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Comments:
raymond - 2004-07-16 08:44:43 I hope they plan on no basements. It must be crawlspaces or built on pilings like the North Carolina coast houses, or they will spend thousands on electricity and maintenance on huge 5hp sump pumps. They will continually break down, cost thousands to repair and will not run when there is no electricity (I.e> during heavy rains or storms when you most need them) I speak from experience with Public Housing where I work. Many of our complexes are built in the last available, crappiest land that no one desires. Flooded basements are continual unless you spens tons on these pump. Then the costs of ruined furniture/belongings from people that make living spaces in basements. Plus a lot of pissed off people. God help the maintenance staff that is left with this mess. The builders/developers/architects will be long gone when the real problems develop.* * * * * * * * * * * * Ypsidweller - 2004-07-16 11:17:53 Oh, I forgot about the sewage lift stations that will also be needed but not work during power outages. Don't worry, it will all mix in the basement with the stormwater. Good idead in theory, but don't buy one. There's a good reason houses have never been built there.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-07-16 11:31:56 Great pictures, Raymond--in addition to being a mess, I find the site quite creepy and sinister...you have the feeling that some very questionable things are going on there. There's one good example of a place I'd not only never explore alone, but get away from asap. Thanks Ypsidweller, for a perspective from someone who really apparently knows about this kind of issue--in fact, it sounds to me like you have a lot of stories on tap. The nightmare Water Street scenario you describe, with all kinds of treats sloshing around in the basement, makes me thankful for the big hill leading up from the Thompson building that puts my street safely out of floodzones. But still, wouldn't a buyer realize that danger when contemplating a purchase? I mean, it's just common sense--there are other Ypsi housing options around $100K--not many, but some.* * * * * * * * * * * * Ypsidweller - 2004-07-16 11:46:10 Buyers will have no idea when it's new. Engineers will figure out some sort of water prevention network that will amaze and quell everyones worries. It will even work for the first few years. But like I said, try to get anyone to accept blame in 5 years. It will be a litigators dream, or nightmare, depending on how you look at it. Plus they will probably install that fake brick crap. This will all start falling off due to the high moisture area. Think about it: If you look out a basement window there, your eye level will be river lever. That makes your feet at 6 feet below the waterline. What keeps the water from coming into the basements? Nothing. But time, they will be fine for a couple years, enough time to change your companies name and assume no liabilities. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-07-16 11:51:27 That sure seems like a likely scenario to me, unfortunately. The more I think about this angle of the Water St. project the less I like it.* * * * * * * * * * * * Ypsidweller - 2004-07-16 11:58:54 Someday I'll have enough time to tell the story of the crippled lady in her eighties. Stuck in a wheelchair swaying back and forth smiling all the time. Couldn't talk, just moaned and grunted. Her drug addicted, no-good relatives getting money and a house to care for her. (Supposed to anyway) Called for no-heat in the wintertime. Found the problem. Sewage up to the third step in the basement. Knocked out the furnace. Piles of diapers piled up the walls, thousands, floating needles everywhere. A biohazzard nightmare. Old lady smiling happily with twenty blankets piled on her. Six or seven electric space heaters pointed around her. No one else around. I called a diaster cleanup for that one. 5 guys in space suits, ten hours later, 100 contractor bags frozen outside the house in the snow later, the basement gleamed and smelled like lemon. $4000 bucks. Oh, yea, I found a sawed-off shotgun in the rafters while drying out the furnace with a heat gun.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-07-16 13:15:58 Wow. That story knocked me out. I don't have to care for an elderly parent, but...geez, you'd think they'd work something out, with if nothing else a visiting aide if the family can't possibly bear to visit their mom...really sad story, my heart went out to her--but it mercifully sounds like she's feeling no pain.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-07-16 13:16:55 Ypsidweller is right on all counts. I added two previous Water Street fiasco pics taken across the street from the oilspill a couple of weeks before it happened. By the way, the oilspill pics I linked to appear to be of the result of removal of an old electrical transformer which perched atop the factory. The CDC advises us to BEWARE!* * * * * * * * * * * * YD - 2004-07-16 13:30:46 The old lady died. I had a blast performing the eviction in a snowstorm a few months later. Throwing all their junk in a snowpile by the curb while they called our crew every name you can think of. One particularly mean skinny lady kept staring at me saying "I'm gonna git you" But five years later she has yet to "Git me" They got evicted for non-payment of rent. They owed 600, their rent was 25 a month. Go figure. Ahh, eviction stories...I just have to do it once and awile, but they blame me for their lack of responsibility. Takes months to do, many chances to remedy and back out, yet we are the bad guys.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-07-16 13:42:12 Raymond: yes, there was something about those images that said--"dangerous and vile: stay away!" Plus a mini Martian landscape--no plants in the center "burned" area...yikes. YD, that's just a grim and miserable situation all around...from what you say, things didn't have to get to that desperate point--$25/month?--you could hardly have a more token payment. Sounds like you have seen some hairy situations. What if you come to evict & they say no, we're staying right here? I hope the old lady got a decent burial at least, if not from her family.* * * * * * * * * * * * yd - 2004-07-16 13:45:18 The Sheriffs of Washtenaw County are always standing there at every eviction.* * * * * * * * * * * * yd - 2004-07-16 13:54:04 If you have enough kids, are a single mom, you actually have no rent and are given a check for utilities. But Public Housing stories should be a whole other topic. There are positive stories too. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of bad stories.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-07-16 13:54:38 Oh. I wasn's sure who was providing the muscle. I dunno, if you ask me I'd think of some way to make such experiences into a book. maybe a memoir. maybe a sort of sociological study. I'd sure read it. the old-lady story was quite grim but compelling. just my 2 cents.* * * * * * * * * * * * yd - 2004-07-16 14:03:35 Oh, I write a lot of them down. Do want to write a book someday. Have to come up with a title: HUD: Housing and Urban Destruction, Public How-I-sing stories, The good, the bad, and the Ugly, Let's hope HUD has nothing to do with Water St.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-07-16 14:12:33 Mister Reagan left office before the HUD scams and scandals his cronies worked on the treasury hit the news. By the time Ron died the news was forgotton or ignored. The Water Street million$ sit like ducks waiting for the scatterguns of the sharpies and hucksters.* * * * * * * * * * * * yd - 2004-07-16 14:21:40 You got it. Shave off using crappy materials. Lie on the payroll documents and pay illegals 1/3 pay to build it. The inspector only comes by once a week so put one nail every six feet on the vinyl cheap ass siding instead of every foot. So the shit blows off in the first wind.* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |