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Optimist Park / Belmont Projects


dubone

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There are no windows so I just stood outside and took photos of the inside. I didn't go inside the building.

I suppose I was tresspassing, but when the guard said that I shouldn't be there, I asked if I could just take some photos and then leave and he said okay.

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Just a note about the Alpha Mill: I know a lot of people have asked if there is going to be a light rail station at Alpha Mill. Back in November I attended a Community Meeting put on by CAT's talking about the northeast corridor. Since the light rail will be passing over 12th street the only way they could put a station there would be if the station included an elevator which would be cost prohibitive. The proposed light rail station at 27th street requires an elevator to access the station as a result that station is currently under review. CAT

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Could you elaborate on how they described light rail as going over 12th Street? That doesn't seem possible, since the corridor goes under 11th and Brookshire.

I'd be surprised if they don't just plan to keep the existing crossing at 12th. They plan to put a station at 9th or 10th and then at 16th, so I think it is fine that there isn't a station at Alpha Mill at 12th.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is the latest in Optimist Park and Belmont.

Opt12 is now mostly painted:

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Here are some random sights on Siegel Ave

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A Seaboard line bridge from the 20's

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The ugly city yards that some on city council refuse to consider for sale to Salvation Army to build ball fields for poor kids. :(

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Empty Piedmont Courts now waiting for demolishion

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I believe this is the lot at 16th where the McAden Apartments will go as part of Hope VI construction:

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I think Piedmont Courts might have been salvageable, if the political will had existed. Clean the bricks, add some nice porches and awnings. Get rid of all the wire laundry hangers. Maybe remove a building or two to move the dumpsters away from the residents, and screen the dumpsters with nice masonry walls. Make a serious effort to landscape the place. Add paverstone sidewalks. Remove the city yards and hobo groceries and build newer residential nearby, and nicer places to shop.

But... reputation had seeped too deeply into the mortar of those old buildings.

Edited by MZT
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I agree with the last statement....beyond the political will, it is often the percecption that dooms these places.

On a positive note, I have seen the recent new plans for PeCo and it will do a lot to bring a sense of urbanity AND investment to the area that will allow many people to live in a MUCH nicer enviroment.

Like First Ward, I think in the next several year we people will begin to associate the PeCo redevelpoment as part of larger neigbhorhood rather than as a the site of public housing......much like most people now recognize First Ward as a true community rather than the perception 8 years ago of "Earle Village" making that a part of town you didn't want to go to.

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Interestingly enough, many of Earle Village's buildings were kept, they are the buildings painted brown. They look good, though, blended in with larger, more standard middle class apartment buildings.

Piedmont Courts, though, isn't laid out on the main streets. It would be easier to make the area more dense and urban with newer, taller buildings, laid out to face the main streets in the area, like 10th and Siegel. I'm sure DH Griffin will recycle the old bricks, just as they are doing with the Pillowtex bricks.

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i'm sure it is taking so long because of complexity, slow payments from the feds, and the shoestring budget of the city agencies involved.

i agree, this massive investment in the area (which in addition to this 125m, there is little sugar creek greenway, north east light rail, and i think it was 100m or so invested by the city in their city yards land) will DEFINITELY turn this neighborhood around, and i think will benefit most of the current residents who have fought the blight for years..

There is a cookie factory in belmont behind piedmont middle that makes it an absolute joy to live in first ward, and i'm sure in the revitalized belmont and other nearby areas. I remember when i first moved to town, we had a friend move to ballantyne and gloat that it was the fancy part of town, but when we visited it would smell like peppermint from the wastewater plant down there... but when she visited us, it always smelled like chocolate chip cookies :).

The cookie factory is great unless you were a student at Piedmont Middle (I was) and you have to smell cookies that you can't have all day while trying to be a good student!! :silly:

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I don't know why the heck the city won't post these online, but I have FINALLY seen the siteplan for the Piedmont Courts Hope VI project. I requested the project manager for the project to send them to me, but he never responded other than to say that people were to be moved out of PeCo soon (this was a number of months ago).

Anyway, channel 16 has shown the siteplans, and being a sharing soul, I took some photos for you guys.

Again, forgive the quality, I haven't figured out a smoother way of getting screenshots off of TV :).

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(I love that they use a minivan in the rendering... that is probably the one vehicle type that won't really be there when it is done).

And the site plans:

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My initial impression is as follows:

- I absolutely love that they used square gridded blocks blending in with other streets, and being aligned to the historic grid of numbered streets downtown.

- I love that they returned most of the flood plain to park/open space to be part of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, and that they basically made a green pedestrian strip as part of the new street grid.

- I didn't realize until now that the part of City Yards west of Seigel would be part of this project, and primarily greenspace.

- I am really excited that they list the rest of city yards as "Charlotte Yards Redevelopment". It gives me hope that they could sell the land to the Kroc Center (which is shown on the east side of 10th/Seigel intersection)

Amazing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Yeah, those Optimist Park projects are nearly done. Supposedly the Piedmont Courts demolition will begin very soon. I also saw that the official name for the Piedmont Courts redevelopment is "Seigel Point."

Alpha Mill is still bumping along, although they haven't hit any noticeable milestones.

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above is a recent picture of Duncan Gardens.

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Above is a house on 18th street that was recently renovated if more houes in the neighboorhood are renovated like this one property values will go sky high. This house looks very familure to the same type of renovations in the heart of NODA.

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Above is a house on North Davidson street recently renovated

Edited by dubone
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118371300_d6eadfe60b.jpg

above is a recent picture of Duncan Gardens.

118371302_144c6e820a.jpg

Above is a house on 18th street that was recently renovated if more houes in the neighboorhood are renovated like this one property values will go sky high. This house looks very familure to the same type of renovations in the heart of NODA.

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Above is a house on North Davidson street recently renovated

there are quite a few homes in Belmont and Villa Heights being renovated well (and quite a few being done cheaply and called renovated). There is one builder that has 3 or 4 homes on Yadkin Avenue in Belmont that will be new construction and are listed around $350,000...

this neighborhood is changing -- that seems awfully quick, but there are a lot of folks looking at close-in neighborhoods and pricing in others is through the roof

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There will be a light rail public forum on

May 2, 2006

6:00 - 8:00 pm

Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Hall

101 West Sugar Creek Road

they will be talking about the light rail plans for the Sugar Creek Area. I attended one of these forums before they have layout and drawing of the proposed stops for the light rail stations.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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