Vent! Flipper Hell!

[GinaC]

I just watched the movie, "Little Pink House" on Amazon, and boy, did that get my blood pressure up! Here's an article about it: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 519093002/

Basically, the current eminent domain laws allow the state governments to take ANY house if they feel like they can get more money by building something else.

[SouthernLady]

Southernlady, Good for you, keeping these elected people on thier toes. You can bet there was some money being made somewhere when the decision to tear down was made.

I was actually asked by several town business owners to run for city council with a platform of protecting our historical integrity. I couldn't, though, because I lived right outside of the city limits.

In my current little town, the massive Queen Anne built by our town's namesake went into foreclosure and sat abandoned for about a year. It's on the National Register and is said to be the best example of a Queen Anne in our entire county. My friend who first bought my house and fixed it up to where I could get a mortgage on it was actually considering buying it, using me as historical council, and using it as a B&B and place for small receptions and the like. It had a massive kitchen and another mutual friend with experience in catering said she would be happy to run it. We had some trouble finding out who exactly had the listing, and we happened to all be out eating at a local deli when we ran into the mayor. My friend told him he was looking to buy the house and fix it up and asked if he could help him as the mayor to find out who held the listing so he could make an offer. We never heard back from the mayor, and the next thing we heard is the town itself bought the house. Word came to me that the mayor was telling people the town *had* to buy it to save it because ***nobody wanted it***. Lies.

Anyways, I called the mayor and told him I would like to take a tour of the huge home to take pictures to help aide in my own restoration. Before I got there, the town paid THOUSANDS to have ALL of the landscaping completely removed, before doing anything to stabilize the house! There were bees in the front wall, the roof was leaking, and several places had wood rot starting that needed to be stabilized and painted before it went too far. The least of all worries was the overgrown vegetation on the side of the house. The landscaping had been professionally done years ago, and everything was so mature and lovely. It just needed a day or two of TLC, which I volunteered to do myself before they ripped it all out.

I got the tour. There was damage, but it could be fixed without too much cost. I walked through without saying a word other than asking questions. When the tour was over, the guy made the mistake of asking me, "You know, 'John' (our friend) is lucky he didn't buy this house. We've put $$$$$$$ of dollars into fixing it up. He's lucky he didn't buy this money pit! Now we gotta figure out what to do with it. What do you think of all this?" My family had come with me, and promptly cleared out of the room. I was respectful, but I told the guy down the country as we say. I reminded him my home had been in worse shape and he's done nothing but bragged about how it's been turned around. I then fussed him for he and the town council for using the town's money to buy a huge home and sink $200,000 total into the place without even a plan for how it would benefit the community, and I said shame on all of them for lying about it when they knew very well there was a genuine buyer and someone also on board who had already successfully started turning around another historic home in the town.

He then said they were going to start up a historical committee for the house, and he wanted me to head it up or be on it. I said, "Y'all get me the info and I'll do it." That was over a year ago. So... I've talked to a few folks in the community, and there seems to be some interest to actually have a historical committee of some sort to make a publication of all of the old buildings in our town with a picture of it and whatever history can be found on it, and a standard plaque made that would be made available to be placed on these structures to designate their importance to the town. Hopefully to drum up some pride in our actual farming history. I told the mayor, and he told me to get the proposal together and I could present it to the council. Based on previous history, methinks not at this time.

Instead, once my caregiving is no longer needed for my "second mom" with terminal illness, I plan to set aside a year to get my life back in order and also attend every single town meeting (Gilmore Girls style... )...

...and then I plan to knock one of those guys out of office and run myself.

I truly believe that's what more of us are going to have to do to save our communities--get elected and jump in the ring for a year or two to try to drum up the interest in preservation.

[Nicholas]

...and then I plan to knock one of those guys out of office and run myself.

I truly believe that's what more of us are going to have to do to save our communities--get elected and jump in the ring for a year or two to try to drum up the interest in preservation.

That is quite a story Lady. I am so glad I live in a town with a strong sense of preservation, from the tiny to the huge. My neighbor up the street is in charge of that, she helped me research my house.

We have, just down the street, the "Alsobrook House", a huge home that was somehow moved from the heart of downtown in the 70's to its present location, losing some of its porches and fire places in the move and which was supposed to become a funeral home. That never happened, and it was rundown when we considered it, but somewhat out of our budget. It is now restored, owned by a Tampa cop, and it is a true gem, beautifully lit up at night. Go for it.

ALSOBROOK