Ah well. I'm not applauding that building design either, but there is some great trees on that strip. Keep them intact, and you could do a decent enough job of hiding that building. Probably some sweet views from the top floors as well.

They've already knocked down the two crack houses on the back (north) side of that block, it's been interesting/cathartic to watch, you can kinda feel the evil floating away.

Anything is an improvement, and I understand that the Twilight has a pretty good provision in their lease to ensure their presence in the immediate area for the long term, possibly in the new building across the street.

I'd assume court yards are part of the open space requirements of our codes.

Would it be better to have more density filling up the building envelope?

Meanwhile the big drug deals still go down on the neighborhood streets. They drug runners walk up and down my street and do the big deals while the big bosses sit in their fancy black Cadillac SUV's in front of my house. Thanks a fucking lot!!

As a long time opponent of the war on drugs, where would you rather see the "crackheads" go? To jail? The south end? What are any of these people, including Andrew Taylor, doing to advocate for anything other than gentrification and incarceration?

You asked where I would like the crackheads to go. My post doesn't say that I want the crackheads to go, only that it looks like they have left and probably won't come back.

After Chocolate City closed, many of those crackheads and dealers moved up to my corner--21st and Union. My parking strip is literally an open-air drug market. On the rare occasion the scene gets unruly (most of them don't want any trouble), I will call the cops. But I never call the police on them for sitting on my steps or selling crack, because that wouldn't make the crack dealers go away. It would just send more young black men to prison. I refuse to be a part of that.

However, as long as the drug war continues, open air-drug markets will be part of America's urban fabric. People who think more buy-busts can make them evaporate--I'm not naming any names here, but...--are attached to delusion. Or, more likely, they just want to push the open air drug market away from their home. Sometimes that's just NIMBYism. But sometimes that might also be for the best. The open-air drug market by my house is, at least, in a fairly active neighborhood that keeps an eye out to temper violence, which is better than the market on Madison where nobody was keeping an eye on the street.

Safety is first and foremost established by communities that can see each other, know each other, call for help and believe people will respond. The very layout of our cities, neighborhoods, and, ultimately, the designs of our buildings are the among the greatest contributors to achieving a neighborhood like that. It has nothing to do with gentrification (a sad reality of city life) or drug abuse (a sad reality of the human conduction). Nor are those two related: even if drugs were regulated, we'd still have gentrification.

OMG ME TOO!!!

I hope they get wise and put an Urban Outfitters in there, isn't anything I love in the fucking world more than throw pillows and leggings.

The DRB didn't demand something better?

I could poop a better facade.

If that's true that would be soooo great! Five less blocks for me to stumble home from!

As to the general situation, yeah, I've lived just off 23rd & E Union for about 3 1/2 years now, and in that time I've seen the problem ebb-and-flow. Sometimes it gets really shitty, as for example the tragic shooting of the sandwich shop owner a couple of months ago, and the periodic drive-bys that occur in the vicinity of Thompsons.

But as for the neighborhood itself, there's been a definite change in the climate off the intersection; more families with kids moving in, more day-to-day contact with neighbors both new and old, and an increasing sense of empowerment among residents that, while they may not be able to make the problems go away completely, they can at least exercise more control over their immediate surroundings.

The proposed development for the empty lot on the SW corner of 23rd & E Union would help to that end, just as these new developments at 22nd & E Madison should have some positive impact on what has traditionally been one of the most problematic blocks in the CD.

Call it "gentrification" if you want, but ANYTHING that improves the quality of life for the people who live in these areas is a good idea in my book.

Andrew Taylor's involvement in helping to get the GOTS (get off the streets) program started has been well-documented. I believe it's now moved from Madison to 23rd/Union, but the same basic idea -- providing useful, realistic resources for drug dealers/users to take another course in life.