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Brikyaat Development Project


GRDadof3

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Well then to continue a bit off topic, I thought that maybe I was the only one who remembered the hucksters. The one that visited our north-end neighborhood would park near his better customers then sing-out in a loud voice what he had on the truck that day. People, housewives mainly, would then come out to his truck to make their purchases. The truck he drove was painted green and when the sides were open on the back displayed the produce somewhat like you
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Putting a neighborhood under historical status helps preserve the most valuable thing about our past...its scale. In the case of Mack and Stormzand, a pre-automotive scale. Chances are, if you lived here, you walked to work, maybe to Valley City Linen.

Historic districts force us to shape at least a part of our daily existence using the fabric woven in a time less intoxicated by the car and cheap gasoline. Its a restriction to curb our instinct to live only in the immediate moment, call Pitsch and build bigger, shinier, and more 'profitable' monuments to ourselves.

To a culture that thinks almost exclusively in terms of 'economy of scale', it forces us stop and think about how people lived, in the case of Mack and Stormzand and some of the other streets in question, people of modest means. The most important reason to preserve streets like Mack and Stormzand as they exist is to remind us that it was once possible to live someplace and get along just fine without two cars in every garage. We'll need to start living that way again soon. Mack and Stormzand are decades ahead of their time. To scrape them would be a waste.

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Me and Avocado spent some quality time bumming around 26 Caroline in the Brikyaat, and lazy summer afternoons on the cheap "front-porch" couch are a pleasant memory. The street is so tiny and idiosyncratic. The neighbors so nearby. The houses so small and crappy. I remember the crazy guy across the street who brought over a squirrel tail in a jar and told us the rest was in his kitchen. "You gotta eat what you kill."

Now I live on busy Eastern Avenue just north of Wealthy (and the "VOK" area!--labels are cool). Last night another crazy guy paid our neighborhood a visit--in the form of high-speed police chase ending in front of my house. We heard a loud noise and went outside. His car had careened into a small tree, bounced off the wall of the church building, and landed upside-down, wedged between the big tree and the wall. The driver inexplicably not only survived but got out of the car and ran away. Crazy sh*t like this is happening all the time on our block. I have the front bedroom, Avocado (who lives in back) told me he hopes I don't "catch a Chrysler".

I guess my late-to-the-party-and-missed-all-the-meetings point is--preserve the tiny streets. The area will continue to see organic, incremental improvement (the best kind) as people realize the peculiar delight of living here.

If I had my way, I'd focus redevelopment effort on filling in gaps on Fulton and replacing Valley City Linen (is that possible?) and other ugly non-retail buildings with mixed use 2-story buildings. Ideally, the Farmer's Market would be continuous with a retail district that stretches all the way to Eastern.

Besides the finalization of master plans, is there any actual demo or construction planned in the near future?

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Last night another crazy guy paid our neighborhood a visit--in the form of high-speed police chase ending in front of my house. We heard a loud noise and went outside. His car had careened into a small tree, bounced off the wall of the church building, and landed upside-down, wedged between the big tree and the wall. The driver inexplicably not only survived but got out of the car and ran away. Crazy sh*t like this is happening all the time on our block.
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....I guess my late-to-the-party-and-missed-all-the-meetings point is--preserve the tiny streets. The area will continue to see organic, incremental improvement (the best kind) as people realize the peculiar delight of living here.

If I had my way, I'd focus redevelopment effort on filling in gaps on Fulton and replacing Valley City Linen (is that possible?) ...

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I like your prespective, winjer. Except the part about Valley City. OK, it's an eyesore. But so's an unemployment line. Before you can be a shopper, and patronize all this retail that's envisioned, you've got to be a wage earner. Valley City is jobs, right there in the heart of Midtown. Leave it be.
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I like your prespective, winjer. Except the part about Valley City. OK, it's an eyesore. But so's an unemployment line. Before you can be a shopper, and patronize all this retail that's envisioned, you've got to be a wage earner. Valley City is jobs, right there in the heart of Midtown. Leave it be.
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Wow - some one older than me :whistling: . I remember the Colonial bread man (red truck) and Joppe's Dairy delivering to our house until they went out of the home delivery business. I barely remember an occasional huckster. My mom used to tell the story how she was talking with the Colonial man one day and I had to go to the bathroom but was afraid to go past him into the house. I stood on the driveway and had the turds fall out of my pantleg and roll down the driveay (small hill). Must have been boxers :rofl: . Based on my potty training days, it would have been around 1953 or 54.
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Now I live on busy Eastern Avenue just north of Wealthy (and the "VOK" area!--labels are cool). Last night another crazy guy paid our neighborhood a visit--in the form of high-speed police chase ending in front of my house. We heard a loud noise and went outside. His car had careened into a small tree, bounced off the wall of the church building, and landed upside-down, wedged between the big tree and the wall. The driver inexplicably not only survived but got out of the car and ran away. Crazy sh*t like this is happening all the time on our block. I have the front bedroom, Avocado (who lives in back) told me he hopes I don't "catch a Chrysler".

By now you probably know why he ran away - the car was stolen. He was apprehended.

Welcome to the Fairmount Square Historic District ! It's a great neighborhood - as they say in the SOW-VOK, "it's no Cherry Hill, but it ain't bad".

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By now you probably know why he ran away - the car was stolen. He was apprehended.

Welcome to the Fairmount Square Historic District ! It's a great neighborhood - as they say in the SOW-VOK, "it's no Cherry Hill, but it ain't bad".

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I'm talking to a Realtor , and she tells me, "-- Batavia and -- Diamond these may at some future date be torn down due to the City Plans to beautify the area from the Farmers Market west to the Cemetery on Fulton."

Funny how bad word gets around.

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I don't live too far from the Brickyaat area, and I really like the shops on Fulton in this district...I'm glad the the residents of the area are being so proactive. However, (saying this knowing that there are those out there that think replacement of any structure is a capital crime) I've always looked down the side streets and envisioned brownstone-type streets similar to those found in Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville in Chicago.

I would never be a proponent of leveling whole city blocks for cookie-cutter, vinyl-clad suburban-dream condos that seem to populate a majority of the GR metro rings, but at the same time, I think saving something purely on principle isn't the way to go, either, and I would love to see some of those 3- to 4-story square brownstones that are everywhere north of Chicago come to this area. Build these, and I would move a few blocks in a heart-beat!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

I was going to post this yesterday and didn't get a chance. I see Jim Harger beat me to it. :hi:

GR neighborhoods seek historic status

Posted by Jim Harger {sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}} The Grand Rapids Press January 28, 2008 09:08AM

Categories: Breaking News

GRAND RAPIDS -- Duane De Roo and his neighbors like their old homes in the 600 block of Crescent Street NE just the way they are.

That's why he hopes the area they have dubbed "Ashby Row" will become a historic preservation district.

The neighborhood, which lies south of Michigan Street NE's "Medical Mile," needs to be protected, said De Roo, a graphic designer who bought his 118-year-old home in 1991.

City commissioners are expected to appoint a study committee on Tuesday to determine if Ashby Row -- named for a longtime resident who died several years ago -- warrants historic designation.

Commissioners also are expected to appoint a study committee to determine if "The Brikyaat" neighborhood near Fulton Street Cemetery warrants historic designation.

Read more here at the Press

Brikyaat proposed historic district:

2226292710_623a4c7723_o.jpg

Ashby Row proposed historic district:

2226292520_f3d94acd36_o.jpg

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Historic?

Do we really need to make every neighborhood an historic district?

Area with 100 year old, architecturally significant mansions? Yes!

Area with homes that were done from mostly stock plans? Not so much.

Maybe some sort of recognized, named district would work better. Not one where you need to make sure the gutters on you house are faithful to ones that were made in 1939.

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Let market economics help these areas become more than what they currently are. Is there history here? Yes. Could these neighborhoods become something better? I think so.

I've honestly always envisioned a Lincoln Park-type area slowly developing in these areas as more and more people from Medical Mile want to live close to where they work (compared to living in the 'burbs and driving in every day). Prices in these neighborhoods are low enough that it'd be economically feasible for someone to come in and build the narrow brownstones that define the areas just north of Chicago (I'd definitely move in).

I apologize to any of you that live in these areas that this offends :)

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I'm all for preserving our history; there is nothing I hate to see more than a historic building being torn down for no reason other than it's old and someone wants to be "modern", but I really am having a hard time seeing what is so unique about these houses that they have to be kept as they are/were. Even when they were new and shiny, they were not what there is on Heritage Hill. The only real reason I can see to make these districts historic is so a developer can't come in, raze the neighborhood and put up McMansions - this would be reason enough for me.

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In the Brikyaat area, there are places available for less than $50k (much less). And they've been vacant a while. I doubt that adding a level of approvals to maintenance and upgrades (i.e. the HPC) will benefit the neighborhood. (Gutters are not historic. Nor are drainspouts. Metal exterior doors. Lattice. Long list of what's acceptable and what will get you cited.)

I'm all for stringent zoning and maintaining property values, but I don't see the landlords from Rockford and Grandville spending much capital nor effort on their holdings right now.

It would be cool to have a plaque by my front door; metal.

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