  Esteban Member Username: Esteban Post Number: 76 Registered: 10-2003 |
Highland Park was in serious trouble. It was losing population, it was bankrupt. Something had to be done. The best and brightest put their heads together. They reasoned, "Highland Park is losing tax-paying residents. Let's build a lot of ticky-tacky houses and people are sure to swamp our city, falling over themselves to be the first to buy one of these fine $130,000 houses!" So rather than care for what was already here - perhaps throw in some maintainable parks and playgrounds (a coffee shop would be nice,) they actually went ahead with this hair-brained housing scheme. Notice I use the work 'they', not specifically naming names? This is because, mysteriously, no one is running forward to take credit for "North Pointe" (Now, who came up with that name?) Cruise by, check it out. It's quite astounding. It would look really impressive on the cover of a National Geographic, "Failing city produces modern ghost town." Come, check it out, just east of Woodward, south of McNichols. The first three photos are taken in 2005, when the 'family homes' were spanking new. See how rather pathetic they look, compared to the magnificent ruins they stand next to. The proceeding nine photos were taken in January 2008. A quick trip through the real estate database shows that the few folks who were actually foolish enough to purchase these fine establishments have long since defaulted. The boxes now stand mute and empty, close to a hundred of them. The doors kicked in, windows smashed, copper stripped. Now, let's play a game. Let's see which ruins last longer. The ones just completed, or the ones constructed close to a century ago. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1372 Registered: 11-2003 |
WTF were they thinking to build those next to burn outs and vacant houses etc? That's not too too far from my ghettohood.. I'm going to drive by. What a waste of money. It's kinda like those were finals for a general contracting and construction school. Like some kinda of urban planning experiment. (Message edited by viziondetroit on January 22, 2008) | ||
Dustin89 Member Username: Dustin89 Post Number: 193 Registered: 07-2006 |
I'm surprised this was not brought up back when Channel 7 did a story a few months ago about some people in Highland Park whose home was being flooded because there was running water in the neighboring abandoned property. I thought the significant fact that was not mentioned was that the neighboring property was a close to new or brand new home. | ||
Tetsua Member Username: Tetsua Post Number: 1396 Registered: 01-2004 |
That's a damn waste of money, it would have been nice to have the other homes demolished, or rehabbed first. I know whoever put up the new housing was shaking their head the whole time. You could honestly market that stretch to horror / post apocalyptic film makers. They probably wouldn't even have to do too much to the background. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4374 Registered: 02-2005 |
The design of those houses is really not bad. The decision to build them where they were built, and at that level of quality, is poor. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1373 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yeah the houses aren't that bad for what they are... they are just poorly located. | ||
Hybridy Member Username: Hybridy Post Number: 202 Registered: 08-2006 |
i believe vanguard had something to do with those homes. i asked about it, and their reps wouldn't comment if they were vanguard or not. | ||
Hybridy Member Username: Hybridy Post Number: 203 Registered: 08-2006 |
heres the original press release http://cityofhighlandpark.us/d ocs/north%20pointe%20press%20r elease.htm its not vanguard candler stevens built them | ||
Iddude313 Member Username: Iddude313 Post Number: 137 Registered: 07-2005 |
Leave a nice fat juicy house abandoned in the city and someone will take advantage of it. I've driven by here several times and its shocking to say the least. | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 684 Registered: 04-2006 |
this is depressing... the actual idea was pretty awesome: Highland park press-release excerpt: "The houses will... feature a unique rent to own program that is designed to create first-time home buyers after a two-year or less credit repair effort. Applicants will also be required to participate in the local neighborhood watch program, join the existing community organization, attend classes on neighborhood living skills, and home repair and be subjected to credit and criminal background checks. We are interested in having the home buyers become stakeholders in their immediate neighborhood and in the general city... Equipping current and new residents with information and skill sets will foster a more stable and secure neighborhood." | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1629 Registered: 02-2006 |
Seems silly to build a tiny house on a big lot, with vacant lots next door. This ain't a 20 foot wide lot. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4375 Registered: 02-2005 |
That's a great point. Without re-drawing the property lines, these are kind of awkward. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7011 Registered: 02-2004 |
You see how much urban disinvestment can do. What a waste of good building materials. Selling those pitiful homes to suckers; they can do better than that. Those builders really exploited Highland Park at the end. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1374 Registered: 11-2003 |
"North Pointe is a wonderful Christmas present for the citizens of our city, says City Council President Dr. Ameenah Omar." was it really? | ||
1953 Member Username: 1953 Post Number: 1529 Registered: 12-2004 |
Would it have cost them so much to hire a security guard? | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 5452 Registered: 10-2003 |
Q. What were they thinking? A. They weren't. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1378 Registered: 11-2003 |
"Would it have cost them so much to hire a security guard?" ^ they weren't really centrally located.. they are scattered about so it would have been difficult to secure these houses. | ||
Jonesy Member Username: Jonesy Post Number: 450 Registered: 07-2005 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =d_DCVhLLnHY | ||
Jonesy Member Username: Jonesy Post Number: 451 Registered: 07-2005 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =qxvpComh824 | ||
Jonesy Member Username: Jonesy Post Number: 452 Registered: 07-2005 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =zdVuEpD9_IY | ||
Histeric Member Username: Histeric Post Number: 826 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yea. How dare they attempt to do a scattered sit infill project and not succeed. How dare they go against the current and attempt to revitalize a distressed neighborhood. What the hell were they thinking? Funcking rubes. | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 66 Registered: 11-2006 |
The homes aren't bad, the locations aren't even that bad. What screws this up is you can by the run-down house next door for $500-$1000 and fix it up for way less than $130,000. The city should try to sell these as soon as possible even at a loss before they are scavenged to bits or burned out by vangrants trying to stay warm for the winter. (Message edited by russix on January 22, 2008) | ||
Bearinabox Member Username: Bearinabox Post Number: 501 Registered: 04-2006 |
...and have a much nicer house when you're done. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1380 Registered: 11-2003 |
"The city should try to sell these as soon as possible even at a loss before they are scavenged to bits or burned out by vangrants trying to stay warm for the winter. " ^^ too late | ||
Russix Member Username: Russix Post Number: 67 Registered: 11-2006 |
Government is a tool to funnel money into yours and your buddy's pockets. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 387 Registered: 03-2005 |
WTF precisely. This boondoggle of a project sure smells bad. This whole project certainly feels like somebody had their hands in the pie some how. Sure hope I'm wrong on this suspicion. Didn't Habitat for Humanity do some great rehabs on the old houses for folks in HP? Why not build on that success instead of trying to develop inferior housing on burned out blocks. -OR- work on tearing down abandon homes. Perhaps the people around them will maintain hope and pride instead of feeling defeated amongst the abandon shells. Clear out the wasted / abandon ones and focus on the salvageable properties. | ||
E_hemingway Member Username: E_hemingway Post Number: 1526 Registered: 11-2004 |
The story of this development was covered last year in this thread: https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/107211/115825.html Scroll down until you see Eric_c's comments. He works in the area and is pretty knowledgeable about what went down. | ||
Esteban Member Username: Esteban Post Number: 77 Registered: 10-2003 |
Wow! The photo image link in last years thread is really worthwhile checking out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1 4732812@N03/sets/72157602325088292/ North Pointe 'Village' is a real mess. Who would be responsible for cleaning it up? | ||
Frumoasa Member Username: Frumoasa Post Number: 104 Registered: 03-2007 |
The houses definitely had some design flaws...one of the abandoned homes clearly is infested with mold as you can see from the kicked in door...that house should not be moldy. After a few years, the basement and roof should still be keeping water out, so there was definitely a flaw in construction because that is unacceptable. On a more positive note, there are a few well maintained infill homes right off McNichols that are occupied and tidy, though some of the homes have survived, although it seems some have led a short and troublesome life. Highland Park could have a lot going for it, prime location, Woodward, the Davison and the Lodge lead right into it, but until they clean up some of the mess...the nice neighborhoods that are relatively close to it will continue to suffer from the neglect that radiates out from that area. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1382 Registered: 11-2003 |
"After a few years, the basement and roof should still be keeping water out," ^ that may be true... but that's usually when the windows and doors are still in tact. In the picture you are referring to, those look like dents in the wall and the rest looks like dirt. Any home would look like that if it's subject to the elements and vandalism as such. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 261 Registered: 07-2006 |
If this wasn't some scam already then.... I would have to say that the one thing that the designers were idiots for not thinking is this: If they want to revitalize a community in a very run down area, you have to build these houses tight together. People want neighbors who will watch out for each other. They don't want the only traffic to consist of lost bums and people looking for somewhere to urinate. Who would live in Highland Park surrounded by nothing? | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4484 Registered: 10-2003 |
Poor Highland Park, once so mighty, the city with the factory that changed the world, now beaten down, humbled, shrunken with no friends or sympathy -- only derision and more humilities. When those were built the first thing I noticed, beyond their narrow "shotgun house" design, was that there were no gutters on the roof eaves. Now I know that is no big deal but, c'mon, it is. Over time no gutters = no foundations, no lawn... For several years, I drove my son to school through that neighborhood to St. Benedicts, once the anchor of a prosperous community in walking distance from fabulous Palmer Park. Esteban's picture show you that the houses were substantial middle-middle to slightly upper-middle class. Many would have fireplaces, hardware floors and other accoutrements. By then it had declined into a ravaged neighborhood of burned-out hulks with open drug dealing and, as always, a few islands of united neighbors with kept-up properties. I was encouraged when the first Northpointe houses, built along John R near St. Benedicts, were substantial three bed ranch style houses -- not of the style of the older houses but, hey, we'll take it. At least their quality was equal to what had survived. Then came the tiny houses, midgets to the predecessors, no gutters, no landscaping and, I suspect, no many other things. My first thought was, these are going to be a disaster... and, sadly, they were. I would love to see the books on that one. My feeling is that this may have been one of those toss-ups enabled by the cheap subprime, no early interest easy money that was floating all over the place then. Funny thing I seemed to hear something about it again, in the last two days of crashing stock markets. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7013 Registered: 02-2004 |
Jonesy, Quit trolling! What are those dumb pictures from You Tube have to do with this thread? | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7014 Registered: 02-2004 |
Lowell, All of those once big beautiful middle income colonials in Highland Park ghettohoods are now reduced to crackhead estates. Even the sucker homes at the Northpointe area. Fell victim to the crackheads. Rats, roaches, cats and dogs mold are now the primary residents in those sucker homes. Most Black folks and any other ethnic folks will not but or fell for those sucker homes. It has no value no appeal. It look like rejects from the Jeffrey, Brewster/Douglass projects. I say tear them all down and rebuild including the abandon homes on the side and build some real luxury homes. | ||
Frumoasa Member Username: Frumoasa Post Number: 105 Registered: 03-2007 |
No, that is definitely mold and not dirt...the growth pattern doesn't look the same as merely a dirty house, those round spots of various sizes all clustered around each other are definitely mold and I am not surprised. I have seen many repossessions and the cheap new construction is infamous for it. Cheap contractors doing a poor job and allowing the moisture to get in could have been the reason that house was abandoned. Nobody should be forced to live in a house infested by mold...it harms children, pets and grown adults by reducing lung capacity, causing more frequent asthma attacks and many other problems that could have been averted and maybe that family would have still been in the home. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1813 Registered: 07-2004 |
Heh. Asking Detroit's leaders to come up with a solution is like asking a shoe-seller if you need new shoes. How long will our citiy suffer under unfunded mandates and silly development schemes that funnel money off to contractors, who laugh all the way to the bank? | ||
Dabirch Member Username: Dabirch Post Number: 2504 Registered: 06-2004 |
quote: My dad went to St. Benedicts... | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2567 Registered: 04-2006 |
quote: Some classic comments were made on that thread... | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 2043 Registered: 11-2003 |
The captions on the hpfolks.com site are hilarious, despite the tragic pictures. | ||
Esteban Member Username: Esteban Post Number: 78 Registered: 10-2003 |
It seems to me that Highland Park's decline is not done yet. I live on one of the marginally intact streets, but in the last half a year, several houses have died on our block. This is how it typically happens: An elderly individual passes away, there is a double mortgage on the house, and none of the surviving family members have the funds or willpower to take it in hand. So it sits there empty for about a half a year until the neighborhood parasites break in and strip the copper. Sadly, the city seems helpless to do anything effective. You can call the police (who by the way are pretty decent), they come and look, shrug at the broken door and tell you there's nothing they can do. Then you call the City. Usually they are out to lunch, all day. Occasionally someone picks up the phone, they lend you a sympathetic ear and tell you that action will be taken. It won't. As the house falls further into disrepair, the adjoining neighbors pack up and leave and the process starts again. I have lived in Highland Park since 1975, and I have watched this steady decline. If I thought there was a glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel, I'd consider staying - but there isn't. The sad fact of the matter is that Highland Park has not hit bottom yet, Nor do I see how it could pull itself out of bankruptcy in any real sense in any foreseeable future. That a city like this should have such promise and be allowed to sink so far - well, I would never have thought it was possible. I'm tired of fighting loosing battles, now I want to win some. So I think perhaps it is time to move. It is a bitter defeat. | ||
Eastsidedame Member Username: Eastsidedame Post Number: 193 Registered: 12-2006 |
Guliani may be looking for a new challenge soon. He did wonders for Times Square.... | ||
Jerrytimes Member Username: Jerrytimes Post Number: 97 Registered: 04-2007 |
Why does this not shock me. |
