Slumlords Beware!

Yeah! Something to be glad about. Richmond Slumlord Watch! 

Two years ago I took pictures of empty commercial buildings on West Grace Street near my home and submitted them to Vacant Richmond. That blog provided a place for you to search for and locate all vacant properties in the city. However, they were not able to keep on top of the current state of all the properties and their landlords/owners' involvement, so they closed down the site. 

Now I find that RSW has taken up the cause, spurred on by the already existing Baltimore Slumlord Watch. Though they may not be a comprehensive catalog of properties, they do highlight particular properties and supply the info on the owners and the property's status. I love that they are covering this issue as it is a big one for this city. Many of the city blocks near my apartment seem almost 60-70% empty. Perhaps there are tenants living in the apartments above but the businesses below are empty. We truly don't need more retail operations being built in the downtown area as there are enough empty storefronts to last a long time. In fact, even though some are questionably painted, at least they're trying.

Historic Preservation In Pictures

This weekend I'm going to check out the Fredericksburg Historic District and take some pictures. I'm going with a friend who is a photographer. While doing research for the trip, I checked out our files at work and also checked the internet. Almost immediately I came across some great photographs on Flickr, all from the same account, one army.arch.

As it turns out, army.arch works as a architectural historian and travels around the country for work. His Flickr pool is amazing. His goal (which I commend) is to match up his photos with their corresponding National Register numbers. That is fabulous because the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places website doesn't yet have photographs available for all of it's listed properties and on it's own Flickr group, most of the names and numbers are lacking for the properties that are shown there.

So please check out his individual sets and get to love this country's past building accomplishments just a little bit more.

National Register of Historic Places

National Historic Landmarks

You Don't Know What You Have Until It's Gone (Almost always the saddest photos for me.)

Thank you for your work, army.arch!

Image: army.arch Flickr set (Carl's, National Register #05000642)

Things that make you say...

What!?

"On November 25, 2008, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Louisiana State University announced the selection of the Mid-City neighborhood for the site of their new hospitals. The new hospitals would needlessly destroy the historic neighborhood around Charity Hospital, where residents have been rebuilding and restoring their community since Hurricane Katrina."

"the plans for new construction call for the demolition of some 200 homes and buildings constructed prior to 1880 in 25 blocks of an adjacent National Register Historic District, despite the existence of a largely vacant site nearby."


What were they possibly thinking?

This is not a completely devastated neighborhood. This is one trying very hard to get back on its feet.

Please check out the Save Mid-City page on the National Trust For Historic Preservation's website for more information and links to how you can help. Thank you.