Sunday, October 08, 2017
Corner of SE 14 and Cinderella ... redux
After noting yet again the decline of this neighborhood, which is aided by the copkilling Insatiable Aliens currently in charge of this fucked former "city", I happened to bump into some videos that explain how another neighborhood STOPPED declining.
Three years ago I wrote a sort of tribute to the Shidler-Wheeler area in OKC. I had lived there briefly in the '70s and loved the place even though I was going through a messy phase at the time. In 2014 the area seemed to be intentionally recovering, but I didn't know why.
= = = = = START REPRINT FROM 2014
After mentioning emptied-out neighborhoods in previous entry, I googlestreeted a couple of areas that I remembered from OKC. Have they been emptied yet?
I'd previously googlestreeted them about a year ago. At that time they looked perfectly familiar, unchanged from 1972. Ready to be emptied. No other destiny.
When I "drove" through them this morning, I thought: Whoa there! Did I type the wrong address?
No. It's the same address, but sometime between 2007 and 2014 it was magnificently gentrified.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = = END REPRINT FROM 2014
Now the video made by the organization responsible for the recovery:
Nice to see LOCAL people trying to restore a place they love.
Above is 2007, below is Aug 2014. This is typical (though not universal) of the whole neighborhood around Byers and SE14. The houses aren't any bigger, but they're smartly renovated. Presumably some of the occupants are new, but I doubt that everyone was forced to evacuate. So the old occupants are pulling up to fit the new standard.
OKC has broken the boom-bust ratchet! Instead of ripping out the smallest shacks, transform the shacks into cottages ... Then the cottage people will come ... Note the little hipster car! ... And the shack people will either leave or rediscover how to be cottage people ... Which most of them were at one time.
THIS IS THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE TO EMPTIED-OUT NEIGHBORHOODS.
Double Bravo to OKC for doing it RIGHT!
= = = = =
Later: Presumably most of the work was done by individual contractors and flippers, but the results have a coordinated 'look'. This implies city planning or urging. Those brick mailboxes were starting to appear in the 2007 googleview, and they're all over the neighborhood in the newer picture. They must have been a city effort to give the neighborhood an instinctive and distinctive identity. OKC has been running a clever and productive neighborhood-identity program for quite a while, but I don't see any references to this well-defined little area in online discussions of the program.
When I lived there, the 'perceived boundaries' were the river on the north, SE17 on the south, High on the east, and Central on the west. I did most of my shopping along Central and only occasionally went over to Capitol Hill.
Aha. Here's the only specific description online. The document is a 1994 survey for historic landmarks, which looks down its haughty nose and sniffs:
Shidler-Wheeler #1 district is primarily residential, consisting of bungalows, Folk Victorian, and shotgun houses. Included is a row of brick-veneer shotgun houses on SE15. The area is approximately from SE10 to SE15 and S Byers to S Laird, comprising most of the Central Addition platted in 1908. Many of the houses were built prior to the 1920's; however, many have been drastically altered, some demolished, and a number of inappropriate infill buildings constructed. The survey determined that the area no longer meets the criteria for National Register listing.
Drastically altered? Inappropriate infill? Hmph to you too, assholes.
Infill is a city's salvation.
= = = = = END REPRINT FROM 2014
Now the video made by the organization responsible for the recovery:
Nice to see LOCAL people trying to restore a place they love.Labels: Asked and answered, infill, Shack people - Cottage people
¶ 3:14 PM
