Big Worries Over Fate Of 2510 4th St. N. (Will Jonah Get Swallowed By The Whale?)

Photos By John Hoff


First of all, Hawthorne Housing Committee meetings are open to the public. I happen to be the secretary of the committee, and I took notes at the Wednesday night meeting, but these were handwritten notes and I turned over my only copy. (Computer issues, don't wanna get into it) So everything that I'm now writing and recalling is from my role as an observer at that meeting. Having said that...

Jonah Bridger seems like a nice man. He says he used to be an army corpman and served on the U.S.S. Mercy. He says he's from George. I make a point of saying "he says" because, really, very little he says can be independently confirmed and there is ample reason for doubt and worry, given what Jonah says.

Jonah says he's getting ready to buy an 11-unit apartment complex (pictured above) at 2510 4th St. N. for a mere $60k. He plans to live on-site as the apartment manager.

Has Jonah ever owned, renovated or managed something like that before? Jonah says he doesn't have much "recent" experience and mentions that his father--now sadly quite ill, and apparently a resident of the Twin Cities--used to be quite a slumlord. But Jonah says we should have FAITH in him. We should give him the benefit of the doubt and BELIEVE in him, as evidenced by the fact he came to our committee in the first place to talk to us...right before he's all set to buy the building.

Oh, did I mention the building has been vacant for so long that it has lost its variance, and the only way it can be an apartment building again is if the city would approve? So, it would appear, the opinion of the neighborhood is very important to the future of that building.

Jonah reminds me of two differnt people. First, he reminds me of slumlord Bashir Moghul, who has an ability to be very polite and make all the right kinds of noises at neighborhood meetings, but when you look at what he actually does, Bashir is part of the PROBLEMS of North Minneapolis, not part of the SOLUTIONS. He's a slumlord, plain and simple. Click here for an example of Bashir's outrageously bad slumlord behavior, documented in a HUD news release.

Jonah also reminds me of Lennie Chism with his big dreams of renovating the old Uncle Bill's store, without really saying how, specifically, he will come up with the resources to pull that off. Lennie just keeps talking about the need to engage in positive thinking and believe in Lennie. So Jonah reminds me of Lennie, though thankfully Jonah has enough humility not to make constant comparisons between himself and the great men of history.

A more important point: the building in question looks like a wreck from the outside, so who knows what it's like inside? Jonah told the committee all the pipes had been ripped out and pointed out how, my word, something like that must have taken DAYS. Where were THE POLICE, he wondered aloud? Why didn't somebody CALL?

The other day I went to 2015 4th St. N., in the rain, and rainwater was pouring off the flat roof and down two sides of the building like the structure was a whale with blow holes.(See photos) Is this building going to be the whale that financially swallows Jonah?

If the building has rain gutters, they didn't appear to be working as the water running down the walls has soaked the boarded-up windows. This has apparently gone on for years. Water must be all in the walls along those areas where it drains so badly. You really have to wonder about toxic mold.

I wonder if Jonah is listening to the voice of reason or just some woo-woo mystical voice in his head which is saying something about how this "feels right." Heaven help our neighborhood. We have suffered enough from slumlords. I, for one, prefer to draw a line in the sand and say there is NO WAY I'd be in favor of seeing any variance granted to that building. If you think THIS blog post is harsh, trust me that you have not yet seen harsh, click here. To use a metaphor somebody might understand after serving on the U.S.S. Mercy: this is just a shot across your bow.

Hopefully, Jonah will get hard estimates on required work and really consider how difficult it would be to procure the zoning variance. And then, hopefully, he will cut his losses and walk away from the table rather than get into something way, way over his head. I sincerely hope so.

One interesting thing to note: the bottom photo shows how close the apartment building is to "Mr. Slummy," the guy building some kind of residential monstrosity which he claims will NOT be a rental property. I've written about Mr. Slummy quite a few times, click here for an example of the ongoing horror.

I can't help but think how CONVENIENT it might be to have all the bad rentals concentrated in one spot.

Oh, wait. We already TRIED that in Hawthorne, and it wasn't convenient at all, click here.

Never mind.