Working Class Streetcar Suburb

[ablarc]

A DEPRESSION-ERA WORKING-CLASS STREETCAR SUBURB

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[thomasjfletcher]

where is that?
(I wish modern housing was as inventive as this)

[lofter1]

Isn't that Plaza-Midwood (http://www.plazamidwood.org/aboutPM.html) (Charlotte, NC)?

Once you get away from the area of new towers / stadium downtown Charlotte has a lot going for it.

[pianoman11686]

You beat me to it, Lofter. I had a feeling this was Charlotte. It reminded me a lot of certain sections of Durham, except that these houses looked brighter/more recently renovated, and the lawns were better taken care of.

Ablarc: I understand if you don't want to reveal where in the Sunbelt you reside, but I'm pretty sure it's Charlotte. :)

[ablarc]

where is that?
(I wish modern housing was as inventive as this)
lofter and pianoman have it right.

I've seen residential districts of Melbourne that were as inventive as this.

But you're right: sadly very few places are as interesting.

The irony of it: some of these houses were shipped from Sears Roebuck in kits; they arrived on trains --complete but requiring assembly.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Sears Roebuck Homes (http://www.aurora-il.org/documents/historicpreservation/brochure_searshomes.pdf)

American Foursquare (http://www.victorianvilla.com/sims-mitchell/local/architecture/foursquare/index.htm)

[ablarc]

We forumers take for granted a fairly sophisticated level of discussion on architectural aesthetics; we need an occasional first-time visitor to remind us just how well-versed we are.

That’s not the case with most members of the public, who are clueless about the issues that we bandy about so virtuosically on Wired New York. Occasionally one of us says something dumb about the appearance of a building, but we’re quickly corrected. You could say that on our forum opinions on architectural aesthetics are informed.

Plaza-Midwood is in the final throes of gentrification. Yuppies have grafted their aesthetic standards on most houses in this formerly working class neighborhood. A catalog of yuppie touches:

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Note the exhibit of (rarely used) rocking chairs, the (often used) jogger’s baby stroller, the “Chippendale” planter boxes, the bark-chip landscaping, the “romantically” meandering path and the Honda Odyssey. Also, I suspect the dentil molding is recently applied. You need historic district approval, but such changes are readily approved, however inauthentic they may be; after all they represent highly refined middle-class taste about how such things should be: the Craftsman Style as it would have been…could have been…if the poor darlings had had more money and better taste back in Depression days. The “jailhouse” window upper sashes are not only authentic but actually required in new construction by historic district rules. In quest of greater and greater levels of authenticity. When everything’s completely authentic, it will take a talented archaeologist to sort the original gestures from the colorized improvements.


By contrast, an unregenerate Plaza-Midwood home, still working-class in its aesthetic:

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The clues here are just as obvious: plastic chairs from Wal-Mart and a Goodwill armchair in place of rockers, plus debris on the porch. The folks here actually use their porch; they certainly don’t regard it as an opportunity to display symbols of a hip lifestyle, and it’s possible the house remains unairconditioned. Rollout dumpsters are left conveniently near the sidewalk in the drive; the car they block doesn’t run anyway. The pressed aluminum storm door is grandfathered --the historic folks wouldn’t let you install a new one (not even with flamingos!!) or the aluminum storm windows. The yard is neglected, the occupants of the planters are dead, and landscaping consists of a pair of whitewashed truck tires turned inside out. These folks probably paid off the house’s $20k purchase price decades ago. They’re either planning to die here or cash in and move to Hilton Head when the right yuppie offers them half a million. If they had a strong income, they would have refinanced several times and would owe at least a quarter-million on this house. As it is, they probably own it fair and clean, and can live here on social security surrounded by lawyers, investment bankers and gays.


In contrast to hues both somber and sober, yuppies aren’t afraid of boldish color; that’s the one thing the historic folks don’t regulate. Other young urban professional accoutrements include a hanging porch seat straight out of To Kill a Mockingbird, white wicker armchairs contemporary with the house, brass mailbox, bark chip and pine-needle landscaping with azaleas, a more-or-less “Chippendale” but completely inauthentic porch rail (it’s OK, say the historic folks, shock troops in the bourgeois invasion), an approved louvered screen door and the mandatory burglar alarm sign. You have one of these whether you have an alarm or not; most folks keep them disconnected because they’re a pain in the ass, and crime’s way down anyway; some longtime residents report they haven’t had a burglary in ten years. They attribute this to the gentrification, but I think it’s just as likely a result of the fact that stuff is now so cheap –coming from China—that it’s not worth stealing; you can hardly get anything for it from your pawnshop (the burglars always came from the neighboring 'hood and it hasn't moved or gentrified):

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Another pink house demonstrates that working class aesthetic is not purely a matter of economics. The folks in this house clearly have money –more than enough to spend on furbelows like arched trellises, miniature picket fences, river pebbles, concrete planters with Grecian motifs, cinder brick borders, red brick front steps. If you look closely, they even have a garden gnome –plus a cherub! The porch furniture is an eclectic mix of Wal-Mart and flea market; these folks remember how it was before air conditioning lured them indoors. The storm door is historic district regulation issue (read Bauhaus-simple), while the decorative iron columns and porch rails are grandfathered in –suspended in time between the past, when they were sturdy Craftsman fat boys and the future when some yuppie will turn them back into…sturdy Craftsman fat boys:

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Plaza-Midwwod today is about 75% gentrified. The formerly poor who live here may still be cash poor but they’re land rich. If they decide to sell they’ll be cash rich and land poor. They almost all paid off their houses decades ago –or if they still have a mortgage it’s tiny. If they have a big mortgage it’s because they refinanced, and they were only able to do that if they had good enough income to make payments on a big principal.

No question about who lives here:

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Or here:

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Brimming with middle-class tastefulness, a modest Sears bungalow has been entirely re-imagineered as a high concept version of itself: historic district wood siding and shingles in place of the former asbestos, a purple porch that out-Decos whatever it might have been seventy-five years ago, dry-stacked stone sidewalk buffer, and a freshly-commissioned leaded window for the attic. Trim, together and tasteful to a fault: Ann Taylor in architecture:

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Positively Shaker in its minimalism, the Krieresque truss is not original; it was added by an architect to emphasize what he thought was the essence of Craftsman. A rule among art detectives is that every era’s counterfeiters emphasize whatever aspects of a style the counterfeiter’s era perceives to be pre-eminent or especially praiseworthy:

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Working class. Yuppies.

But there’s one more group in Plaza-Midwood:

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.

[pianoman11686]

Is it a group that's somewhere in the middle? Baby-boomer-aged professionals such as professors, doctors, and lawyers who live neither extravagantly nor minimally?

[ablarc]

Is it a group that's somewhere in the middle? Baby-boomer-aged professionals such as professors, doctors, and lawyers who live neither extravagantly nor minimally?
Now would folks like that put up a neon moon? Would they have a front yard where it was always night? Would they maintain the Garden of Good and Evil?

Would they park their cars in their front yard where the lawn should be? Would they have rockers in their yard that were twice too big to sit in? Would they do what they could to make their house look like Mr. Badger lived in it among the tree roots? Mr. Badger owns a Land Rover.

[lofter1]

hippies ;)

[lofter1]

or college students ...

[ablarc]

hippies ;)
Nope. Anyway, are there any left outside the West Coast and Vermont?

Btw, is that as in "drug-crazed hippies"?

[ablarc]

or college students ...
Though Plaza-Midwood has a small number (tenants) they don't have the economic clout, the commitment or the inclination to have any physical impact on their surroundings. They would never invest several hundred dollars in a neon moon.

The most pronounced physical evidence of their existence is an occasional neglected yard on a rental house.


No, these are folks that --as everywhere-- spearheaded the nabe's resurgence when it was down and out. Mr. Florida can tell you who.

[pianoman11686]

I admit, it was somewhat of a shot in the dark. The Land Rover threw me off a bit, and the house with a neon moon reminded me a lot of this professor's house I once visited in Durham. I remember she once described it herself, very accurately, in iambic pentameter:

"My house, not large, not small, quite old, is blue..."

Needless to say, she was an English professor, and quite quirky, too.

It's interesting, though. The more I look at it these two pictures, the more unsure I am of how the details all relate to each other. What do a purple neon sign, an American flag, an oversized red rocking chair, a (purposely) visible security sign, and a Land Rover all have in common? I think the answer is, nothing.

So by trial and error, and following the hint you gave, I would have to say...artists.

[pianoman11686]

Mr. Florida can tell you who.

At first I thought this was some abstract reference to retirement communities and senior citizens, but I caught on eventually. I assume you've read "The Rise of the Creative Class." It seems like a worthwhile read, but I'm not sure if I'll discover anything that I don't already know. I have read some of David Brooks, including "Bobos in Paradise," which deals more with how a new segment of the population arises by merging the conservative, hard-working bourgeiosie, with the more laidback, creative bohemians. Literally, combining Bourgeiosie with bohemian.

In any case, I agree that without this creative segment, we wouldn't be seeing so much of the urban renewal taking place in formerly derelict central business districts. So many things that are trendy and popular now - the restored factory/warehouse providing stylish lofts, the rise of organic food, a new interest in indigenous music, worn clothing, tribal furniture - have become so desireable, and therefore expensive, because of this relatively non-wealthy group of people. That creates its own problems however: the Bobos try to embrace it to the point where they replicate, creating these faux towne centers and main streets to live the Bohemian life, while losing the essence of what is real. We see the results everywhere, and they are not nearly as good as the real thing.

[ablarc]

So by trial and error, and following the hint you gave, I would have to say...artists.
Bingo!

It's always the artists who break up the hopelessness of a down-at-the-heels potential beauty spot like Plaza-Midwood. Though there are some others who can also see the potential, the artists have the even more important trait of being willing to risk their personal safety. When the artists moved in, Plaza Midwood was dangerous.

When bottomed out, the western half of Plaza-Midwood was evenly divided between whites and blacks, and evenly divided between homeowners and the tenants of slumlords. These latter were a motley of welfare recipients (the city subsidized their rents) and "students." The former group was black and the latter was white, but both groups were liberally laced with both drug dealers and prostitutes. There were spectacular busts, including an amazing daylight raid by a 15-man SWAT Team.

As in the South Bronx, gunfire erupted nightly in the immediately adjacent neighborhood. Tenor-toned and rapid-fire bursts from light, Uzi-style submachine guns alternated with single-fire baritone reports from much larger caliber handguns, as rival gangs battled each other and more rarely the police for control of the drug trade. Then as now Charlotte had a higher murder rate than New York, and as in New York it has since dropped. After about a year and scores (hundreds?) of deaths, the Jamaicans won control of the business by the simple but arduous expedient of actually exterminating their rivals. Then there was peace, and the peace has held.

Though a minority among homeowners, blacks cashed in early; they underestimated how high property values would go, and every realtor will tell you their early departure contributed to the upswing in property values. These days Plaza-Midwood is less than 10% black. Gentrification has been kind to them; those who hung on to their property could be said to have grown rich.

Rental units and duplexes have declined as homesteaders moved in. Tenants who departed very often did so in handcuffs; arrests were at least a weekly occurrence, and the arrested never returned. Not once (don't know what happened to them). These days not more than 20% of units are rental --and that number includes the purpose-built quadruplexes and duplexes that pepper the neighborhood.

When it was poor and the houses lacked air conditioning, street life spilled into the street and people knew each others' business; at times the scene resembled Reginald Marsh. Now that it's part of affluent Suburbia, no one really knows or speaks to his neighbors. There are still kids, but you never see them.

But the neighborhood is safe and clean, and the houses appreciate reliably by 10% per year.

[Luca]

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I think this is a very fine house. The best in the lot, IMHO.

[ablarc]

combining Bourgeiosie with bohemian.
That describes Plaza-Midwood, though increasingly the bourgeois is crowding out the bohemian. The bourgeois are partly attracted by the aura of naughtiness attached to the bohemian. This is reflected in the plenitude of well-heeled gays among more recent arrivals.

[ablarc]

I think this is a very fine house. The best in the lot, IMHO.
I agree that it's a neat little package. Too bad it's a little grubby. Or does that add to its appeal, like a street urchin?

It can be seen again at far right, resplendent in pink:

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As property values climb in Plaza-Midwood, neo-Craftsman McMansions make an appearance to accommodate yuppies. This one replaces a single-story structure that the city had formerly rented to public assistance recipients; the idea was to spread around the public housing (but not spread it around too much; there wasn’t any where the rich folks lived). When Plaza-Midwood went from borderline slum to up-and-coming, the city also cashed in. Here the developer was forced to build on the preceding building’s foundation to maintain the canard that the building was not new but just a renovation; zoning’s more recent suburban setbacks would have reduced the house, you see, to a narrow sliver if “built from scratch.” As part of this ruse, the former structure’s four outer walls were for some months stacked against a fence with the view to reuse, but then the authorities relented, and what you see is really an all-new house. The historic folks loved its period style.


Built from scratch to replace a lttle old bungalow, another McMansion awaits its Craftsman-style columns:

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Such new construction is raising the street’s scale as more and more two-story houses appear to satisfy the yuppies appetite for space and prestige. Many bungalows are having second stories added. This example’s from decades ago, before style regulations were introduced. A second generation of yuppies caught in the act of moving in:

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Well off since slum days, a longtime homeowner displays his prosperity. This is the street’s only house with a pool; more will certainly follow:

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Built under rudimentary zoning rules, Plaza-Midwood’s streetscape shows refreshing variety due to varying setbacks. There's one of those endangered centuries-old willow oaks:

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The district’s other unifying glory is its trees. These were originally full-grown willow oaks plucked from adjacent forests and transported by mule, in emulation of Olmsted's example in Charlotte’s richer neighborhoods. A cathedral-like aspect once prevailed, but the majestic native willow oaks have fallen prey in recent years to Hurrican Hugo, ice storms, homeowners’ fears of falling boughs and the Urban Forester’s preference for maple trees, which are much less majestic and slower-growing in this region:

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Consequently a certain barenness is beginning to emerge in place of the former lush but cultivated rain forest:

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1903 was when the farmland was subdivided for nascent suburbia via the street car, but most houses were built in the four decades that followed. Houses were built mostly without driveways; in the early days workers mostly didn’t own cars.


More recently developers have started circling. This rezoning petition proposes to put a denser town house development in place of three derelict ranch houses at the end of a cul-de-sac. A good thing, since the town houses will be as varied as the older stock, and even further upmarket. Everyone’s property values will rise even more:

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