Little story on NextStL my cousin pointed out to me: Kranzberg Arts Foundation Secures Option to Create Artist Housing in Gravois Park.

The nutshell version: They've secured a couple dozen properties from LRA, about half with structures and half without, and plan to restore and fill in to create affordable housing and studio space for local artists. Neat idea.

Awesome. The Kranzbergs do so much for the local arts community.

A spark like this is greatly needed in that neighborhood. The City needs to do more here to help with the neighborhood’s momentum. Plant more trees, remove overgrown vegetation from vacant properties and irresponsible homeowners, enforce code violations, fix the sidewalks, etc. A general effort to make it look nicer would go a long way. So much potential there though! Great bones in that neighborhood.

SouthCityJR wrote: ↑

May 31, 2018

enforce code violations,.

Er, unfortunately, there seems to be a general trend away from code enforcement. It's now perceived as somehow discriminatory. This is especially true in the North County municipalities.

framer wrote: ↑

May 31, 2018

SouthCityJR wrote: ↑

May 31, 2018

enforce code violations,.

Er, unfortunately, there seems to be a general trend away from code enforcement. It's now perceived as somehow discriminatory. This is especially true in the North County municipalities.

Code enforcement could be a huge topic in itself for the simple fact that code enforcement of individual home/property owner more likely involves a lot of people who have to make hard choices with their finances. In some respect you could argue that code enforcement falls in line with speeding/traffic tickets. A good chance that the person with a broken tail light can't afford to fix it or at least has has to make choices on what bills to pay that week or not as an example. So don't fix the tail light, get pulled over and get a fine because it seems like an easy revenue source for the muni, person can't make the fine or miss the court date to plea the case because they can't afford to miss work results in more fines & court fees, and the downward spiral continues at the benefit on no one or the community

So I really think code enforcement involving individual owners should be treated differently from the big investor, or the obvious land banking say someone like Drury for a proposed hotel site along Kingshighway. I would argue that if you push code enforcement with fines, court dates, more fines and the individual gets buried without solving the issue in the first place. On the extreme end the city gets another property & no taxes, so on, which only hurts its own finances. To bring it back to this thread you got a development/rehab of a lot of city owned property if not mistaken not generating any taxes with a city that can afford to maintain either

Nice editorial in the paper today:

http://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editori ... 5c28f.html