Thursday, August 28, 2008

And God said, Let there be Parking

And a historic home was struck down, and parking flowed forth.
And God saw... that it wasn't good at all.


Effort to save the Deutsch House hits the bricks -QCTimes

Does anyone know if they even let Habitat ReStore in there to harvest any salvageable materials or architectural features? I wonder if they wanted to kind of sneak this up on people to avoid a public protest or something.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't believe that any salvage was allowed by Habitat or any other entity. It's very sad, and caught some of us in surprise.

Unknown said...

It sure seems like it was done in a sneaky way. I only happened to see it because I went down Main Street by chance yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Wow, the way they did this would destroy any respect held for the church, if they still had any.

Robbie said...

what a waste. terribly pathetic. i think churches need some kind of car pooling system. they all end up with 7 parking lots that sit empty 95% of the time. 2 hours on sunday morning they are used, and then look like big eyesores the rest of the time. its too bad that a nice old house like that had to be a victim of progress. i would love to live in a big old house like that.

Anonymous said...

Conservative Demo here:
At the outset, I am not a "house-hugger", but neither can I feel good that an organization ostensibly teaching the tenets of Christ would intentionally tell obvious lies during their business dealings with the City.

Anonymous said...

St. Pauls offered that house to anyone that was willing to pay one dollar, and then move it to a lot of their choice. They had no takers, and so the church went forward with demolition. You missed your big chance QCI.

QuadCityImages said...

I don't happen to own any vacant lots...

I just reject their whole premise that they needed that house moved or demolished simply for parking. Jesus did a lot of walking, why can't the church members?

Anonymous said...

I'm going to agree with QCI. These guys didn't NEED more parking. Go green and bike to church. God would like you to be kind to his planet.

Anonymous said...

It is easy to get a lot SOLO QCI. The Scott County Building and Development Department auctions off tax delinquent lots about every other month. This is NOT the same as a tax sale. The lots are auctioned off with a minimum bid of $10 and many of them sell for the minimum. So you should have bought the house QCI and you could have lived in it yourself, or turned it into a homeless bed and breakfast.

QuadCityImages said...

If there were lots that easily available that would have worked to move the house to, don't you think the experienced home rehabbers with EDDC backing would have bought it?

Anonymous said...

QCI - Yes. There is no doubt that if it had been possible it would have been done. Moving a house of this size is difficult, from finding wide enough streets to power line intertuption to trees that are in the path. realize that almost anywhere SOLO the house is larger than the streets and therefor would hang above the right of way. I am confident that all SOLO options were attempted.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of your feelings about the house as a whole and it's historic value, consider the historic elements of it. There was no attempt by the owner to salvage any of the property. Rehabbers would have loved to incorporate the elements into other homes; the staircase, the woodwork, the leaded glass windows. A salvage operation can be accomplished in a matter of days, and organizations had expressed their interest in doing the work. That is the truely said part.

Anonymous said...

QCI - The problem stems from the two people heading up the committee for moving the house: Bill Boom and Jannette Higgenson. Those two have a track record that doesn't exactly end up with shining successes. Additionally, if the EDDC would have asked the County for a lot, they wouldn't have been required to wait for the next County Auction. Non Profits and Governmental agencies can get lots for free with just a vote of the County Board.

Anonymous said...

yay! those who thought that they could hide behind empty rhetoric to excuse their law-breaking are going to have to finally pay their price. The cameras are back on!

Anonymous said...

The city block that St. Paul sits on had numerous nice homes on it. It's sad to see the continued destruction of our heritage in the name of progress and parking.

I was saddened when I saw downtown Davenport destroyed for parking lots... it just continues up the hill. Maybe VanderVeer Park should be turned into a parking lot too. Perhaps the outing club and the homes on Temple Lane should be leveled as well.

Sad, very sad.