Sep 14 2009
Five Race Street men gathered Saturday morning to deal with a vacant lot, approximately 50' x 100', at the intersection of Race and Collier Streets. For about two hours we swung scythes, mowed, whacked weeds and raked. Then we bagged our gleanings for pickup by the City.
Before our full-on assault, the lot was covered with foliage as tall as a man (resident Lavins Fancher):
And this is what it looked like after:
Gotta say, I was pretty darn proud of us.
Real Estate Watch
This week's listing of real estate transactions from RealSTATS did not include any in the 13th Ward.
Staying alive
September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and the Terah Brown Pittsburgh East Chapter of UsTOO wants to raise Homewood's awareness of prostate cancer. The full name of Us TOO is Us TOO International Prostate Cancer Education and Support Network, and it is a nonprofit organization started in 1990 by prostate cancer survivors for prostate cancer patients, survivors, their spouses/partners and families. The Pittsburgh East Chapter is named after Terah L. Brown Jr., who survived prostate cancer for 17 years before passing away in 2006.
In his honor, the first Terah L. Brown, Jr Health Fair Saturday will offer free prostate cancer screening Saturday, Sept. 19th, from 9 am - 1 pm at The Church of the Holy Cross, 7507 Kelly Street in Homewood. The fair will also offer screenings for blood pressure and cholesterol, and free back massages.
Free and in our neighborhood means that the men of Homewood have pretty much no excuse for not going. And we have one really big reason to go: according to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, African-American men have the highest prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates in the world. Let's reduce the rates in Homewood, okay?
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Sep 09 2009
Calendar Note
Tomorrow, at the Homewood Carnegie Library, local producer Kevin Amos and oft-returning Homewood expat Andrew W. Thornhill will lead a discussion on "Economic Development through the Arts." The free event runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Real Estate Watch
Just a couple of transactions reported by RealSTATs this week:
7210 Frankstown Ave., for $130,000
7514 Hamilton Avenue, for $4,000
If you clicked the links, you know that 7210 Frankstown is the former site of the KFC that closed in December. A couple of Saturdays ago, I was at a meeting where some folks expressed concern about the rumor that the new owner is planning to serve beer. Pizza and beer, actually. The feeling was that we don't need another place that serves beer.
I did not, and do not, understand the concern. Maybe we don't need another place that serves beer, but I also do not see how one more place that serves beer would make much of a difference. And I am willing to let the next guy have his beer if I am able, for the first time in a decade, to buy a pizza in Homewood (I can order one now from East Liberty, but I can't buy one in Homewood).
Now, having said that, I'll add this: if the new establishment contributes to the deterioration of the intersection, I'll join with whomever to confront the owners.
But in the meantime, I want to make a larger point.
7210 Frankstown was vacant for eight months. Property does not care who owns it. During those eight months, anyone could have bought it - including people who are now concerned about what the new owners will do.
We could have been the new owners.
One reader, homewood movement, wrote in January:
The
point people miss is that that building is about to be snatched up by
another one of these foriegners the community (or to the country, for
that matter). And although they are gonna provide a service, they are
gonna look down their noses with disdain at us, but happily pocket our
money and take it elsewhere...Keep an eye on it. You'll see.
To which I asked, "Have you considered snatching it up yourself?"
We MUST break free of the mindset that waits for others to act, and then reacts.
Someone may ask, "So why didn't you buy it, Mr. Green?" Fair question. I didn't buy it because I had no idea what to do with it.
But I would have been glad to be part of a group of folks discussing the question, "What could we do with that property?"
Am I the only one who would rather talk about what we can do, than about how we can stop what somebody else is doing?
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Sep 08 2009
Longtime civil rights leader and law enforcement official Harvey Adams died yesterday. So far, details have not been released.
I did not know Mr. Adams, but perhaps some of you did. If so, feel free to share a memory.
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Sep 02 2009
No, that's not a joke. It is an exercise in framing, or in how things are put.
A few days ago, the real estate section of the Sunday PG offered an annual update on
sales in both the 13th and 14th Wards, among others. I share the
details about the 13th and 14th Wards because they are right next to
each other - the 13th Ward is Homewood, the 14th Ward is Squirrel Hill
and Point Breeze (as I type this I can hear John Brewer proclaiming,
"Point Breeze is an optical illusion.").
These two tables
compare activity through June of this year with activity for the same
period last year, using data provided by RealSTATs:
2008 2009
13th Ward, Homewood
Sales 90 84
Median Price $8,200 $10,000
Highest Price $358,000 $120,000
14th Ward, Squirrel Hll
Sales 540 424
Median Price $250,000 $225,000
Highest Price $1,405,000 $1,375,000
The most dramatic thing about these numbers is that the 2009 median price in the 14th Ward (the price where half of sales were for more and half for less) is more than 22 times the price in the 13th Ward. But something else is going on. While the 14th Ward median price plummeted by 10 percent, Homewood's median price in Homewood rose by 22 percent, a huge jump.
In dollar terms, Homewood's median price surge was small, and Homewood homes are still undervalued, as demonstrated by this week's transactions:
7433 Idlewild St., for $4,000
1402 N. Homewood Ave., for $4,710
1308 Sterrett St., for $5,250.
But in percentage terms, 22 percent is ginormous, especially when values are plunging elsewhere. So I'll say this again: anyone who is even considering buying a home in Homewood should do so while they're still affordable...and before they get torn down.
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Anyone here ever check out "Real Estate NOW," the PG's Sunday real estate section? Each week, a feature titled Buying Here highlights a home for sale, and its neighborhood. This week, it's "Buying Here: North Point Breeze", and the home is on N. Linden Ave., one block north of Penn Avenue. Here's the opening paragraph:
"Old house lovers in Pittsburgh are a little spoiled. If they've never lived anywhere else, they don't realize how unusual it is to find huge, relatively inexpensive houses with original woodwork, windows and fixtures."
In this instance, "relatively inexpensive" means $279,000.
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Did anyone out there attend Saturday's Brother to Brother breakfast? Please tell us about it (I missed it because I was at a meeting of Block Watch Plus, the monthly Operation Better Block gathering of block watch groups).
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