Missing House at 3216 3rd Ave S‏

I hear what David, Caty, and Madeline are saying, but, frankly, I think saving
usable houses is not going to happen. First, municipalities are going to have
to change the criteria for housing to one that is much more energy efficient
than anything being built at the moment (with, I think, only two exceptions in
Minneapolis as of now--one in North Mpls and one on Wentworth South). Smaller,
houses that are geothermal and whatever else can be built in to conserve energy
will have to be the rule of the day, like it or not.

Second, the trend in this city has veered sharply away from community input
into decisions which affect neighborhoods. That is about who controls what
happens. Democracy is messy and time consuming and very few people who wind up
in public office want democracy, particularly grass roots democracy. They want
the veneer of democracy to get elected, but after taking office listening to
"the people" who want to control what happens in their neighborhoods is just a
pain in the tush for them.

I would dearly love to have forward-thinking hands on the reins at GMMHC (and
all the other non-profit developers), since the houses they build are, for the
most part, unfortunate. Any developer who is getting public money to build
should have to adhere to a higher standard, a standard which takes into
consideration all the possible energy efficient elements. They should also have
to adapt to new energy efficiencies as they come on line. Frankly, most of the
non-profit developers are only held to a dollar standard, not to any particular
aesthetics or energy efficiencies.

My own 1912 house is not even the least bit energy efficient and a series of
Frank Lloyd Wrong decisions and age have made it worse than it was originally.
If it were not for the fact that it is built of concrete, it would probably
have been torn down years ago for commercial development. Were logic the only
consideration, it would have been no more than a picture in the Hennepin County
History Museum long since (probably c. 1975). David's house would have gone
even sooner since his is located in "edge land" along the freeway and is even
older.

There are nine levels to the fabled city of Troy (as in Helen of Troy), which
means it was razed and rebuilt nine times before it was abandoned. Cities
remake themselves on a regular basis and our city is no different in that
respect.