Yes, KFC is gone

For those who have not seen it yet for yourselves...the Homewood KFC is not just closed, it is CLOSED. Sealed tighter than a drum, with every hint of KFC-ness stripped away - not just the big sign that lit up the corner for the past few decades, but the small signs marking the entrances to the parking lot, all gone. It looks like its been empty, not for days, but for years.

I spoke with a manager last week who declined to give his name and said there wasn't really anything to talk about. I told him that I write about Homewood and that I live in Homewood and that I know a lot of people care about that KFC; trying to get at the question of whether anybody wanted to say anything to all of the customers who will be disappointed and hurt by this. He said he would pass my contact info to his boss.

I didn't really expect to hear back, partly because it was a franchise, whose communications are probably strictly controlled by its ginormous corporate parent (Yum! Brands, Inc., based in my hometown of Louisville, Ky.). Still, it would have been nice if, like the owners of Jenny Lee Bakery, they had been allowed/instructed to say to customers, "Thanks for your support."

News you may have missed

Homewood, sad to say, was one of the neighborhoods that led the city's 28 percent increase in homicides in 2008, with 12 murders reported in the neighborhood last year. Only the North Side had more, with 13.

The abuse of a former Homewood resident has led to the discharge and arrests of five workers at the Kane Regional Center in Glen Hazel. Alzheimer's patient Thelma Bryant used to live two doors down from me; I have written before about her house being purchased by someone from Maryland and my occasional attempts to contact the new owner to get them to take care of the place (like the rest of the street, it looks much better after the City cleaned up the block in October).

The Holy Rosary School has been the subject of two attacks by vandals since Christmas.

Calendar note

The Pittsburgh Public Schools will hold a public meeting Thursday evening to discuss the future of Homewood's schools. The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Westinghouse High School and will begin with a light dinner.

This meeting is not in response to a homicide or a fire or some flagrant instance of abuse in the schools. It is just a meeting that will help to decide the fates of Homewood's chidren for the next decade or two. I don't even have kids, and I plan to be there.

Better late than never?

I've meant to say this for more than a month now - big thanks to the folks who helped to make the Readers Get-Together happen: Montage owner-proprietor Helen Baynes (412 973 5188) and caterer Diane Alford of Priscilla's Pastries (412 731 6644). Those phone numbers mean that I'm recommending them for anybody who wants to put together an affair. A separate shout out goes to coworker and dessert guy RJ Hufnagel, who does *not* have a cheesecake business, but perhaps should.

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Goodbye, Colonel Sanders?

I just heard this, and I'm still in shock, even as I try to find out more details: the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet at the corner of Homewood and Frankstown Avenues has apparently gone out of business.

I say "apparently" because I'm not certain yet. What I have heard from reliable sources is that the building has been boarded up and the sign taken down.

The Homewood KFC has been a mainstay of my existence for a quarter-century now. I can't imagine Homewood without a KFC. And I really can't imagine what that intersection, already devalued by the closure of Dairy Queen/Kaizuki's, will be like without the KFC.

Perhaps the best to be hoped for is that some other fast-food chain moves in soon.

But that's jumping ahead of the story, which is still very incomplete. When I find out more, I'll let you folks know.

Likewise, if any of you folks hear anything, let me know, ok?

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Homewood on eBay - pt. 2

After untangling the puzzle of 7131 Kedron, I noticed a second listing.

"That looks like it could be a Homewood house, too," I say to myself.

Then it hits me: "I know that house! That house is on my block!"

The house is 7210 Race Street, and I've written about it here before (start at "Further down the block" - no, I never did drop Ms. Snowqueen a line).

Sunday, it was for sale on eBay. More than that, Sunday was the last day of the auction. When I spotted it, less than six hours remained for someone to buy it.

The bidding at that point had reached the staggering sum of $1,800.

No, that is not a misprint: one, comma, eight, zero, zero.

I knew that the bidding for items on eBay often escalates sharply during the last hour, and I began thinking about how much I might be willing to pay for the house. A lot more than $1,800, because I knew something that a lot of other bidders might not know - namely, that the house did not require tens of thousands of dollars to become habitable; that it was in fact inhabited, presumably by legal, rent-paying tenants.

I called my attorney for his input (on a Sunday, mind you - cha-ching!). He advised caution - apparently, eBay is known as a venue for fraudulent real estate transactions. He suggested that I ask the seller a couple of questions, and that if I did not get satisfactory answers, to keep walking.

So I sent a couple of notes to the seller. And waited. And got no response. And kept checking the page on eBay.

At 9:39:15 p.m., the auction ended, with this result.

I didn't even know how to respond. Part of my response, though, was thinking that if I had suspected that the house could be had for so little, I might have taken the risk.

(Actually, the point was moot - the seller required payment by Paypal, and I was not able to do that. Still, it made me think about positioning myself with Paypal for future occasions.)

The house next door to this one, 7208 Race, which did need rehab, sold for $12,000 in September. A house around the corner sold for $70,000 a couple of weeks ago.

Crazy, huh?

With that, I'm out for a few days. Have a great holiday, everyone. See you Monday.

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Homewood on eBay - pt. 1

Okay, so for months and months my eBay account has been suspended, and on Sunday afternoon, for no particular reason, I decide to create a new account so that I can browse, see what's what and maybe even buy something. Maybe.

Then I decide to check Pittsburgh real estate, because I've seen houses in Homewood listed on eBay before.

I type in "Pittsburgh," and sure enough, five listings pop up. And the photo for one of them catches my eye.

"Hey," I says to myself, "that looks like it could be in Homewood. In fact, it looks kind of familiar."

With good reason - it showed up on the "Real Estate Watch" earlier this year. Twice.

The house is 7131 Kedron, and on January 31, it was sold to Wells Fargo Bank NA in a foreclosure action, for $1,607. Then, on May 2, Wells Fargo sold it to Zhang Wei for $7,000.

(Actually, there's a third sale on record: on September 17, to 7131 Kedron LLC for $1 - but Zhang Wei's the president of 7131 Kedron LLC so that's apparently just, you know, a bookeeping thing.)

And now it's on eBAy.

And as of this writing, no one is willing to pay $10,754.43 (how did they come up with that opening bid?) for this 4 BR, 1.5 bath house.

Weird.

But not as weird as what happened after I finished checking out the listing for 7131 Kedron...

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Landlords under the gun

Saturday, Operation Better Block held a holiday gathering for Block Watch reps. Not a formal meeting, just a time to eat and talk.

One of the primary topics of conversation was the City of Pittsburgh's new rental registration program, which property owners have to comply with by April 1, or face possible fines of $1,000 per unit. This program could have a huge impact on Homewood - who knows, maybe strong enforcement will make some irresponsible people decide to get out of the landlording business.

Real Estate Watch
The weekly report from RealSTATs of real estate sales in the 13th Ward included the following transactions:

7015 Frankstown Avenue, for $3,500
7141 Frankstown AVenue, for $45,000
7119 Hamilton Avenue, for $290,000

NOTES:

The new owner of 7015 Frankstown Avenue lives in New Jersey. Is it just me, or is this out-of-towners-buying-up-Homewood thing getting really, really old? I'm not inherently opposed to people in one city owning property in another, but gee whiz...

The Allegheny County website photo for 7141 Frankstown is misleading. 7141 is not the big old three story building on the corner (which has long since been demolished; the lot is the site of the gazebo). It is the much smaller building just to the left of it in the background, known as D.J.'s.

7119 Hamilton Avenue is the former Holy Rosary Convent, which became the object of controversy last year  when Homewood residents learned that it was being sold to the Center for Spirituality, who wanted to use it to house a drug recovery rehab program. The sale finally went through.

I have a real estate story to tell that deserves its own post. Stay tuned.

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In heaven there is no beer...

...but there's beer in Homewood, and I don't mean just what is being served in bars. I mean beer being brewed in Homewood, at East End Brewing.

EEB has been around for a while now; the news here is that the brewery is releasing a new label tomorrow, named after its home neighborhood: Homewood Reserve.

I know NOTHING about beer, but EEB proprietor Scott Smith describes Homewood Reserve, a limited offering, as "an American Stout brewed with blackstrap molasses and brown sugar," and aged in a bourbon barrel so that "it picks up some of the bourbon notes."

If you know what all of that means and you like the sound of it, swing on by 6923 Susquehanna St. tomorrow during the brewery's "Growler Hours," between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. and give it a try. Otherwise, you can give a call to 412-537-2337.

Holiday happenings?
Community Empowerment Assocation will sponsor a community Kwanzaa celebration Saturday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Kingsley Association, 6435 Frankstown Ave. All attendees are asked to bring a non-pork covered dish and a gift for a child.

If you know of other holiday happenings, please post a note here to let us know about it.

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Destination Homewood

I have a question for you. Before I ask it, a little background:

One of the characteristics of a thriving community is that it offers amenities that not only benefit residents, but that give people from outside the community reasons to go there. A thriving community is not only a home for its residents, it is a destination for non-residents. For example, when I want to go to a bookstore, I usually land at the Barnes and Noble in Squirrel Hill.

Neighborhoods become destinations when they offer something that people want to buy, or to do, or to see.

Homewood is already a destination for some people who want to buy drugs or prostitutes (yuk). But it is also a destination for people who want to study music at the Afro-American Music Institute, or at the Jazz Workshop, or who want to learn music production at the Hip-Hop Academy, or who want to take any of the courses offered at the Homewood-Brushton branch of the Community College of Allegheny County. It is also a destination for people who want to enjoy free jazz at the Carnegie Library once a month.

It is also a destination, on Sundays, for people who worship at any of the many churches in the neighborhood.

So here's the question. What other things can Homewood become a destination for?

A couple of possibilities:

Every spring, Washington DC is a destination for thousands of people who want to enjoy the flowering of thousands of cherry blossoms. If a massive number of dogwood trees (see previous post) were planted in Homewood, Homewood could become a destination for its Dogwood Festival.

By building on the amount of music-making that already happens in Homewood, Homewood could become a destination for music. Four years ago, I visited Beale Street, the legendary "home of the blues" in Memphis. It was a summer Saturday night, and the Street was insanely crowded, with music coming from every corner, nook and cranny. But what amazed me, having heard about Beale Street since I was kid, was how small it was. I mean, there were scads and scads of people partying their tushes off in the space of two or three blocks.

Put three or four decent clubs with good music on the same block, and Homewood could become a destination for music.

Either of those possiblities might take ten years to happen. Things take time.

There's enough vacant space and vacant buildings in Homewood to build, produce or do almost anything. What else could Homewood become a destination for?

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A Tree Grows in Lincoln-Lemington

Colleague Torsten Ove wrote a fine piece Sunday providing an update on the case of Christopher Evans, the Job Corps student from Dallas who was gunned down a year ago near the East Busway stop in Homewood. The story was pegged to a dedication ceremony, scheduled for yesterday, in which a renovated dorm on the Job Corps' Lincoln-Lemington campus would be named after Mr. Evans - an occasion which his family came to the city to attend.

Also noted was the fact that in the spring, a dogwood tree was planted on campus in Mr. Evans' honor. The mention of dogwood rang a tiny bell in my brain, and a little checking online confirmed that it symbolizes resurrection. It seems an appropriate choice for honoring someone whose goodness, by all accounts, continues to resonate among those who knew him.

Beyond that, I hereby nominate the dogwood to be the official tree of Homewood, a symbol of what is both necessary and inevitable here: resurrection.

Real Estate Watch

This week's report from RealSTATs lists three transactions in the 13th Ward:

34 Crestline Court, for $118,000

7803 Hamilton Avenue, for $10 (transfer stamps indicate a value of $26,105)

713 Singer Place, for $2,500

Art! Commerce! Kids!

Jeff Guerrero over at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild is at it again. Jeff is the young man who gave a bunch of kids cameras back in the spring and had them take photos around Homewood, which they made into postcards, which they in turn sold, an exercise that sharpened their visual sense, helped them to see beauty that they might not have noticed before, taught them something about entrepreneurship, let them make some money, and reduced the amount of idle time on their hands that would make them susceptible to nonsense involving drugs, etc., etc.

This time around, a group of 5th through 8th grade students at Faison Intermediate School have been learning pottery. Tomorrow, their work will be on display and on sale at the Carnegie Library in Homewood. A second group of kids studying photgraphy will also have prints on sale. As before, the program is a joint effort of the MCG and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. As before, the goal is to teach the children the value of art and education by showing them how they relate to business. And as before, he profits will go directly to the students, though they have been asked to donate 10% to the library. There will be coffee, cookies and hot chocolate as refreshments. The event runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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"Ack!! Ack!! Harrrumphum!! Bark!! Bark!!"

That's what I've sounded like for most of the past month, coughing like - I don't know what. I went through an entire bottle of Robitussin DM before switching to Mucinex DM, and then I got a prescription from my doc (azithromycin), then when that didn't do the trick, he wrote me a prescription for two drugs to take in tandem.

All of which is to say is that I've been quiet here lately because for much of the past two weeks I've been off sick.

I'm still coughing today, but less. I think I'm healthy enough to attend tonight's Light Up Night at the Homewood-Brushton YMCA. It runs from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. and will offer a holiday program featuring kids from the neighborhood, the opportunity to have family photos taken, and according to the flyer, hot chocolate and winter treats.

Also this weekend: the Brother to Brother Leadership Forum is forgoing its monthly breakfast meeting tomorrow to convene a town hall meeting at the Reizenstein/Schenley School. The meeting, from noon-3 p.m., will continue the organization's push to develop "a public health approach for reducing violence."

Real Estate Watch

While I was out, RealSTATs told us about the following transactions in the 13th Ward:

566 Brushton Ave., for $205,000

7136 Idlewild St., for $70,000

That second one is just one block down and one block over from me. Maybe a $70,000 sale that close will add a few dollars to the value of my house.

Okay, one $70,000 sale wouldn't counteract all of the $3,000 - $10,000 sales happening around me. But maybe a second $70,000 sale would help to create momentum. Or even a $60,000 sale. Heck, a $50,000 sale wouldn't hurt.

I won't hold my breath waiting for those. I'd rather see how I can help to make it happen. I need to go...

Beyond watching

Early last month, just before going on vacation, I wrote a post that said, in part:

...I may need to end "My Homewood" in order to avoid ethical problems that I see on the horizon. After urging people for so long to invest in Homewood, I intend to start investing in Homewood myself. I also intend to offer other people opportunities to participate. To write about those opportunities in "My Homewood" would be ethically questionable at best; but not to write about them, to keep them secret from you folks, would be its own kind of dishonesty. I do not want to get stuck in that position, and if I must choose between continuing to do "My Homewood" and investing in Homewood, I choose to invest. When the ribbon-cutting is held on a mixed-use complex on Homewood Avenue, between the busway and Hamilton Avenue, with retail shops, offices, condos and a movie theatre, I want to be there as one of the owners.

(Hey, that's what I see when I walk down Homewood Avenue.)

My editor persuaded me that there was no ethical problem, so I didn't post that message, and I'm not ending "My Homewood." I'm quoting it now simply to let people know what I see. And to say that I am getting started. I want to be careful not to cross the line between informing you about what I'm doing, and doing straight-up advertising. So I'm creatng an email list for people who want to receive detailed information about partnership opportunities for Homewood-based real estate investing. If you want to be on that list, please drop me a line at exg01@capsyn.com.

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Homewood keeps me awake

I can't sleep.

No, not because because of gunfire or car crashes. Because my brain is whirling.

I generally consider myself to be one of the world's finest sleepers. I believe I am gifted in that way. Let my head even get close to the pillow, and I'm gone. I can sleep on chairs, on couches, on floors, outdoors, and in moving vehicles of all sorts. I can nap when needed or gorge my synapses on a 10-hour orgy of dreamtime.

Not tonight. Tonight I am thinking about the potential of my block.

In high school, I wanted to be either an architect or an urban planner, as well as a writer. Tonight, that concern for, and belief in, built environments is re-igniting my lifelong prediliction for seeing things that aren't there yet. And keeping me awake with the question of how to make other people see those things too.

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The Biblical book of Genesis tells us that when God created Adam, he "put him in the garden of Eden to till it and care for it." (Gen. 2.15, New English Bible). In other words, to cultivate its potential.

After Adam and Eve sinnned, God cursed the ground, and the job became much more difficult.

But the job did not change.

I think there's a truth here to be embraced, regardless of one's religious belief or lack of same - namely, that human beings are called/created/destined/designed to do a whole lot more than solve problems. That none of us will truly fulfil our own potential merely by solving problems.

We are here to cultivate potential.

Cultivating potential requires solving problems along the way. But it cannot be accomplished by fixating on problems to the exclusion of everything else.

I want to totally change the entire conversation about Homewood, from a conversation about problems to a conversation about potential. 

(Yeah, yeah, I know; I'm dreaming. What do you expect at 4 a.m.? )

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If I had a lot more money and a lot more skill as an event planner, I would put together a weekend retreat for the sole purpose of having a group of people discuss Homewood. The number one rule would be, "Every conversation, every discussion, must begin with the consideration of a positive possibilty." The number two rule would be, "The only problems that can be mentioned are those specifically related to the positive possibilty under consideration." The number three rule would be, "We will not discuss crime." Not because ignoring it will make it go away, but because 1) it has already been talked to death, and 2) it has a way of drawing so much attention to itself that when we begin to consider it we become mesmerized, like the fakir's cobra. 

The title of the retreat would be, "Beyond 'Good Enough' - Exploring Homewood's Potential for Excellence."

Just a thought (and maybe not even deserving of that name, maybe just a fantasy), and I'm not going to try to do anything more with it right now. I'm going back to bed.

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