peaked wall has had work done to it years back, but they used too hard of mortar on the masonry work they did and basically ruined what was left. The bricks will shatter and turn to powder because of that over time. You wouldn't believe the tiny bits holding th roof up. Literally one 2x4 onteh highway side and three broken bricks on the other side are preventing the whole roof from collapse. It is privately owned and the owner abandoned the project. If it were city owned we could work with the city to have it torn down. That house is not repairable by any standards in Old North which is really saying something.
The neighborhood someone called "warzone" has spent over 35 million renovating many buildings that have been in visibly worse shape. Go to ONSL.org and dig around in the photos for unbelievable renovations. We actually had 27% population growth over the last 10 years in part because of the work done renovating old property for people to move into. The new I70 bridge will land on the southern edge and may pr may not change things positively, but it will be different, we dont know.

I have personally renovated a building that would have been leveled. Many of my neighbors have too. It does cost a lot of money and we don't live in the uber security of Chesterfield, but we have a huge close knit community here that would shock (and does!) the West County'ers if (and when) they met us. The violence level here is nowhere near what you Fox2 would convey, it is safe and I know of many single women that walk their dogs alone at night, young children play on my street without fear daily. If you are deathly afraid pf people that look different from you, you shouldn't live here. But if you dont mind walking on the same sidewalk with people from every, and I mean EVERY (good thing), type of background, you might like it here...a lot. Just today, 9 or so neighbors got together to help out one who lost the top two floors of his renovation during the storm last week.

I had to stick up for my neighborhood a bit, hope you dont mind. i also thought you might like to know that we think about this stuff everyday and would love to solve the problem of those highway properties. Each building is different and has very specific issues so its tough.

Habitat does not tear down buildings in our neighborhood, they build on vacant lots. They choose the easy ones with no history of being near a former commercial property for fear of toxins. They are about to do a build that is just behind the large three building commercial space in the pictures. Some neighbors HATE habitat, some LOVE them. We all get together and talk about it though.

Anyone wanna come up for a tour, let me know.

[stlcitygirl]

^STL needs more people like you, bravo!

[latetotheparty]

Originally Posted by stlcitygirl

^STL needs more people like you, bravo!

YES!!

Originally Posted by trythisON

I live three blocks from that group of buildings in the pictures. My neighborhood discusses them weekly. some are preservationists, some would be happy to see them bulldozed. The point is the neighborhood is aware of the eyesore and how they make our community appear. I was afraid to move anywhere in St Louis before I found my neighborhood because of those very buildings. The irony is I found my neighborhood later and from the opposite direction, near Crown Candy Kitchen. I didnt realize where I was until later 8-D.

I have been through the buildings and seen what it would take to re use them.
The commercial buildings have a major problem. They only have 9 legal parking spaces. Finding a use for them where the city would approve of only 9 parking spaces is not realistic. The largest is a money pit, the other two are structurally fine, but they do not qualify for historic tax credits, so tearing down the historic property to use the ugly two just does not make a lot of sense considering the historic tax credits available (state and Federal). They were also storing huge electrical materials, probably with PCB's in them, so EPA issues can come into play.

The house you are looking at that has since lost the top floor of the peaked wall has had work done to it years back, but they used too hard of mortar on the masonry work they did and basically ruined what was left. The bricks will shatter and turn to powder because of that over time. You wouldn't believe the tiny bits holding th roof up. Literally one 2x4 onteh highway side and three broken bricks on the other side are preventing the whole roof from collapse. It is privately owned and the owner abandoned the project. If it were city owned we could work with the city to have it torn down. That house is not repairable by any standards in Old North which is really saying something.
The neighborhood someone called "warzone" has spent over 35 million renovating many buildings that have been in visibly worse shape. Go to ONSL.org and dig around in the photos for unbelievable renovations. We actually had 27% population growth over the last 10 years in part because of the work done renovating old property for people to move into. The new I70 bridge will land on the southern edge and may pr may not change things positively, but it will be different, we dont know.

I have personally renovated a building that would have been leveled. Many of my neighbors have too. It does cost a lot of money and we don't live in the uber security of Chesterfield, but we have a huge close knit community here that would shock (and does!) the West County'ers if (and when) they met us. The violence level here is nowhere near what you Fox2 would convey, it is safe and I know of many single women that walk their dogs alone at night, young children play on my street without fear daily. If you are deathly afraid pf people that look different from you, you shouldn't live here. But if you dont mind walking on the same sidewalk with people from every, and I mean EVERY (good thing), type of background, you might like it here...a lot. Just today, 9 or so neighbors got together to help out one who lost the top two floors of his renovation during the storm last week.

I had to stick up for my neighborhood a bit, hope you dont mind. i also thought you might like to know that we think about this stuff everyday and would love to solve the problem of those highway properties. Each building is different and has very specific issues so its tough.

Habitat does not tear down buildings in our neighborhood, they build on vacant lots. They choose the easy ones with no history of being near a former commercial property for fear of toxins. They are about to do a build that is just behind the large three building commercial space in the pictures. Some neighbors HATE habitat, some LOVE them. We all get together and talk about it though.

Anyone wanna come up for a tour, let me know.

what a FANTASTIC post.....

just one thing about the HFH builds though.... they DO take lots that require tear-downs and they have had to deal with toxic soils.... particularly in the 2009 build.....

i do their LEED and Energy Star certifications, so am quite familiar with it.....

[flynavyj]

My wife actually came down to help on the two habitat homes last year and really enjoyed it. I also have a friend who lives down in Old North and she was telling me about her neighbor (the one with the wall issues from the storm). Hopefully he continues the project, but i'm sure you know more about that situation than what i've heard. What's kind of odd is that i didn't even realize those buildings were in ONSL, I guess i just never paid attention to what neighborhood it was...and I agree, ONSL isn't a warzone, nor does it seem to suffer from a lot of the problems associated with much of North City.

[IDASpaceman]

Originally Posted by stlcitygirl

^STL needs more people like you, bravo!

Dang straight--WELL DONE!!

[North Beach Person]

An answer from another state, perhaps.
To demo a blighted building generally takes a legal finding by the jurisdiction, which can be appealed in court. Then the owner has a time limit to do it. If he doesn't it's back to court. Then you run into finances. If the owner doesn't have the funds to demo then the building stands. Finally yhe jurisdiction can do it but, again, there is a financial impact to that and right now it would be difficult to justify the expense, especially if there are HazMat issues. The jurisdiction would eventually get its money back for demo through a special assessment on the property's tax bill.

[gkaffen338]

Yes it really comes down to money. Many times it becomes very expensive to even determine the owners of these properties. There are a fine set of guidelines a city must follow to take a property and then demolish it or resell it to a developer. Municipalities have to much red tape to be effective at. There needs to be a group of people that go into these communities and help them establish HOA's to empower them. With some strict bylaws they can file leans and then eventually file lawsuits and request the owner relinquish the property to the HOA. The courts are bound by law to find the recipient of lawsuits to serve them. Just my 2 cents

[prifle]

I have a picture of 2 large buildings, part of the walls demolished, on the floors remaining. The buildings look to be directly South of Manchester Blvd within sight of the arch with the cranes still fastened to the legs, although the mid-section is in place. The picture is dated 1965. Can anyone tell me what building these are and why they were torn down?

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by prifle

I have a picture of 2 large buildings, part of the walls demolished, on the floors remaining. The buildings look to be directly South of Manchester Blvd within sight of the arch with the cranes still fastened to the legs, although the mid-section is in place. The picture is dated 1965. Can anyone tell me what building these are and why they were torn down?

And........where are the pix?????